Racing has returned to the Rocky Mountains as Colorado National Speedway threw the green flag on the 2024 season on Saturday, May 4th. Pro Trucks, Late Models, Legends and Bandoleros were the first divisions to take to the track this year, putting on an adrenaline-fueled show for our fans – and it’s only a taste of what’s to come this year at Colorado’s bastion for intense circle track racing.
Matco Tools Pro Trucks
Fast Dash – 10 Laps
The No. 9 machine of Curtis Heldenbrand shot ahead of the No. 33 of Tyler Davis as soon as the green flag fell on the Pro Trucks Fast Dash. The No. 16 of Travis Roe worked on Davis, moving to his inside and pulling the No. 22 of Brian Yackey and the No. 43 of Kody Vanderwal along with him. The No. 7 of Adam Deines was shown the black flag for dumping fuel, while Heldenbrand continued to show the way. Roe set his truck in Heldenbrand’s tire tracks and started to slowly reel him in while Yackey stalked them both, waiting for a chance to snag the lead. However, Heldenbrand wouldn’t be denied and led the PT freight train across the line to win.
Dash – 10 Laps
Lap 1 went to the No. 71 of Tim Duvall as the No. 88 truck driven by Paul Himler fell off the pace with a mechanical issue and forced him to retire to the infield early. Rudy Vanderwal threw his No. 34 truck to the inside of the No. 21 of Chris Nelson, taking away second place, while a side-by-side battle for 5th place shaped up behind them between the No. 69 of Sean Fry and the No. 88S of Brad Skufca. Vanderwal, on a mission, snatched second place from Brian Weinmaster’s No. 28 machine and locked onto Duvall. Just two laps later, he had him, demoting Duvall to second place and putting the No. 34 truck to the top of the board. Vanderwal led the field single file to the checkered flag for his first PT Dash win of the season.
Feature – 30 Laps
A 12-truck invert set the starting lineup for the PT Feature. Unfortunately, the No. 11 of Steve Johnson had to pull into the infield at the start, but he was able to get his truck going and rejoined the field at the tail end of the pack. Meanwhile, up front, the No. 7 of Deines lunged ahead to take the lead on Lap 1, although the No. 18 of Cade Fox didn’t have quite as good of a start – he slowly fell through the field, almost causing a pileup. Up front, Jeff Walbaum leaned his No. 85 truck on Tyler Wiggans’ No. 50 machine for second place. Walbaum got the position while Rudy Vanderwal’s No. 34 machine stepped out slightly behind him, putting him in a precarious three-wide position. Through all this, Deines continued to lead comfortably until Fox suffered an issue, his No. 18 truck stalling out and prompting a caution.
Chaos unfolded on the restart. Roe found himself turned sideways and Rudy Vanderwal struggled to get going. They regrouped and tried again. While Deines forced Walbaum up the track, intent on recapturing the lead, Johnson spun in Turn 2, and Himler’s No. 88 truck went nuclear, forcing him to pull into the infield once again. A red flag was flown while track crews attended to oil on the racing surface.
Deines and Walbaum resumed their feud when the race restarted. The No. 1F of Happy Ferree thought about taking it three-wide for position but backed out to keep his nose clean. Deines ran off with the top spot while Walbaum and Wiggans duked it out for P2. Wiggans took the position, ditching Walbaum, who fell into Ferree’s clutches for a lengthy battle for P3. Wiggans galloped after Deines and began working on him for the lead, while Walbaum fended off Ferree for P3. Their fight opened the door for Kody Vanderwal and Heldenbrand to close the gap, taking it three-wide for fourth. Up front, Wiggans continued to work on Deines, finally inching ahead to become the leader on Lap 24. Out of the lead, Deines began to fade, battling Kody Vanderwal for second place while Wiggans showed the way. Deines fell behind Kody Vanderwal and might’ve fallen victim to Heldenbrand if the No. 4 of Chris Jordan hadn’t gone for a spin in front of the leaders in Turn 3, prompting a caution and freezing the field with Wiggans in the lead, securing his victory after the epic side-by-side fight for the lead.
Quick Time: No. 43, Kody Vanderwal, 17.042 seconds
Fast Dash: No. 9, Curtis Heldenbrand
Dash: No. 34, Rudy Vanderwal
Feature: No. 50, Tyler Wiggans
GTI Services Custom Vehicles Late Models
Fast Dash – 10 Laps
Dan Alamaa’s No. 8 machine pulled away from the pack on the drop of the green flag, leaving the No. 51 of Eric Meisner to scrap with the No. 6 of Tommy Roe for second place behind him. Four laps in, the battle still hadn’t been decided as Roe and Meisner kept at each other; Meisner gained the upper hand as he got a good run on the high side off Turn 2, although Roe counteracted by charging out of Turn 4 to maintain the position. Finally, Meisner sealed the deal on Lap 6, demoting Roe to third, and in short order he had Alamaa in his sights. On the last lap, Meisner mounted a charge to the inside and Alamaa pinched Meisner on the bottom coming out of turn 4, relegating him to a second-place finish as Alamaa celebrated the LM Fast Dash win.
Dash – 10 Laps
Strung out single file just a few laps in, the field followed the No. 17X of Mariah Bordeaux, but it was a short-lived game of follow-the-leader as the No. 99 of Tessa Marine, the No. 18 of Casey Wiggans, and the No. 60 of Rick Duckworth bunched together for a shot at the lead. The battle culminated in Marine sling-shotting into first with Duckworth hot on her tail – until the two race cars made contact, sending Marine spinning. Both drivers were lined up at the rear of the field for the restart. That left the front row to Wiggans and Jordan Abeyta, who started the race near the back in the No. 23 machine. Wiggans took the lead on the restart, then did it again after a brief caution to address debris on the backstretch. Abeyta didn’t let him get away with it easily, tailing him all the way to the checkered flag as Wiggans took the win.
Feature – 30 Laps
Fifteen cars took the green flag for the LM Feature. They were led by Bordeaux and Duckworth, although Abeyta quickly entered the conversation until the yellow flew for oil on the track. A red flag ensued before a single lap could be completed. Once the oil was cleaned from the racing surface, Abeyta pushed his No. 23 into first place as the field kicked up the dust left behind from the oil dry. Duckworth followed in a distant second place, but was overtaken by Clegg, who went on to cut the distance between himself and Abeyta to just three car-lengths by Lap 8. On Lap 10, as the top five racers strung out one-by-one, he had him. Clegg pressured Abeyta for two laps until he found a way around, ditching the rest of the field as he put distance down and left Abeyta behind.
Behind them, Wiggans and Roe got into each other. Roe’s race car waggled, but he was able to right it and pointed it in the right direction once more. Meanwhile, Kyle Morse and the No. 7X entered the discussion, threatening Roe for third place. Abeyta managed to pace Clegg for the lead, while Duckworth and Wiggans made contact, forcing the No. 60 machine to lose momentum and fall through the standings. At the same time, Meisner, who had been hanging out mid-pack, dug in and found more speed than the rest of the field. He made short work of Abeyta for second place and set out after Clegg for the lead. Wiggans, however, slapped the outside wall with four laps to go, surrendering his battle for fourth place.
Up front, Meisner continued to chip away at Clegg’s lead. However, he ran out of time to make something stick, and Clegg flashed across the line in first, proving his race car’s speed after setting the night’s Quick Time as well.
Quick Time: No. A51X, Kyle Clegg, 17.298 seconds
Fast Dash: No. 8, Dan Alamaa
Dash: No. 18, Casey Wiggans
Feature: No. A51X, Kyle Clegg
AC Transmissions Legends
Fast Dash – 10 Laps
Scotty Scott put the No. 6 car out front, ahead of the No. 75 of Austin Hackenberg. The No. 12 of Bryanna Bruce, the No. 88F of Cade Fox, and the No. 03 of Darrell L. Stewart fell into line behind Scott, while another battle shaped up between the No. 68 of Wyatt Dent, the No. 4W of Stuart Wilkerson, and the No. 14 of Jake Nuttall. In the heat of the battle, Wilkerson and Nuttall made contact, tearing the left front wheel off Wilkerson’s machine and sending it hurtling around the track. The field was stopped under red to address the wreck. The restart saw Scott and Fox leading the way, until Bruce grabbed second place. Fox tried to fend off the No. 00 of Chris Saykally to hang onto third place. Scott led the pack across the line to the checkers while Bruce kept Fox behind her for second place.
Dash – 10 Laps
Nick Gunther’s No. 56 barely took the lead over JJ Sanders’ No. 18 for the top spot on Lap 1. Then, Sanders drifted high in Turn 1, allowing the No. 17 of Jeremy Krueger to slip by on the inside. Krueger sent it a little too hard and had to chase the back end of his race car. He saved it, but lost too much speed to hang onto second place as the No. 27 of Brian Harlow shot past. Harlow used his momentum to cut down on Gunther’s lead and caught him by Lap 5, but Gunther didn’t stand by and take it as Harlow looked to the inside. The two nearly made contact in Turn 1, but managed to stay untangled while Krueger once again lost the back end of his race car and gave Sanders the opening he needed to pass. In a dead heat heading to the checkered flag, Harlow sent it one last time, but it was Gunther who flashed under the flag stand first.
Feature – 25 Laps
Cole Tuttle’s No. 45 and Austin Hackenberg’s No. 75 led an impressive field of 25 Legend cars to the line for their 25-lap feature event. Tuttle snagged the lead with Dent in hot pursuit, leaving Saykally and Hackenberg to settle things for P3. The first yellow waved on Lap 3 after Sanders and Andrew Lee’s No. 35 slammed together, putting both race cars into the wall. Hackenberg and Dent restarted on the front row – Hackenberg was shoved high, allowing Dent to slide by on the outside, while Tuttle swept into second. Stewart began to catch up to Tuttle, although he couldn’t get in striking distance. The leaders had caught the tail end of the field by Lap 14, and as Tuttle and Stewart did battle for P3, a lapped car entered the mix. Stewart took advantage of the newfound obstacle and overtook both the lapped car and Tuttle, swinging hard into second place. Up front, Dent wove between lapped traffic. This let him get away with the race lead, and he flashed across the start/finish line to claim his first-ever Feature victory in the Legends division. Dent is a rookie in the legend division in 2024 and was the 2023 Bandolero Outlaw Champion, once again proving that the Bandolero division is a great start for youngsters to cut their teeth in at CNS.
Quick Time: No. 68 Wyatt Dent 18.511
Fast Dash: No. 6, Scotty Scott
Dash: No. 56, Nick Gunther
Feature: No. 68, Wyatt Dent
Puzzle Effect Bandoleros
Bandits
Dashes
The first Bandoleros Bandits Dash saw Emersyn Weitzel and the No. 44 machine up front right away. Weitzel defended the top spot against a hard-charging Austin Steinke in the No. 14, but was able to keep him at bay, but not for long – Steinke swung past Weitzel and pulled the No. 95J of Jaxson Muhler through the hole into second place. Lapped traffic became an issue for the leaders as the laps ticked down, almost putting Muhler within striking distance of Steinke, but Steinke and the No. 14 machine showed the way across the line.
The second Bandits Dash pitted a new class of drivers against one another. Scarlett Jones’ No. 77 fell behind the No. 84 of Kaylie Snyder, but she didn’t have the lead for long, as she was involved in a wreck on Lap 2, taking Jones and the No. 72 of Connor Kellogg for a ride. Ayva Snyder and the No. 24 inherited the lead as Jones began to pick off cars one-by-one on her way back to the front. However, she couldn’t catch Snyder, who went on to win.
Features
Muhler grabbed the lead when the No. 98 of Kyleigh Novak couldn’t get going from the front row when the green flag fell on the first Bandits Feature. Muhler continued to lead Steinke, putting some distance down as they shot around the track’s half-course. Muhler had to chase his race car a bit as it got loose under him, but once he sorted it out, he kept the lead and went on to win in dominating fashion – just like his father, Sprint Car driver & multi-time track champion Cris Muhler.
The Bandits Second Feature began when Snyder and Lee Malavasic in the No. 42 car took the green flag on the front row. However, Kellogg quickly put them behind him as he took the lead. By Lap 3, he’d already caught up to the tail end of the field, snaking around lapped cars. It wasn’t a clean run to the checkers, though, as Kellogg contacted Jones, going for a neat little spin, but his insurmountable lead meant that he was able to stay on the lead lap – and win the race to boot.
Bandit Dash: No. 14, Austin Steinke
Bandit Dash 2: No. 84, Kaylie Snyder
Bandit Feature: No. 95J, Jaxson Muhler
Bandit Feature 2: No. 72, Connor Kellogg
Outlaws
Dash
Tanner McKim put the No. 08 on the point in a hurry. He put up a fight to keep the No. 5 of Reagan Fruge behind him, even as the No. 12 of Aspyn Lange came knocking on the door to take P2 away. Fruge claimed the lead as the leaders had to scatter to avoid a spinning race car, and once he had it, he checked out, leaving Lange and McKim in the dust on his way to the first Outlaw Dash win of 2024.
Feature
A three-wide start tested the skills of CNS’s young drivers once the green flag waved over the Outlaw Feature. The No. 89 of Justin Barnard came out on top, while Lange and Peyton Opperman’s No. 23 battled for third place as Liam Hammond held down second place in the No. 60 machine. Opperman spun out from fourth, but was able to keep his race car out of serious trouble and continued on. Out front, Hammond worked on cutting Barnard’s lead, pulling Lange along with him until the field slowed under yellow due to a car stalling out. Barnard and Hammond restarted on equal ground, but it was Lange who emerged to challenge Barnard as the laps ticked down. In a desperate attempt to claim the feature victory, Lange threw her race car abreast of Barnard’s, and the two streaked across the finish line in a photo finish. After review, officials determined that Barnard was ahead at the line.
Outlaw Dash: No. 5, Reagan Fruge
Outlaw Feature: No. 98, Justin Barnard
If you missed any of the action check out the replay on Low Budget TV.
OFFICIAL RESULTS
Pro Truck - 30 Laps
50 Tyler Wiggans - CO Springs
43 Kody Vanderwal - LaSalle
7 Adam Deines - Longmont
9 Curtis Heldenbrand - Firestone
1F Happy Ferree - Firestone
85 Jeff Walbaum - Brighton
33 Tyler Davis - Thornton
34 Rudy Vanderwal - LaSalle
22 Brian Yackey - Greeley
16 Travis Roe - Thornton
28 Brian Weinmaster - Brighton
88S Brad Skufca - Greeley
86 Tim Coate (R) - Denver
11 Steve Johnson - Windsor
21 Chris Nelson - Loveland
69 Sean Fry (R) - Fort Collins
20 Tanner Faatz (R) - Windsor
4 Chris Jordan (R) - Mead
71 Tim Duvall - Denver
88 Paul Himler - Erie
6 Kip Sandell - Elizabeth DNS 18 Cade Fox (R) - Wellington
Late Model - 30 Laps
A51X Kyle Clegg (R) - Westminster
51 Eric Meisner - Brighton
7X Kyle Morse - Peyton
23 Jordan Abeyta (R) - Denver
18 Casey Wiggans - CO Springs
6 Tommy Roe - Thornton
8 Dan Alamaa - CO Springs
60 Rick Duckworth - Arvada
32 Joseph Andrade (R) - CO Springs
98 Lee Kemmit - Brighton
58 Bryce Weinmaster - Brighton
17X Mariah Boudrieau - CO Springs
99 Tessa Marine - Littleton
72 Robert Davey - Roggen
5 Del Trantham Jr - Canon City DNS 21 Robert Hoard (R) - Cheyenne, WY
Legends - 25 Laps
68 Wyatt Dent (R) - Brighton
03 Darrell L Stewart - Arvada
12 Bryanna Bruce - Wheatland, WY
45 Cole Tuttle - Denver
88F Cade Fox - Wellington
6 Scotty Scott - Arvada
1 Ryan Land - Littleton
00 Chris Saykally - Denver
75 Austin Hackenberg - Greeley
4W Stuart Wilkerson - Winder, GA
17 Jeremy Krueger - Arvada
48 Preston Nakayama - Loveland
27 Brian Harlow - CO Springs
38 Garrett Wilson - Platteville
21L Madi Lange (R) - Wheatland, WY
33 Dillyn Kellogg - Denver
01 Gary Land - Littleton
21X Corey Pearson (R) - Nunn
78 Ashlyn Himler - Erie
8 Jason Schmerse
56 Nick Gunther - CO Springs
35 Andrew Lee - Fountain
18 JJ Sanders - Aurora
19 Dominic Moss - Arvada DNS 14 Jake Nuttall - Parker DNS Tony Davison - Denver
Bandolero Outlaws - 10 Laps
89 Justin Barnard - Northglenn
12 Aspyn Lange - Wheatland, WY
60 Liam Hammond
5 Reagan Fruge
23 Peyton Opperman - Littleton
2 Dutch VanderWal
18 Jake Boren - Pueblo West
61 Lilly Tuttle - Denver DNS 08 Tanner McKim - Berthoud
Bandolero Bandit Feature 1 - 10 Laps
72 Connor Kellogg - Denver
24 Ayva Snyder
77 Scarlett Jones
42 Lee Malavasic
96 James Snyder DNS 84 Kaylie Snyder
Bandolero Bandit Feature 2 - 10 Laps
95J Jaxson Muhler - Brighton
14 Austin Steinke - Severance
44 Emersyn Weitzel
98 Kyleigh Novak - Brighton
07 Madison Stanley - Thornton
29 Nora Smith - Littleton