By Jason D Searcy

June 11, 2016 – Elko, MN

The MN Lottery presented the first Eve of Destruction with NASCAR Whelen All American Series racing event of 2016 on a very hot and steamy night at Elko Speedway on Saturday night.

#72 Jacob Goede from Carver (MN) has had an incredible run of success at Elko the previous two years, he has won two consecutive championships and scored an even 10 wins in 2015. His prosperity continued in the premier MN Corn Growers Super Late Model division with a win in feature number one.

Veteran driver #26 Mark Lamoreaux held the early lead after battling with #27 Paul Paine for numerous laps. It took until lap 19 for Goede to move up from his 8th starting spot to take the lead, he bested the 1976 Elko Champion Lamoreaux just after a restart and held on to win by .631 seconds.

#15 Joey Miller and nine time Champion #41 Donny Reuvers tangled in corner number three with two laps to go in the main event resulting with both cars suffering major damage and not finishing.

The second Super Late Model feature saw #8 Billy Mohn from Lakeville (MN) dominate from start to finish, winning by 1.386 seconds. #50 Steve Anderson and #72 Jacob Goede never had a chance to challenge Mohn for the win because they were battling side by side for second place most of the 30 lap race. Anderson edged Goede by .072 seconds to finish runner up.

“Elko is a fun race track, great facility, great people and great fans,” said Mohn “the stands were pretty full again tonight on a very hot night and that’s hard to do, I hope we put on a good show and I hope they all come back.”

The Genz-Ryan Thunder Car winner was #8 Ted Reuvers from Dundas (MN), he has now won two of the three features so far in 2016. #48 Jeff Partington had a good start but slowly dropped back to third after being passed by Reuvers and then three time Elko Champion #3 Conrad Jorgenson. Reuvers won by an impressive 2.064 seconds over Jorgenson who began the race 7th in the 20 car field.

Twenty four cars raced the Great North Legends main event with #71 Derek Lemke, the two time defending Champion, finishing up front. #26 Will McCully held the early lead before Lemke, who started third row outside, worked his way to the top spot on lap five. Fifteen year old #7 Jackson Lewis had a career best 2nd place finishing just .320 seconds behind Lemke, McCully scored a third followed by #31 Greg Erhardt and #2 Robby Thurston.

#7 Brandon Petersen from Faribault (MN) won the Pepsi Power Stock feature, he passed #6 Joey Prusak on the high side for the lead and then held the top spot even after a couple restarts bunched up the 19 car field.

#37 Bryce Blohm is off to a great start in his rookie season, he won last week in his first ever race and this week finished second coming in .639 seconds behind Peterson. Veteran drivers #53 Tom Quade and #62 Tom Doten finished third and fourth.

#36 Brandon Olson from Minneapolis (MN) won in the Hornets division at Elko Speedway “the car just really hooked up, I didn’t even have to practice, it just worked,” said Olson “it was going really good in turns 3 and 4, it was really fun.” Olson started on the pole and spent the entire race leading a big clump of cars all battling for the second position. Last week’s winner #41 Ashley Bell ended up holding off #14 Justin Schelitzche, #3 Michael Wachs Jr and #36 Alex Vincent for the runner up prize.

The big win for Olson almost didn’t happen because his tow vehicle broke down on his way to the race track “I had a bunch of people come try and save me on the highway with the race car and trailer and all that,” said Olson “somebody rented a truck for me and I made it.” He made it just in time to score his second career win at Elko Speedway, thanks to a little help from his friends.

Get full results and point standings when they become available at ElkoSpeedway.com/race-results/ or on the free ELKO Racing app by clicking Speedway and then Race Results.

In addition to the racing the large Eve of Destruction crowd also saw wild action from the Figure 8 School buses, Shawn Grabinger from Medford (MN) won the Spectator Drags and Brian McMenomy from Rosemount won the outlaw Drags. J.J. Romans did Freestyle Motocross, the Drifters car club thrilled the crowd, the winners of America’s Got Talent the Olate’ Dogs put on a show, Radical Rob exploded himself in a box of explosives and Jennifer better known as Cannon Lady was successfully shot 125 feet in distance and 55 feet into the air at 46 mph into a net.

Leo’s South provided free ATV rides, Youth Impact racing let kids use a racing simulator and race Radio Controlled cars and fans were offered free Mechanical Bull rides.

Racing Resumes at Elko Speedway, located 30 minutes South of downtown Minneapolis just off of I-35, on Saturday June 18th sponsored by the National Wild Turkey Federation. Gates open at 5pm and action begins at 6pm with the Super Late Models, Big 8 cars, Thunder Cars, Power Stocks, Great North Legends, Hornets and Bandolero’s. Get more information by following Elko Speedway on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram or by calling (952) 461-7223.