Grant Junghans News

Grant took part in the Engine Qwest 500 BST IMCA Modified Swing this past week covering 5 races in 5 days. Day 1 was at the Jetmore Motorplex in Jetmore, Kansas where Grant started off well finishing 4th. On day 2 the tour headed to the Dodge City Raceway Park in Dodge City, Kansas where Grant made the show but finished 16th. The 3rd day ended up about the same as the 2nd as Grant finished 17th at the Thomas County Speedway in Colby, Kansas. On night 4 the swing headed to the Decatur County Speedway in Oberlin, Kansas where Grant had the opportunity to drive the #99 BMS car that Busch Series driver Randy LaJoie had driven that weekend. Grant did well, finishing in 3rd but running in the top 3 the whole race. On the last day luck ran out for Grant as he missed the show at the Lincoln County Raceway in North Platte, Nebraska.

Grant would like to thank Jess Anderson and the crew with BMS for allowing him to run their car on Monday night at Oberlin and thank everyone that helped he and his brother Chase out during the swing.

Plans tentatively look to take the weekend off over June 20-22 before getting back to it at the end of June.

It was a weekend the Shop Quik team and driver Grant Junghans would rather forget this past Friday thru Sunday.

On Friday Grant traveled to the O’Reilly NCRA event at the Humboldt Speedway where he unfortunately had a motor let go.

After putting in a new power plant they headed to the Enid Speedway Park for another O’Reilly NCRA show but it was the same result as another motor let go early.

On Sunday Grant returned closer to home to run at the Heartland Park Topeka race #3, of which he was so far tied in the points lead. On the opening lap of the A Main Grant spun in front of the field exiting turn 2, then got clipped by another car in the back end, taking out his rear bumper and fuel cell, and finally being hit again by fellow Manhattan driver Robert Shepard. As Robert hit Grant the fuel being spilled from Grant’s car ignited. Both drivers made it out of their cars unhurt. You can see a clip of the video by clicking on the Photos link on this site.

Grant made his NCRA debut at the series opener at 81 Speedway and finished 18th on a track difficult to pass on. On Sunday he traveled back to the Heartland Park Topeka Dirt Track where he finished well for the second week in a row in 6th place, which should put him near the top in the point standings.

On Saturday night Grant competed at the Minneapolis Raceway in an IMCA event. He had to run the B but finished 2nd to advance to the A Feature. During the A he was running near the top 10 when another car hit Grant, putting Grant into the wall hard in turn 1 and rode it through the corner. The car was obviously done but Grant was okay.

On Sunday he traveled to Heartland Park Topeka for their season opener where he picked up a very respectable 4th place finish.

This past Saturday night Grant rolled to the season opener at the Minneapolis Raceway. Early in the evening he used the highside of the track to quickly take the lead in the heat race and check out for the win. In the draw/redraw format he drew inside 4th row and ran inside the top 10 all race, finishing 6th.

Next week Grant will head to the McCook Speedway on Friday night, followed up on Saturday night for a trip to the Decatur County Speedway for the their BST sanctioned season opener.

Over the weekend of March 21-22 Grant visited two different tracks, both under different forms of sanctioning.

On Friday night Grant attended the Spring Thaw at Junction Motor Speedway in McCool Junction, Nebraska. Grant battled problems and finished down the list in the B Feature, not making the night’s USMTS sanctioned A Main.

From there he headed to Elmwood Park Speedway in Norton, Kansas for their annual Frost Fest, a pre-season IMCA sanctioned special. He ran in the top 5 for a good part of the A Main before falling for 6th at the end, giving Grant another excellent IMCA sanctioned finish.

This weekend Grant plans on racing all 3 days of the USMTS National Tour swing at LA Raceway, Lebanon I-44 Speedway, and Monett Speedway.

Grant had a great weekend at the 15th Annual Spring Nationals in Beatrice, Nebraska. The annual spring IMCA race had 90+ entries over the 3 day weekend which was shortened to 2 shows in 1 day on Saturday March 15, 2008.

In the first show Grant took the win in his heat race and drew the pole position for the A Main. He ran in the top 10 until spinning and ending up in 16th place at the finish.

In the second show the same evening Grant once again won his heat race and drew the front row again. This time he held off Jordan Grabouski, the day’s earlier winner, and got past Johnny “The Jet” Saathoff to lead a portion of the race until he started to fade at the end, but nonetheless a great run finishing in 4th place.

Next weekend Grant will be racing at the Spring Thaw at Junction Motor Speedway in McCool Junction, Nebraska in a O’Reilly USMTS Event on Friday night before heading west on Saturday to race at the Elmwood Park Speedway IMCA Frost Fest in Norton, Kansas.

After a lousy Thursday night of racing Grant did well on Friday and Saturday night at the Pro Cuts World Dirt Track Championships and made the Main Event on Saturday evening. The race, staged at the top notch dirt track facility at Texas Motor Speedway, annually draws some of the hottest and most outstanding drivers in the area. Grant made the qualifying feature Friday night but didn’t make the cut so he worked hard for a B Feature win and transfer on Saturday to lock his spot in the 24 car field. Grant finished 17th but the experience gained against some of the best in the country was worth more than the 17th place finish.

Photo courtesy of VP Race Photos (http://www.vprace.net/)

Grant and crew are in Casa Grande, Arizona racing this week. This is the first few races since Grant switched to a TRE Chassis and so far has done well. On Saturday night he finished 8th in his heat and 8th in a B Feature, not transferring to the A. Sunday, however was a much better day. Grant finished second in his heat race and 18th in the A Feature. Wednesday night was a continuance in the trend of improvement so far as had problems in his heat finishing 10th, but then starting at the back of the B Feature he worked his way to 7th, and then ran from the back to the front in the A finishing 5th.

Check out the photos page for some pics from Arizona!