By Tony Baranek
Ryan Lagestee has won big races in 10 different states.
Picking an absolute favorite? Tough call.
Ranking his win at Sunday's 35th annual Bahama Brackets at Grundy County Speedway? The smile on his face said as much as his words after he reigned supreme in the "B" main.
"Oh, it ranks high," Lagestee said with a big smile. "This is the third time that it's happened. I tried for years at Rockford and never got it done. But it's been amazing to have it happen here the three times that it it has."
Why so special?
"The history," Lagestee said. "It's a different type of event. It's not something that happens 20 times a year - or even more than once a year. It's just that one time, and you either win it or you don't.
"I raced for almost two decades not winning it, so that makes it even sweeter."
Lagestee took the lead from Alex Treptow on lap 13 of the 35-lap race. Treptow later broke out.
"Running down Alex is always tough to do," Lagestee said. "He drives 100% every lap, and I knew he would not make it easy.Since we're teammates I trust him more than anyone I race with, and it was awesome running side by side for the win."
After Treptow broke out, Bart Brockmann took up the chase. The difference at the finish was 0.229 seconds.
Lagestee definitely did his pre-race homework.
"I built this car to run the bottom and not break out," Lagestee said. "I knew if I could clear traffic and hook the bottom, I was going to make people use the outside to get around me and use up their tires.
"This car just worked perfect for that job."
Third place in the race went to Trevor Starek. Kyle Royster, Cyle Lindemuth and Aiden Shultz completed the top six.
Former Grundy regular Elijah Atkinson turned his first appearance in two seasons into a surprise victory in the "BB" feature.
The Braidwood native was running third behind Dylan Roberts and Kurt Bohnsack with three laps remaining when the leaders had a tangle, bringing out a yellow. Both were sent to the back for the restart.
"I had gotten into a scuffle early in the race," Atkinson said. "I couldn't believe I drove to where I was . When that final caution came out I thought to myself, "There's no way this just happened to me.'
"Pauly Shafer says, 'Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.' I think we were both lucky and good today. This is huge. This is one of my favorite events since the first one I went to in 2015 in Rockford. There is no win I have compared to this."
Josh Easto finished second behind Atkinson. Third went to Edward Davies, followed by Matthew Arnold and Matt Ciara.
Nathan Ballard made a power run to win the 50-lap "A" feature.
The Marengo, Iowa resident moved swiftly through the field. He took the lead from Landon Hocking on lap 20 and set sail. James Swan was second, ahead of Nick Stremme, Austin Maynard, Bobby Stremme and Dave Edwards.
"It was a fun time working through traffic," Ballard said. "I was just pacing my laps and making sure to take the lapped cars at the right time and not get taken out."
It was Ballard's first-ever appearance at Grundy.
"My buddy came here two years ago and was leading on the last lap when he broke out," Ballard said. "He said, 'Let's go back and I want you to drive.' So that's what we did.
"Ha ha... this place is pretty cool. I'll be back."
It was an emotional day for Battle Creek, Michigan native Josh Trammell, who was victorious in the 50-lap "AA" feature.
Trammel's chances didn't look very good after Saturday's preliminaries.
"We had a broken car this morning," a teary-eyed Trammell said. "We had a lot of people pitch in to help us. We had guys come from Battle Creek with parts. We had Stremme's guys helping us. We had John Culp helping us. Just a bunch of people helped us do this."
Trammell helped himself early in the race when contact with another driver almost ended his run. He made the save of the day to keep going.
"I thought I was clear on the inside and I got touched," Trammell said. "It sent me through the infield. But I didn't lift. I'm a wheel man. I race with a lot of guys who like to do that to me. So I'm used to it."
Trammell inherited the lead with eight laps remaining when Joshua Lundy broke out. He went to on score the win over Trevor Robinson, Wesley Dennis, Scott Gardner and Kristi Preisler.
Jeremy Floyd came from the 18th starting spot to prevail in the "AAA" feature.
The Cedar Rapids, Iowa native methodically worked his way up, until catching and passing Greg Batelli with just five laps remaining.
"It was a lot of work," Floyd said."I don't even know what to say. Every lap it felt like something was going wrong, and it always worked out for me."
Floyd beat Batelli to the finish line by 0.166 seconds. Third went to Steve Cavin, ahead of Cody Brewer, John Ostermann and Ryan Lagestee.
It was Floyd's first visit to Grundy, and his first time in a car in four seasons. His son Jacob is now the main driver in the family.
"I like this track," Floyd said. "It's really demanding on the driver. When I raced at Rockford it felt like the car would kind of turn itself because of the banking.
"Here, you have to hit your marks and you have to stay patient, becuase if you start overdriving thre corners, things just don't work well."
SUMMARY
50-lap "A" Feature: 1. Nathan Ballard, 2. James Swan, 3. Nick Stremme, 4. Austin Maynard, 5. Bobby Stremme, 6. Dave Edwards, 7. Matt Maurer, 8. Tom Gille, 9. John Ventrello, 10. Jerime Damron, 11. Jason Harman, 12. John Culp, 13. Landon Hocking, 14. Shaun Wiltjer, 15. Stephen Emmans, 16. Sal Lozano, 17. Cameron Preisler, 18. Zakary Chanda, 19. Landry Potter, 20. Cody Potter
50-lap "AA" Feature: 1. Josh Trammell, 2. Trevor Robinson, 3. Wesley Dennis, 4. Scott Gardner, 5. Kristi Preisler, 6. Ryan Lagestee, 7. Mark Swan, 8. Jim Gilbert, 9. Brandon Vines, 10. Aaron Vines, 11. Andrew Plummer, 12. Alex Gay, 13. Joshua Sevey, 14. Austin Paul, 15. Greg Hentrich, 16. Anthony Duell, 17. Matthew Franks, 18. Derek Davis. DQ: Josh Lundy, Adam Cartwright, Brandton Conley, Joe Ostermann, Peter Hernandez, Dan Deutsch, Isaac LaCour Jr.
40-lap "AAA" Feature: 1. Jeremy Floyd, 2. Greg Batelli, 3. Steve Cavin, 4. Cody Brewer, 5. John Ostermann, 6. Ryan Lagestee, 7. Alan Robinson, 8. John Dietrich III, 9. Jerry Legner, 10. Matt Chester, 11. Todd Snow, 12. Logan Jacobsgaard, 13. John Griffin, 14. Luke Sirevicius, 15. John Dietrich, 16. Zach Legner, 17. Stephanie Nossem, 18. Austin Legner, 19. Phil Speciale, 20. Mitch Moag, 21. Mason Griffin, 22. Zack Orts, 23. Corey Ogden, 24. Ken Brazee III. DQ: Kevin Memoli, Jim Ehle.
35-lap "B" Feature: 1. Ryan Lagestee, 2. Bart Brockmann, 3. Trevor Starek, 4. Kyle Royster, 5. Cyle Linmdemuth, 6. Aiden Schultz, 7. Cory Lelak, 8. Nick Clubb, 9. Matt Ciara, 10. Nick Newton, 11. Mike Glenn, 12. Brandon Ultsch, 13. Colten Williams, 14. Chet Hartley, 15 Mason Meister, 16. Kyle Carlson. DQ: Derek Davis, Louie Pasderetz, Alex Treptow.
35-lap "BB" Feature: 1. Elijah Anderson, 2. Josh Easto, 3. Edward Davies, 4. Matt Arnold, 5. Matt Ciara, 6. Christy Zegar, 7. Jeffrey Turner, 8. Mac Hastings, 9. Seth Rowe, 10. Misty Gardner, 11. Devin Eggert, 12. Kurth Bohnsack, 13. Drew Collins, 14. Jamie Kauffman, 15. Dominic Matts, 16. William Quinlan Jr., 17. Kathy Gardner, 18. Phillip Arnold, 19. Cheryl Hryn, 20. Alex Clubb. DQ: Dylan Roberts, Todd Snow.
12-lap "Last Chance" Race: 1. Jerry Legner, 2. Matt Chester, 3. John Griffin, 4. Logan Jacobsgaard, 5. Stephanie Nossem, 6. Mason Griffin. DQ: Alex Reed, John Carter.