Sargent Captures First Series Victory, Bilderback 5th Championship

2024-10-06

With the largest field since 2018, history was made at LaCrosse Speedway as Michael Bilderback claimed his fifth Big 8 Series championship, tying Jeremy Miller for the most championships in series history.

QUALIFYING

Forty-four cars took time in qualifying, with one vehicle unable to make the call. Thayran Rezin suffered a broken driveshaft and could not qualify. 

Skylar Holzhausen blistered the rest of the field in qualifying with a time of 19.743. Jacob Goede qualified 2nd but was .170 seconds behind, and Chris Marek made his series return to qualify 3rd. 

QUALIFIER HEATS

The field then competed in two qualifier races. The top nine finishers in each race would transfer to the A-Main, while the rest would need to qualify through the B-main.

In qualifier #1, Braison Bennett and Brandon Laing started on the front row and had a spirited battle for a couple laps before Laing took over the lead. Four laps in, Jeremy Miller moved to 3rd while Holzhausen took 9th and continued to move forward. With two laps to go, Steve Anderson Jr. and Adam Degenhardt made contact while battling for the transfer position, bringing out the yellow flag.

On the restart, Miller took over the 2nd position and Brady Bill slipped into the final transfer spot. At the checkered flag, Laing took the win and Kyle Smith got to the inside of Bill and beat him to the line by just .02 seconds to take the final spot. 

For qualifier #2, Penn Sauter started at the front and led all of the laps to capture the victory and put himself into the show. The rest of the field were side-by-side for several laps and while Zack Riddle and Michael Ostdiek battled for 4th, the rest of the field stacked up behind. This allowed Bilderback to take over the final transfer spot as the checkered flag flew. 

B-FEATURE

We then turned to the B-Feature where four cars would advance their way to the main. Michael Beamish and Bill started on the front row for the 18-lap race. Beamish took the lead off turn two, with Bill, Shaun Scheel, and Bryan Wrolstad advancing in the early laps. Three laps in, Bill gets around Beamish and Scheel goes with him. 

Just one lap later, Steve Anderson drove in deep into turn one and went for a spin bringing out the yellow. On the restart, Bryan Wrolstad and Landry Potter battled for the fourth and final transfer. Wrolstad would hold onto that spot and then pushed toward Beamish. Two laps later, Wrolstad took over that position. It was all Bill though at the checkered with Scheel, Wrolstad and Beamish moving to the A-feature. 

A-MAIN

Grant Brown and Jeremy Miller set the pace on the front row when the green flag flew to start the 48-lap main event. Miller cleared to lead the first couple of laps.

On lap three, Randy Sargent took a peak to the inside of Miller and the pair fought it out for a couple laps before Sargent snagged the advantage and cleared for the lead. This brought Kendrick Kreyer to Miller’s bumper.

Meanwhile, a fierce side-by-side battle for the 4th position between Brown and Ostdiek that included Griffin McGrath, Goede, and Holzhausen behind. Ostdiek took over that position only to be immediately overtaken by Goede while Brown slid backwards to 7th. 

As Sargent continued to fly around the 5/8ths mile track, McGrath and Marek locked into a tight battle for six laps where they never left each other's side. 

With 32 to go, Kreyer finally grew tired of trying to pass Miller on the inside, and took to the outside to make the pass for 2nd place. Not much later, Miller would lose positions to Goede and Holzhausen, ultimately finishing 8th. 

After the halfway mark, the leaders then began to make their way through lapped traffic. Though it cost Sargent some time, he continued to lay down solid lap times keeping Kreyer and Goede at bay. Though the lead was cut down to just under a second, Sargent cruised on to earn his first series feature win. 

The win was a meaningful one for Sargent, who expressed relief in Oktoberfest Victory Lane.

“I’ve waited three years to get one of these bad boys,” said Sargent. “It was tight earlier. The right rear spring fell out of the pocket during the qualifier. We put it back and the car was right there the whole night.” 

Some drivers were not as thrilled with the lapped traffic in the second half of the race. 

“If lapped traffic was non-existent, I think we maybe could have caught him,” Kreyer said. “As soon as we got to lapped traffic it kind of evened out.”

For Bilderback, this history making year was not one that was planned. 

“We didn’t really plan on doing this,” Bilderback said. “After getting the first couple of wins we said ‘let’s do this’.”

In 2025, the Big 8 Series will celebrate our 21st season. We expect it to be an even bigger season, so be sure to stay tuned to our website and Facebook page for more details.