Jake Gille comes up huge in Big 8 Late Model win at Grundy County Speedway

2026-09-18

Photo by Chris Goodaker
Story by Tony Baranek

Jake Gille has made the long drive to Grundy County Speedway to compete on Bettenhausen Weekend for the past several seasons.

This time the ride home was more special than the rest.

The Machesney Park native was a powerhouse in Friday night's 58-lap Big 8 Series feature, winning at Grundy for the second time this season.

"It's nice to win one on this weekend," Gille said. "I'm pretty pumped about that. I knew we had a shot at it tonight, but I've also been racing long enough to know that stuff can happen.

"We came here a couple of weeks ago and got a win. That was nice. Then we went back to the shop and went to work a little bit. I haven't had a car this good in a race in a very long time."

Saturday's running of the 65th annual Bettenhausen Memorial was postponed due to weather conditions. The rain date is Sunday, Sept. 27.

In Friday's Big 8 race, Gille came from the third row to take the lead on lap 21 from Tanner Berge. The pass was smooth, and from there Gille sailed.

Gille's toughest pass came earlier in the race, when he and Bilderback played bump and run while trying to get to the front.

"Yeah, we started crossing each other," Gille said. "That was just racing. Me and him have been doing that since we were 12, in go-karts. It was a blast. I had fun."

At the finish, Gille beat Josh Nelms by 1.31 seconds. Berge was third, followed by Jon Reynolds Jr., Joshua Lundy and Mike Beyer.

Nelms put on the biggest show of the race, coming from the back of the pack after an early-race incident sent him to the pits for quick repairs.

"Yeah, the hood was up and I couldn't see over it," Nelms said. "They were able to get it back down and get me back out. I knew we had a car good enough. The steering wheel was still straight so the front end wasn't knocked out of whack.

"Coming from the back, I pretty much used what I had. I thought we did a pretty good job getting the car back up to second. It was exciting."

The next Big 8 Series race takes place on Saturday, September 26th at Dells Raceway Park for National Short Track Championships.