Pospisil Defends Home Turf in Haase Memorial
Credit: Anthony Ainslie
Tad Pospisil scored a popular victory Friday in the Malvern Bank Super Late Model Racing Series’ return to the Off-Road Speedway.
After three washouts in Iowa, the West Series made its way to the Cornhusker State for the Bob Haase Memorial at Norfolk, Nebraska’s Off-Road Speedway. A field of 25 cars, including multiple Off-Road weekly drivers, made the trip for a shot a $3,000 payday in the tour’s 13th all-time visit to the speedway.
Kyle Berck was the fastest overall on the night in Keyser Manufacturing Qualifying as the 7-time series champion clocked in at 14.179 seconds in group 2. Defending West Series Champion Bill Leighton Jr. was the top runner in the first group as he laid down a 14.289 second lap. Jesse Sobbing was topped the third and final group when he stopped the clock at 14.422 seconds.
Later in the night, Tad Pospisil, Charlie McKenna and Jacob Hobscheidt went on the win the three heat races. Meanwhile, Kyle Berck made enough overtakes in his heat to be the top point driver and have first shot at the $200 Skyline Materials Lucky 6th Place Starter Bonus. Berck declined the offer so he would start fourth. That gave the sixth starting place to Burlington, Colorado’s Don Geist.
Off-Road Speedway Regular Beau Johnson took a convincing win in the Predator Custom Trailers B feature. Fellow weekly drivers Alex Banks and Dylan Schmer also made it in along with Malvern Bank Series regular Darrel DeFrance. Jeff Segebart and Denton Duncan took provisionals on the night forming a 22-car field for the 30-lap main event.
Tad Pospisil jumped to the race lead on the opening lap from the outside of the front row. Meanwhile, Kyle Berck hustled to second while pole sitter Bill Leighton Jr. raced Jesse Sobbing for third.
The race was slowed to a caution pace for the first of 3 times on the night when Charlie McKenna suffered mechanical issues on lap eight. The Ames, Iowa driver would pull off the race track resulting a 22nd place finish.
When racing resumed, Pospisil lead while Berck made some daring slide job attempts to try and take the lead away, but Pospisil stayed strong and ran the top to keep the lead. The race stayed green long enough for the leaders to catch the back of the field. Lapped traffic stayed mainly out of the way of the leaders, but Berck was able to cut into Pospisil’s advantage.
The lapped traffic would not be as big of a problem when the second caution came out with ten laps remaining when Brian Kosiski went down with a flat left-rear tire. His team changed out the tire under yellow, and Kosiski would rally back to finish 12th.
The final caution came out with only two laps remaining when Bill Leighton Jr. suffered a flat right-front tire. The Reigning West Series Champion got a new tire bolted on, and he would come back to finish 16th.
The final restart saw Pospisil nail the takeoff and not be challenged for the remainder of the distance. The Norfolk native successfully defended home turf for the fourth time in his career tying Bill Leighton Jr. for the most series wins at Off-Road Speedway. The win marked Pospisil’s first win of the 2025 season and his 46th career series victory. Kyle Berck took second while Jesse Sobbing came in third. Corey Zeitner picked up a $100 hard charger award coming from 14th to finish fourth, and Off-Road Regular Cory Dumpert put together an impressive fifth-place finish.
With the Bob Haase Memorial in the history books, the West Series will stay in Nebraska and will set their sights on the Thayer County Speedway in Deshler. The next round will be the Thayer County Fair race on August 8th. Following that will be a tripleheader weekend on August 15-17 at Park Jefferson Speedway, Shelby County Speedway and U.S. 30 Speedway.
