A driver himself, Matt Geiger is proud of his son's micro-sprint auto racing season thus far.
“Ollie's had a really good year,” the father said Thursday.
The 12-year-old Fort Calhoun student, who drives the No. 7G car, was third in the Restrictor NOW600/Counter Aviation standings at KAM Raceway as of July 21. On July 28, though, Ollie won a national feature — the A-Main Hi Plains Building Division race — across 25 laps on the Hastings track.
Matt Geiger said consensus among those in the pit was that it was one of the first wins of its kind by a Nebraska driver. Official word came back with Ollie as one of three drivers to accomplish what he did. The 12-year-old bested drivers from Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas in the top five.
Sawyer Kiner of Aurora was fourth, too.
Everett Geiger, Ollie's 6 year-old brother, is racing this season as well. The youngster was second in KAM Raceway's Rookie Cage Karts standings as of July 21. He was just 36 points behind Shandi Callaway of Osborne, Kan.
“He's done really well,” Matt said.
In September, the Geigers plan on traveling to races in Missouri and Oklahoma. They'll compete through the end of the year, too, but they aren't the only Washington County family that spends its weekend in the dirt track pits.
Blair drivers
Accomplished race car driver Arie Schouten doesn't compete as much as he once did as a teenager in the mid-2010s.
“I race when I get time, but there's not a lot of it right now,” the Blair native and Lincoln resident said Thursday.
Schouten, an IMCA Northern Sportmod driver, did earn third in a feature at Stuart Speedway this summer, though. He also took fifth on the dirt at Junction Motor Speedway and sixth at Boone Speedway, but he hasn't raced nearly as often as friend Ryan Jenkins, a fairly new Blair resident.
Jenkins is fifth in the IMCA Modifieds standings at US 30 Speedway in Columbus, winning a feature race there on July 6. He and his No. 6 car have also made races at Adams County Speedway, Shelby County Speedway and Crawford County Speedway in Iowa, Park Jefferson Speedway in South Dakota and Boone County Raceway in Albion.
Micah Brown, meanwhile, led the IMCA Late Model standings at Shelby County Speedway as of Thursday. The Blair driver had four top-five finishes and eight top-10s in his No. 24X car.
Aidan Mohr, a Blair High School grad from Kennard, is sixth in the Late Model standings, too, while Daniel Hoevet is eighth in Harlan. Logan Cloudt is 11th at Shelby County, but also fifth on the Crawford County track. Mohr is ninth in Denison, too.
Jim Blazina of Blair races on both Iowa tracks and is fifth in the Crawford County Sport Mods standings with six top-10 finishes. He has a top-10 finish in Harlan, too.
In the No. 9T car, Levi Plowman is 10th in the Crawford Late Model standings. Mark Plowman earned a top-10 finish there this summer as well.
Ahnna Schouten, Arie's sister, earned a ninth-place feature finish in Sports Modifieds racing at Junction Motor Speedway. She drove once at Crawford, too, according to myracepass.com.
Caleb Woodward, meanwhile, is 12th in the Flat Adult Clone standings at the Mini E Raceway.
Fort Calhoun drivers
Terry Hurt and Chad Andersen of Fort Calhoun are second and third in the Eagle Raceway IMCA Modifieds standings as of Thursday. Hurt finished sixth in the A Feature on July 29 and is just six points behind Anthony Roth of Columbus.
Andersen, meanwhile, won the A Feature on July 29 after starting ninth. He was 12 points out of first place in Eagle after also claiming an eighth-place finish in Albion earlier in the summer.
Fort Calhoun native Bret Klabunde has raced his sprint car on Crawford County dirt six times, earning six top-10 finishes. He's also 27th in the Eagle Raceway sprint standings after a fourth-place finish on July 29.
John Klabunde, however, earned a pair of top-10 sprint car finishes at Knoxville Raceway in Iowa and Kansas' Belleville High Banks during July.
Fort Calhoun drivers have been busy at the Mini E Raceway, too. Zach Imig is seventh in the Flat Adult Clone standings, while Wally Duros is 12th in the Cage Amateur standings. Ellie Duros, meanwhile, is 17th in the Cage Jr standings and Will Duros is 22nd in the Cage Jr 2 category.
