Berry Storms Away with Colby Win!

05/24/24

Thomas County Speedway

By: Sheldon Wickwar

Sixty-nine IMCA race teams checked into the Thomas County Speedway for a Friday night showdown, visiting victory lane were Brett Berry, Morgan Olmstead, Kyle Pfeifer, Blaine Walt and Ted Trumbo.

The sport compacts started the night off with two six-lap heat races won by Ted Trumbo and David Ghumm. Their twelve-lap feature started with a front row of James Bader and Tyson Plumisto, quickly Kyle Benoit grabbed the race lead and led the first two laps before Chase Cloe brought out a caution. The restart was chaotic, and Madison Reed was able to get to the lead by lap four, and lap five saw Ted Trumbo get to second place. Reed and Trumbo battled closely for the remainder of the feature with Ted Trumbo gaining the lead on lap ten and taking the win. Second was Madison Reed, third was Kyle Mortensen, fourth was Kyle Benoit and Brock Leibhart rounded out the top-five. Hard charger in the event was Trumbo who gained five spots, other nice runs included Kyle Mortensen and Zack Mclaughlin up four spots each.

Ted Trumbo celebrates his IMCA sport compact win! Photo courtesy of Brittany Joe Lewis!

The hobby stocks were second on the night, they ran two eight-lap heat races won by Morgan Olmstead and Levi Jones. Their fifteen-lap feature started with a front row of Cole Schulte and Bret Conness; the pair raced side-by-side for the first two laps with Conness gaining the race lead by lap two, and lap three saw Levi Jones take the lead. A caution came out on lap nine for a two-car spin and Levi Jones brought the field back to their final restart. Jones led until three laps to go when Morgan Olmstead took over and ran away with the feature win. Second was Bret Conness, third was Levi Jones, fourth was Trent Matson and fifth was Hayden Ogorzolka. Hard charger in the event was Morgan Olmstead who gained seven spots. Other nice runs included Trent Matson, Cody Ghumm, Cash Tubbs and Austin Janousek all gaining three spots each.

Morgan Olmstead celebrates his IMCA hobby stock win! Photo courtesy of Brittany Jo Lewis!

The sport mods were third on the night, they ran two eight-lap heat races won by Monty Nordyke and Josh Barnhart. Aiden Miller and Blaine Walt started the twenty-lap feature from the front row, which saw Walt jump out to an early advantage but quickly Miller regained the lead and led a few laps. Brady Bencken charged up to third place by lap three, and on lap four Walt regained the lead with Bencken sliding into second on lap five. Lap nine saw Preston Kennedy spin in turns three and four, and unfortunately Josh Barnhart could not avoid and made heavy contact, both drivers were okay, but their cars were done for the night. Walt restarted the field and continued to lead and lap fifteen saw a final caution. Walt restarted the field and went on to collect career win number 99. Second was Brady Bencken, third was Brendyn Nordyke, fourth was Carson Lang and fifth was Brianna Maughlin. Hard charger in the event was Carson Lang who gained eight spots. Other nice runs included Brendyn Nordyke up seven spots while Brady Bencken and Ryan Moser collected five spots each.

Blaine Walt celebrates his IMCA Sport Mod win! Photo courtesy of Brittany Jo Lewis!

The stock cars were fourth on the program they ran one eight-lap heat race won by Kyle Pfeifer, their fifteen-lap feature had a front row of Kyle Pfeifer and Tathan Burkhart. The duo raced side-by-side until corners three and four on the first lap where Tathan grabbed the race lead. Lap two saw Troy Burkhart gain third place as he started to chase son Tathan down. Pfeifer and Tathan ran side-by-side until lap five where Pfeifer gained a little separation. The battle for the lead remained close until lap twelve when Pfeifer was able to pull away from Tathan to go on to win the feature. Second was Tathan Burkhart, third was Troy Burkhart, fourth was Tyler Tipton and fifth was Doug Holzmeister. Hard chargers in the event were Tyler Tipton, Chris Oliver and Jeff Tubbs all gaining two spots each.

Kyle Pfeifer celebrates his IMCA Stock Car win! Photo Courtesy of Brittany Jo Lewis!

The modifieds closed out the program with one of the coolest features of the 2024 racing season. They first ran three eight-lap heat races won by Daniel Gottschalk, Dakota Sproul and Dylan Sherfick; their twenty-lap feature had a front row of Brett Berry and Dylan Sherfick, quickly Brett Berry stormed away with the race lead meanwhile Eddie Belec flew into the second place on the opening lap. By lap five Berry held a huge lead over Eddie Belec and Dylan Sherfick was in a heated battle with Daniel Gottschalk for the third place. At the halfway point Berry found himself in heavy lapped traffic but still held a two second lead over second place running Eddie Belec. A couple cautions came out with less than five laps to go but that did not keep Berry from running away with the feature, but the story of the night was the battle for second place and at the checkered flag it was a dead tie between Eddie Belec and Dylan Sherfick. Brett Berry won, Dylan Sherfick was determined to be the second-place finisher, third went to Eddie Belec, fourth was Dakota Sproul and fifth was Daniel Gottschalk. Hard charger in the event was Don Geist who gained six spots, other nice runs included Kyle Rohleder up five spots and Dakota Sproul up four spots.

Brett Berry celebrates his IMCA Mod win-Photo Courtesy of Brittany Jo Lewis

The next scheduled event at the Thomas County Speedway is Friday, June 7th as the DirtCrown Stock Car Series invades the "Oasis on the Plains" for night two of the Augie's DirtCrown Showdown!

FULL RESULTS:

IMCA HOBBY STOCK

A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 88-Morgan Olmstead[8]; 2. 58-Bret Conness[2]; 3. 8J-Levi Jones[3]; 4. 2M-Trent Matson[7]; 5. 17H-Hayden Ogorzolka[4]; 6. 1C-Cody Ghumm[9]; 7. 37X-Cash Tubbs[10]; 8. 37XJ-Austin Janousek[11]; 9. 12S-Cole Schulte[1]; 10. (DNF) 11D-Devon Ghumm[5]; 11. (DNF) 3T-Travis Branum[6]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 88-Morgan Olmstead[5]; 2. 3T-Travis Branum[4]; 3. 58-Bret Conness[2]; 4. 17H-Hayden Ogorzolka[3]; 5. 37X-Cash Tubbs[6]; 6. 37XJ-Austin Janousek[1]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 8J-Levi Jones[2]; 2. 11D-Devon Ghumm[3]; 3. 12S-Cole Schulte[1]; 4. 2M-Trent Matson[4]; 5. 1C-Cody Ghumm[5]

19 entries

IMCA MODIFIED

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 09B-Brett Berry[1]; 2. 66D-Dylan Sherfick[2]; 3. 3B-Eddie Belec[3]; 4. 08-Dakota Sproul[8]; 5. 3D-Daniel Gottschalk[6]; 6. 0-Kyle Rohleder[11]; 7. 7-Clay Money[10]; 8. 10T-Trevor Geist[4]; 9. 14-Tony Acierno[9]; 10. 3RW-Ronnie Wallace[12]; 11. 10G-Don Geist[17]; 12. 4P-Dave Pedersen[13]; 13. 12A-Ayden Steffens[15]; 14. 183-Chad Sterling[14]; 15. 69-Jim Beaman[16]; 16. K98-Danny Keller[5]; 17. (DNF) 49-Drew Miller[7]; 18. (DNF) 17J-Jeremy Frenier[19]; 19. (DNF) 42-John Fabrizius[18]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 3D-Daniel Gottschalk[1]; 2. 14-Tony Acierno[2]; 3. 3B-Eddie Belec[7]; 4. 49-Drew Miller[4]; 5. 4P-Dave Pedersen[3]; 6. 69-Jim Beaman[5]; 7. 42-John Fabrizius[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 08-Dakota Sproul[1]; 2. 09B-Brett Berry[3]; 3. 7-Clay Money[2]; 4. 0-Kyle Rohleder[4]; 5. 183-Chad Sterling[5]; 6. 10G-Don Geist[6]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 66D-Dylan Sherfick[1]; 2. 10T-Trevor Geist[3]; 3. K98-Danny Keller[2]; 4. 3RW-Ronnie Wallace[6]; 5. 12A-Ayden Steffens[5]; 6. (DQ) 17J-Jeremy Frenier[4]

9 entries

IMCA STOCK CAR

A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 54P-Kyle Pfeifer[1]; 2. 250-Tathan Burkhart[2]; 3. 25Y-Troy Burkhart[3]; 4. 95-Tyler Tipton[6]; 5. 34H-Doug Holzmeister[4]; 6. 3-Chris Oliver[8]; 7. 37X-Jeff Tubbs[9]; 8. X-Wheat Lippelman[5]; 9. (DNF) 28J-Dusty Springer[7]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 54P-Kyle Pfeifer[1]; 2. 25Y-Troy Burkhart[5]; 3. 250-Tathan Burkhart[7]; 4. 34H-Doug Holzmeister[4]; 5. X-Wheat Lippelman[2]; 6. 95-Tyler Tipton[6]; 7. 28J-Dusty Springer[3]; 8. 3-Chris Oliver[8]; 9. 37X-Jeff Tubbs[9]

17 entries

IMCA NORTHERN SPORTMOD

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 14W-Blaine Walt[2]; 2. 711-Brady Bencken[7]; 3. 9JR-Brendyn Nordyke[10]; 4. 54-Carson Lang[12]; 5. 17M-Brianna Maughlin[5]; 6. 18C-Ryan Moser[11]; 7. 49-Aiden Miller[1]; 8. 28K-Ryan Kirchoff[3]; 9. 88J-Jack Kirchoff[8]; 10. 9-Monty Nordyke[4]; 11. 24-Douglas Beaman[6]; 12. 7P-Lloyd Stover[17]; 13. 14A-Austin Johnson[14]; 14. 1-Paul Donovan[13]; 15. 5X-Donovan Ohlrogge[16]; 16. (DNF) 5150-Josh Barnhart[9]; 17. (DNF) 67-Preston Kennedy[15]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 9-Monty Nordyke[3]; 2. 14W-Blaine Walt[7]; 3. 17M-Brianna Maughlin[6]; 4. 28K-Ryan Kirchoff[4]; 5. 9JR-Brendyn Nordyke[8]; 6. 54-Carson Lang[5]; 7. 14A-Austin Johnson[1]; 8. (DNF) 5X-Donovan Ohlrogge[9]; 9. (DQ) 7P-Lloyd Stover[2]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 5150-Josh Barnhart[6]; 2. 88J-Jack Kirchoff[1]; 3. 49-Aiden Miller[4]; 4. 711-Brady Bencken[7]; 5. 24-Douglas Beaman[2]; 6. 18C-Ryan Moser[8]; 7. 1-Paul Donovan[5]; 8. 67-Preston Kennedy[3]

13 entries

IMCA SPORT COMPACT

A Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. T21-Ted Trumbo[6]; 2. 6M-Madison Reed[5]; 3. 03K-Kyle Mortensen[7]; 4. K3-Kyle Benoit[3]; 5. 15B-Brock Leibhart[8]; 6. 7M-ZACK MCLAUGHLIN[10]; 7. 717-jason colby[9]; 8. 23-David Ghumm[4]; 9. 273-Chase Cloe[13]; 10. 10W-Tyson Plumisto[2]; 11. 68L-carson lange[11]; 12. 413-James Bader[1]; 13. (DNS) 99J-Jesse Coon

Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. T21-Ted Trumbo[4]; 2. K3-Kyle Benoit[2]; 3. 15B-Brock Leibhart[5]; 4. 717-jason colby[7]; 5. 413-James Bader[1]; 6. 68L-carson lange[6]; 7. 273-Chase Cloe[3]

Heat 2 (6 Laps): 1. 23-David Ghumm[2]; 2. 6M-Madison Reed[3]; 3. 03K-Kyle Mortensen[4]; 4. 7M-ZACK MCLAUGHLIN[6]; 5. 10W-Tyson Plumisto[1]; 6. 99J-Jesse Coon[5]