06/23/2023
Colby, Kansas
By: Sheldon Wickwar
Brock Leibhart showed the way in the sport compact feature Friday night in Colby, as he was able to lead every lap of the feature as well as the only heat race. Visiting victory lane along with Leibhart were Brady Bencken in his sport mod, Troy Burkhart in his stock car, Zach Olmstead in his hobby stock and Dylan Sherfick made a return to victory lane in his modified. A total of fifty-one race teams showed up to the Thomas County Speedway Friday evening to put on a really good show for the fans.
Brock Leibhart led every lap of the heat race, easily picking up the win, in the only heat race for the sport compacts. Tyson Plumisto and Brock Leibhart started the ten-lap feature from the front row, and quickly Brock was able to get the race lead. Ted Trumbo quickly found second place and started chasing Leibhart, but there was no stopping Brock as he sailed to victory lane rather easily. Finishing second was the T21 of Ted Trumbo, third was the 808 car of Jarrett Marker and Tyson Plumisto was credited with fourth place, with a DNF. Hard charger was Ted Trumbo who picked up two spots in the feature.
In the only sport mod heat race Brady Bencken found himself crossing the line in first place. The fifteen-lap started with a front row of Lloyd Stover and Jack Kirchoff, caution would come out on the initial start as Jasen Gray went for a spin in turns one and two. The field would restart with the same front row, and Jack Kirchoff was able to gain control of the early race lead. Jack Kirchoff would control the first seven laps, and on lap eight a side-by-side battle for the lead would break out between Brady Bencken and Kirchoff. Meanwhile Brianna Maughlin and Josh Barnhart had entered a side-by-side battle for the third place. Brady Bencken would gain control of the race lead around lap nine and ten and would start building a lead over second place running Josh Barnhart. On lap thirteen Brianna Maughlin gained third place over Jack Kirchoff, meanwhile the 711 of Brady Bencken led the remainder to pick up the feature win, his first career IMCA sport mod win! Second went to the 5150 of Josh Barnhart, third was the 17M of Brianna Maughlin, fourth was the 88J of Jack Kirchoff and fifth went to the 37M of Derek Murphy. Hard charger in the feature was the 17M of Brianna Maughlin.
The "class too tough to tame" IMCA stock cars ran two heat races won by the 37 of Jason Rogers, and the 25X of Troy Burkhart. The feature had a front row of the 28J of Dusty Springer, and the 34H of Doug Holzmeister, Doug would lead the first three laps but meanwhile the 49 of Drew Miller and the 37X of Jeff Tubbs were making moves to enter a battle for the lead. On lap four Drew Miller would gain the race lead, and held it for a couple laps, before Troy Burkhart entered the picture, that duo would go side by side for the race lead on lap six, and out of turn four headed to the line for lap seven, Troy Burkhart would gain the race lead. Troy Burkhart would lead the remainder of the race, as he was able to cruise rather easily to the race win, the third of 2023 for him. Second went to Jeff Tubbs, third went to Drew Miller, fourth was the 11K of Kyle Clough, and fifth was the 25o of Tathan Burkhart. Hard charger in the event was Kyle Clough.
Modifed action came after the stock car action, and winning the modifed heat races were the zero of Kyle Rohleder, and the 7 of Clay Money. A father and son duo sat on the front row of the fifteen-lap modifed feature, as the 10T of Trevor Geist and the 10G of Don Geist would lead the field to the green flag, and the battle was quite fierce to begin as they raced side by side for the first lap, but Trevor was credited with the early lead. Meanwhile a very hungry Dylan Sherfick was already up to second place by lap two after getting past Don Geist. Trevor would lead the first seven laps, but on lap eight "Dynamite" picked up the race lead. Sherfick would just keep rolling and building his lead up, meanwhle on lap ten Kyle Rohleder headed to the infield. That did not slow the 66D of Sherfick down at all as he led the remainder to finally pick up a race win. Dylan Sherfick won for the first time since September of 2021. Second was Clay Money, third was Trevor Geist, fourth was Don Geist, and the 14G of Greg Gustus rounded out the top five. Hard chargers in the event were Dylan Sherfick and Nick Link, who both picked up three spots each.
Hobby stock action closed the night out in Colby, as the 711 of Brady Bencken and the 98Z of Zach Olmstead both picked up heat race wins. The 37 of Bingston Rogers and the 3T of Travis Branum started the fifteen-lap feature from the front row, Rogers would gain the early race lead and led lap one, but on lap two would battle side by side with Travis for the race lead, meanwhile there was a four wide battle for position just outside of the top five. On lap five Travis Branum would gain the race lead, but on lap six would give way to Zach Olmstead. Olmstead would continue leading, and on lap eight a side by side battle would break out between Brady Bencken and Travis Branum for second place. Lap nine saw a three wide battle for third place between Bencken, Branum and Mike Kennedy. Lap twelve saw a caution for a stalled car, and Zach Olmstead would bring the field to a restart with only three laps to go. Late race contact between Mike Kennedy and Brady Bencken would cost both drivers top-five finishes, as Zach Olmstead went on to win his twelfth race of the year! Second went to the 1C of Cody Ghumm, third went to the 20 of James Hart, fourth was the 21C of Bret Conness and fifth went to Travis Branum. Hard charger of the event was Zach Olmstead who picked up six spots, Olmstead also won "Thursday Night Thunder" the night before in Dodge City!
Another exciting night of racing at Thomas County Speedway is in the books! The track will be full of action again Friday June 3oth!
*All photo's courtesy of Photo's by Red-Carl Red Larson*
FULL RESULTS:
Hobby:
A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 98Z-Zach Olmstead[7]; 2. 1C-Cody Ghumm[6]; 3. 20-James Hart[4]; 4. 21C-Bret Conness[3]; 5. 3T-Travis Branum[2]; 6. 24R-Mike Kennedy[5]; 7. 37-Bingston Rogers[1]; 8. 37X-Cash Tubbs[10]; 9. 711-Brady Bencken[8]; 10. (DNF) 69-Cole Schulte[9]; 11. (DNF) 24-Ray Caldwell[11]; 12. (DNS) 8J-Levi Jones
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 711-Brady Bencken[5]; 2. 1C-Cody Ghumm[4]; 3. 20-James Hart[3]; 4. 37-Bingston Rogers[1]; 5. (DNF) 69-Cole Schulte[2]; 6. (DNF) 8J-Levi Jones[6]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 98Z-Zach Olmstead[4]; 2. 3T-Travis Branum[1]; 3. 24R-Mike Kennedy[3]; 4. 21C-Bret Conness[2]; 5. 37X-Cash Tubbs[6]; 6. (DNS) 24-Ray Caldwell
Modifieds:
A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 66D-Dylan Sherfick[4]; 2. 10T-Trevor Geist[2]; 3. 7-Clay Money[3]; 4. 10G-Don Geist[1]; 5. 14G-Greg Gustus[5]; 6. 1N-Nick Link[9]; 7. 15-Darren Crouch[8]; 8. 4P-Dave Pedersen[7]; 9. 20-Brandon Clough[10]; 10. 727-Todd Schwarz[11]; 11. (DNF) 0-Kyle Rohleder[6]; 12. (DNF) 183-Chad Sterling[12]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 0-Kyle Rohleder[4]; 2. 66D-Dylan Sherfick[3]; 3. 10T-Trevor Geist[2]; 4. 4P-Dave Pedersen[5]; 5. 1N-Nick Link[6]; 6. 727-Todd Schwarz[1]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 7-Clay Money[2]; 2. 10G-Don Geist[1]; 3. 14G-Greg Gustus[3]; 4. 15-Darren Crouch[4]; 5. 20-Brandon Clough[6]; 6. 183-Chad Sterling[5]
Sport Mods:
A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 711-Brady Bencken[3]; 2. 5150-Josh Barnhart[5]; 3. 17M-Brianna Maughlin[7]; 4. 88J-Jack Kirchoff[2]; 5. 37M-Derek Murphy[8]; 6. 28K-Ryan Kirchoff[6]; 7. (DNF) 7P-Lloyd Stover[1]; 8. (DNF) 32G-Jasen Gray[4]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 711-Brady Bencken[4]; 2. 7P-Lloyd Stover[1]; 3. 32G-Jasen Gray[6]; 4. 5150-Josh Barnhart[7]; 5. 88J-Jack Kirchoff[2]; 6. 28K-Ryan Kirchoff[3]; 7. 17M-Brianna Maughlin[8]; 8. 37M-Derek Murphy[5]
Sport Compacts:
A Feature 1 (10 Laps): 1. 15B-Brock Leibhart[2]; 2. T21-Ted Trumbo[4]; 3. 808-Jarrett Marker[3]; 4. (DNF) 10W-Tyson Plumisto[1]
Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 15B-Brock Leibhart[2]; 2. T21-Ted Trumbo[4]; 3. 808-Jarrett Marker[3]; 4. 10W-Tyson Plumisto[1]
Stocks:
A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 25X-Troy Burkhart[5]; 2. 37X-Jeff Tubbs[6]; 3. 49-Drew Miller[4]; 4. 11K-Kyle Clough[10]; 5. 250-Tathan Burkhart[9]; 6. 54P-Kyle Pfeifer[7]; 7. 37-Jason Rogers[8]; 8. X-Wheat Lippelman[3]; 9. 28J-Dusty Springer[1]; 10. 19K-Kolby Stegman[12]; 11. 21K-Curt Kennedy[13]; 12. 49M-Aiden Miller[11]; 13. 19-Keith Stegman[15]; 14. 2BA-Jacey Archer[14]; 15. (DNF) 34H-Doug Holzmeister[2]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 37-Jason Rogers[5]; 2. 49-Drew Miller[3]; 3. 37X-Jeff Tubbs[4]; 4. 11K-Kyle Clough[8]; 5. 28J-Dusty Springer[1]; 6. 49M-Aiden Miller[2]; 7. 21K-Curt Kennedy[7]; 8. 19-Keith Stegman[6]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 25X-Troy Burkhart[3]; 2. 54P-Kyle Pfeifer[4]; 3. 250-Tathan Burkhart[5]; 4. 34H-Doug Holzmeister[1]; 5. X-Wheat Lippelman[2]; 6. 19K-Kolby Stegman[7]; 7. 2BA-Jacey Archer[6]
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