Thornton is dynamic in Dirt Duel win at Stuart

Feature

Ricky Thornton Jr. took home $3,000 for his IMCA Sunoco Stock Car feature win at Stuart Speedway’s Dynamic Drivelines Dirt Duel. (Photo by Jim Zimmerline)

By Josh Reynolds

STUART, Iowa (June 12) – Another big-money event ended with Ricky Thornton Jr. in victory lane, this time in an IMCA Sunoco Stock Car.

The multi-division star raced from eighth starting to win the 50-lap headline event at Stuart Speedway’s Dynamic Drivelines Dirt Duel presented by Sniper Speed & Midstate Machine Wednesday night. The checkers were good for $3,000 and came ahead of Abe Huls and Johnny Spaw. 

Huls had taken the early lead over Elijah Zevenbergen and Spaw before the yellow flew on lap three. Huls led the next circuit with Zevenbergen taking over on lap five. 

Zevenbergen led one more lap until he went into a wild spin in turn two to bring out the second and what proved to be final yellow of the night.

Once the green came out again it was Huls leading Thornton and Spaw. Thornton followed in Huls’ tire tracks until making his move on lap 18 and taking over the front spot.

As the racing surface slicked off, cars moved to the bottom of the track and Thornton encountered lapped traffic around lap 40. Huls had several opportunities to try and move Thornton but the front pair kept it clean and Thornton went on to take the win.

Huls, Spaw, Kyle Brown and 16th starting Josh Daniels completed the top five. Cayden Carter led start to finish in the Manufacturers’ Race and pocketed $1,000.

Brayton Carter topped the $2,000 to win Karl Kustoms Northern SportMod feature and Corey Madden led start to finish in the $1,500 to win IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stock main.

Carter shot into the lead following an early restart in the SportMod 40-lapper, then was challenged by Johnathon Logue and Carter Vandenberg following a caution at midway.

Logue found his way to the front and Carter fell back as far as fifth; he bounced back to regain the lead on the 30th circuit, then sailed to the win as Logue got the best of Chase Rudolf in the race for second. 

Madden, Dylan Nelson and Eric Knutson ran 1-2-3 much of the distance in the Hobby Stock main before a late caution set up a green, white, checkered finish. 

Nelson gave it everything he had but there was no getting past Madden before the checkers flew.

Josh Gilman was the IMCA Modified winner.

Feature Results

Stock Cars – 1. Ricky Thornton Jr.; 2. Abe Huls; 3. Johnny Spaw; 4. Kyle Brown; 5. Josh Daniels; 6. Marcus Fagan; 7. Cody Gustoff; 8. Richie Gustin; 9. Mike Nichols; 10. Derrick Agee; 11. Todd Reitzler; 12. Jay Schmidt; 13. Cayden Carter; 14. Bryan Snell; 15. Buck Schafroth; 16. Dusty Van Horn; 17. Scott Davis; 18. Shawn Ritter; 19. Brandon Pruitt; 20. Donavon Smith; 21. Luke Lemmens; 22. Aaron Stolp; 23. Joe Zrostlik; 24. Elijah Zevenbergen 

Northern SportMods – 1. Brayton Carter; 2. Johnathon Logue; 3. Chase Rudolf; 4. Carter Vandenberg; 5. Tyler Inman; 6. Josh Foster; 7. Daniel Fellows; 8. Hunter Longnecker; 9. Cam Reimers; 10. Josh Appel; 11. Mitchell Morris; 12. Dusty Masolini; 13. Garrett Nelson; 14. Brandon Patava; 15. Colton Nelson; 16. Chris Burke; 17. Martin Bennett; 18. Ed Hamilton; 19. David Schwartz; 20. Kody Havens; 21. Bryan Morris; 22. Shane Paris; 23. Tony Olson; 24. Jake Sachau. 

Hobby Stocks – 1. Corey Madden; 2. Dylan Nelson; 3. Solomon Bennett; 4. Chuck Madden Jr.; 5. Eric Knutson; 6. John Watson; 7. Kaden Reynolds; 8. Jack Phillips; 9. Tanner Dixon; 10. Nick Foster; 11. Travis Fenton; 12. Zach Hemmingsen; 13. Jamie Coady; 14. Matthew Wahl; 15. Richard Pahlka Jr.; 16. Ralph Jones; 17. Brandon Long; 18. Miciah Hidlebaugh; 19. Adam Ayers; 20. Kenzie Ritter; 21. Brandon Cox. 

Related Articles

Results

IMCA Stock Car heavyweights square off at Stuart

By Josh Reynolds STUART, Iowa (June 10) – The drivers running 1-2 in IMCA Sunoco Stock Car career wins ran 1-2 in a battle for the ages Wednesday at Stuart Speedway.  Brad Derry and Shawn Ritter lined up on the front row. Mike Nichols jumped to the lead on lap one and after a couple of cautions looked to cruise to the win, but a caution on lap 17 bunched the field and gave 11th starting Damon Murty a shot.  The top two put on a show over the last two laps and it was Nichols with a couple of strong moves to hang onto the lead and take the win by a half a car length. Murty finished in second with Todd VanEaton, Josh Daniels and Buck Schafroth the rest of the top five.  John Davis and Scott Bash led the IMCA Modified field to the green flag. Ricky Thornton Jr. took over the pole when Davis dropped to the tail before the start of the feature. One caution on lap eight was all that [Read More]

Feature

Whole Hog Hat Trick for Dallon Murty

By Josh Reynolds STUART, Iowa (May 29, 2023) –The finale of the third annual Whole Hog 50 sponsored by VanEaton Pork ran Monday at Karl Chevrolet of Stuart International Speedway. Winners for the night were Kolby Sabin, Dallon Murty, Calvin Dhondt and Mitchell Morris. Mach-1 IMCA Sport Compacts kicked off the features and it was Anthony Clark leading through lap five. Sabin found a quicker line to take over the next time around and he cruised to the win. Clark finished second with Elijah Hoyt third, Terry Bickford fourth and Zander Steiner fifth. The next race would be the IMCA Sunoco Stock Cars and the third running of the Whole Hog 50. A three-wide start and 32 hungry racers set the stage for an exciting 50-lap race, and as they took the green flag everyone in attendance was on their toes. Michael Jaennette took charge early on with Austin Bouzek and Chanse Hollatz in close formation behind. Jaennette kept the lead until a yellow flew on lap seven, bringing Nick Roberts up to row two [Read More]

Feature

Zevenbergen, Logue land Dirt Duel wins

By Josh Reynolds STUART, Iowa (June 3) – Elijah Zevenbergen and Johnathon Logue were $3,000 feature winners on the third night of Stuart Speedway’s Dynamic Drivelines Dirt Duel. Zevenbergen grabbed the IMCA Sunoco Stock Car checkers ahead of second-year speedster Dallon Murty Wednesday night while Logue beat Cody Thompson to the Karl Kustoms Northern SportMod finish by not much more than the width of his bumper.  Zevenbergen and Todd VanEaton brought the Stock Car field to the green flag. Zevenbergen took control early in the 50-lapper as Murty worked his way through to second just before a caution came out on lap 21.  Murty bobbled on lap 40 and allowed his father Damon to take over second place. The caution flew again on lap 44 and gave the field one more chance at Zevenbergen. Dallon Murty got a run on the top side and took over second and as the white flag flew the leaders made contact in turn two.  Murty took his shot and threw a slide job in turn three but Zevenbergen was [Read More]