By Josh Reynolds
STUART, Iowa (May 29, 2022) – The two-day Whole Hog 50 fired up Sunday evening at Karl Chevrolet of Stuart International Speedway. Feature winners for the night were Justin Kinderknecht, Trent Reed, Colby Fett, and Kelly Shryock.
IMCA Sunoco Stock Car qualifying feature winners for Monday’s Whole Hog 50 main event were Jeff Mueller, Troy Burkhart and Damon Murty.
IMCA STARS Mod Lites were up first come feature time in their Cornbelt Clash finale with Darrick Knutson leading the first time around. Randy Bryan quickly shot into the lead on lap two and set the pace through a series of cautions. Justin Kinderknecht marched from his eighth starting spot to grab the lead on lap 10 and that would be the money pass as he went on to the $500 win, plus a $100 bonus from Stealth Racing.
Jon Padilla finished second, racing with a battery borrowed from the STARS side-by-side, with Bryan third, Joe Glick fourth and Brandon Freeburg fifth.
Yoshimura bonuses were paid to Kinderknecht, $250; Padilla, $150; and Bryan, $100. Hoosier tire certificates went to hard charger Ben George, who passed 10 cars, and three-day points champion Bryan. Hard luck driver Mike Morrow flipped in his heat, made some quick repairs and ran 14th in the feature, earning $50 from Hoosier State Mod Lites.
Three qualifying features set by passing points in the heat races for the IMCA Stock Cars were up next, and after some great two, three and four-wide racing it was Mueller, Burkhart and Damon Murty coming out with the wins. Jay Schmidt, Chanse Hollatz, Dustin Vis, Buck Schafroth, Dallon Murty and Luke Lemmens also locked themselves into the Monday main event as the top three in each race.
Bryan Vannausdle led the first two circuits for the Mach-1 IMCA Sport Compacts but it was Reed taking control on lap three and cruising to the win. Vannausdle finished second, Mitchell Bunch third, Tyler Fiebelkorn fourth and Jeremiah Downing fifth.
Friesen Performance IMCA Northern SportMods were up next with Dusty Masolini leading the first lap. Fett muscled into the lead on lap two with Brayton Carter following into second a lap later.
A lap five yellow was the only thing slowing these two down and they battled all the way to the end with Fett getting the win. Carter finished second with Ryan Gillmore third, Jake Sachau fourth and Tyler Inman fifth.
Kelly Shryock launched into the lead on lap one for the Friesen Performance IMCA Modifieds and after an early yellow it was Josh Gilman and Todd Shute moving to second and third, respectively.
The top three separated themselves from the pack by lap eight and that’s when the show began. Shryock led each time at the line, but between the top three it was less than half a second gap, for every single lap!
Gilman and Shute traded second a few times and as the cars took the white flag it was anyone’s race. Shryock used the momentum on the top of the track to sweep to the win by 0.134 over Shute with Gilman a scant 0.055 behind in third. Tanner Black and Jacob Murray rounded out the top five in one of the best, if not the best, race in the history of Stuart Speedway.
Shryock, already Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational qualifying eligible, earned $1,000.
The last three runs of the night were dubbed the “First Time Feature Winners” races. To qualify for these, drivers could not have won a race in their class or any other class considered a higher ranked class. Gage Hilgenberg grabbed the win in the Outlaw Mini Mods, Eric Cross in the Stock Cars and Cody Yaw in the Northern SportMods.
Monday will see the VanEaton Pork Whole Hog 50 finale at the Speedway. IMCA Sunoco Stock Cars will race for the $5,000 to win, $500 to start feature while Friesen Performance IMCA Modifieds and Friesen Performance IMCA Northern SportMods both run for $1,000 to win. IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stocks and outlaw mini mods complete the card.
