Shryock is double winner on opening night at Kossuth County

By Greg Grabianowski

ALGONA, Iowa (May 4, 2023) – The force was with Kelly Shryock on Star Wars Day.

Twice.

Shryock won both IMCA Sunoco Stock Car and Friesen Performance IMCA Modified main events Thursday at Algona while Matt Looft ruled in the Friesen Performance IMCA Northern SportMods and Josh Sidles paced the IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stocks.

The Stock Car feature saw Shryock grab the early lead and build a comfortable advantage. Derek Green slowly erased that advantage, however, and eased ahead a couple of times but Shryock continued to hold the lead at the flag stand.

With just two laps left, Green got tangled up with a lapped car and damage to the right front of his car ended his night and Shryock went onto the win ahead of Chad Palmer and Devin Smith.

The 20-lap Modified feature saw Brandon Beckendorf lead the first eight laps before getting tangled up with a lapped car on the back straightaway. Shryock then led the final 12 laps for the victory, his career 129th in the IMCA division.

Beckendorf finished as the runner-up followed by Jeremy Mills. The feature also went start to finish without a caution flag.

The Hobby Stock feature was dominated by Sidles as he led the distance, although a couple cars kept the heat on him during the 12-lap feature.

Doug Wickman and Tim Sidles nibbled at the leader’s back bumper but he was not to be denied with only a yellow flag on lap eight delaying his first trip into victory lane in 2023.

Tim Sidles ended in second, Wickman in third.

The Northern SportMod feature also had an exciting finish as Looft edged Alec Fett to earn his first feature win of the campaign and career 233rd in the class.

Alec Fett grabbed the lead from the start and fought off an early challenge for the lead from Colby Fett. The yellow flag came out with just one lap to go to bring the field back together.

Looft took full advantage of the restart as five-time and defending national champion used the high side of the track to narrowly nip Alec Fett at the flag stand. Colby Fett took third.

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