Shryock, Mills win big at Bradie Becker Memorial

By Greg Grabianowski

ALGONA, Iowa (July 13, 2023) – In its second year running, the Bradie Becker Memorial race on Thursday, July 13 brought a bigger purse for IMCA drivers to compete for at Kossuth County Speedway.

Both the Friesen Performance IMCA Modified and IMCA Sunoco Stock Cars raced for a $2,000 first place check as an extra $1,000 was added during the evening, as the other three divisions each split an extra $250.

Elijah Zevenbergen and Bruce Wickman led the 22-car Stock Car field to the flag-stand to take the green flag as Zevenbergen jumped out front right away before a quick yellow flag.

The race resumed as Derek Green became the new leader on the third lap and a red flag appeared one lap later as New Mexico visitor Zane DeVilbiss was upside and four other cars were also involved.

Green was the leader at the halfway point of the 20-lap feature followed by Kelly Shryock, Zevenbergen, Kevin Opheim and Wickman as Shryock slowly closed the big lead Green had built.

The two cars broke away from the field until the caution flag came out with three laps to go.

Green continued to lead with Shryock nipping at his heels, and when Green bobbled a little bit coming out of turn four on the final lap, Shryock … already guaranteed a B & B Racing Chassis All-Star Invitational starting berth … slipped past him to steal the win and $2,000.

Zevenbergen ended up in second with Donovan Smith placing third, Green fell to fourth and Opheim rounded out the top five.

The Modified feature was dominated by Jeremy Mills as he led all 20 laps to win his fourth straight and fifth overall feature of the season at Algona.

Mills built a huge lead early as he was followed by DeVilbiss, Joel Rust, Todd Stinehart and Nick Meyer at halfway.

Yellows on laps 15 and 17 tightened the field back up but no one had anything for Mills, who came into the night Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational qualifying eligible, on this night.

Rust was the runner-up with Shryock taking third followed by DeVilbiss and Stinehart.

All season long at Algona, the IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stocks have had a very good showing of cars and Thursday night was no different. The feature saw a familiar last name in victory lane but a different first name as Daniel Smith grabbed the lead right away and took his first feature win of the season

Daniel started on the inside of the front row and jumped ahead right away only to see the yellow flag fly on laps three and six.

The last seven laps of the feature were uneventful, however, as Smith, Blake Luinenberg and James Burns had a three-car breakaway with the rest of the field in a wild battle for fourth place.

Luinenberg came home in second place with Burns taking third as Greg Sidles won the wild tussle for fourth and Jay Sidles rounded out the top five cars.

The Friesen Performance IMCA Northern SportMod feature saw Justin Raymond hold the lead the first six laps before a yellow flag flew when a couple of cars got tangled up in turn two.

Off the restart, Matt Looft became the new leader and blew away the rest of the field for his eighth victory of the season at Algona and won for the sixth straight week in the class.

Raymond held on to the runner-up spot after his good early laps with Jake Simpson third, Alec Fett was fourth and Alex Smith finished fifth.

The Mach-1 IMCA Sport Compact feature went green, white, checkered as Brandon Hartman took the lead and never looked back by earning his first feature victory of the season.

Brooke Olser took second place as Lucas Parsons won a hard-fought eight-lap battle over Charles Prime for third.