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Thornton Jr Dirt Duel Champion

Rain, sun, cool temperatures and wind were all Mother Nature had to throw at us, but the seventh event of the season at Stuart Speedway would not be denied! Josh Gilman and Bobby Daniels were feature winners while Corey Madden, Brayton Carter and Ricky Thornton Jr were the winners of the Dynamic Drivelines Dirt Duel presented by Sniper Speed & Midstate Machine.
Tuesday saw qualifying for Hobby Stocks, SportMods and Stock Cars with Sport Compacts and Cruisers filling the card. About two-thirds of the way through the program the skies opened and the night was called complete. James Reeves and John Gill were heat winners for the Sport Compacts and the duo of Rigby and Carpenter won the heat for the Cruisers. Those two classes will have a makeup feature on June 19.
Wednesday saw a much better day for weather, and once qualifying was completed it was the IMCA Modifieds coming out for the first feature race of the night with Dylan Book and Joe Duvall on the front row. Josh Gilman blasted into the lead from his third starting spot with Duvall and then Kyle Brown giving chase in second. Brown worked everywhere on the extremely wide track, but Gilman was unstoppable as he went on to the wire to wire win. Brown finished second with Cody Laney third, Duvall fourth and Josh Most fifth. Gilman and Brown were the heat race winners.
The Outlaw Mini Mods were the other regular feature to run with Bobby Daniels taking the win over brother Luke. Bobby was also the heat race winner.
Zach Hemmingson and Corey Madden brought the first Dirt Duel feature to the track with twenty one IMCA Hobby Stocks taking the stage for their thirty lap race. Madden led lap one with Hemmingson and Brandon Cox in tow. Dylan Nelson moved into third on lap two and second on lap four with Madden still out front. Eric Knutson crept into the top three on lap five and everything stayed the same until a caution flew on lap twenty eight setting up a green-white-checkered finish. Nelson gave it everything he had but no one was getting past Madden as he went on to the win and the $1500 payday. Nelson finished second with Solomon Bennett third, Chuck Madden Jr fourth and Knutson fifth.
Next up was the Manufacturer race for the IMCA Stock cars with the field being set by two qualifiers earlier in the evening. Elijah Zevenbergen and Cayden Carter led the field to green with Carter showing the way on lap one. Luke Lemmens and Zevenbergen traded spots for second and third as Carter led the first five laps. Ricky Thornton Jr passed Zevenbergen for third on lap six and began to work on Lemmens around the halfway point. Lemmens and Thornton Jr had their hands full as Mike Nichols worked his way through the field but out front it was Carter leading from wire to wire to take the $1000 win. Lemmens finished second with Thornton Jr third, Nichols fourth and Richie Gustin fifth.
The next Dirt Duel feature was the IMCA Northern SportMods with Chase Rudolf and Josh Foster on the front row for their forty lap race. Foster took the early lead with Rudolf and Brayton Carter close behind. Carter moved into second on lap eight and just as Foster was about to enter lap traffic the caution came out. Once the cars fired back up it was Carter shooting into the lead with Foster and Rudolf second and third. Lap nineteen saw another caution, and though Carter continued to lead it was now Johnathon Logue and Carter Vandenberg right behind him. Foster worked back into third on lap twenty one and second on lap twenty three before the last yellow of the night came out on lap twenty four. Once the green came out it was Logue flexing his muscle and taking the lead over Foster and Vandenberg. Carter had his work cut out as he fell back as far as fifth, but by lap twenty eight he was back on Logue’s tail and looking for the lead. Two laps later he would have it, and the next ten laps were a shootout for second as Carter sailed to the $2000 win. Logue prevailed in the battle for second with Rudolf third, Vandenberg fourth and Tyler Inman fifth.
The last Dirt Duel feature was the IMCA Stock Car fifty lap event with Abe Huls and Elijah Zevenbergen on the front row. Huls took the early lead over Zevenbergen and Johnny Spaw until the yellow flew on lap three. Huls would lead lap four 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 final yellow of the night. Once the green came out it was Huls leading eighth starting Ricky Thornton Jr and Spaw. Thornton Jr followed in Huls tire tracks until making his move on lap eighteen and taking over the lead. As the track slicked off the cars moved to the bottom of the track and Thornton Jr would encounter lap traffic around lap forty. Huls had a few opportunities to try and move Thornton Jr, but the leaders kept it clean and Thornton Jr went on to take the win and the $3000 that came with it. Huls finished second with Spaw third, Kyle Brown fourth and sixteenth starting Josh Daniels fifth.
We’d like to thank all who came out to support the race track at our seventh event of the year. Next week we return to weekly racing with Sargent Buildings & Ricks Towing Night at the Races. See you then!

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