Leonard Tops Late Models in WaKeeney Season Finale!

09/21/2025

WaKeeney Speedway

Season Finale

By: Sheldon Wickwar

Sixty-three race teams checked into the historic WaKeeney Speedway to finish the 2025 season off; the temps were perfect, and the racetrack was juiced up all night long. The racing saw side-by-side battles break out with Josh Leonard taking home the late model win, Weston Kraus the cruisers win, Kyle Rohleder the modified win and Kamren Gruber the sport mod win. Dylan Pfiefer took home the cruisers track championship, while Blaine Walt claimed the sport mod track championship and Kyle Rohleder grabbed the modified track championship!

The cruisers ran one heat race won by Dylan Pfeifer, in the feature event the roles were reversed, and it was Weston Kraus who led the majority of the event. A couple laps Dylan Pfeifer and Shane Pfeifer were able to take the lead, but Kraus had the faster and more consistent car on the evening. Weston Kraus and company won, with Dylan and Shane Pfeifer second, and third was Parker Eck and company.

Weston Kraus and company celebrate their cruisers victory! Photo courtesy of Carl Red Larson!

The sport mods ran second on the program, they ran three heat races where the top five finishers locked in, and also a b-feature that took five final drivers to make up their feature lineup. Adam Weber, Nick Hankins and Chad Dolan all won heat races, while CJ Pfannenstiel won the b-feature. The twenty-lap main event started with a front row of Trevin Frye and Blaine Walt, quickly the veteran driver of Walt took control of the race lead and started to click off laps. A couple cautions occurred that did not slow the 14W machine down, but Kamren Gruber, Adam Weber, Josh Barnhart and Brianna Maughlin were all in hot pursuit. With four laps to go Walt appeared to be sailing away from Kamren Gruber who made a big charge to second place, when suddenly the 14W slowed down the frontstretch and saw his night heartbreakingly end prematurely. Caution came out for the slowing car of Walt, and the restart put Kamren Gruber in the lead, with a lot of hungry drivers behind him. Gruber fired off well on the final restart and held the field off to pick up the win and delighted the fans with frontstretch dirt donuts! Kamren Gruber picked up his second win of his season, the first coming at an event in Lacrosse at the Rush County Fairgrounds Bullring. Second was Adam Weber, third was Josh Barnhart, fourth was Brianna Maughlin and fifth was Cody Gearhart. Hard charger in the event was Ryan Kirchoff with ten positions gained, after finishing second in the b-feature to make the a-main event. Other nice runs included Dustin Lampe up nine spots, Kamren Gruber up eight spots on route to his win, rookie Josiah Lopez up seven spots after grabbing the last b-main transfer spot, Cody Gearhart was able to move up seven spots as well. Justin Lampe up six spots and CJ Pfannenstiel up five spots after winning the b-feature.

Kamren Gruber celebrates his IMCA Sport Mod victory! Photo courtesy of Carl Red Larson!

The modifieds ran third on the program, they ran two heat races won by Kyle Rohleder and Jesse Richter, their twenty-lap main event started with a front row of Dylan Sherfick and Robbie Thome, Thome took the early lead and quickly Rohleder and Sherfick battled side-by-side for second place. Rohleder eventually found the race lead and was able to hold off the field. A couple cautions for slowing cars and spinning cars, kept the field tight, but Rohleder was able to prevail. Clay Money and Eddie Belec made charges through the field but ultimately ran out of laps to catch Rohleder and Thome who made it a two-car battle for the race lead. Kyle Rohleder picked up his second win of the season, first at WaKeeney as his other win came at RPM Speedway in May. Second was Robbie Thome, third was Clay Money, fourth was Eddie Belec and fifth was Brett Berry. Hard charger in the event was Clay Money who gained seven spots, while Eddie Belec grabbed five spots.

Kyle Rohleder celebrates his IMCA Modified Win! Photo courtesy of Carl Red Larson!

The late models finished the program; their overall fast qualifier was modified standout Dakota Sproul who returned home from a second-place run at Super Nationals with a late model much to the surprise of the whole Kansas racing community. They ran two heat races with two of the fastest modified drivers grabbing wins in Jake Nightingale and Dakota Sproul, Sproul in his debut with the late model. The pair shared the front row of the feature and Sproul quickly took the lead and started to pull away. Sproul led for the majority of the race before surrendering the lead in lapped traffic to the late model standout Josh Leonard. Leonard was smooth and precise in lapped traffic and held on to pick up the feature event win, as well as sweeping WaKeeney's two late model events. Second was Dakota Sproul, third was Dylan Schmer, fourth was Jake Nightingale and fifth was Jason Rogers. Hard charger in the event was Josh Leonard who grabbed seven spots on his way to victory lane.

Josh Leonard celebrates his late model victory! Photo courtesy of Carl Red Larson!

FULL RESULTS: Cruisers

A Feature 1 (10 Laps): 1. 79-Weston Kraus[2]; 2. 10 32-Dylan Pfeifer[1]; 3. 96E-Parker Eck[4]; 4. 317Z-Travis Phillips[3]

Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 10 32-Dylan Pfeifer[3]; 2. 79-Weston Kraus[2]; 3. 317Z-Travis Phillips[4]; 4. 96E-Parker Eck[1]

17 entries

Finish Line Lease Service Modifieds

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 0-Kyle Rohleder[3]; 2. 1T-Robbie Thome[2]; 3. 7-Clay Money[10]; 4. 3B-Eddie Belec[9]; 5. 09B-Brett Berry[5]; 6. 66D-Dylan Sherfick[1]; 7. 8R-Jesse Richter[8]; 8. 9D-Dalton Murphy[11]; 9. 22B-Dalton Bell[6]; 10. 7R-Paxton Dody[4]; 11. 74-Dewain Coleman[16]; 12. 77-Cody Williams[13]; 13. 98-Danny Keller[17]; 14. 14-Brandon Fisher[15]; 15. (DNF) 91C-Derrick Sprott[12]; 16. (DNF) 88-Troy Douglas[14]; 17. (DNF) 51-Mike Bainter[7]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 0-Kyle Rohleder[2]; 2. 7-Clay Money[6]; 3. 3B-Eddie Belec[5]; 4. 1T-Robbie Thome[9]; 5. 22B-Dalton Bell[1]; 6. 9D-Dalton Murphy[7]; 7. 77-Cody Williams[8]; 8. 14-Brandon Fisher[3]; 9. (DNS) 98-Danny Keller

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 8R-Jesse Richter[1]; 2. 66D-Dylan Sherfick[2]; 3. 09B-Brett Berry[6]; 4. 51-Mike Bainter[4]; 5. 7R-Paxton Dody[8]; 6. 91C-Derrick Sprott[3]; 7. 88-Troy Douglas[5]; 8. 74-Dewain Coleman[7]

25 entries

Moeder's Meats Sport Mods

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 27G-Kamren Gruber[9]; 2. 3-Adam Weber[6]; 3. 5150-Josh Barnhart[3]; 4. 17M-Brianna Maughlin[8]; 5. 1M-Cody Gearhart[12]; 6. 87D-Chad Dolan[10]; 7. 28K-Ryan Kirchoff[17]; 8. 99H-Nicholas Hankins[7]; 9. 02-Justin Lampe[15]; 10. 01-Dustin Lampe[19]; 11. 4-CJ Pfannenstiel[16]; 12. 1-Paul Donovan[13]; 13. 11J-Josiah Lopez[20]; 14. 11C-Kinser Colgin[5]; 15. 8-Brian May[4]; 16. (DNF) 14W-Blaine Walt[2]; 17. (DNF) 11-Trevin Frye[1]; 18. (DNF) 32G-Jasen Gray[18]; 19. (DNF) 63C-Austin Carter[11]; 20. (DNF) 48-Preston Donovan[14]

B Feature 1 (8 Laps): 1. 4-CJ Pfannenstiel[1]; 2. 28K-Ryan Kirchoff[2]; 3. 32G-Jasen Gray[5]; 4. 01-Dustin Lampe[4]; 5. 11J-Josiah Lopez[3]; 6. 88J-Jack Kirchoff[8]; 7. 111-Ace Plummer[6]; 8. 99R-Jeff Ray[9]; 9. 9Z-Ethan Zweygardt[7]; 10. 99-Justin Meserve[10]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 3-Adam Weber[1]; 2. 14W-Blaine Walt[6]; 3. 1M-Cody Gearhart[5]; 4. 11C-Kinser Colgin[3]; 5. 1-Paul Donovan[4]; 6. 4-CJ Pfannenstiel[2]; 7. 01-Dustin Lampe[8]; 8. 9Z-Ethan Zweygardt[7]; 9. (DNF) 99-Justin Meserve[9]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 99H-Nicholas Hankins[2]; 2. 11-Trevin Frye[1]; 3. 5150-Josh Barnhart[8]; 4. 27G-Kamren Gruber[3]; 5. 48-Preston Donovan[4]; 6. 28K-Ryan Kirchoff[5]; 7. 32G-Jasen Gray[7]; 8. 88J-Jack Kirchoff[6]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 87D-Chad Dolan[4]; 2. 63C-Austin Carter[6]; 3. 17M-Brianna Maughlin[5]; 4. 8-Brian May[3]; 5. 02-Justin Lampe[7]; 6. 11J-Josiah Lopez[1]; 7. 111-Ace Plummer[8]; 8. 99R-Jeff Ray[2]

17 entries

Dirt Super Late Models

A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 85-Josh Leonard[8]; 2. 08-Dakota Sproul[2]; 3. 5S-Dylan Schmer[3]; 4. 3J-Jake Nightingale[1]; 5. 37-Jason Rogers[4]; 6. 85JR-Braxten Leonard[6]; 7. 92S-Dan Smith[9]; 8. 7N-William Nusser[7]; 9. 10G-Don Geist[10]; 10. 99-Scott Lewis[11]; 11. 77-Scott Cimfl[5]; 12. 25X-Troy Burkhart[13]; 13. 15B-Braxton Berry[15]; 14. 01-Jesse Smith[12]; 15. (DNF) 10-TeeJay Janousek[16]; 16. (DNS) 92-Delbert Smith; 17. (DNS) 112-Tyler Smith

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 3J-Jake Nightingale[1]; 2. 5S-Dylan Schmer[3]; 3. 77-Scott Cimfl[2]; 4. 7N-William Nusser[4]; 5. 92S-Dan Smith[5]; 6. 99-Scott Lewis[8]; 7. 25X-Troy Burkhart[6]; 8. 15B-Braxton Berry[7]; 9. (DNS) 112-Tyler Smith

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 08-Dakota Sproul[1]; 2. 37-Jason Rogers[2]; 3. 85JR-Braxten Leonard[4]; 4. 85-Josh Leonard[3]; 5. 10G-Don Geist[5]; 6. 01-Jesse Smith[8]; 7. (DNF) 92-Delbert Smith[6]; 8. (DNF) 10-TeeJay Janousek[7]

Qualifying 1: 1. 3J-Jake Nightingale, 00:18.567[6]; 2. 77-Scott Cimfl, 00:18.970[3]; 3. 5S-Dylan Schmer, 00:18.973[8]; 4. 7N-William Nusser, 00:19.106[2]; 5. 92S-Dan Smith, 00:19.238[1]; 6. 25X-Troy Burkhart, 00:19.246[7]; 7. 15B-Braxton Berry, 00:19.541[5]; 8. 99-Scott Lewis, 00:19.897[9]; 9. 112-Tyler Smith, 00:19.897[4]

Qualifying 2: 1. 08-Dakota Sproul, 00:18.416[4]; 2. 37-Jason Rogers, 00:18.459[6]; 3. 85-Josh Leonard, 00:18.517[1]; 4. 85JR-Braxten Leonard, 00:18.774[5]; 5. 10G-Don Geist, 00:19.086[8]; 6. 92-Delbert Smith, 00:19.545[2]; 7. 10-TeeJay Janousek, 00:20.286[7]; 8. 01-Jesse Smith, 00:20.365[3]