Leonard Wins Late Model Thriller in WaKeeney!

06/29/2025 

WaKeeney Speedway 

WaKeeney, Kansas 

By: Sheldon Wickwar 

Weston Kraus Wins Local Cruisers Class! 

Weston Kraus won the only cruisers heat race, and the front row was Dylan Pfeifer and Chris Lohrey in their feature. Lohrey along with co-driver Taron Burkhart led throughout the event until they pulled off with two laps to go due to fuel issues. Weston Kraus and his co-driver daughter were able to take control of the race lead and held on to pick up the race win. Second was Shaun Woods, third was Dylan Pfeifer and fourth was Dakota Bliss. Hard chargers in the event were Kraus and Woods who both gained two spots each; Dakota and Dan Bliss gained one spot. 

Weston Kraus and his daughter celebrate their crusiers victory! Photo courtesy of Carl Red Larson!

Olmstead Strong in Hobby Stock Action! 

Eric Cross, Chad Wulf and Brady Bencken all grabbed heat race wins in the hobby stocks Friday Night at the Historic WaKeeney Speedway. Bingston Rogers, James Love, Nick Sherfick, Roger Garrison and Connor Bose all transferred to the main event out of the b-feature. The front row of the main event saw Blake Holmes and Zach Olmstead lead the field to the green flag. Olmstead charged to the early lead but quickly challenged by Wulf and Holmes. Olmstead was able to maintain his composure throughout the event and picked up his twelfth win of the season. Second went to Brady Bencken who made a huge run throughout the event, third was Eric Cross, fourth was Trent Matson who has been solid all season long and fifth was Mitchell Fischer. Hard chargers in the event were both Brady Bencken and Bingston Rogers who gained ten spots each, other nice runs included Trent Matson and Nick Sherfick up nine spots each, and Roger Garrison grabbed eight spots. 

Zach Olmstead celebrates his IMCA Hobby Stock Win! Photo courtesy of Carl Red Larson!

Kiowa Higdon Grabs Compact Win! 

Mitch Conner grabbed the only sport compact heat race victory of the night; their main event started with a front row of Mitch Conner and Kiowa Higdon. Quickly Higdon found control of the race lead and started defending charges from Connor Schwien and Kyle Mortensen. Higdon and Schwien battled closely throughout the feature, which saw Schwein better in the corners, but Higdon was able to run away on the straightaways. Kiowa Higdon picked up his first win of the season, second was Connor Schwien, third was Kyle Mortensen, fourth was Mitch Conner and fifth was Brock Leibhart. 

Kiowa Higdon celebrates his IMCA Sport Compact win! Photo courtesy of Carl Red Larson!

Leonard Wins Late Model Thriller! 

Dylan Schmer, Dusty Leonard, and Jason Rogers all picked up late model heat race victories for the Revival Super Dirt Late Model Series on Friday Night, while Josh Leonard won the pole dash. Andy Bryant and Adrien Hickman were the two transfers out of the b-feature.  

The front row of the feature had Josh Leonard and Chris Bragg bring the field to the green flag, with Leonard grabbing the early lead. Leonard and Bragg battled closely, along with Kyle Berck, throughout the feature. When the field found lapped traffic, Berck gained control of the race's lead. But the field was not about to let Berck completely run away as Leonard, Brandon Conkwright and Bragg all kept the pressure on in the closing stages. The finish had the fans on their feet as Josh Leonard and Kyle Berck crossed the line side by side with Berck holding the very slight margin. However, Berck did not pass the post-race technical inspection, and Josh Leonard was awarded the victory. Josh Leonard picked up his third win of the season, the first one coming in Hays, then WaKeeney Friday night and 81 Speedway on Saturday Night in Park City. Second was Dylan Schmer who made a late race charge to second place, third was Chris Bragg, fourth was Braxten Leonard, and fifth was Brandon Conkwright. Hard charger in the event was Colby’s Braxton Berry, who gained six spots; other notable runs included Dylan Schmer up five spots, Andy Bryant and Jimmy Vanzandt who gained four spots each, Kylan Garner up three spots, and Jason Rogers up two spots.

Josh Leonard celebrates his Revival Super Dirt Late Model Series Win! Photo courtesy of Carl Red Larson!

FULL RESULTS:

Cruisers

A Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 79-Weston Kraus[3]; 2. 9-Shaun Woods[4]; 3. 10 32-Dylan Pfeifer[1]; 4. 01-Dakota Bliss[5]; 5. (DNF) 12-Chris Lohrey[2]; 6. (DNS) 317Z-Travis Phillips

Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 79-Weston Kraus[3]; 2. 9-Shaun Woods[2]; 3. 10 32-Dylan Pfeifer[5]; 4. 12-Chris Lohrey[6]; 5. 01-Dakota Bliss[4]; 6. 317Z-Travis Phillips[1]

25 entries

Ghumm's Autos Hobby Stocks

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 98Z-Zach Olmstead[2]; 2. 711-Brady Bencken[12]; 3. 57-Eric Cross[6]; 4. 2M-Trent Matson[13]; 5. 77F-Mitchell Fischer[5]; 6. 37-Bingston Rogers[16]; 7. 58-Bret Conness[11]; 8. 2S-Reagan Sellard[7]; 9. 66N-Nicholas Sherfick[18]; 10. 8J-Levi Jones[8]; 11. 6X-Roger Garrison[19]; 12. 32B-Levi Lippelmann co[15]; 13. (DNF) T21-Ted Trumbo[3]; 14. (DNF) 82-Chad Wulf[4]; 15. (DNF) 93-Jake Wharton[14]; 16. (DNF) 55J-James Love[17]; 17. (DNF) 55-Blake Holmes[1]; 18. (DNF) 48H-Carson Hageman[10]; 19. (DNF) 27W-William Doudney[9]; 20. (DNF) 20-connor bose[20]

B Feature 1 (8 Laps): 1. 37-Bingston Rogers[1]; 2. 55J-James Love[4]; 3. 66N-Nicholas Sherfick[2]; 4. 6X-Roger Garrison[5]; 5. 20-connor bose[6]; 6. 14-David Kraus[8]; 7. 37X-Cash Tubbs[3]; 8. M69-Anna Minks[10]; 9. (DNS) 37XJ-Austin Janousek; 10. (DNS) 24-Ray Caldwell

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 57-Eric Cross[4]; 2. 98Z-Zach Olmstead[6]; 3. 77F-Mitchell Fischer[2]; 4. 27W-William Doudney[1]; 5. 2M-Trent Matson[7]; 6. 37-Bingston Rogers[5]; 7. 55J-James Love[3]; 8. M69-Anna Minks[9]; 9. (DNS) 24-Ray Caldwell

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 82-Chad Wulf[4]; 2. 48H-Carson Hageman[6]; 3. 8J-Levi Jones[5]; 4. 55-Blake Holmes[2]; 5. 93-Jake Wharton[3]; 6. 66N-Nicholas Sherfick[7]; 7. 6X-Roger Garrison[8]; 8. (DNF) 37XJ-Austin Janousek[1]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 711-Brady Bencken[5]; 2. 2S-Reagan Sellard[1]; 3. 58-Bret Conness[6]; 4. T21-Ted Trumbo[2]; 5. 32B-Levi Lippelmann co[8]; 6. 37X-Cash Tubbs[3]; 7. 20-connor bose[7]; 8. (DNS) 14-David Kraus

8 entries

Gibson Health Mart Sport Compacts

A Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 17-Kiowa Higdon[2]; 2. 16C-Connor Schwien[3]; 3. 03K-Kyle Mortensen[4]; 4. 6%-Mitch Conner[1]; 5. 15B-Brock Leibhart[6]; 6. 26X-Dan Kruse[7]; 7. 1N-Nathan Vollbracht[8]; 8. (DNF) 69G-Gage Porter[5]

Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 6%-Mitch Conner[1]; 2. 17-Kiowa Higdon[3]; 3. 69G-Gage Porter[5]; 4. 16C-Connor Schwien[7]; 5. 03K-Kyle Mortensen[8]; 6. 15B-Brock Leibhart[6]; 7. 26X-Dan Kruse[2]; 8. 1N-Nathan Vollbracht[4]

27 entries

Dirt Late Models

A Feature (25 Laps): 1. 85-Josh Leonard[1]; 2. 5S-Dylan Schmer[7]; 3. 24B-Chris Bragg[2]; 4. 85JR-Braxten Leonard[3]; 5. 24C-Brandon Conkwright[4]; 6. 60-Kip Hughes[5]; 7. 37-Jason Rogers[9]; 8. 128-Kylan Garner[11]; 9. 7D-Dusty Leonard[8]; 10. 15B-Braxton Berry[16]; 11. 1-JJ Rodeman[10]; 12. 112-Tyler Smith[12]; 13. 26P-Glen Powell[13]; 14. 49-Andy Bryant[18]; 15. 26M-Matt Menzie[14]; 16. 10-Jacob Magee[15]; 17. 67-Jimmy Vanzandt[21]; 18. 10T-Trevor Geist[17]; 19. 26-Adrien Hickman[19]; 20. 19-Shane Cook[20]; 21. (DNS) 30-Kelly Yutterman; 22. (DQ) 14-Kyle Berck[6]

B Feature 1 (10 Laps): 1. 49-Andy Bryant[2]; 2. 26-Adrien Hickman[3]; 3. 25X-Tathan Burkhart[4]; 4. (DNF) 19-Shane Cook[5]; 5. (DNF) 67-Jimmy Vanzandt[1]; 6. (DNF) 25P-Mike Petersilie[7]; 7. (DNF) 63-Maria Hankins[6]; 8. (DNS) 3J-Jake Nightingale

Dash 1 (8 Laps): 1. 85-Josh Leonard[1]; 2. 24B-Chris Bragg[2]; 3. 85JR-Braxten Leonard[3]; 4. 24C-Brandon Conkwright[4]; 5. 60-Kip Hughes[5]; 6. 14-Kyle Berck[6]

Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 5S-Dylan Schmer[2]; 2. 1-JJ Rodeman[1]; 3. 112-Tyler Smith[4]; 4. 10-Jacob Magee[3]; 5. 67-Jimmy Vanzandt[6]; 6. 25X-Tathan Burkhart[5]; 7. (DNF) 25P-Mike Petersilie[7]

Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 7D-Dusty Leonard[2]; 2. 30-Kelly Yutterman[1]; 3. 26P-Glen Powell[3]; 4. 15B-Braxton Berry[6]; 5. 49-Andy Bryant[4]; 6. 19-Shane Cook[5]; 7. (DNS) 3J-Jake Nightingale

Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. 37-Jason Rogers[2]; 2. 128-Kylan Garner[4]; 3. 26M-Matt Menzie[1]; 4. 10T-Trevor Geist[3]; 5. 26-Adrien Hickman[6]; 6. 63-Maria Hankins[5]

Qualifying 1 (2 Laps): 1. 85-Josh Leonard, 00:17.142[10]; 2. 85JR-Braxten Leonard, 00:17.548[8]; 3. 60-Kip Hughes, 00:17.563[12]; 4. 1-JJ Rodeman, 00:17.902[13]; 5. 30-Kelly Yutterman, 00:18.030[4]; 6. 26M-Matt Menzie, 00:18.113[5]; 7. 10-Jacob Magee, 00:18.149[3]; 8. 26P-Glen Powell, 00:18.210[7]; 9. 10T-Trevor Geist, 00:18.336[9]; 10. 25X-Tathan Burkhart, 00:18.719[6]; 11. 19-Shane Cook, 00:18.857[2]; 12. 63-Maria Hankins, 00:19.159[11]; 13. (DNS) 25P-Mike Petersilie

Qualifying 2 (2 Laps): 1. 24B-Chris Bragg, 00:17.523[3]; 2. 14-Kyle Berck, 00:17.757[6]; 3. 5S-Dylan Schmer, 00:17.944[9]; 4. 7D-Dusty Leonard, 00:18.065[7]; 5. 37-Jason Rogers, 00:18.169[10]; 6. 112-Tyler Smith, 00:18.237[4]; 7. 49-Andy Bryant, 00:18.340[8]; 8. 128-Kylan Garner, 00:18.413[12]; 9. 67-Jimmy Vanzandt, 00:18.765[5]; 10. 15B-Braxton Berry, 00:19.150[13]; 11. 26-Adrien Hickman, 00:19.194[11]; 12. (DNS) 3J-Jake Nightingale, 00:19.194; 13. 24C-Brandon Conkwright[2]