Munoz Holds On in Stock Car Thriller!

07/26/2025

Thomas County Speedway

Colby, KS 100th Article

By: Sheldon Wickwar

Seventy-seven race teams checked into the famed Thomas County Speedway for the 2025 Fair Races, and with just two more points races left, the drivers were battling fiercely. The IMCA hobby stocks, sport mods, modifieds and stock cars put on great shows all night on a solid racing surface.

The sport mods started the evening off, they ran two heat races won by Kamren Gruber and Blaine Walt. The front row of their twenty-lap main event started with Josh Barnhart and Nicholas Hankins leading the field. Barnhart fired off well to begin while Hankins tried the top side meanwhile Walt was already sitting in third, looking for the top spot. By lap two a side by side battle broke out between Hankins and Walt, with Walt grabbing the spot. A couple cautions bunched the field back up, but Barnhart was flawless on each restart. Late in the run Kamren Gruber found his groove and surged to third place, and was looking to pass Walt for second. Ultimately running out of laps, Josh Barnhart won yet another sport mod victory in Colby, a track that has seen him win every feature except one night that Adam Weber got the best of him. Second was Blaine Walt, third was Kamren Gruber, Nicholas Hankins fell back to fourth and Brianna Maughlin charged through the field to finish fifth. Brianna Maughlin was hard charger with eight spots gained in her car's first race back since going for a slight roll in Hays. Monty Nordyke and Douglas Beaman gained three spots each, while Ace Plummer, Blaine Walt and Kamren Gruber all gained two spots each.

Josh Barnhart celebrates his IMCA Sport Mod Victory! Photo courtesy of Carl Red Larson!

The modifieds ran second on the program, they ran two heat races won by Dakota Sproul and Eddie Belec, their twenty-lap main event started with a front row of Dominic Ursetta and John Burrow. Ursetta fired off well as he appeared to have the strongest car all night long, Eddie Belec and Dylan Sherfick appeared to have magnets on their cars as the duo stayed close to each other all night fighting for second while racing each other with a lot of respect. Lapped traffic did not slow down Ursetta as he was flawless all night long, it however opened the door for Dakota Sproul to slice through and charge to second. Sproul had a car capable of overtaking Ursetta but ultimately ran out of laps. Dominic Ursetta picked up his first win of 2025, a season that has only seen him run three races. Second was Dakota Sproul, third was Eddie Belec, fourth was Dylan Sherfick and fifth was Kyle Rohleder. Hard charger in the feature event was Dakota Sproul who gained seven spots, Anthony Rhoades was able to gain three spots.

Dominic Ursetta celebrates his IMCA Modified victory! Photo courtesy of Carl Red Larson!

The hobby stocks ran third on the program, which saw Bret Conness, Dylan Bell, and Zach Olmstead all pick up heat race wins. Their twenty-lap main event started with a front row of Justin Yutterman and Carson Hageman, the field quickly went three wide for the lead as Dylan Bell wasted no time contending for the lead. Justin Yutterman led lap one, but lap two saw him fall into a three wide battle with Zach Olmstead and Dylan Bell. Lap three saw Zach Olmstead grab the lead down the backstretch, with a caution flying on the next lap as Jake Eicher found the backstretch wall and came back down in front of Levi Jones and Alicia Hilzer. Zach Olmstead restarted the field with sixteen laps to go and easily started to pull away from the field, his brother Morgan made a late charge through the field, but was not able to catch Zach or Dylan Bell. Zach Olmstead rolled to his nineteenth win of the season, second was Dylan Bell. Third went to Morgan Olmstead, fourth was Carson Hageman and fifth was Brayden Hilzer. Hard chargers in the event were Bruce Plumisto and Bingston Rogers who both gained eleven spots each. Other nice runs included Morgan Olmstead up seven spots, Zach Olmstead up six spots, while Jason Colby and Brayden Hilzer both gained three spots each.

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

The "class too tough to tame" ended the night, as the IMCA Stock Cars brought twenty-three of the top Midwest drivers to Colby. Johnny Yutterman, Angel Munoz, and Tathan Burkhart all grabbed heat race wins. Their twenty-lap main event featured a front row of Wheat Lippelman and Troy Burkhart, as Troy fired off with the early race lead, but quickly Kyle Pfeifer and Angel Munoz stormed the castle. Troy led until lap five where a caution saved him as Angel Munoz had made a bid for the lead. Troy restarted the field after Tyler Tipton brought out the caution, and continued to lead until lap twelve where Angel Munoz got by to take his first official lead of the race. Wheat Lippelman went for a spin down the frontstretch with two laps to go. Angel Munoz restarted well, while a three wide battle broke out for second place, until Johnny Yutterman sailed it off the top of turns one and two. Angel Munoz won as the back half of the field wrecked coming to the checkers. Munoz picked up his third win of the season, the other two coming in thrilling Dakota Mod Tour action. Second was Tathan Burkhart who had a strong second half of the race, third went to Troy Burkhart, fourth was Doug Holzmeister, and fifth was Bobby Eubanks. Hard chargers in the event were Tathan Burkhart and Trevor Schmidt who gained nine spots each, other nice runs included Bill Brack up eight spots, Jeff Tubbs and Michael Pepper up six spots each, while Angel Munoz and Kolby Stegman gained five spots each.

Angel Munoz celebrates his IMCA Stock Car victory! Photo courtesy of Carl Red Larson!

The racing action was thrilling Friday night as the points ratched up even tighter, next Friday, August 1st will feature the Jeff Hartwell Memorial races as we crown season champions in Colby!

FULL RESULTS:

IMCA Hobby Stock

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 98Z-Zach Olmstead[7]; 2. 31-Dylan Bell[3]; 3. 88-Morgan Olmstead[10]; 4. 48H-Carson Hageman[2]; 5. 8B-Brayden Hilzer[8]; 6. 00BUCK-Bruce Plumisto[17]; 7. 37-Bingston Rogers[18]; 8. 8J-Levi Jones[9]; 9. 31R-Ray West[11]; 10. 58-Bret Conness[4]; 11. T21-Ted Trumbo[6]; 12. 8A-Alicia Hilzer[14]; 13. 37XJ-Austin Janousek[13]; 14. 21-Allen Snethen[15]; 15. 420-Justin Yutterman[1]; 16. 37X-Cash Tubbs[12]; 17. 717-Jason Colby[20]; 18. 3-Amber Wray[19]; 19. (DNF) 45R-Brian Riley[16]; 20. (DNF) 32B-Levi Lippelmann co[5]; 21. (DNS) 55R-Dustin Riley

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 58-Bret Conness[4]; 2. 420-Justin Yutterman[2]; 3. 8J-Levi Jones[3]; 4. 32B-Levi Lippelmann co[5]; 5. 37XJ-Austin Janousek[7]; 6. 45R-Brian Riley[1]; 7. (DNF) 55R-Dustin Riley[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 31-Dylan Bell[2]; 2. 88-Morgan Olmstead[3]; 3. 31R-Ray West[1]; 4. 8B-Brayden Hilzer[6]; 5. 8A-Alicia Hilzer[4]; 6. 00BUCK-Bruce Plumisto[5]; 7. 3-Amber Wray[7]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 98Z-Zach Olmstead[6]; 2. T21-Ted Trumbo[4]; 3. 48H-Carson Hageman[5]; 4. 37X-Cash Tubbs[3]; 5. 21-Allen Snethen[7]; 6. 37-Bingston Rogers[2]; 7. 717-Jason Colby[1]

15 entries

IMCA Modified

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 6U-Dominic Ursetta[1]; 2. 08-Dakota Sproul[9]; 3. 3B-Eddie Belec[4]; 4. 66D-Dylan Sherfick[3]; 5. 0-Kyle Rohleder[5]; 6. 20-Brandon Clough[6]; 7. 9R-Anthony Rhoades[10]; 8. 28-John Burrow[2]; 9. 14-Tony Acierno[8]; 10. 51-Mike Bainter[7]; 11. 4P-Dave Pedersen[11]; 12. 24C-Cale Lagroon[13]; 13. 120-Tanner Clough[14]; 14. 42-John Fabrizius[15]; 15. 91C-Derrick Sprott[12]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 08-Dakota Sproul[1]; 2. 66D-Dylan Sherfick[2]; 3. 0-Kyle Rohleder[4]; 4. 6U-Dominic Ursetta[3]; 5. 51-Mike Bainter[5]; 6. 4P-Dave Pedersen[6]; 7. 24C-Cale Lagroon[7]; 8. 120-Tanner Clough[8]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 3B-Eddie Belec[6]; 2. 20-Brandon Clough[4]; 3. 9R-Anthony Rhoades[3]; 4. 14-Tony Acierno[5]; 5. 28-John Burrow[7]; 6. 91C-Derrick Sprott[2]; 7. (DNF) 42-John Fabrizius[1]

18 entries

IMCA Northern SportMod

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 5150-Josh Barnhart[1]; 2. 14W-Blaine Walt[4]; 3. 27G-Kamren Gruber[5]; 4. 99H-Nicholas Hankins[2]; 5. 17M-Brianna Maughlin[13]; 6. 7C-Connor Barnes[6]; 7. 32G-Jasen Gray[8]; 8. 54-Carson Lang[9]; 9. 63C-Austin Carter[7]; 10. 711-Brady Bencken[10]; 11. 28K-Ryan Kirchoff[3]; 12. 9-Monty Nordyke[15]; 13. 24-Douglas Beaman[16]; 14. 11J-Josiah Lopez[12]; 15. 99R-Jeff Ray[11]; 16. 11-Ace Plummer[18]; 17. 5X-Donovan Ohlrogge[17]; 18. (DNF) 3-Adam Weber[14]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 27G-Kamren Gruber[2]; 2. 5150-Josh Barnhart[6]; 3. 54-Carson Lang[3]; 4. 711-Brady Bencken[4]; 5. 63C-Austin Carter[5]; 6. 99R-Jeff Ray[1]; 7. 17M-Brianna Maughlin[8]; 8. 9-Monty Nordyke[7]; 9. 5X-Donovan Ohlrogge[9]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 14W-Blaine Walt[2]; 2. 7C-Connor Barnes[5]; 3. 32G-Jasen Gray[1]; 4. 28K-Ryan Kirchoff[6]; 5. 99H-Nicholas Hankins[4]; 6. 11J-Josiah Lopez[3]; 7. 3-Adam Weber[7]; 8. 24-Douglas Beaman[8]; 9. 11-Ace Plummer[9]

23 entries

IMCA Stock Car

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 2M-Angel Munoz[6]; 2. 250-Tathan Burkhart[11]; 3. 25X-Troy Burkhart[2]; 4. 34H-Doug Holzmeister[3]; 5. 7-Bobby Eubanks[9]; 6. 68-Garrett Hager[10]; 7. 37X-Jeff Tubbs[13]; 8. 38-Quinton Yutterman[8]; 9. 11K-Kyle Clough[4]; 10. 19K-Kolby Stegman[15]; 11. 22-Michael Pepper[17]; 12. 16Z-Jeremy Zorn[14]; 13. 19B-Bill Brack[21]; 14. 2X-Trevor Schmidt[23]; 15. J10-Johnny Yutterman[7]; 16. X-Wheat Lippelman[1]; 17. 5D-David Plumisto[19]; 18. UNO-Brian Kleine[20]; 19. 19-Keith Stegman[22]; 20. (DNF) 9-Brendyn Nordyke[18]; 21. (DNF) 37-Jason Rogers[12]; 22. (DNF) 6-Tyler Tipton[16]; 23. (DNF) 54P-Kyle Pfeifer[5]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. J10-Johnny Yutterman[1]; 2. 37-Jason Rogers[4]; 3. 7-Bobby Eubanks[3]; 4. X-Wheat Lippelman[2]; 5. 37X-Jeff Tubbs[8]; 6. 6-Tyler Tipton[5]; 7. 5D-David Plumisto[7]; 8. 19-Keith Stegman[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 2M-Angel Munoz[2]; 2. 34H-Doug Holzmeister[5]; 3. 25X-Troy Burkhart[4]; 4. 38-Quinton Yutterman[6]; 5. 16Z-Jeremy Zorn[1]; 6. 22-Michael Pepper[7]; 7. UNO-Brian Kleine[8]; 8. 2X-Trevor Schmidt[3]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 250-Tathan Burkhart[2]; 2. 68-Garrett Hager[5]; 3. 54P-Kyle Pfeifer[4]; 4. 11K-Kyle Clough[3]; 5. 19K-Kolby Stegman[1]; 6. 9-Brendyn Nordyke[6]; 7. 19B-Bill Brack[7]