Dylan Thornton, Kelly Shryock among IMCA Super Nationals winners
BOONE, Iowa — All the would have’s and could have’s of Kelly Shryock’s IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s were forgotten, while Dylan Thornton raced his way into the record book at America’s Racin’ Vacation again on Saturday night.
Shryock, 59, won an epic battle with Dallon Murty for the Stock Car checkers, earning his first Super Nationals title in his 23rd career main event start.
Thornton, 23, became the first driver to win championships in three different divisions, holding off Tanner Black in the nightcap, the 40-lap Modified feature.
Nathan Ballard earned a career second Hobby Stock title while Logan Anderson posted a convincing win in earning his first Northern SportMod crown.
A record 1,036 cars competed at the Sept. 2-7 Super Nationals, coming to Boone from 30 states, two Canadian provinces and Australia. New divisional car count records set this year were 266 Stock Cars, 168 Hobby Stocks and 78 STARS Mod Lites.
Jake McBirnie and Dallon Murty ran up front in the Stock Car feature before Shryock passed both following a lap 16 restart. Another caution came on lap 26; Shryock and Murty made contact at the line taking the white flag, but Shryock held on for the popular win.
“There have been some would have’s and could have’s here over the years. We probably should have had a few Modified wins but this is pretty cool. I’ve been wanting one of these (Super Nationals checkered flags) for a long time,” said Shryock, who drives for Mike Hauan of Lake Mills Motorsports.
“Of course we had to have that late yellow, that situation, but we overcame it, he added. “Yes, there have been heartbreaks here, somebody else got a flat tire and I should have gone low instead of high or another year when my brakes went out on me running second, but today I can say I am a Super Nationals champion.”
Murty, first-time qualifier Jonny Carter and Jeff Mueller rounded out the top four. Shryock’s payday was $8,000.
“This year we decided to come to Boone, just have fun and see what we could do. There was a lot less pressure,” Shryock said. “The young guys are trying to keep me young. I feel young, until I look in the mirror and see an old guy looking back at me. Racing these young guys keeps me young and hopefully keeps me going.”
A first-time qualifier at Boone in 1990, Kelly Shryock became a first-time champion at the IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s, winning the Saturday night Stock Car main event. (Photo by Tom Macht, www.photofinishphotos.com)
Thornton, one of those young guys, was the defending Stock Car champion, won the Late Model main event on Monday and then led the last 35 laps in the $10,000 to win Modified finale.
After crossing the stripe bumper-to-bumper-to bumper with Murty and Troy Morris, Thornton pulled away and sped through heavy lapped traffic.
Black made his way to the runner-up spot and closed to within two car lengths but could not get closer despite laps 31 and 38 restarts. Zack VanderBeek and Murty completed the podium.
“My goal for the last four years was to win both the Modified and the Stock Car the same night and I’ve come close. Coming into this year, winning all three was 100 percent the goal,” Thornton said. “Obviously we started off really good on Monday but we didn’t lock the Modified in until Friday and didn’t make the Stock Car feature at all.”
“Winning three different divisional championships was another goal and that was a huge accomplishment in its own,” he continued. “I think it will take a little while for me to really appreciate what I accomplished tonight. It’s incredible. I can’t really describe it right now.”
Ricky Thornton Jr. – he and Dylan are not related – was the first driver to win two main events the same year, also the Modified and Late Model crowns, in 2020.
Anderson swapped the lead early and often with Tony Olson before checking O-U-T to win by half a straightaway.
“This for sure is my biggest win. It’s the biggest race by far that a weekly SportMod racer can win,” he said after taking the $5,000 checkers.
Robbie Thome, Dylan VanWyk and Olson ran 2-3-4.
“I knew I needed to settle down and find the fine line over there in (turns) one and two,” Anderson said of the back-and-forth tussle with Olson that saw the two friendly foes swap the lead four times before midway. “I felt pretty good the last 10 laps. I knew once I got to the middle in three and four and kind of found that line in one and two, I was pretty good.”
And Ballard added a trophy to match his hardware from 2020, passing defending champion on a restart or the front spot late in the Hobby Stock feature and motoring to the win ahead of 14th starting Cody Williams, 15th starting Cory Probst and John Watson, who raced onto the NAPA Fan Zone stage from 25th.
“I knew at the start of the race that they were going to drive away from us but we should be there at the last five, 10,” said Ballard, spot on in his set up and a $3,000 winner as a result. “I didn’t get too shook up and I didn’t overdrive the car.”
Dylan Nelson, then Mike Smith ran up front. Ballard rocketed down the back stretch and into the lead following a lap 26 restart.
Last-chance heats and features earlier in the Saturday program sent the final nine Modifieds and the final six Stock Cars to their respective main events.
Michigan’s Mitchell Hunt led all 12 laps in winning the Rage Chassis Race of Champions for Modifieds and Devin Smith did the same in winning the Sunoco Race Fuels Race of Champions for Stock Cars.
A purse of more than $300,000 plus another $60,000 in contingencies were awarded. Other drivers who qualified for main events received equal shares of proceeds totaling $33,000 from the auction of the winners’ engines.
Thornton received a new 604 crate engine and both Anderson and Ballard got new 602 crate engines from Chevrolet Performance through Karl Kustoms Shryock took home a new engine built by Midstate Machine with parts contributed by numerous IMCA and Super Nationals sponsors.
The 42nd annual IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s was broadcast by IMCA.TV.
The 2025 Super Nationals will be Sept. 1-6.
RESULTS
IMCA Super Nationals
Boone Speedway
Boone, IA
Saturday, Septe,ner 7, 2024
IMCA MODIFIED (194 entries)
Big Dance (40 Laps): 1. 38T-Dylan Thornton[6]; 2. 44T-Tanner Black[9]; 3. 33Z-Zack VanderBeek[5]; 4. 99X-Dallon Murty[2]; 5. 22-Austen Becerra[4]; 6. 77T-Tripp Gaylord[1]; 7. 18Z-Zane DeVilbiss[15]; 8. 10-Jeremy Mills[11]; 9. 77-Jeff Aikey[30]; 10. 82-Jake McBirnie[8]; 11. 66D-Dylan Sherfick[12]; 12. 07X-Troy Morris III[3]; 13. 4TW-Tim Ward[27]; 14. 26JR-Joel Rust[21]; 15. 5X-Brandon Beckendorf[26]; 16. 20-Brandon Schmitt[29]; 17. 05-Paul Nagle[31]; 18. 77X-Austin Kuehl[10]; 19. 1X-Chris Abelson[14]; 20. 11-Trent Loverude[33]; 21. WW1-Ricky Alvarado[17]; 22. 00-Cory Sample[28]; 23. 28-Trevor Fitz[16]; 24. 16-Collen Winebarger[7]; 25. 48K-Kollin Hibdon[23]; 26. 21CZ-Cole Czarneski[24]; 27. 09B-Brett Berry[18]; 28. (DNF) 11X-Tom Berry Jr[13]; 29. (DNF) 3-Kelly Shryock[22]; 30. (DNF) 10RM-Ryan McDaniel[32]; 31. (DNF) 127-Drew Janssen[19]; 32. (DNF) 19-Jimmy Gustin[25]; 33. (DNF) 08-Johnny Whitman[20]
Race of Champions (12 Laps): 1. 38H-Mitchell Hunt[2]; 2. 77T-Tripp Gaylord[4]; 3. 5-Todd Shute[5]; 4. B1-Jeff Larson[1]; 5. 5X-Brandon Beckendorf[7]; 6. 5L-Cody Laney[12]; 7. 49K-Cody Knecht[9]; 8. 66D-Dylan Sherfick[3]; 9. 71C-Troy Cordes[10]; 10. 18Z-Zane DeVilbiss[8]; 11. 60-William Gould[11]; 12. (DNF) 111-Ethan Braaksma[6]
IMCA STOCK CAR (217 entries)
Big Dance (30 Laps): 1. 3X-Kelly Shryock[5]; 2. 99XX-Dallon Murty[6]; 3. 46X-Jonny Carter[10]; 4. 77M-Jeff Mueller[7]; 5. 822-Jake McBirnie[1]; 6. 23JR-Nick Roberts[11]; 7. 17X-Justin Luinenburg[2]; 8. 6-Chanse Hollatz[3]; 9. 1-Kaden Reynolds[8]; 10. 10A-Austin Brauner[20]; 11. 33C-Brandon Czarapata[17]; 12. 87-Curt Lund[22]; 13. 5A-Tyler Pickett[18]; 14. 82W-Shelby Williams[13]; 15. 20-Brandon Schmitt[19]; 16. 137-Jeffrey Abbey[16]; 17. 71-David Brandies[27]; 18. 99L-Matthew Looft[12]; 19. 92X-Buck Schafroth[14]; 20. 3-Mike Albertsen[28]; 21. 23HR-Rod Richards[25]; 22. 57VG-Rowdee Van Genderen[30]; 23. 73-Troy Swearingen[24]; 24. (DNF) 35JW-Casey Woken[21]; 25. (DNF) 26J-Justin Addison[9]; 26. (DNF) 99D-Damon Murty[23]; 27. (DNF) 25X-Trent Nolan[26]; 28. (DNF) 30-Travis Barker[15]; 29. (DNF) 81-Devin Smith[4]; 30. (DNF) 99X-Jeremy Christians[29]
Race of Champions (12 Laps): 1. 81-Devin Smith[2]; 2. 35-Donavon Smith[1]; 3. 92X-Buck Schafroth[3]; 4. 1-Kaden Reynolds[5]; 5. 17H-Trevor Holm[4]; 6. 99XX-Dallon Murty[10]; 7. 73-Troy Swearingen[7]; 8. 33-Tim Rupp[12]; 9. 99D-Damon Murty[11]; 10. (DNF) 7L-Jeffrey Larson[9]; 11. (DNS) 38T-Dylan Thornton; 12. (DNS) 63-Mike Nichols
IMCA NORTHERN SPORT MODS
Big Dance (30 Laps): 1. 53-Logan Anderson[3]; 2. 1T-Robbie Thome[8]; 3. 117-Dylan VanWyk[6]; 4. T23-Tony Olson[1]; 5. 17C-Shane Paris[7]; 6. 8K-Dusty Masolini[4]; 7. 33-Jarett Franzen[2]; 8. 9-Matthew Looft[27]; 9. 08-Alec Fett[12]; 10. 21R-Cam Reimers[9]; 11. 5T-Tyler Nerud[14]; 12. 122-Adam Birck[25]; 13. 43LV-Logan Veloz[23]; 14. 11D-Danny Wagner[29]; 15. 126J-Justin Addison[18]; 16. 37T-Tyler Inman[17]; 17. 2T-Corey Madden[13]; 18. 151-Tyler Bannister[19]; 19. 142-Nathan Speten[16]; 20. 8T-Ty Rogers[20]; 21. 9JR-Brendyn Nordyke[30]; 22. 01-Brayton Carter[26]; 23. 7W-Will Wolf[21]; 24. 7J-Jonah Chinn[28]; 25. (DNF) 18M-Mitchell Morris[22]; 26. (DNF) 2G-Geoff Olson[15]; 27. (DNF) 3Z-Randy Havlik[24]; 28. (DNF) 14X-Jake Sachau[5]; 29. (DNF) 12E-Doug Smith[10]; 30. (DNF) 93-Hunter Longnecker[11]
IMCA HOBBY STOCK
Big Dance (30 Laps): 1. 29N-Nathan Ballard[4]; 2. 77-Cody Williams[14]; 3. 75C-Cory Probst[15]; 4. 4W-John Watson[25]; 5. 14B-Keith Burg[5]; 6. 27-Jason Kohl[2]; 7. 2G-Bradly Graham[9]; 8. 69X-Calvin Dhondt[6]; 9. 2X-Chuck Madden Jr[28]; 10. 24R-Dillon Richards[20]; 11. 12K-Eric Knutson[22]; 12. 4C-Curt Reed[19]; 13. 27G-Brad Graham[27]; 14. 12M-Matt McDonald[21]; 15. 17S-Evan Schettler[24]; 16. 49-James Johnson[7]; 17. 3Z-Zach Hemmingsen[26]; 18. 55X-Corey VanDerwilt[17]; 19. 1K-Tom Killen Jr[23]; 20. 19H-Colin Hein[18]; 21. 01F-Jeff Fink[29]; 22. (DNF) 7B-Eric Stanton[16]; 23. (DNF) 20-Jimmy Doescher[8]; 24. (DNF) 22X-Mike Smith[3]; 25. (DNF) 98Z-Zach Olmstead[13]; 26. (DNF) 9C-Colby Christensen[30]; 27. (DNF) 13N-Dylan Nelson[1]; 28. (DNF) 51B-Brandon Bombardo[11]; 29. (DNF) 16X-Blake Luinenburg[10]; 30. (DNF) 83X-Justin Frederick[12]
COMPLETE SATURDAY RESULTS
Our Partners
.png)
