By SHELDON WICKAR
Special to the Hays Post
After settling for a second-place finish Friday night in Colby, Tathan Burkhart and his crew made the necessary changes to help #2fiddy find victory lane at his hometown track of RPM Speedway.
Tathan and his competitors all had to keep up with changing track conditions as the night started with a dry, and slick racetrack, that quickly turned to a wet and tacky surface as Mother Nature stepped in twice with rain showers that delayed the night.
Eighty-four IMCA race teams checked into the legendary RPM Speedway for the Memorial Day Weekend Special, and the race fans at the track and those at home watching on IMCA.TV were treated to quite the show despite the rain.
Visiting victory lane along with Tathan Burkhart in the stock car, were Kyle Rohleder the Wakeeney native in the modified class, Connor Schwien the Russell native in the sport compact, Cody Williams the Minneapolis native in the hobby stock, and Luke Stallbaumer, the Tecumseh native in the sport mod.
The sport compacts started the night off with two six-lap heat races with brothers Connor and Jake Schwien picking up wins. After a tornado hit the Schwien's shop last weekend, it was an emotional scene seeing the brothers do well at the track Saturday night.
The 15-lap feature event had a front row of Kevin Tremblay and Brock Leibhart, a three-wide battle broke out right away as Connor Schwien used the middle lane to split the front row to take the race lead.
Lap two saw Madison Reed jump to fourth after going three wide in turns three and four. Meanwhile, Connor Schwien was running away from the field. Late in the feature, Jake Schwien used a three-wide move and slider move to take over the fourth place. Meanwhile, the top three cars single-filed out, with Connor Schwien holding a huge lead.
Connor Schwien picked up the feature win, Rileigh Flohrs was second, Kiowa Higdon was third, Jake Schwien was fourth, and Madison Reed was fifth. Rileigh Flohrs was the hard charger in the event, gaining four spots, while Connor, Jake Schwien and Dave Kappel all gained three spots each.
The stock cars were second on the program they ran one eight-lap heat race won by Tathan Burkhart, and their 15-lap feature started with a front row of Josh Hudson and Tathan Burkhart.
Tathan rocketed to the early race lead and quickly Kyle Pfeifer settled into a battle with Josh Hudson for the second-place position.
Pfeifer had a better car going into the corner, but coming out of the corner, Hudson was able to pull away. At the halfway point Tathan held a full straightaway advantage over the second-place battle.
One lap later, Kyle Pfeifer was able to gain the second-place position. Tathan went on to pick up the feature win, his second IMCA feature win of the season. Second was Kyle Pfeifer, third was Josh Hudson, fourth was Garrett Hager and fifth was Troy Burkhart. The hard charger in the event was Kyle Pfeifer, who gained two spots.
The hobby stocks were third on the program. They ran three eight-lap heat races won by Trent Matson, Cody Williams and Jonathan Saliba. Their 20-lap feature had a front row of Cody Williams and Tyler Heath. Williams gained the early advantage.
Meanwhile, a four-wide battle broke out as Morgan and Zach Olmstead started pushing their way to the front of the pack. Lap two saw Zach Olmstead break into the top five.
A couple of laps later, Zach found himself in third place as Cody Williams entered lapped traffic. A couple of laps later, Williams got into heavy lapped traffic but still held a two-second lead over second-place running Tyler Heath.
At the halfway point, Cody Williams led over Tyler Heath, Zach Olmstead, Morgan Olmstead, and Jonathan Saliba. Alec Jeske went for a spin out of turn four and set up a late-race restart with just a handful of laps to go.
Williams restarted the field and quickly pulled away again. Zach held second for a moment, but Tyler Heath was able to get it back, and Morgan got by his brother Zach as well.
Zach took the third place back down the backstretch. Meanwhile Williams checked out from the field and led the remainder of the feature. Cody Williams won, picking up his 15 IMCA feature win of the season, second was Tyler Heath, third was Zach Olmstead, fourth was Morgan Olmstead and fifth was Trent Matson.
The hard charger in the event was Billy McBride who grabbed nine spots, other nice runs included Zach Olmstead up seven spots, Morgan Olmstead and Taylor Croisant grabbed five spots each.
The sport mods were fourth on the program. They ran three eight-lap heat races won by Blaine Walt, Luke Stallbaumer and Douglas Beaman, their 20-lap feature had a front row of Sage Dinkel and Dougals Beaman. Sage Dinkel grabbed the early race lead.
Meanwhile a four-wide battle broke out as Brianna Maughlin started moving forward. Luke Stallbaumer grabbed the lead out of turns three and four to lead the first lap and a debris caution came out.
Stallbaumer restarted the field, and the caution came right back out as Sam McCune and Dylan Jacobson went for a spin in turn two. Stallbaumer restarted the field again, and Maughlin was able to get to the third-place position right away.
A couple of laps later, Dalton Bell, Tyler Watts and Blaine Walt started moving to the front. Maughlin got by Beaman for second place, and Blaine Walt settled into fourth place.
Later on, Blaine Walt was able to get to second place in search of his 100th career win. Walt would be denied his big win, though, as Luke Stallbaumer ran a perfect race to pick up his first feature win of the season.
Second was Blaine Walt, third was Brianna Maughlin, fourth was Jacob Olmstead and fifth was Tyler Watts. The hard chargers in the event were Blaine Walt and Jacob Olmstead who gained eight spots each. Other nice runs included Brady Skrdlant up seven spots, Brianna Maughlin, Ryan Moser and Brendyn Nordyke all gained five spots each as well.
The modifieds closed out the program. They ran three eight-lap heat races won by Dylan Sherfick, Daniel Gottschalk and Dakota Sproul. Their 20-lap feature started with a front row of Trevor Geist and Don Geist.
Trevor gained the early advantage, but quickly, Kyle Rohleder settled into second place and took the lead on lap two. By lap four, Dylan Sherfick found third place, and a lap later, Trevor Geist settled into second place.
Jeremy Frenier reached third place just before a caution came out. Rohleder restarted the field, and Clay Money quickly made a three-wide move to pick up a position.
Meanwhile at the halfway point, Dylan Sherfick and Kyle Rohleder raced side-by-side for the race lead. In the closing laps Dalton Murphy spun to bring out a caution after Rohleder had solidified the race lead once again.
Rohleder restarted the field with just five laps to go and would lead the reminder of the feature to grab his first win of the season.
Second place was Dylan Sherfick, third was Daniel Gottschalk, fourth was Jeremy Frenier and fifth was Dakota Sproul. The hard charger in the event was Jesse Richter, who gained eight spots. Other nice runs included Jeremy Frenier up seven spots, and Dylan Sherfick and Daniel Gottschalk both grabbed five spots each.
The next scheduled event in Hays is Saturday, June 8's First Responder Night Presented by Casey's. Hot laps will be at 6:30 p.m. with racing to follow. The races will also be streamed on IMCA.TV!