NORTH SIOUX CITY, S.D. – IMCA modified ace Ricky Thornton Jr. topped a star-studded field of 32 modifieds to win at Park Jefferson Int’l Speedway Saturday during the Open Wheel Nationals.

At the start it was local driver Sean Barragan who got the jump from outside of the front row over local veteran Jim Cole. Barragan and Cole raced away while Thornton, Sioux City’s Chris Abelson and Kelly Shryock all got the jump on the field battling for third.

An early caution collected a large number of back markers in a multi-car accident that saw nine cars involved and five damaged too heavily to continue.

At the restart it was Adel, Iowa’s Thornton who challenged Barragan and quickly jumped to a lead he would never relinquish.

Jeff Taylor had an impressive showing in second, followed by Robby Sawyer, who came from 14th to finish third. Chris Abelson and Jim Thies rounded out the top five.

Heats were won by Thies, Cole, Matt Bonine and Jeff Taylor, with Grey Ferrando picking up the B-main.

The results:

Heat 1 (8 laps): 1. 23-Jim Thies [2]; 2. 88-Sean Barragan [1]; 3. 4J-Jordy Nelson [7]; 4. 21K-Kyle Brown [8]; 5. 7N-Jay Noteboom [5]; 6. M80-Jim Mathieson [6]; 7. 11-Trent Loverude [4]; 8. 25-Ricky Stephan [3].

Heat 2 (8 laps): 1. 55-Jim Cole [2]; 2. 1X-Chris Abelson [3]; 3. 44-Jason Schneiders [1]; 4. 198-Robby Sawyer [5]; 5. 36-Kenny Wallace [7]; 6. 41-Thor Anderson [6]; 7. 47-Darin Roepke [4]; 8. 30-Jordan Grabouski [8].

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 14B-Matt Bonine [2]; 2. 01-Jacob Hobscheidt [6]; 3. 3-Kelly Shryock [1]; 4. 82-Jake McBirnie [4]; 5. 9-Ken Schrader [3]; 6. V13-Grey Ferrando [8]; 7. 15M-Shane DeMey [7]; 8. 11X-Tom Berry Jr. [5].

Heat 4 (8 laps): 1. 5-Jeff Taylor [1]; 2. 26J-Joel Rust [2]; 3. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr. [4]; 4. 02JR-Chris Mills [6]; 5. 21M-Tyler Madigan [5]; 6. 442-Aaron Johnson [7]; 7. 4TW-Tim Ward [8]; 8. 48-Bob Moore [3].

B Feature (12 laps): 1. V13-Grey Ferrando [3]; 2. 442-Aaron Johnson [4]; 3. 25-Ricky Stephan [8]; 4. 15M-Shane DeMey [6]; 5. 4TW-Tim Ward [7]; 6. 41-Thor Anderson [2]; 7. 30-Jordan Grabouski [9]; 8. M80-Jim Mathieson [1]; 9. 47-Darin Roepke [5]; 10. 48-Bob Moore [10]; 11. 11X-Tom Berry Jr. (DNS); 12. 11-Trent Loverude (DNS).

A Feature (25 laps): 1. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr. [7]; 2. 5-Jeff Taylor [11]; 3. 198-Robby Sawyer [14]; 4. 1X-Chris Abelson [10]; 5. 23-Jim Thies [3]; 6. 01-Jacob Hobscheidt [9]; 7. 88-Sean Barragan [2]; 8. 3-Kelly Shryock [5]; 9. 26J-Joel Rust [6]; 10. 82-Jake McBirnie [15]; 11. 55-Jim Cole [1]; 12. 36-Kenny Wallace [18]; 13. 9-Ken Schrader [19]; 14. 21M-Tyler Madigan [20]; 15. V13-Grey Ferrando [21]; 16. 21K-Kyle Brown [13]; 17. 442-Aaron Johnson [22]; 18. 14B-Matt Bonine [4]; 19. 44-Jason Schneiders [8]; 20. 4J-Jordy Nelson [12]; 21. 02JR-Chris Mills [16]; 22. 7N-Jay Noteboom [17]; 23. 15M-Shane DeMey [24]; 24. 25-Ricky Stephan [23].