It was a beautiful, though very windy night for the first ever USMTS show at the Marshalltown Speedway. There were 42 modifieds competing on this past Wednesday evening at the highbanked quarter-mile track. There was a large crowd on hand as many had been anticipating this show for quite some time and they shouldn't have been disappointed! Track promoter Toby Kruse, and the USMTS promoter, Todd Staley, paired up to give the fans a great show. On hand to greet the fans and sign autographs, were NASCAR drivers Kenny Schrader and Kenny Wallace. They are both very personable people and always manage to entertain the crowd when being interviewed. Of course, they were also there to jump in their cars and try their hand at the track as well. Schrader qualified for the main event by taking second in his heat after starting fifth, but Wallace had to run a B main and successfully transferred on to the main event by finishing fourth in the second consy race.
The 40-lap feature for the USMTS cars saw 26 drivers start but after a mishap on the first lap, the field was down to 21. By the time the feature was completed, I believe only 12 cars were left running. The track was slick and shiny and you could see the cars reflecting on the track as they were running the high groove to catch the cushion. Kelly Shryock was a contender early, as he chased leader Tesch, but a slight jump of that cushion, cost him the lead and several cars got past him. After that, it was pretty much a two-car race between leader Jon Tesch from South Dakota and Oklahoma driver Jason Hughes. It was almost a repeat from the night before at Oskaloosa when those two battled it out and Jason Hughes took the win there. On this night however, things would switch and Jon Tesch came home the winner and Hughes had to settle for second place. Finishing third and coming from well back in the pack, was New Sharon driver Zack VanderBeek and fourth was young Ryan Gustin who had started just ahead of VanderBeek. Both of those drivers had good runs the previous night as well. Cory Dripps finished in fifth place and Kelly Shryock took sixth.
SportMod/B-mods, stock cars and hobby stock classes ran as well and were under IMCA/USRA rules. It made for a nice mixture of cars that you don't often see running together on the same track. The SportMod/B-mod class had an unfortunate incident happen on the frontstretch when young 14 year old Lauren Vis made hard contact with the wall. She was towed off while still sitting in the car, but soon after the ambulance was called to the pits. We understand she was taken to the hospital but heard she was later released. We certainly hope she is doing well and will be able to get back on the track soon. When racing action resumed, it was "Mr. Perfect", Kevin Sather wanting to keep his perfect wins for the season in tact at Marshalltown, and
once again he came home the victor. Quite the accomplishement. Sather gave his trophy for the night to a lucky young fan. Coming home second was the 21 of Kyle Brown followed by Scott Davis, Luke Wanninger and regular USRA driver, AJ Johnson in fifth.
The stock car class saw only 15 cars compete and only 13 cars started the main event. They were the class that ran their feature flag to flag. It was nice to see a familiar name back on the track at Marshalltown for the first time this year in his #2 car; Dave Atcher. He put his car out front early, and took the win in what we understood announcer Denny Grabenbauer to say was
his first in four years. Visiting driver Tom Schmitt finished a close second followed by another visitor, Curt Hook. Mike VanGenderen was fourth and Clay Deppe took fifth.
The hobby stock feature was finally completed with the green and white flag flying together after attempts with a green, white, checkered finish had failed. Getting the job done and coming home with the victory, was Grinnell driver, Todd Reitzler. Kenny Hansen was second, regular USRA driver Nathan Wood in third, Chad Koch fourth and Dustin Elliott in fifth.
We hope this was the first of many USMTS races at the Marshalltown Speedway. Thanks to Toby Kruse and Todd Staley for giving us fans a great night of racing.
Happy racing!
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