Friday night's action at the Marshalltown Speedway saw a perfect streak continue for Dwarf/Mod Lite driver Mike Morrill. His record stands at 7 of 7 at the track, which includes the Frostbuster special. There were 18 of the cars on hand for the evening with 16 starting the feature. One of the cars not making the call was the #73 of Jason Smithson who had rolled his machine on the backstretch during the heat. Thankfully, he was okay, but the car wasn't. Morrill made his way through the pack, picking off cars at a regular clip each lap. Soon he found himself out front and he went home to another victory. Following him across the line was Dusty Masolini, in third was Mike Kennedy, fourth Johnny Mordock and fifth was Josh May. Morrill once again, gave his trophy to a youngster in the stands.
The IMCA SportMods had 33 cars and had to run a B Main event which was won by Shawn Hunter. The main event saw the 2T car of Tom Rawlins lead the race early from his front row starting position. Kyle Brown would then make the pass and put his #21 car in the lead which he held for quite some time. After a couple of yellow flags flew, it would be Scott Davis passing Brown for the top spot and it looked as if they would be finishing in those positions. However,
with just a few laps remaining, Davis developed a miss in his car and on the last lap coming for the checkers, his machine would slow allowing Brown to pass him and take the checkers first.
Davis did hold on for second, with Brad Iverson crossing in third, Luke Wanninger in fourth, and the green machine of Neil Follett in fifth.
The "class too tough to tame", the IMCA stock cars also ran a B Main which was won by Tracy Gienger. Pole sitter Jared Daggett jumped to the lead on the start but Steve Meyer soon made the pass into the lead with Jeff Wollam and Dusty Vis also passing Daggett. Meyer had to remove himself from the fray however, as he exited the track on the backstretch with problems.
That put Jeff Wollam in the lead with Jefferson, Iowa's Trent Murphy moving up to take over second position. It appeared one of those two would be the eventual winner as the laps wound down, but an unfortunate incident between the two cars, low in turn three, put them both out of contention and both retired to the pits. On the restart with three laps to go, it was the familiar 85 car of Dustin Smith leading the pack and he would go on to take the feature win. Joe Luethje had his best finish of the year, coming home second, Mike Todd was third, Dave Atcher in fourth, and Michael Jaennette would found out the top five.
Nineteen modifieds would be on hand for the evening, but torn up equipment as the result of incidents happening in the heat races, saw only fifteen cars start their feature. It proved to be one of those full moon nights with multiple incidents throughout the evening. Crowd favorite Jimmy Gustin took the lead early and he and Adam Larson put on quite the show for the fans. Larson would then make the pass for first and he would then continue his high line in turns three and four, while diving low in turn one. It seemed to be working for him perfectly but he did at one time, try a slightly different line, and Gustin nearly took advantage of that. However, Larson would go back to his favored line and this would see him through to first across the finish line. This would be Larson's fourth win of the season at Marshalltown. Jimmy Gustin was second, veteran Vern Jackson in third, Todd Conrad in fourth and Duane Peterson was fifth.
The final feature was the IMCA hobby stocks. It would see Devin Smith taking an early lead and he would go home to victory. Following him would be Terry Shaffar and Damien Bown. By taking a look at the results elsewhere, it doesn't appear that the 22D car of Daniel Hilsabeck, who I scored in fourth position, is shown, so we are not sure about that finishing spot, but believe it was Josh Saunders crossing in fifth. Eric Larson would follow Saunders to the checkers.
Two night ending special events were held with the first being the "Dwarf Gambler" race.
Five cars would participate as they each tossed $25 into the pot and it was a winner takes all race. Johnny Mordock, who makes the long trip from Creston, Iowa each Friday night, was the successful competitor to take the extra $125 home for his night's winnings. He out distanced Dusty Masolini, Josh May, Mike Kennedy and Jason Hall.
Earlier in the evening, the Ed Gifford owned #17G sprint car was on hand to run a few fast laps for the fans. The Minuteman Printing sponsored car was driven by Dusty Zomer from Sioux Falls, South Dakota. In a fun challenge that ended the program for the night, Adam Larson in his 2L modified would take on the high powered winged sprint. To win, the sprint car needed to pass Larson twice, but at the finish line, it would be Larson winning by inches! It was quite exciting to see a modified take win over a sprint car! For those fans who did not stay to see this, they missed out.
With dust flying and the full moon appearing to be a jinx for many drivers on the night, it was still an enjoyable night's entertainment. Thanks drivers for all your efforts in entertaining us.
Happy racing!
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