Thursday night at Marshalltown was a near perfect evening weather wise for the final night of the three-track IMCA stock car shoot out. Fifty-three of the "Class too Tough to Tame" were on hand to give the fans their money's worth. Also on the program were IMCA hobby stocks with twenty-eight cars and the IMCA SportMods with eighteen in attendance. Promoter Toby Kruse announced that drivers from six states came to try their luck on the high banks at Marshalltown.
The hobby stocks took to the track for the first feature of the evening. Visiting driver of the car #17, Kenny Hansen, who I believe is from Exira, Iowa, led the race early from his front row starting position. He continued on with a comfortable lead but Andy Boeckman made his way into the runner-up spot and would try to reel him in. Making for an interesting race up front, Todd Reitzler would be in contention along with Josh Irvine for a top three spot. At the finish line, Kenny Hansen would take the feature win, Grinnell's Todd Reitzler took second, Andy Boeckman was third, Josh Irvine fourth, and Scott Lagrosso rounded out the top five. Coming home sixth, was Lake City's Devin Smith who had to recover from an earlier incident on the track, that relegated him to tag the field.
The SportMods found young Janae Gustin on the pole along side Kyle Brown. Gustin had earlier seen her first checkered flag when she won her heat race with an impressive run. Brown led the race until point leader Kevin Sather passed him. Slipping by Brown then would be the 05 of Paul Nagle, and Zach Rawlins. An incident would then put Nagle out of the running. At the checkers, it was Kevin Sather taking the win, Zach Rawlins in second, Kyle Brown for third, Brad Iverson fourth and Randy Roberts in fifth.
The grand finale of the evening, was the IMCA stock car shoot out. The field of twenty-four cars had to be pared down through three B Mains. It was nice to have this class get some added recognition through the three-night/three-track series. Wisconsin's Jeremy Christians and Marengo, Iowa's Paul Shepard would start on the front row for the 30-lap feature. Jeff Joldersma soon made his way to the lead position from starting fourth. In the meantime, our eyes were on 23rd starter Brian Blessington, who was really on the move. By the halfway mark, Joldersma was still holding the lead, but Blessington had made his way to the runner-up position with Jeremy Christians holding down third. Blessington would make the pass on Joldersma to take the top spot and he would retain that position to the checkers. Joldersma held second, Damon Murty took third, Keith Knop was fourth and Mike Jergans took fifth. Local Marshallown driver, Jeff Wollam came home in sixth. The series champion was Jeff Joldersma as he had the three best finishes in the three-night shows. We spoke with Brian Blessington after the race and he indicated due to a busy schedule, he probably shouldn't have been racing all three nights, but was very glad he had made the tow to Marshalltown. Marshalltown has been good to him, as he was the shoot out winner last year as well.
Busy racing time now in the state of Iowa. Get out and attend a race somewhere.
Happy racing!
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