It was a hot Friday night as we arrived at the Marshalltown Speedway. The sky to the east was dark as radar showed heavy rain in that area. However, the sky to the west seemed good and not much thought was given to any question of weather concerns for the night. It was Hogeland Auto Plaza "Kid's Night" with free give aways for the kids and "Tow Mater" on hand. "Tow Mater" is a great replica of the tow truck featured in the movie "Cars" from a few years back.
The evening began as usual with Dwarf/Mod Lite, SportMod, and IMCA stock car heats. It was one of those nights, when your eyes kept wandering to the sky to the west, and out of no where, it got blacker and blacker. As the final heat of stock cars completed their contest, and the first modified feature took to the track, here came the raindrops. With a few flashes of lightning and the raindrops quickening, racing was halted and many fans headed for shelter. The rain did come to an end and the wind shifted to the north and temps dropped considerably. With great effort on the part of Toby Kruse and staff, the track surface was kept under control and about one hour and 45 minutes later, the track won out over Mother Nature. Racing resumed about 9:55 p.m. with a determined Kruse not about to lose yet another night of racing.
The Dwarf/Mod Lite feature saw last week's winner, Joel Huggins repeat this week. Several yellow flags would stop the racing action during the feature. Battling up front was Huggins, Randy Bryan, Tim Hennigar and Mike Morrill. In the end, it would be Huggins taking home the win for the second week in a row, Tim Hennigar took the runner-up spot, Randy Bryan was third, fourth went to Mike Morrill and rounding out the top five was Jimmy May.
The IMCA Northern SportMod feature ended with a new face in the winner's circle. Jumping to the lead early, was Kyle Brown as he ran the high side, with Joel Rust and Jake Strayer in tow. Yellow flags would fly several times during the main event sending last week's winner Scott Davis to tag the field as he was caught up in one of the incidents on the track. Young Newton driver, Jake Strayer got around Brown to take over the lead. Then, coming from far back in the field to take over second and third, would be point leader Kevin Sather and the 20 car of Luke Wanninger as they also got around Brown. Fighting hard for positions was Scott Davis as he made an impressive run to get into fourth spot. At the checkers, it was Strayer with his first ever win, Sather in second, Wanninger (back after several week's absence) in third, Scott Davis took fourth, and Kyle Brown came home in fifth. It was an excited 14 year old Jake Strayer in Victory Lane as he was interviewed after the race by announcer Denny Grabenbauer. Congratulations go out to Strayer for that first win. It's always nice to be witness to a first ever win for a driver and we are sure there will be more to come for this talented youngster.
The track was very fast when the IMCA stock cars took to the track for their feature race. At five laps down, a front stretch incident stopped the action when close racing caused a melee. This resulted in several cars having their racing come to an end for the night as the 17AJ of Joe Luethje appeared the worst. He was towed off with a lot of front end damage after t-boning the Flying Farmer, Rick Brown in the right side door. Clay Deppe led until lap eight, when the Dilly Bar Special 3W of Jeff Wollam took the lead. Battling behind him would be Deppe, Michael Jaennette, and Dustin Smith. As the checkers flew, Jeff Wollam would take his first win of the year, as he was chased across the line by Jeannette, Smith, Deppe and Tracy Gienger; finishing in that order.
The IMCA A modifieds were running for $500 to win tonight as Harris Auto Racing put a little extra into the pot. Those drivers did not disappoint as they put on an exciting race for the fans!
Kyle Krampe put his K1 out in front for the early circuits of the race with Jacob Murray taking over the number one spot later. Meanwhile, making his way in an amazing fashion, was the white 19G car of Richie Gustin. He would absolutely rocket off of turn two as he made his way toward the front from starting eighth. Soon it would be brother Jimmy Gustin getting into the second position and the two would then do battle. In the end, Richie Gustin would keep that top spot and take the win, with Jimmy Gustin being the runner-up. Also running a great race was third place finisher, Scott Hogan, Jacob Murray was fourth, and Jay Schmidt had a nice run to finish fifth. Thanks to all of the drivers for putting on one heck of a show for us.
The final feature of the night was the IMCA hobby stockers. It took several tries before the feature got underway, as track incidents caused the yellow to fly repeatedly. When the checkers finally did fly, it was last week's winner Todd Reitzler back in Victory Lane again. Devin Smith would finish in second, putting him in the point lead as previous leader Terry Shaffar would retire early on. Third went to Eric Knutson, fourth to Dustin Elliott and fifth to Gary Pfantz.
Even with a lengthy rain delay, the show was done right at midnight. Promoter Toby Kruse was happy with the track being able to "fool Mother Nature" this time. Racing action continues next week at the Marshalltown Speedway as it will be "Faster Pastor" night and the second annual "Gambler" race for the modifieds. Make plans to attend.
Happy racing!
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