Saturday, May 1, 2010

Rain Shortens Program at Marshalltown

Friday brought rain once again and it was not looking good for racing in the area. However, promoter Toby Kruse was not about to give in to Mother Nature this week. The afternoon brought clearing skies and the show went on. The track was heavy and fast but none too kind on a few motors. With perfect blue skies to the west, who would have thought the night's program would be cut short by a small rain cell that found the Marshalltown Speedway!

The Dwarf/Mod Lite feature saw all thirteen cars start the feature, including the #99 of Josh May. May had rolled his car off of turn one in the heat race when it appeared a tire dug into the soft track. Joel Huggins leaped to the lead early, soon to be chased by Mike Morrill and Tim Hennigar. Huggins slid a little high on the backstretch which allowed Hennigar to slip around him. When the final checkers flew, Tim Hennigar would take the win. Mike Morrill also made the pass on Huggins, to take the runner-up position. Huggins had to settle for third, fourth went to Josh May who made his way up from the tail of the starting line-up, and fifth went to his dad, Jimmy May.

The IMCA Northern SportMods had 38 cars in attendance. Two B Mains were needed to cut the starting field to 24 cars. Chad Louk won the first B and Fred Leytham, making his first appearance of the season, took B Main number two. A couple of incidents in the main event, would take out more than a few cars. Young Cayden Carter, just 14 years old from Oskaloosa, put his car out front and pulled away from the pack on a couple of restarts. He had just missed getting a win at the track earlier this year, but on this night, the win was his. Point leader Eric Elliott came home in second, another young driver, Jake Strayer was third, fourth went to Scott Davis, and fifth to Shawn Hunter, the early race leader.

"The Class too Tough to Tame", the IMCA stock cars, was up next. Clay Deppe led the pack early but with what appeared to be a car not wanting to turn, he would fall back a few positions. Michael Jaennette put his car to the point position then and led several circuits until a hard charging Michael Murphy was able to grab the top spot. Following Murphy through the pack, was Dustin Smith who put himself in the second position. The last couple of laps was a contest between Murphy and Smith, with Murphy being able to hold on for the win. Jaennette came home with a good run to take third, fourth went to Clay Deppe and fifth went to the Chelsea Charger, Damon Murty.

No one was quite prepared to discover raindrops beginning to fall just as the modified feature began. No more than a couple of laps were in the books, when the rain started falling heavier. Grabbing gear, seats and blankets, everyone quickly exited the grandstand as the rain came down even harder. This was quite unexpected, as the sun was shining and the sky was blue when racing began.

Next Friday, racing will begin fifteen minutes early at 7:15, with the modified feature. The make-up hobby stock feature will also be run before the regular night's action begins. Make plans to come and see some good racing at the Marshalltown Speedway. Happy racing!

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