A hot and muggy night awaited us at the Marshalltown Speedway this past Friday night. It would keep the track much heavier than we had seen the past couple of weeks. A few sprinkles brought out the umbrellas before the program started, but it was short lived. It was a pleasant surprise to see a new scoreboard standing in turn one. There are a few bugs to be worked out and only the laps were working last night. There was a nice crowd on hand to watch the night's action as it was started off with a "Faster Pastor" race as local clergy raced around the high-banked quarter-mile. Jeff Wollam loaned his IMCA stock car to Darren Mitchell, who won the title of fastest pastor.
Regular features began with the Dwarf/Mod Lites. Seventeen cars started the main event and the OB of Colby Oberembt took the lead and was looking for another visit to Victory Lane. Mike Morrill had not seen the checkers first this year and set his sights on seeing just that. He made his way steadily from starting 9th, up into the second position as he chased Oberembt. The OB still led at the white flag and going down the backstretch, but a lap car was going to make it interesting as they drove into corner three. That scenario would prove to be the demise of Oberembt's quest for the checkers, as veteran Morrill drove to the bottom, the lap car in the middle, and Oberembt having to take the outside. The last corner pass by Morrill saw him take his first win of the year at Marshalltown and Oberembt coming home, no doubt, a disappointed runner up. Third would go to Tim Hennigar who chased the top two the last few laps, fourth went to Eric Hendrickson and fifth to Josh May.
In the IMCA Northern SportMods, it was Caden Carter back in the winner's circle for the third time this year. He fought past Zach Rawlins with two laps to go, to get the win. Rawlins had a great run to take the runner up spot, third went to last week's winner Gatlin Leytham, fourth went to visitor Doug Smith in the 12X and fifth to point leader Eric Flander.
There was a nice field of 20 stock cars on hand and all took to the track to begin their feature. Tracy Gienger led all 18-laps to get his first win of the season. Point leader Dustin Smith would extend his lead in taking second place. Third went to Trent Murphy, fourth to "The Chelsea Charger" Damon Murty and fifth to "The Flyin' Farmer" Rick Brown. The race went green to checkerd.
We knew we would be in for an exciting modified feature as a couple of "non-regular" hot shoes were on hand. Point average put the #5 of former Super National's champion Todd Shute on the outside front row along side Marshalltown's Brett Ladehoff. Shute took the lead immediately with Ladehoff and Josh Gilman in pursuit. Gilman was looking to be a contender for Shute, but with 8 laps down, he would spin in turn two, ending his run. Not to much of anyone's surprise, the 19G of Richie Gustin was making his way through the field from starting well back in the pack, to find himself right behind the leader with five laps to go. Oh, this was going to be good!
Shute was able to fight off Gustin's advances though and took the checkers first. Following Gustin for third was visitor Randy Havlik, a regular competitor at Des Moines on Friday nights, (they had cancelled earlier) fourth went to a hard charging Mike O'Lear, and Denny Rosenberg rounded out the top five.
The hobby stock feature also went green to checkered. It would end in thrilling fashion as well, when the 69 of Calvin Dhondt made the pass on the last lap to take his first feature win. Second went to Eric Stanton who had led most of the race, third to Michael Murphy, fourth to Eric Larson and fifth to point leader Devin Smith.
For more complete results and other information, check http://www.marshalltownspeedway.com/. Next Friday night will be another regular points race. Happy racing!
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