Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Andy Eckrich takes a flawless win at Marshalltown Deery Brothers show

It was nice to see sunshine and a cloudless sky on Tuesday night, especially since that has not been the case this year for racing at Marshalltown. The "Boys of Summer" came back to the highbanks of Marshalltown and brought 40 late model competitors. A nice crowd was on hand for the 50-lap starring event and they also saw the IMCA SportMods, Dirt Trucks, and Mod Lites duking it out on the quarter-mile.

The Dwarf/Mod Lites ran their feature first. Charlie Brown shot to the lead from his pole starting position, only to have his night end when he suddenly pulled to the infield before the second circuit. Josh May and Mike Morrill would then compete for the top spot until May put some distance between the two and took command. Josh May would finish well ahead of second place Mike Morrill and Andy Hennigar trailed him to take third. Fourth went to Dusty Masolini, and the winner's dad, James May, came home in fifth.

The Dirt Trucks saw eleven competitors vying for their 15-lap feature event. Creston, Iowa driver Steve Churchill took home the hardware as he won easily in the caution-free contest. We have often seen Churchill compete at the Adams County Speedway in Corning, Iowa in the Pro-Street division as well as hopping in one of Jim "Cowboy" Tull's hobby stocks to compete in specials. Bret Moyer finished a distant second, Ed Nelson came home in third, fourth went to Russ Byriel, a driver we have seen compete in other divisions as well, and fifth was Brad Moyer.

A very competitive field of 45 IMCA SportMods came to try and grab the $500 prize.
Two b-mains were required to whittle the starting field for their feature to 24 cars. Scott Davis and Tyler Droste fought up front during the 20-lap race until Lake City's Doug Smith...yes, one of those Smith boys...got the best of both of them. Smith would go on to take the win with Scott Davis having to settle for the runner up spot and third went to Tyler Droste. Fourth, fifth, and sixth was a close one at the finish line with VanDenBerg taking fourth over Clint Luellen in fifth, and Kyle Brown finished in sixth.

Now for that main event that everyone had come to see--the 50-lap Deery Brothers Late Model feature. They too had needed two b mains to complete their starting feature with Tommy Elston and Mike Murphy, Jr. taking those races. The top twelve qualifiers from the heat races made an appearance on the frontstretch to draw for their starting positions. What would be the chances of that #1 starting spot to be left for the last driver, but that is exactly what happened...much to the delight of Andy Eckrich, who reaped that position.

Eckrich had easy sailing for the 50-lap event as he led the entire race. Only three yellows would halt the action when two caution flags flew back-to-back at lap two, and then again on lap 22 when Jeff Aikey came to a halt at the top of turn two with a flat tire. Eckrich pulled away with out any real challenges, and took the win with a flawless run. Tom Darbyshire took the second place, while third went to Tyler Bruening, fourth to Ray Guss, Jr., and Matt Strasshiem rounded out the top five.

For full results, be sure and check www.imca.com. Hopefully, we will be back at the Marshalltown Speedway this coming Friday (please Mother Nature!) for regular points racing. You can find information about the track, their schedule and points at www.marshalltownspeedway.com. You can also check the calendar for other races in the area at www.positivelyracing.com. Get out and support our great sport of racing. Happy racing!

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