Finally, a Friday night without rain and a great night of racing at the Marshalltown Speedway. There was a lot of good side-by-side and multi-wide racing through most of the night, giving the fans their money's worth. A visiting driver from "out West" was also on hand and more on that young man later.
The Mod-Lites kicked off the night's main event portion of the program. Twelve cars started the 15-lap event. Josh May punched it to the front early and would keep that lead while Tim Hennigar ran second, trying to catch him. Josh May took his fourth regular season win (he also won the Frostbuster) while Tim Hennigar kept the runner up spot. Third went to Mike Morrill with James May a very close fourth. Joel Huggins rounded out the top five positions.
The 12-lap hobby stock feature was run next. Michael Murphy wasted no time in bringing his #25M ride to the front with Gary Pfantz, point leader Kevin Fee and Eric Knutson bunched tightly behind. Murphy survived the onslaught to take the win, his first of the season at Marshalltown and Fee held off the challenges to take second. Third went to Gary Pfantz, fourth to Eric Knutson, and Josh Saunders was fifth with a great run.
It was now SportMod time on the track as they prepared for their 15-lap race.
Scott Davis pushed his car to the lead as Cayden Carter followed suit to grab the second spot. Davis pulled away as the final laps wound down, and he took his first win at Marshalltown this year. Carter kept the runner up place, followed by his cousin, Carter VandenBerg in third. Fourth went to Fred Leytham and Jake Strayer finished in fifth.
Now it was IMCA stock car time. Jay Schmidt took the highroad around the track and put his ride to the point and Trent Murphy quickly followed to grab second. There was very close racing behind the leaders with a pack of five or six cars all battling for position. Murphy would snatch the lead from Schmidt in the waning laps and some of the bunched cars behind got things sorted out. Trent Murphy took the 18-lap feature win, with Schmidt taking second. Damon Murty, "The Chelsea Charger" was on hand for some racing fun, and took the third spot. Curt Hook was fourth and Jeff Wollam, in his new ride for the year, took fifth. Trent Murphy's brother Michael had earlier won the hobby stock feature.
The evening concluded with the running of the 20-lap IMCA modified feature. Todd Shute jumped to the lead and was looking to pull away, but a few others had different ideas. Adam Larson and Jon Snyder were on the move as they closed in on the leader. Snyder would grab the lead from Shute and when Snyder went a bit high in turns one and two and a tire slipped off the berm, it was a case of Shute checking up to avoid contact with Snyder, and then he found himself sitting in the corning facing traffic! He would then have to tag the tail of the field on the restart. Snyder went home to the checkers first, taking his third win at the track, and Adam Larson took second. Third went to Ronn Lauritzen with a great run, fourth was Jimmy Gustin and Josh Truman rounded out the top five.
I mentioned before about a visiting driver in the modified ranks. Zach Hensley from Green River, Wyoming came to have some fun back here in Iowa. We had the pleasure of meeting this 21 year old in the pits afterwards and what an inspiring story he is. This young man has no legs, was given a short life span of six years when he was born, beat the odds, and is now living his dream. He uses what we understand are motorcycle hand controls for accelerating and braking while steering with the other hand. He has some Iowa connections as we noted he was driving a Victory Chassis through JR Motorsports. It was our understanding that he plans to come back once a month through the summer and again for the IMCA Super Nationals. He plans to be in Boone tonight and Stuart on Sunday. If you happen to see the 26Z in the pits, take a moment to meet this inspiring young man.
Until next time, happy racing!
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