After the Marshalltown Speedway suffered it's fourth rain out of the season last week, this Friday it was blessed with beautiful weather. Three new drivers saw the checkers for the first time this year, and one keeps his perfect record going.
Only four of the mighty little IMCA Sport Compacts entered the pits this week, and with one car unable to start their feature, it was just three cars chasing each other in the main event. Veteran Merv Chandler had little trouble in taking the win--his seventh of the year, which is ALL for the year, and kept his perfect tally going. Dave Moormann chased Chandler to the finish line to score second and third was Jordan Peters. John Gill was the driver left watching from the pits.
The Mod Lite feature took their 15-lap main caution free. Mike Kennedy led early, chased by Mike Morrill and Andy Hennigar. Josh May soon joined in the fray as Morrill made the pass on Kennedy for the lead. Hennigar would soon drop into the infield, his night done. With but a couple of laps remaining, May challenged Morrill for the lead, made the pass and raced home to the win. Morrill finished in second, Kennedy in third. Fourth went to Randy Bryan and Joel "Huggie Bear" Huggins finished fifth.
The IMCA Northern SportMod main was an 18-lap affair. Two cars, Jake Strayer and Racer Hulin got to the front quickly. They swapped leads a couple of times until Strayer finally established his point position and from there, went home to the take his first win of the year at Marshalltown. Hulin finished in the runner up spot, third went to Scott Davis, fourth was Joel Rust and Tom Rawlins, the early leader, rounded out the top five.
Twelve laps awaited the IMCA Hobby Stocks. Josh Saunders nabbed the lead on lap two, racing hard with Gary Pfantz and Eric Knutson. A "nudge" off the back stretch by the car running behind Saunders, sent him back several positions and his momentum lost. Meanwhile, Eric Knutson snatched the lead with Pfantz and now Scott Pippert breathing down his tailpipe. Pfantz's night would end when he spit out his axle, dropping oil along the backstretch, and bringing out a yellow. The final three laps after the restart, was a frantic attempt for positions behind Knutson, who did take the win, his first of the season. Brandon Brinton took second over Scotty Pippert in third and Eric Larson and Kevin Fee who finished fourth and fifth in that order. It appears Pippert is still holding a slim lead in points over Fee.
IMCA Stock Cars! They ALWAYS seem to provide a great show and tonight was no exception.
They were running three-wide and in packs from the get go. Trent Murphy got to the point early but "The Chelsea Charger", Damon Murty would have none of that and swung around him for the lead. Murphy's brother Michael was now chasing his brother in third when a caution brought the racing to a halt. On the restart, Brian Irvine, with his left front wheel seldom touching the ground all night, flew into second. But the fun wasn't over yet, as the yellow rag flew again, setting up a green-white-checkered finish. You just knew then, it would be one of those NASCAR Sprint Cup finishes---and it was. Murty, Irvine and Trent Murphy had no trouble coming to the checkers, finishing 1-2-3 in that sequence, but turn four proved to be the down fall of those running close behind them. Two of those unlucky drivers were Tracy Gienger and Jeff Wollam who got caught up in the melee, giving them finishing positions far behind the field. Drivers lucky to avoid the mess were Kevin Temeyer, making his first appearance at the track this season and piloting the "old" car of Jay Schmidt, and fifth was Steve Meyer. Sixth went to Trevor Titus in his Ford Thunderbird...which has seen many, many a race under it's belt as his father-in-law Rick Brown piloted it all over the Midwest in years gone by, and seventh was Jay Schmidt who debuted his NEW #19J.
The near picture-perfect evening ended with the 20-lap IMCA Modified feature. Zach Rawlins sprung to the early lead chased by Tim Murty and Kyle Brown. It wasn't long until Adam Larson slipped into the runner up position, and soon thereafter, took over the helm. Josh Truman followed Larson up through the field to nab second spot which would be the way the two would finish at the checkers in the caution free race. Crossing in third was always fun to watch, Jammin' Jimmy Gustin who started twelfth, Ronn Lauritzen started in ninth and crossed in fourth and Kyle Brown was fifth. As a note, it was hard to miss the spoiler on Adam Larson's car, plus hearing the buzz that he was running an experimental IMCA crate motor. We did also hear over the PA that he had to cross the scales weighing 2,250 pounds as opposed to the other cars at 2,450 pounds. That being said, we do not know if any adjustments in points/scoring were made for sure, only rumors.
Check out the calendar at Positively Racing's home page for an upcoming race you may like to try and hit. There are many specials on the docket as well as tracks running their regular weekly races, so no loss for finding a race to take in. Happy racing!
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