Merv Chandler scored his 10th feature win in the Sport Compacts at the speedway last night. He grabbed the lead from Duayne Herb by lap 3 and motored off to the checkers. Herb finished second ahead of Travis Losenicky, John Gill and Neil Nobholz.
The Mod Lite feature went to Josh May.....his sixth of the year at Marshalltown. May took over the point by passing early leader Joel Huggins and then stretched out his lead from any challenger. Late in the race, Mike Morrill passed Huggins to snatch second place. Huggins retained third, Randy Bryan finished fourth and Jason Whitehead rounded out the top five.
The Hobby Stock feature was a repeat winner in Scott Pippert. Garrett Eilander led a good portion of the race but Pippert worked his way skillfully through the field from starting in eleventh place, picking off car after car. The feature went caution free yielding good racing action through the whole field. Following Pippert to the checkers was Eric Knutson who made the late pass on Eilander who finished third. Fourth went to Kevin Fee who came from tenth starting spot, and Gary Pfantz was fifth.
The Northern SportMods were vying for a $500 pay off to the winner. A B main was required to whittle the starting field to 24 cars. The B main went to Carter VandenBerg. This feature was an exciting one to watch for sure! A couple of yellow flags would halt the rhythm of the race early. The second one with ten laps still remaining found Clint Luellen leading the charge. As the race wound down, there were five cars digging hard for the top positions. Luellen yielded his lead to Brad Iverson and Nick Roberts threw his hat into the ring as the three went three-wide. Not far behind it was visitor Tyler Frye from Kansas and Racer Hulin getting quickly into the mix of things. Those five cars would give the fans a thrill for the last few circuits, racing closely in a pack. Iverson made it first to the checkers, close behind was Luellen, Frye, Roberts and Hulin.
Iverson scored his first victory at the track, piloting the car of Jason Hall. Iverson said he was offered the ride due to Hall suffering back problems. As a note, we heard talk in the pits afterwards of Iverson possibly being dq'd for a light weight gear, but we have since heard the disqualification was over turned.
It was certainly a night of repeat wins as the IMCA Stock Cars followed up with Trent Murphy making it two in a row. It turned out to be a Murphy and Murphy showdown as brothers Trent and Michael battled it out for much of the 18-laps. Jay Schmidt swung to the topside and made it a three-way race trying to reel in the leader. Trent Murphy opted to run the rim in turns three and four, diving to the bottom in one and two.
Brother Michael Murphy hugged the lowside the entire time and Schmidt kept it up top. The final circuit or two found both Murphy's at the bottom with Trent holding off Michael at the checkers. Schmidt finished third with Steve Meyer coming from starting ninth to take fourth place over Tracy Gienger who was fifth.
Damon Murty's bad luck continues. He was hauled off on the hook again, another dangling rear end from an incident caused by "no where to go" when a car spun in front of him. He just recently got his race car repaired and looking spiffy after a bad incident at the Benton County Speedway not long ago. It appears that Steve Meyer has now taken over the point lead from Murty.
Twenty-one IMCA Modifieds checked into the pits last night. Cars from several states and one from Canada were on hand. With the extra payoff in the event and a chance at even more with the $500 bonus in effect, we expected a great feature. The draw/redraw was implemented last night, and I believe there were no track points for the class. The lucky front row went to Chris Abelson from Sioux City and Jefferson, Iowa's Luke Wanninger. Wanninger we noted was sporting a spoiler again...a 3" I believe, and running the 604 test crate motor. Wanninger took command early on and was sailing off with a lengthy lead, leaving his competition in the dust. Abelson was running in second keeping ahead of Jimmy Gustin, Adam Larson and Kyle Brown. We kept noticing Abelson's glowing brake rotors as he entered low in turn one and wondered if this would cause any issues as the race continued caution free. It was appearing Wanninger was going to win another and take the $1,000 plus the $500 since he had made the A main at the Harris Clash the night before. Never assume anything! Wanninger suddenly dropped low in turn two and pulled into the infield a lap from the finish!! This put Abelson in the catbird seat, much to his delight no doubt. Jimmy Gustin made it an exciting finish the final few feet, but came up just shy of making it first to the checkers. Adam Larson...who was also running the test crate I believe...finished third, Kyle Brown was fourth and Ricky "The Racer" Stephan from South Sioux City, Nebraska rounded out the top five. Since Abelson had also made the feature in the Harris Clash, he went home with a $1,500 winning night. The race did go flag to flag, making for constant action the entire event.
For the official results and other information, be sure and check www.marshalltownspeedway.com.
It's off to the Boone Speedway for us tonight...making it our fifth night of racing in a row. We are finding it not as easy to handle as in years past, but still love it. Can't think of a better thing to do than be sitting at a dirt race. Happy racing!
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