What a beautiful night for racing at the Marshalltown Speedway on Friday night. There were dominating wins in the Modified, SportMod, Mod Lite and Sport Compact classes, while the Stock Car and Hobby Stocks made the finishes more interesting. After breezing through the heats in about an hour, it was looking as if it would be an early evening, but a plethora of yellow flags and a red flag situation threw all of that out the window---and it wasn't even a full moon night!
Only four IMCA Sport Compacts made an appearance last night. In their heat, one car would be eliminated when the #49 of Jim Alday, Marshalltown, took a tumble off of turn two. Dave Moorman led the first four laps, but wile veteran Merv Chandler took the lead on lap five and took his first win of the season at Marshalltown. Moorman had followed him in second, but slipped off of turn three with a lap to go, handing the second place finish over to John Gill. Moorman then, was scored as third.
Josh May was dominate in his first win at the track this year, leading all laps. Second place finisher Mike Morrill chased him from a distance most of the way to the checkers. Third place went to the only other previous winner at the track for 2013, Andy Hennigar, who had started tenth on the grid, fourth was Charlie Brown and Dusty Masolini completed the top five. May, who had recently destroyed his car, stuck last year's body back on, and looks like that was a good luck charm that he said he may just continue to use the rest of the year.
The largest class for the evening was the IMCA Northern Sport Mods with 25 cars checked in. No B main was run. Their feature had a hard time getting completed as yellow after yellow seemed to fly, getting a mere lap or two in between cautions. Ty Luellen nosed ahead of Jayme Duinink at lap four, and withstood the numerous restart situations and went to victory lane for the second time this year, having won the Frostbuster back on April 5. Jenae Gustin made her way to second with just a handful of laps in the books after starting back in the fifth row. Gustin would maintain that runner up spot to the checkers. Third went to Tonganoxie , Kansas driver, Ben Kates, who is a fixture in Iowa this summer, fourth was Eric Elliott who started in row six and Joel Rust, who had started alongside Gustin in row five, scored the fifth place finish.
The IMCA Hobby Stocks went their usual 12-laps and after an original "no go" start, the feature would continue under green. The 14T of Mitchell Thomas would go sliding into the announcer's/scorer's tower area taking out a sign and sending onlookers scattering, but the race continued without stoppage, only the sign any worse for wear. Brandon Pruitt had started in the pole position and motored off easily, but it wasn't long until Bill Bonnett was dogging him. Bonnett tried the bottom side in numerous attempts at snatching the lead, but Pruitt held him off and would take the checkers. Bonnett took the runner up spot, it was a close finish for Brice Udelhoven and Eric Stanton as they went third and fourth, and Austin Luellen held off "Mean" Gene Nicklas as they finished fifth and sixth.
The Class too Tough to Tame, the IMCA Stock Cars came to the track next, Jay Schmidt leaped to the lead early but Tracy Gienger was having none of that, making the pass for the top spot at lap three. Further back in the pack, there was a "glob" of five or six cars fighting to move to the front. Things would get sorted out a bit by lap seven, Gienger maintaining his lead, Schmidt riding in second, but being pressured by Steve Meyer and Michael Jaennette. At lap ten, a red flag reared it's ugly head, when newcomer on the night, #71 Corey Piffer, Indianola driver had his throttle stick and rolled it off of turn two. He was thankfully, not hurt.
When racing resumed, Steve Meyer was able to get by Schmidt for second and things were setting up to finish that way. That is until a slip by Schmidt found him in spin mode in turn two, a yellow coming out and sending him to tag the tail on the restart with four laps remaining. Gienger would motor home to the win, chased by Meyer in second, Jaennette in third. Fourth went to "The Dean" Jeff Wollam and Eric Knutson, Slater, Iowa finished in fifth. Derek Reimer was sixth, Lauren Vis is back in the 20L earlier in the season piloted by her dad Dusty Vis, scoring a seventh place finish, and Jay Schmidt made up some ground to garner eighth.
Cayden "The Gasman" Carter and Zach Rawlins sat on the front row of the 20-lap Modified feature. Carter immediately jumped to the lead. Rawlins tucked in behind him but Kyle "Downtown" Brown and "Jammin" Jimmy Gustin were in tow behind him. Brown made it to second with Gustin following suite in third. Brown and Gustin then were the show on the track for several laps as they battled closely. Gustin was able to nose under Brown, taking the lead on the backstretch of lap ten. Meanwhile, Carter had set sail on the topside and was cruising along unchallenged. Carter took the easy win, his first of the year at Marshalltown, Gustin was second, Brown third. Jon Snyder and Adam Larson rounded out the top five.
Positively Racing colleague Ryan Clark was observing from the announcer's stand last night. You can find some of his thoughts at www.instaging.blogspot.com. Next week, May 24th, Marshalltown Speedway will be racing as usual in all six classes. Hot laps are 7 p.m. with racing at 7:30. For full results check www.marshalltownspeedway.com or www.speednetdirect.com. Happy racing!
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