Where the heck did that rain come from last night? The weather reports we had been hearing was no rain until after midnight and then not a good forecast for the remainder of the holiday weekend. I couldn't believe it when I pulled up the radar on my phone, and there was this all too often seen ominous mass heading our way. I was almost sure it wasn't really there, but a check of several other radar sites, confirmed it.
Racing at Marshalltown started clicking off quickly as by heat time, the gray was looming in the west and closing in. Heats were completed in right at an hour and the first feature, the Sport Compacts were brought immediately to the track.
Only three of the front wheel drives made an appearance last night. In the feature, John Gill held off Merv Chandler in the opening laps, but Chandler had taken command by lap three. Chandler had little trouble motoring home to his second consecutive win, Gill taking second. Third went to newcomer Toby Denning who did not finish.
The pesky sprinkles had stopped when the Mod Lite feature took to the track. We were hoping that was a good sign despite the appearance of the sky. Josh May quickly got to the front from starting in row three and had little trouble in maintaining that lead to the checkers. May repeated his win from last week. Second went to a first time driver, Chase Flatt, Monmouth, Illinois, who fought past Andy Hennigar in third. Fourth was Chargin' Charlie Brown and Tim Hennigar hung around the front and finished fifth.
The SportMod feature quickly took to the track and our hopes of a caution free race quickly erased as the yellow came out at lap three. The cars were realigned and the race restarted with Brandon Brinton continuing to lead the pack. At lap four, Jayme Duinink had made his way around Brandon Williams and was looking strong. Then came lap five......and all heck broke loose on the front stretch! We thought we heard announcer Jerry VanSickle say he had counted fourteen cars involved, but by the time we started counting the cars piled up at a standstill just before the flagstand, we counted "just" nine, as some cars had luckily driven off. We did not see what started the unfortunate incident, but we did see some hard hits as the cars piled into each other, and know there had to be some major damage. Fortunately, we did not hear of any injuries to any drivers. So......as the carnage was being assessed and the clean up proceeding, Mother Nature decided to end the night for all, as she cut loose with heavier rain. The races were called. We understand that the racing next week will begin at 7 p.m. with NO hot laps prior, and the SportMod feature beginning at five laps down and thirteen laps remaining. Double features in the SportMod, Stock Car, Hobby Stock and Modified divisions next Friday night, then the full regular night's action following.
The holiday weekend racing is not looking good as of now. We did just receive word that Boone is still on as of 10 a.m. but Hamilton County Speedway and Knoxville Raceway have cancelled for tonight and with more rain called for in days to come, prospects are not the best. We all know how fickle the weather has been and after all, it is Iowa. Wait five minutes and the weather can change. Hopefully we will all be able to get our racing fix in SOMEWHERE. Check the racing calendar at www.positivelyracing.com for a possible DRY site. Happy racing!
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