After a night of racing on Monday at the Iowa State Fair, we opted to head to Marshalltown on Tuesday night for another round of racing. They were hosting the first ever appearance at the track of the open Late Model Series---the Corn Belt Clash. They also had SportMods and Mod Lites on the program. It was a quick show with only three classes.
Mod Lites ran first for their 15-lapper. Veteran Jimmy May led this one through lap ten as Andy Hennigar and Dusty Masolini fought tooth and nail behind him. Hennigar snatched the lead away at lap eleven and held it the rest of the way to the checkers. May held off Masolini at the line as they finished second and third. Fourth went to Jeff Stensland in the 01 car usually piloted by David Schmalzried and Mike Morrill completed the top five.
Support class #2 was the SportMods. They ran a 20-lap feature. Jenae Gustin was looking strong and leading the way through lap six, when a yellow flew. Shortly after the restart, Lake City's Doug Smith made his move around Gustin and took over the lead. Joel Rust and Osky's Curtis VanDerWal were soon up to challenge the leaders and were looking for more. Rust got around Gustin after a restart at lap eleven as did VanDerWal and this would be the ending sequence. Smith took the checkers, Rust was the runner up followed by VanDerWal and Gustin in third and fourth. Fifth went to Carter VanDenBerg who came from starting back in row five.
Now it was time for the big boys to show their stuff for the 50-lap Corn Belt Clash Late Model feature. A "quick 6" dash pitted the top two out of the heats, to determine their starting positions in the feature. Chad Simpson and Jason Jaggers were the lucky front row starters.
The initial green of the feature was called back when Charlie McKenna didn't get to turn two, bringing out the yellow. When things did get going, Chad Simpson led the pack with Jason Utter in second. Those two remained in that order through out much of the race. meanwhile, Jason Jaggers the driver out of Illinois was riding along in third and the #50 of Denny Eckrich had made his way into fourth by running the top of the track, unlike most of the rest of the field. Lap traffic entered into the picture and at lap 38, Utter made his move around the outside of Simpson and took over the lead. A short while later, Denny Eckrich slipped off of turn two, ending his run on the topside, re-entered the track, though losing many positions. Lap traffic was still in the picture as the race wound down, but it did not deter Utter's race to the checkers. Chad Simpson kept the runner up spot, third went to Dave Eckrich, fourth was Chris Simpson and Justin Mitchell rounded out the top five. Jason Jaggers, Andy Eckrich, veteran racer Pete Parker, Marshalltown's Darrel DeFrance, and Jake Meier were sixth through tenth in that order.
The races were complete at 9:38 p.m., making for an early exit for fans on a week night. It was an enjoyable night as we once again shared it with friends in the stands. Happy racing!
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