The Friday the 13th full moon didn't have much of an impact on racing at the Marshalltown Speedway. However, a Mod Lite driver may beg to differ on that opinion. Four of the six classes ran their features caution free, there was a first career Modified win for one driver, and a couple of brothers just keep chalking up the wins in their divisions.
John Gill won for the third time this season in the Sport Compact class. He led the entire 8 laps in securing his win. He finished comfortably ahead of second place finisher, Dave Moorman. Josh Modde, a driver that we have seen pilot a SportMod in past years, took home third place. Fourth went to Aaron Miller and new comer from Independence, Iowa, Mike Tedesco was fifth.
The Mod Lites pulled onto the track next for their 15-lapper. Just after driver Andy Hennigar passed the flagstand to get to his alignment position,---he rolled his car! It was a freaky looking deal, and left us wondering what happened. Andy was fine but his car looks to need a lot of loving care. He explained that a trailing arm broke, and he was over in a second.
Mike Morrill got to the lead at lap two, survived a couple of yellows, and never gave up that front position, and scored the win. Josh May chased Morrill across the finish line, but had to settle for the runner up spot. Third went to Charlie Brown, fourth was Tim Hennigar and Terry Brown completed the top five. It was Morrill's first win at the track since August 24, 2012. He continued his tradition of giving away his trophy to a lucky youngster.
When the green dropped on the 12-lap Hobby Stock feature, it was the #26 of Brice Udelhoven jumping....really jumping...to the lead. It was announced he was penalized two spots for over eagerness. Udelhoven continued his run at the front of the pack, but Austin Luellen was quickly up to challenge that front position. Luellen took the lead and held it the rest of the way to the finish and scored the win. John Watson came from starting eleventh to take the runner up spot. Benji Irvin went from twelfth starting spot, to take third place, fourth was Tyson Overton, who ran at the front of the pack all night, and Brice Udelhoven was scored in fifth......though crossing in third. Since there were no yellows in the race to realign Udelhoven after his initial jump at the start of the feature, he was given the two spot penalty at the end. Luellen snared a back to back win, and his fourth win of the regular season plus winning the preseason Frostbuster.
The SportMod feature saw the 32N of Neil Follett jump to the lead from the drop of the green flag. He held off Ryan King through lap six when King made the pass, but a yellow flew, reverting back to that lap six. On the restart, Follett held the lead at lap seven, but the 3L of Clint Luellen had been flying around the top of the track, clicking off position after position after starting eleventh, and was now challenging the leader. A couple of laps later, Luellen flew to the lead, driving off comfortably. Meanwhile, Tyler Musselman had been making headway from his ninth starting position, digging on the bottom side, and took over second place. The final few laps saw Musselman work the bottom and reel in Luellen. Luellen thought better of his run on the topside, and dropped to the bottom as well, protecting his lead the remainder of the way to the checkers. Following Luellen and Musselman was Jared VanDeest , who worked his way from tenth to third place, fourth went to Sam Wieben and early leader Neil Follett, finished fifth. Clint Luellen matched his brother's back to back wins earlier in the Hobby Stock class, and also won for the fourth time of the regular season.
Michael Jaennette won the always entertaining Stock Car feature. He passed Robert Stofer at lap two to grab the lead. He rode comfortably at the front of the pack, while they went three and four wide behind him, trying to sort out any semblance of establishing positions! Donovan Smith and Brian Irvine were putting on the show as they duked it out for second and third spots, swapping back and forth a couple of times. Traffic came into the picture for the leaders, but they snaked through with no troubles. Jaennette put his "Pink Panther" ride into victory circle for the second time this year at Marshalltown, Irvine out raced Smith as they finished second and third. Trent Murphy was scored in fourth and Steve Meyer started back in row nine, and recovered from earlier heat race woes, to finish with a top five run. The race went flag to flag.
It was the usual 20-laps for the Modified feature. Eric Elliott held down the lead through lap three until the 505 of Racer Hulin put it to the topside and took over the lead. From there on, it was a case of "catch the Racer"....as Hulin checked out. Last week's winner, Adam Larson started ninth, and got to second place, sending sparks along the frontstretch wall a couple of times, but ran out of time to garner more than the runner up spot. Luke Wanninger took third place, Brandon Leeman was fourth and Eric Elliott rounded out the top five. Racer Hulin got his first career win in the Modified division after jumping into the class from his previous successful time in the SportMod division. This race was also caution free.
The night started off beautiful and comfortable sitting in the stands, but by the time the racing got into the features, it was down right chilly! Just goes to show, never leave home.....even in the dead of summer, without some layers!
Thanks for reading, and happy racing!
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