The stands were packed on Friday night at the Marshalltown Speedway. It was not only their 50th Anniversary celebration, but $5 admission to the races and fireworks to boot! Over 110 cars packed the pits as well. It all made for a great night of entertainment.
Dave Moorman won the Sport Compact feature for the second week in a row. He led the entire eight lap feature on his way to win #5 on the year. John Gill was the runner up, new comer Zach Brenner in the #33B was third, and Alec Gill in the #00 was fourth. Aaron Miller was not able to start the feature.
Eric Hendrickson led the troops in the 15-lap Mod Lite feature through lap eleven. That's when Charlie Brown, who had been knocking on the door the entire time, edged under Hendrickson on the backstretch, and was scored the leader at lap twelve. From there on, Brown continued his ride at the helm, and took the checkers and the victory. James May had been pursuing the leaders much of the race and slipped by Hendrickson as well in the closing laps as they went second and third respectively. Mike Morrill started alongside winner Brown in row four, and finished fourth and tenth place starter Josh May, rounded out the top five. Charlie Brown banked his fourth win of the year at Marshalltown and took over the point lead.
The Hobby Stock feature got off to a fast start with cars immediately in 4-6 wide formation! Pole starter Clint Nelson was leading at lap one when a yellow flew. When the race restarted, Eric Stanton had already flown up to second place from starting tenth and wasted no time in taking over the point position as lap two was scored. Eric Larson had followed Stanton through the pack from starting along side him in row five, and was soon in second and challenging the leader. The race went caution free the rest of the way to the finish, Stanton taking the win for the second week in a row. The final lap found "The Mayor" John Watson get around Larson as they finished second and third in that order. Nathan Ballard, made his first visit to Marshalltown and finished fourth and Justin Lichty completed the top five. This was Stanton's third win of the year.
The IMCA Northern SportMod feature had a nasty incident in turn four on lap two. Shawn Ritter, Tracy Wassenberg, who opted to have his car towed down from Wisconsin to race, after working in the area all week, and Gatlin Leytham were involved. Wassenberg tried to take evasive action when Ritter lost it, and when all was said and done, Wassenberg ended up on top of, evidently Gatlin Leytam as we noted his roof was caved in as they towed him off. After the carnage was cleared and the race restarted, Ryan Ashton remained in command, Andy Tiernan and Jenae Gustin ready to challenge. That challenge was immediate as Gustin flew to the lead, Tiernan tagging in second. Gustin was on her game, as she pulled away, looking to be totally in command of the race. Then another yellow for a spinning car on lap nine, racked them and stacked them again for a restart. By this time, Clint Luellen had worked his magic on the topside, and was third from starting tenth. Luellen did make the move into second when the race got back underway, but Gustin was showing her poise and talent and holding the lead. Then came fateful lap fourteen when a puff of smoke erupted from Gustin's machine, and her fantastic run was over. Luellen was handed the lead on the restart, Tiernan right behind. Luellen and Tiernan continued their run to the checkers.......avoiding a spinning car that pulled out right in front of them as they approached the finish line in turn four, Luellen taking the victory, Tiernan finishing as the runner up. Tony Olson had a good run in his second appearance at Marshalltown, and scored third place. Sam Wieben was fourth, and Brett Lowry, in a right side caved in car from an incident, came from starting eleventh, to finish fifth. Luellen keeps chalking up the victories this year, taking his sixth win at Marshalltown on the season, and I believe his eleventh over all for 2014. He won back to back at the High Banks.
A nice field of 25 Stock Cars were on hand, all starting the 18-lap A main. It was a no go on the start, when pole sitter Robert Stofer was off power and pulled into the infield, and Adam Rickett spun in turn one before the first lap was scored. The restart found Dave Atcher sitting at the point position for the restart. When things did get underway, Atcher had little trouble in holding on to that lead, until about lap twelve when Donavon Smith came calling. Smith had been reeling in the leader and when he pushed bad in turn four, the gap was closed even more. The final laps saw Atcher and Smith in wheel-to-wheel action, but Atcher held him off, and scored the win. Smith finished as the runner up and adds to his point lead, Trent Murphy was third. Michael Jaennette was involved in an accident in his heat race, and had to start on the back row, but flew through the field to finish fourth. Jay Schmidt had his car, "Black Betty" back and ran toward the front all night, and had a fifth place finish. I was trying to catch the announcer's comments about the last time that Atcher had won at Marshalltown and I believe I understood it to be back in May of 2009 when he won a special, but previous to that, his last season point win at the track came back in 2006! Atcher brought out his sharp looking car for the first time, just a few weeks ago.
The early portion of the 20-lap Modified feature was between Eric Elliott and Tyler Droste. At lap seven, Droste spun at the bottom of turns one and two, but kept going. Several other cars, however, did not. Elliott, was one of the unfortunate drivers who was not moving when the yellow came out, putting him back at the tail for the restart. Droste was the leader when things got back underway, Luke Wanninger was up to second and Ronn Lauritzen was riding along in third. By lap twelve, Wanninger had taken the lead and Laurtizen had made the pass around Droste as well, and was in second. Wanninger and Lauritzen put on a show in the closing laps as they ran nose to tail with Lauritzen doing everything to find a way around the leader. It was not to be on this night however, as Wanninger kept the lead to the checkers, scoring the win. Lauritzen, finished second and strengthens his track point lead. Droste held on to finish third, Tony Snyder from Redlyn made a first time appearance, and finished fourth. Joel Rust, rookie in the Modified class, rounded out the top five. Wanninger scored back-to-back victories---his fourth of the season plus also winning the pre-season Frostbuster.
The Marshalltown Speedway was celebrating their 50th year of racing last night. On hand were several drivers from some of those earlier years. Dale DeFrance, one of the famous DeFrance racing family was on hand. Ben Schroyer was there as well, the driver who won that first race at the track back on August 17, 1964. Bob Malechek, a Marshalltown native who raced the High Banks of Marshalltown, came back from I believe Texas, for the reunion. Bob Bonzer, who raced out of Liscomb back in the 60's and 70's also made an appearance before the packed grandstand as former track announcer Denny Grabenbauer introduced the honored guests. Three other former drivers were also in attendance---Chuck Anderson, Doug Smith and Tommy Thompson. The latter two being of the most recent active drivers, now retired.
Some other notes on the evening---- It was nice to see the #59 Stock Car on the track again. Tracy Gienger raced for the first time this year. He was heard to say that the car was just sitting in the garage, ready to go, so thought if he brought it out and had fun....so be it. He hasn't lost his touch as he finished second in his heat and finished seventh in the feature with his perfect looking machine as we always remember it from the past.
The program was run through as quickly as possible as the city fireworks show was to begin at 9:45.....right there on the backstretch of the track. All victory lane interviews and pictures were scrapped and each feature brought to the track as soon as one was completed. The spectators for the fireworks came out in droves! The parking lot was PACKED and cars were lined on the road to Highway 30 all along the shoulders. Some people out in the parking lot were curious and walked up to the top of turn one, probably not four feet from the racing surface while the racing was going on. Evidently they had no sense of how dangerous that situation was nor knew anything about racing. They were luckily herded away, but were not happy according to promoter Toby Kruse. If they only realized what a dangerous, dangerous situation that was!
The old announcing team of Denny Grabenbauer and Toby Kruse called much of the racing action last night. It was nostalgic to hear them---"The Denny and Toby Show"--- on the mic again, feeding quip after quip off of each other. All in all, it was a great night of racing.
Thanks for reading and happy racing!
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