Marshalltown Speedway opened it's regular season of racing on Friday night---their 51st straight year of racing on the fast quarter-mile. It was a chilly, windy night to start things off, with strong gusts out of the northwest. The fans that braved the weather saw 108 cars in competition and some good side-by-side racing.
We saw the Mod Lites for the first time in 2015. They ran a 15-lap main to kick feature racing off. Travis Stensland led the troops early on but had Mike Morrill and Josh May hot on his tail. Soon, it was May taking over and Morrill followed him into the runner up spot. Morrill's night would end, when his machine experienced issues, and he had to exit the race. It was looking as if Josh May was about to take the checkers and now his father, James May was chasing him. However, you can't count it over until someone takes that checkered flag. Josh May was off the pace after taking the white flag, and on this night, it was dad James May taking the trophy home. Chargin' Charlie Brown came home in second, third was Travis Stensland, and Cory Sauerman and Randy Bryan completed the top five.
The IMCA Northern SportMod 18-lap event saw a crowd favorite back in victory lane. Jenae Gustin showed the fellas how it's done, leading the entire race which went flag to flag. She had some company behind her and two of those, Doug Smith and Sam Wieben were going at it tooth and nail. Wieben won that war, slipping by Smith in the closing laps, to take second, leaving Smith to settle for a third place finish. Fourth was Clint Luellen who started eleventh, and Travis Peterson was scored fifth.
After the SportMods had run caution free, it wasn't so for the IMCA Hobby Stocks as they suffered through several of the yellow rag cautions. Their usual 12 lap feature was 14 or 15 laps last night. We will check to see if there has been a change in their class for this year at the track. Marengo, Iowa's Nathan Ballard was looking strong and leading the pack in the early going, but at lap four, Austin Luellen was leading. Soon, it was a fight behind him with Eric Stanton, and Ballard going at it, Stanton winning out for second place. It was a 3-wide battle going down the back stretch as the race wound down, but Luellen won out, snagging the win. This is Luellen's second win of 2015 at the fast 1/4 mile as he won the Frostbuster last Friday. Ballard was the runner up, followed by Stanton, Dustin Elliott, and Jamie Songer third through fifth. Stanton started eleventh on the field and Songer came from fifteenth.
The Class too Tough to Tame, the IMCA Stock Cars was up next. They went fast and furious throughout their caution free 18-laps. Steve Meyer took the initial lead until Jaennette took over. Then up front, it was Michael Jaennette, Jay Schmidt and Steve Meyer putting on the show for the fans. Schmidt briefly took the lead on the backstretch just after a handful of laps was in the books, but Jaennette grabbed it back by the time they passed the flagstand. Meyer was still in the picture too, and now Donavon Smith and Damon Murty wanted a taste of the action as well. When the checkers flew, it was Jaennette keeping hold of that top spot, winning it easily. A distance behind in second, it was Steve Meyer, and Donavon Smith a close third. Fourth went to Chelsea Charger, Damon Murty who came from eleventh starting spot, and Jay Schmidt rounded out the top five.
The final feature was 20-laps of Modified racing. A surprise visitor on the night, Kelly Shryock, was the lucky recipient of the pole redraw position. I think many in the crowd were thinking it was over with the veteran Shryock on the pole. Tonight, that didn't happen. A yellow flew at lap six when Rod Clement left the track over turn two, and Shryock was still claiming the number one spot, but Ronn Lauritzen, defending track champion had other things in mind as he sat in second. On the restart though it was the car sitting in third, Josh, "Happy" Gilman, that got the jump on both Shryock and Lauritzen, snapping up the lead. A few laps later, Lauritzen got around Shryock and the 10K "Frozen" ride of Lauritzen, was setting his sights on Gilman now. Lauritzen dipped low in an effort to get under Gilman, but it just wouldn't stick. Gilman claimed the win, Lauritzen going second. Third went to new to the class, Brian Irvine, the veteran Stock Car racer who jumped up to Modifieds this year and who had started seventeenth on the field. Kelly Shryock took fourth place and fifteenth place starter, Justin Medler, the North Dakota racer who is hanging around the area for some early season racing, was fifth.
The fans were all thankful that the wind died down about the time the features began, but it was still a cold night sitting in the stands. We weathered it well though, but are sure hoping that Spring finally gets here and no more of this cold and windy stuff! Racing continues for the season next Friday night at Marshalltown Speedway. Hot laps are 6:50 and racing at 7:30.
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