Saturday, June 6, 2015

Three in a row for Luellen in Hobby Stocks at Marshalltown

We were back at our Friday night home last night....the Marshalltown Speedway.  We saw some great racing action, close finishes, a driver continues his dominance in the Hobby Stock class, and another grabbed a first win of the year----plus it was a beautiful night!

The new winner for the season came out of the Mod Lite feature.  Joel Huggins quickly got to the lead from his eighth place starting spot, and dominated the race.  Randy Bryan led the early laps until Joel Huggins took command with a handful of laps down.  From there on he led the field the rest of the way to the checkers, securing his first feature win at Marshalltown in 2015.  Travis Stensland finished second, third went to ninth place starter Mike Kennedy, fourth was Josh May and Randy Bryan finished in fifth with Mike Morrill close behind in sixth. 

Rookie Dusty Masolini who moved up from the Mod Lite class this year, led the 18-lap SportMod feature past the halfway mark of the race. That's when Travis Peterson came calling and snatched up the top spot by lap thirteen.  Peterson, who had started ninth was soon to have his hands full with the 80J of Jared VanDeest.  VanDeest had started twelfth, went to the topside of the track...his preferred line, and was coming fast!  A yellow flew at lap fourteen and by that time VanDeest had made it into second place behind leader Peterson.  The final few laps saw VanDeest go back to the top on his quest.....making it pay off on the final dash to the finish line. VanDeest took the win, Peterson was second.  Third went to tenth place starter, Sam Wieben, fourth to eleventh place starter Clint Luellen and Dusty Masolini was fifth.  This was VanDeest's second win at Marshalltown this year.

Austin Luellen continues his domination in the IMCA Hobby Stock class.  Luellen started eighth and was in the lead by lap four.  He kept that top spot the rest of the way to the checkers.  Eric Stanton came from ninth starting spot to finish as the runner up.  Bryce Udelhoven, a regular last season, made his first appearance of the year, started tenth and finished in third. Gary Pfantz was fourth and Andy Hick was fifth. Luellen's win marked his sixth of the regular point's season, plus also having won the Frostbuster special.  He and Stanton are still the only Hobby Stock winners at Marshalltown this year.

Nick Thelen led the first two laps of the 18-lap IMCA Stock Car main, but eighth place starter Donavon Smith had gotten to his bumper by then, and the following lap, was scored the leader.  Smith was content to let those behind him fight it out for position while he maintained his time as captain of the ship.  Smith went on to claim the win, his fourth this year.  Finishing in second place was Michael Jaennette.  Jaennette had tried reeling in the leader, but had to settle for the runner up spot.  Third was Dave Atcher who is an occasional racer at the track due to his work schedule, fourth went to Trent Murphy and Steve Meyer recovered nicely, after being involved in an on track incident that sent him many positions back in the field, but still taking home a fifth place finish.

There was a wild finish behind the leader in the IMCA Modified feature!  The 20-lap event began with Adam Larson snapping up the top spot at lap one, swung his ride to the top of the track and was on a rail!  Larson was still riding his precarious line at the very top of the track at lap nine, but Jammin' Jimmy Gustin was working the bottom and making headway.  Gustin sneaked under Larson on lap ten and took over the top spot.  The latter portion of the race was all behind the leader.  Larson, Richie Gustin and Ronn Laurtizen were battling it out.  When a yellow flew at lap eighteen, setting up a green-white-checkered frantic dash to the finish, it was Jimmy Gustin on the point, Larson riding in second, Richie Gustin in third and Lauritzen in fourth.  Jimmy took off and was pretty comfortable at the front, but as the white flag was coming out, Richie Gustin made a sliding pass around Larson as they came out of turn four, not getting the job done.  Everyone knew that wasn't going to be the final attempt however!  Jimmy Gustin got to the finish line first, scoring the win, but Larson and Richie Gustin still had that fourth corner to attempt on their dash to the checkers!  Richie Gustin tried the slide job one more time, some contact was made between him and Larson, and that was just enough for an alert Lauritzen to take advantage and shoot by both of them, scoring the runner up spot.  Larson stayed just ahead of  Richie Gustin as they finished third and fourth respectively.  Jon Snyder rounded out the top five.  This was Jimmy Gustin's second win at the track this season.

Marshalltown Speedway returns to action for another regular night of racing, next Friday night, June 12.  Hot laps at 6:50 and racing at 7:30.

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