It's that time of the year when we start hitting a lot of county fairs when we attend races, and Marshalltown last evening was our first. The Central Iowa Fair shared the fairgrounds with the Marshalltown Speedway. New winners came out of the Modified and SportMod classes while those in the Stock Car, Hobby Stock and Mod Lite divisions saw repeat winners.
The Mod Lite 15-lap feature kicked off the night's main event racing and it was Mike Morrill stepping back into victory lane. Morrill grabbed the lead away from Charlie Brown at lap seven and pulled away to secure the comfortable win. Randy Bryan started eighth and finished in the runner up spot, third went to Charlie Brown, fourth was Joe Glick and fifth was ninth place starter, Josh May. Morrill, who had started sixth in the starting line up, took his second win of the year. As is his tradition, he gave his trophy to a lucky youngster who was among many lined up hoping to be the recipient.
Brandon Williams finally made his way to the winner's circle in the IMCA Northern SportMod class. He has often been a top finisher, the win just out of reach until now. He had to fight by Sam Wieben and then early leader Frank Packer....the Aussie boy who has been running in the area lately, in order to get to the top spot. He took command at lap ten and in the final laps, stretched his lead for the easy win. Sam Wieben started eighth and claimed the runner up spot, Frank Packer was third, fourth went to tenth place starter Jared VanDeest and Ryan King was fifth. Williams started seventh on his way to his first win at Marshalltown since a year ago in June.
As I've mentioned previously, there have only been two different winners in the IMCA Hobby Stock class at Marshalltown this year---Eric Stanton and Austin Luellen. Tonight, only Stanton was in attendance as Luellen was MIA. But....the trend continues as Stanton won, his second in a row and fourth over all at the track this year. Stanton came from starting ninth to claim the top spot at lap five and from there, drove off from the field. Grinnell's Gene Nicklas came from seventh to finish as the runner up just ahead of third place finisher Garrett Eilander who had started eighth. Tyson Overton came from eleventh to finish fourth and pole sitter Jason Cox held on for a fifth place finish. The race went green to checkers.
The 18-lap IMCA Stock Car feature was led in the early laps by JD Kennedy. Last week's winner Robert Stofer was quickly up to pester him and claiming the lead by lap six. A few laps later, as Stofer rode comfortably in the #1 spot, behind him was a dogfight between Tyler Pickett and Donavon Smith battling for the #2 spot. When a yellow flew at lap 11, Smith had wrestled the runner up spot away from Pickett, and was now happy to be sitting right behind leader Stofer for the restart. The following laps were a case of Stofer protecting the top side as Smith...who usually prefers it low, looked for a way around him. After several attempts at making a run around the outside of the leader coming out of turn four, Smith suddenly dipped low as they looked to have lap fifteen entered in the books, and made the spurt to the inside of Stofer for the lead. Smith kept the lead the remaining distance to the checkers and the win. Stofer finished in second, third went to Trent Murphy, fourth to Tyler Pickett and Michael Jaennette rounded out the top five. Smith, who had started tenth, made this his fifth trip to victory lane at Marshalltown for the 2015 season and is the point leader.
A driver showed up last week in the IMCA Modified division that we've seen very little of the past few years. This week, he stood in the winner's circle! Corey Dripps was the man in command of the 20-lap feature as soon as the race went green. He never relinquished it, leading all laps to the checkers and the win. He had a battle brewing behind him as several drivers went at it for a top spot. It was Jimmy Gustin just getting past Josh Gilman on the final lap as they finished second and third in that order. Fourth was Eric Elliott who had hounded Dripps earlier in the race, and fifth place went to eighth place starter, Ronn Lauritzen.
There was a surprise driver in the DC5 Mod Lite car tonight....none other than Jammin' Jimmy Gustin. Gustin was doing very well in his heat race, having just passed for third.....when....oops! Jammin' Jimmy Gustin was more like Leaping Jimmy Gustin as he catapulted off of turn two in three or four flips. He emerged at the top of the track and was okay, but the car never made it out for the feature.
Regular racing resumes next week at the Marshalltown Speedway where it will be KMJ Performance Night and Marshalltown Police Night at the races. Hot laps are 6:50 and racing at 7:30.
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