Saturday, April 16, 2016

Irvine takes season opener at Marshalltown Speedway

Marshalltown Speedway got it's season point's night started last night, and the comfort conditions were a whole lot better than one week ago for the Frostbuster!  A good field of cars was on hand, 115 by my count, plus ten Micro Sprints that were added to the show.  With added payouts in most of the classes, it bought out a contingency of excellent cars. The Modifieds paid $1,000 to win courtesy of Speed Shift TV.  The Stock Car winner got $600 and the Hobby Stock paid $400, courtesy of Sleeping Angels Foundation.

The Micro Sprints ran a 12-lap feature race.  The 23T of Travis Rewerts dominated this contest, leading it from start to finish.  

The Mod Lites ran a 15-lap main event.  Jason Whitehead led this one for the first two laps, but it was Randy Bryan taking the reins by lap three.  From there on, Bryan held that top spot, all the way to the checkers.  Mike Morrill chased Bryan much of the race, but could only watch from a distance at the checkers with his runner up spot.  A close third place went to Eric Turner.  Joe Glick and Justin Rankin rounded out the top five.

The IMCA Northern SportMod ran 20 laps and there was close racing throughout the entire race.  When all was said and done, it was Jared VanDeest standing in victory lane....his steady run at the top of the track paying off.  He took the top spot away from Sam Wieben at lap 11 and kept it to the finish.  Much scrambling went on behind him, cars swapping positions 2-5 constantly.  In the end, it was last week's Frostbuster winner, Randy Roberts holding down second spot.  Third was Austin Luellen, who out dueled fourth place finisher Sam Wieben, and Clint Luellen was fifth.

The $400 pay day in the Hobby Stocks went to Eric Stanton.  Stanton drew the pole and kept that #1 spot the entire 15-laps.  He held second place finisher Nathan Ballard at bay all contest long.  Third was Tim Barber, Gary Pfantz was fourth and eleventh place starter, Gene Nicklas was fifth.

The Class too Tough to Tame, the IMCA Stock Cars ran a 20-lap feature for their $600 to win event.  Steve Meyer snatched up the lead at lap one from starting outside the front row.  He had plenty of challengers during the race however.  David Brandies and Devin Smith (younger brother of Donavon who runs the same class) were looking for anyway around leader Meyer, but he held fast to the coveted top spot.  Seventh place starter, Tyler Pickett threw his hat in the ring as well, When a caution flew at lap thirteen, it was Meyer still leading, and Pickett had moved to second ahead of Devin Smith, Trent Murphy and Donavon Smith.  Meyer was able to fend off the advances on the restart and maintained the lead to the checkers flying.  Devin Smith took the runner up spot, getting around Tyler Pickett in third.  Donavon Smith, who started fourteenth, was fourth, and Trent Murphy came from twelfth starting spot, to finish fifth.

The 25-lap IMCA Modified A main, completed the night's racing, and it was a fight to the finish between two #26 cars.  Joel Rust was the lucky recipient of the redraw, getting the #1 spot to start the race.  He took advantage of that, flying to the lead, and stretching it out.  Fifth place starter, Tim Ward, the young gun from Arizona who is calling Iowa his home this summer, began to slowly reel in Rust.  A yellow flew at lap fourteen, drawing Ward close for the restart, and Brian Irvine was lurking in third.  The restart worked to Irvine's advantage, getting the drop on Ward, and now he set his sights on leader Rust.  The two 26 cars gave the crowd a thrilling contest to watch as they dug for all they were worth, swapping leads back and forth.  Irvine made his determination work, taking the lead for good at lap twenty-one, and keeping it for the win.  Rust finished what had to be a disappointing second place after leading most of the race.  Tim Ward hung on to third and Kyle Brown, last week's Frostbuster winner, finished fourth after starting in eleventh.  Tom Berry, the driver out of Oregon, completed the top five.

Regular season points racing continues next Friday at the Marshalltown Speedway.  Hot laps at 7 and racing at 7:30.  




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