Saturday, June 11, 2016

DeFrance takes Late Model win, Ward scores first Modified victory and Stanton stays perfect in Hobby Stocks

Marshalltown Speedway welcomed back the IMCA Late Models Friday, for the second time this week, following up the Deery Brothers Summer Series held on Tuesday.  Darrel DeFrance went home with a win on his hometown track in the Late Models, Tim Ward, the visiting Arizonian, won for the first time in the Modifieds, as did Travis Peterson in the IMCA Northern SportMod division.  Damon Murty won his first regular season race at Marshalltown in the Stock Cars, Joel Glick captured his second win of the season in the Mod Lites, and Eric Stanton remains perfect in the Hobby Stocks for the 2016 season.

Hometown boy, Darrel DeFrance led all 25 laps in the IMCA Late Model feature.  DeFrance set sail and was never challenged on his way to victory.  Jerry King chased DeFrance for much of the race to finish as the runner up.  Third place went to sixth place starter, Paul Nagel, Justin Mitchell started tenth and finished in fourth place, and Curtis Glover rounded out the top five. Only one yellow at lap three slowed the racing action, but it was no hindrance to DeFrance, as he rocketed off on the restart, and put the 99D to the rim of the track. This was the first of eight Late Model races to be held at the High Banks this year.

Tim Ward, snagged his first win at Marshalltown this year in the IMCA Modified class.  The young man from Arizona who is calling Harcourt, Iowa home this Iowa racing season, didn't have it easy in doing so.  Ward started twelfth and had to pass a lot of stout competition.  Eric Elliott led much of the first portion of the 20-lap feature, but Ward took command at the halfway mark and walked away in the closing portion to take a comfortable win.  Twelfth place starter, Richie Gustin, driving Shawn Ritter's car, finished in second, third went to Tom Berry who started seventh, early leader Elliott was fourth, and Jacob Murray finished fifth from starting eighth.

The IMCA Stock Cars ran as a support class on Tuesday for the Deery Brothers Late Model and Hawkeye Dirt Tour doubleheader.  Damon Murty took home the win then.  Tonight, he won for the second time in a week, this time for a regular points show.  Murty started tenth, took over the lead at lap thirteen from then leader Steve Meyer, and pulled away at the end for the easy win. Meyer took the runner up spot, Tyler Pickett started twelfth and finished in third place, fourth went to sixth place starter, Jeff Wollam, and Donavon Smith finished fifth after starting fourteenth.  The race went flag to flag.

Travis Peterson finally got that elusive first win in the IMCA Northern Sport Mod class.  Peterson grabbed the lead from his fifth place starting position at lap three, and led the rest of the way to the checkers.  Sam Wieben just got by Cory Rose at the finish line, as they were scored second and third in that order.  Fourth place finisher was Jared VanDeest and Ethan  Braaksma completed the top five.

In the IMCA Hobby Stock feature, Eric Stanton was looking to keep his perfect season going, as he debuted his new car.  Stanton started eighth and battled his way to third place by lap seven.  However, he had visiting driver Ryan Grochala and August Bach to contend with if he was going to keep the streak alive.  He swung his ride to the topside and as the three raced to the checkers, Stanton was able to get the momentum out of corner four, beating both to the finish line for the win.  Grochala was second over Bach in third, Gary Pfantz took fourth place and Dustin Graham was fifth.  This was Stanton's seventh win of the regular season at Marshalltown.

Joe Glick won for the second time this season in the Mod Lite class.  Glick took command at lap three of the 12-lap feature, and kept it the remaining distance to the win.  Mike Morrill finished in second, Randy Bryan was third, fourth went to Joel Huggins, and Kevin Grisham was fifth.

Notes of the evening:  Fourteen Late Models were on hand.  Richie Gustin for some reason, did not run his heat or feature.  The summer heat was evident last night, with a strong southerly breeze.  I don't think anyone was thinking that rain could hamper the night's racing, but the "zero percent chance" of rain, suddenly changed as a BIG blob showed up on radar to the north. The winds also changed about Modified feature time, and began blowing from the north.  Thankfully, nothing more than Mother Nature's light show came of it during the races.  However, we heard later that Marshalltown had strong winds and 3.75 inches over night.  In the Mod Lite division, Larry Sorenson went for a ride, clipping a car sitting between turns one and two, and barrel rolled several times.  He emerged from his ride, unhurt.  There were several visiting drivers that normally race at Des Moines on Friday night's.  Due to the World Pork Expo, there was no racing at the Iowa State Fair Speedway. Many of the Late Model racers normally raced at Des Moines, but some of the other classes also had visiting racers.  We noticed  Ryan Grochala and August Bach in the Hobby Stocks, Ben Wilson in the SportMod division, Damon Murty and Donovan Nunnikhoven in the Stock Cars, and Scott Davis in Modifieds.

Be sure and check the calendar at www.positivelyracing.com for the many racing events going on in our area now.  


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