Marshalltown Speedway found new faces in Victory Lane on Friday night in the Modified and Hobby Stock classes, while there were repeat winners in the Stock Car, SportMod and Mod Lite divisions. As an added bonus, the Micro Sprints also ran, and it was Skylar Hunter taking the win.
It was Josh May grabbing another win in the Mod Lite 12-lap feature. May snatched the lead from Travis Stensland on lap seven, just after a caution had called for a restart, and from there on, held it to the checkers. Stensland finished in second place, Randy Bryan started seventh and finished third, fourth was eight place starter Cory Sauerman, and Bryan Zehm was fifth. This was May's third win of the point's season.
The 18-lap IMCA Northern SportMod A main went to Jared VanDeest. But not until having to endure yellow flag after yellow flag. Sam Wieben held the early portion of the race, but then tenth place starter VanDeest made the topside work to his advantage, passing Sam Wieben at lap eleven on his way to his sixth win of the season. Seventh place starter, Travis Peterson came home in second, Wieben started eighth and finished third, Shawn Cooney, who had earlier made an attempt to pass leader VanDeest only to loose grip and fall back, finished fourth, and veteran racer Bill Hildreth rounded out the top five. VanDeest added to his point lead at the track with the win. This race was a marathon and after the seventh caution was called, the race was under time limit. It did continue to the full 18-laps.
A new winner came from the IMCA Hobby Stock class when Leah Wroten snatched her first victory at Marshalltown. Wroten, who has just been missing out on that coveted win in recent races, outran point leader Eric Stanton to grab the trophy. Following second place Stanton, was Gene Nicklas in third, fourth went to John Watson, and Tyson Overton was fifth. This was the first time Wroten had ever won at the Marshalltown Speedway. Wroten became the fourth different Hobby Stock winner on the season...joining Eric Stanton with ten wins, Gene Nicklas with two, and Adam Armstrong with one. We noted that Armstrong was back at the Beatrice Speedway in Beatrice, Nebraska last night, (his hometown) and took the win in the SportMod division.
It was an exciting contest in the 20-lap IMCA Stock Car feature. Steve Meyer took the helm from Jeff Wollam at lap three and then Donovan Smith joined in to make it a three-car battle for the lead. The three ran three-wide for several laps. Smith was finally able to slip under Meyer with just two laps remaining to establish the lead, and then kept it to the checkers. Meyer finished as the runner up, Wollam was third, and Tyler Pickett and Kyle Everts completed the top five. This was Smith's fourth win of the season. The previous four week's winner, Damon Murty, was MIA as he made the trip to the Hancock Speedway in Britt, Iowa for the big Stock Car special last evening.
The night's finale was 20-laps of IMCA Modified action. Jake Strayer took command from Gatlin Leytham on lap six but soon had Joel Rust to contend with. Rust, who started eighth made the move around the topside of Strayer, taking the lead at lap eight. Rust then held that top spot to the checkers flying, securing the win. Strayer finished second, third went to eleventh place starter, Jacob Murray, Jimmy Gustin started fourteenth and finished fourth, and Jenae Gustin was fifth. Rust won the Hawkeye Dirt Tour race back on June 7, but this was his first regular season win at Marshalltown in 2016.
Was there a full moon last night? There was a lot of on track incidents and the yellow flag seemed to be constantly flying. The only race that went caution free was the Micro Sprints. Throw in one red flag as well, when visiting Stock Car driver Jon Braanthan from Story City, found himself "wheels up" at the bottom of turns one and two in an incident with another visitor, Chris Luloff from Independence. There were several new drivers last night joining in the fun. Among those were Tyler Inman, Kyle Olson and Brandon Tharp in the Northern SportMod class, Mike Galli raced in the Stock Cars, and Brett Vanous and John Watson competed in the Hobby Stocks.
Next Friday night, the Marshalltown Speedway will start their five-week run with the IMCA Late Models on the docket. The drivers and fans alike love the big wide-bodies on the High Banks at Marshalltown.
Still lots of racing to be found in our neck of the woods. Check out the racing calendar at www.positivelyracing.com for a race to attend. Weekly racing continues at many tracks, plus many specials.
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