We arrived at the track just in time to see the second heat of Modified racing. We had an earlier commitment to see our granddaughter graduate from Preschool in Norwalk. We wouldn't have missed it for the world, but it sure was good to get back to some dirt track racing after missing all racing last weekend due to "whatever we had".
Veteran driver Mike Morrill earned his way into Victory Lane in the Mod Lite division. Morrill, who started eighth, finished comfortably ahead of second place Randy Bryan. Bryan had to realign at the tail of the field after a lap one incident, and worked his way to the runner up spot. Third went to sixth place starter Joel Huggins, Bryan Zehm came from twelfth place to finish fourth, and tenth place starter Josh May completed the top five.
Travis Peterson took his first win of the season in the IMCA Northern SportMod class in a close fought 18-lap battle throughout the field. Peterson was able to fight past Ryan King to take the lead with just a lap remaining, to take checkers. Kyle Olson slipped by King in the waning moments to finish second, King falling to a close third place finish. Fourth was Sully, Iowa's Cory VanZante who had started twelfth, and Thomas Egenberger, who was an early leader, fell to fifth. Petersen is a second generation driver, as his father Duane also use to wheel a race car around the dirt ovals.
Bill Bonnett, veteran racer and former IMCA National Champion, captured the win in the IMCA Hobby Stocks. Bonnett started fifth, and had the lead at lap two. He was able to hold off two hard chargers at the finish line. Eric Knutson started tenth and finished as the runner up, and Shannon Anderson came from twelfth to finish a close third. Fourth went to defending track champion Eric Stanton, and lady racer Leah Wroten started nineteenth and rounded out the top five.
The IMCA Stock Cars put on their usual excellent show in their 18-lap main event. Damon Murty looked destined to take home another of his many wins as he led from the drop of the green. However, it was the 22R of Todd Reitzler, who decided to dust off the topside side and "run where they ain't", and made it work! The final few laps saw Reitzler reel in the leader, and burst past Murty for the win. Murty had to be content with second, third went to Steve Meyer, last week's winner Jeff Mueller was fourth, and Michael Jaennette was fifth. I believe this was Reitzler's first time winning at Marshalltown.
Eric Elliott won the IMCA Modified 20-lap feature, his first since last May. Elliott started seventh and took the lead just before the half-way point of the race. From there on, he kept that top spot all the way to the flying checkers. Zach Rawlins finished a strong second, holding back third place finisher Trent Jackson who had started ninth, and Jake Strayer and Ryan Leeman finished fourth and fifth respectively.
The evening ended with the running of the 20-lap feature for the IMCA Late Models. Most of the race was a three-car breakaway battle up front with Todd Cooney, Darrel DeFrance and last week's winner Justin Mitchell. Cooney was the victor of the three, as he took home the win. DeFrance took the runner up spot and Mitchell was third. Ben Seeman was fourth and Kyle Hinrich was fifth.
There was a heart-stopping moment in the first heat of Late Models. Gage Umbarger appeared to be dead in the water on the front stretch, with cars bearing down on him. With no where to go, cars piled up, "Hollywood" Jason Hahne getting the worst of the deal as he flipped violently. Thankfully, he was okay, but the car was not as fortunate. Also involved was former IMCA Late Model rookie, Paul Nagle, and Tyler Bruening, After the clean up, the field of Late Models had the four cars eliminated from further competition for the night.
The track turned black by the end of the night and drivers were picking their line. Some made the top line work to their advantage, while others worked down low. It made for some excellent racing through out the night.
The track turned black by the end of the night and drivers were picking their line. Some made the top line work to their advantage, while others worked down low. It made for some excellent racing through out the night.
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