Irvine Remains Perfect at Marshalltown, Collects $1,000 Stock Car Shootout Victory

Put night number one of the IMCA Great American Stock Car Shootout in the books and, when you do, you will note that there were no real surprises at the top of chart in Marshalltown Monday night. Ninety-eight cars pulled to central Iowa on an absolutely beautiful night for racing that saw plenty of action not only in the Stock Cars, but in the Sport Mods and Hobby Stocks as well.

It took six heat races and three B-Mains to whittle the 52-car field down to 24 starters for the IMCA Stock Car main event with David Smith and Abe Huls drawing the front row start. Huls out of Carthage, Illinois, likely had some of the central Iowa fans wondering just who the heck he was as he jumped to the lead and started to put a little room between himself and Smith before the thirty-lap event’s one and only caution flag waved on lap six. On the restart Brian Irvine found the bite off the bottom of turn two and slipped by Huls for the lead down the backstretch. Irvine had made two trips to Marshalltown Speedway so far in 2010 and on both of them he had ended the night in victory lane and he had every intention of making it three in a row here this evening.

Not that Irvine needed the help, but with potential contenders locked in battle two and three-wide just behind him nobody was able to ever mount a true challenge on him as Brian cruised to the $1,000 victory. Dustin Smith, Huls and Damon Murty went three-wide for second on laps seventeen and eighteen with Smith emerging from that battle to take the runner-up honors. Murty would take home third-place money while Donavon Smith slipped by Huls late to finish fourth. Trent Murphy was sixth, Kyle Frederick came from row seven to finish seventh and David Smith wound up eighth.

Brian Irvine working the low line to perfection at Marshalltown - Barry Johnson photo

Twenty-three IMCA Sport Mods kicked off the evening with an entertaining twenty-lap money chase with the young lady Jenae Gustin pacing the field through the early laps. Fourteen-year-old Cayden Carter had started next to Gustin on the front row and on lap five he was finally able to make his way into the lead and he never looked back as he cruised to another win at the high-banked quarter-mile. Kyle Brown worked his way forward from row four to pass Dylan Book for second on the final lap while Book, in a last ditch effort to regain that second spot, drove over the top of turn three and never made it to the checkers. This moved Scott Davis up to third, Fred Leytham would finish fourth and Gustin rounded out the top five.

Jenae Gustin (19J) and Cayden Carter lead the field to the green in the IMCA Sport Mod main event - Barry Johnson photo

The IMCA Hobby Stock finale came to a grinding halt on lap four went Jacob Thompson went for a wild ride off the top of turn one rolling his car and winding up in and around some of the track prep equipment. Thompson got out of his car, but the EMT’s thought that it would be wise to transport him to make sure that all was well. After the delay Todd Reitzler in the Two Old Bags Purse Parties Special picked up where he left off leading all twenty-laps on his way to a second straight victory here at Marshalltown. It was not an easy one though as Scott Logrosso applied the pressure on Reitzler through most of the race and in the closing laps it was Jason Kohl who stuck his nose in under the leader, but both of those drivers would be involved in a wild five-car battle for second at the end. They were racing four-wide for second coming to the white flag and the scorer’s had to have a sharp eye and nimble fingers at the checkers as not much more than three car-lengths separated second through sixth. Michael Murphy, who had started tenth, would wind up second just ahead of Josh Irvine who came from dead last, twenty-second to finish third. Curt Ganoe would nip Logrosso at the line for fourth. Ganoe did this after restarting from the rear after changing a flat tire early in the race and Jason Kohl, who two laps earlier actually nosed into the lead briefly through turns one and two, would be shuffled back to sixth.

Jason Kohl (27) noses ahead of Todd Reitzler with three lap remaining in the Hobby Stock feature - Barry Johnson photo

M-town Notes…..If you did the research after the races you would have found that the Stock Car field had drivers from Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Nebraska and Kansas on hand…..When you have a show like this every lap of every race counts as only the top two from the heats and the top four from the B-Mains would make the feature while the remaining twenty-eight drivers would load ‘em up and watch……Steve Meyer swept past Kyle Frederick on the high side of turn four on the final lap to take second in the first heat. Meyer would later retire early from the feature while Frederick would win a B and advance through the feature field to finish seventh…..Jay Schmidt started shotgun on the nine-car field in the second heat and sped through to victory…..Mike VanGenderen made a final lap move on Trevor Titus to finish second in the fifth heat…..Dustin Smith started eighth in the sixth heat before winning ahead of Garden City, Kansas, driver Rod Wadel. This race featured plenty of four-wide action at the front of the field…..The 2009 Shootout Series point champion Jeff Joldersma came up one spot shy from qualifying out of the second B-Main……The series moves to “The Beaver” tonight (Tuesday) then on to the Independence Motor Speedway on Wednesday and wraps up at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson on Thursday night……Don’t worry Chad, none of the embedded links will get you into trouble at work!

A big thanks to promoter Toby Kruse and his entire crew for putting a spectacular Monday night show that saw the final checkered flag wave right at ten o’clock.

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