The 2009 racing season in the state of Iowa got underway Friday night as just over 200 racecars in five classes overflowed the pits at Marshalltown Speedway for the annual "Frostbuster" event. Yes, it was a bit chilly, but the temperatures were right around normal for this time of year as it was 55 degrees when I pulled into the parking lot at 6 p.m. and 39 degrees when the final checkered flag waved at just a few minutes past midnight. If you were bundled up, as the majority of the packed house was, then the weather was not a factor, but I did see at least five or six teenagers there prowling behind the grandstands wearing shorts and a hooded sweatshirt. Ah, today's youth.....you just gotta love their individualism!
Even they were probably warmed up by the racing action tonight as it was evident that promoter Toby Kruse and his crew have worked very hard on this racing surface over the past few weeks. Racing grooves could be found from top to bottom and I never did see a rut or ripple causing cars to jump around all night. Sixty-six IMCA Modifieds including one from California, one from Saskatchewan and a bunch from Wisconsin were on hand and the field was stacked from top to bottom, so just making the twenty-four car feature field tonight was an accomplishment. Chris Abelson started outside of row one in the twenty-five lap finale and snared the early lead while the field raced three and four wide behind him. On lap six The Sioux City hotshoe pushed the cushion just a little too hard and slipped off the topside of turn two fading several spots and turning the lead over to a fifth starting Jordan Grabouski. With Troy Cordes in pursuit "Grabo" maintained about a four car-length advantage over the next several laps and was able to set that advantage once again after a pair of restarts. With laps winding down the lead pair closed in on lapped traffic and that is when things started to heat up. Cordes closed in on the leader and as the two worked lapped traffic Jay Noteboom, who had started tenth, looked to make it a three car battle for the top.
Cordes made a run at Grabouski on the low side of three and four with two laps to go, but could not make it stick so he regrouped and gave it one last shot on the final lap. With a pair of lapped cars just ahead running in his high groove Grabouski held his line as Cordes drove hard to the bottom of turn three. Cordes nosed ahead momentarily in the apex of the turn while Noteboom looked to slingshot off the bottom of four to beat them both. The crowd rose to their feet as Cordes and Grabouski exited turn four wheel-to-wheel and it was the momentum off the high side that allowed Jordan Grabouski to nose ahead at the stripe for the victory. Noteboom was a close third while Jimmy Gustin, who started next to Noteboom in row five finished fourth and Ryan Ruter who appeared to be an early contender settled for fifth.
The IMCA Stock Cars always put on a show and at Marshalltown this night we saw them go five-wide on a couple of occasions. Sean Johnson of Independence paced the first two laps of the main event, but on a lap three single file restart Dustin Smith charged from third to first off of turn two. Smith, the defending All Iowa Points champion and the defending champion of this event, looked like he might walk away with this one until the closing laps when Ryan Gustin and Damon Murty made their charge. Gustin, driving John Hunnell's #62 that his father Rick has wheeled for the past few seasons, was driving like a teenager wearing shorts on a cold April night trying to get to somewhere warm working his way up from twelfth to second and closing quickly on Smith. Damon Murty sprung to life as well in the final laps to make it a three car battle and when Gustin made a slight bobble with two to go, Murty was able to take over the runner-up spot and take one last shot at the lead. There was no getting by Dustin Smith though as he held his line and cruised to victory ahead of Murty and Gustin. Dusty Vis who challenged Smith early in the race finished in the fourth spot while Michael Jeannette was impressive in fifth.
The cream definitely rose to the top in the Sport Mod division as Kevin Sather and Luke Wanninger finished one-two in the main event. Sather can win from anywhere, but on this night he drew the pole position for his heat race and then again drew the pole for the main event as he was never headed on the night. Wanninger had to work a bit harder for his runner-up spot as he started seventh and prevailed in a tight battle with Nate Chodur who finished third. Kyle Brown and Scott Davis had quite a battle of their own going back and forth before Brown prevailed for fourth with Davis settling for fifth.
Devin Smith controlled the Hobby Stock division going flag to flag for the victory and reminding everybody that once again the Lake City Iowa Smith brothers are going to be a force to reckon with again in 2009. Terry Shaffar held off Todd Reitzler to finish second with Brandon Pruitt fourth and Adam Armstrong made a pass of Steve Jones off turn four to finish fifth.
Random Notes
The count I had based upon drivers that were given in the heat race lineups were 66 Modifieds, 49 Sport Mods, 35 each in the Stock Cars and the Hobby Stocks and 18 Mod-Lites for a total of 203 although they announced that 205 were on hand. Either way it was a fantastic field of cars on what turned out to be a pretty nice night for racing.....Randy Brown of Chowchilla CA finished third in the fifth Modified heat and made the feature. The driver from Saskatchewan Devin Hummel (sp?) was very fast and was running fourth in his heat before he spun out on the final lap. That fourth position would have put him on the pole of a B-Main later in the evening. He also spun in the B-Main ending his night.....Two cars got upside down on the night the worst being a Modified B-Main crash where Erc Van Iten of Green Bay WI got into the frontstretch wall and rolled hard before being hit by Kyle Krampe who had nowhere to go. Van Iten crawled out uninjured but his used up racecar was dragged to the infield for pickup after the races. In the Stock Car B-Main Don Vis was part of a thrilling battle that saw drivers running five-wide for two laps until a skirmish on the back stretch left Vis upside down......Two drivers in that five-car Stock Car tussle were contenders Mike VanGenderen and Jeff Mueller. Van Genderen actually finished fourth in his heat race and would have been qualified for the A-Main except for the fact that he ran the final five laps on a flat left rear tire. Rules state that if you have a flat tire you will be black flagged, and he was for at least three laps, so his finish did not count. Mueller, who made the trip up from New London, started ninth in his heat and charged up to second only to be disqualified in tech for an illegal carburetor. Both drivers would be caught up in the Vis accident and have to retire to the pits with damage on the front end of VanGenderen's car and a flat tire for Mueller.....Back to the Smith brothers for a moment. Last year Dustin was the All Iowa Points Stock Car champion while Donavon finished third and in the final All Iowa Hobby Stock points Doug and Devin were second and third respectively behind Shannon Anderson, and Daniel Smith finished 18th in a list 339 Four-Cylinder drivers. Could they win three All Iowa titles in 2009? Doug is helping their chances of doing just that as he has moved to the Sport Mod division this season winning heat race number four tonight before struggling a bit in the main event.....2007 All Iowa Points Limited Modified champion Brett Moffitt brought out the first caution in the Sport Mod main spinning to the infield on lap two......Steve Meyer won the Stock Car B-Main to start twenty-first on the grid for the feature and moved quickly up to fifth before his motor let go mid-race.....Promoter Toby Kruse noted that since he doesn't have any commitments now on Saturdays he would auction off his services in order to raise money to build new bleachers for the "east siders" to match what has already been completed on the west side. For the high bidder Kruse said that he would come to their house, mow their lawn and then provide the food for a backyard barbecue that he would prepare. Last I heard the bid was over $200, but I'm not sure that they ever closed it out. If not Toby, I have over an acre for you to mow and two hungry college boys who will be back in June. I'm sure that I'll get my two hundred dollars worth!......The Frostbuster for tonight (Saturday the 4th) at Webster City was cancelled early in the day on Friday due to track conditions and an unfavorable forecast. The IMCA travelers have two events to choose from tonight (Saturday the 4th) as the SuperNationals Shakedown is scheduled for the Boone Speedway and 34 Raceway near Burlington hosts a Frostbuster of its own with IMCA sanctioned Modifieds and Stock Cars along with 305 Sprints, Hobby Stocks and Four-Cylinders......The Frostbuster at Vinton for Sunday night is still on if the weathermen have totally missed this one! The opening night for Quincy Raceway has already been postponed from Sunday April 5th to Sunday April 12th due to the forecast.
Look for additional reports from Marshalltown on the 4D Fan Report and TapFan's Tours at http://www.positivelyracing.com/. See you in Burlington tonight!
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