When we left Mt. Pleasant late Friday afternoon the sun was shining, the winds were calm and the temperature was in the low 70's. Just over two hours later as we made our way into the Marshalltown Speedway the winds were howling out of the north northwest and the temperature was dropping, but thankfully the sun was still shining and because of that promoter Toby Kruse was finally able to kickoff the 2018 season at the quarter-mile highbanks.
With that stiff wind blowing right into the grandstand it was a tough night to watch dirt track racing, but as usual the action at Marshalltown made it worth the effort, especially in the 20-lap $1,000-to-win IMCA Modified main event. Forty-three drivers had signed in, not a slouch among them, and it was an accomplishment just to make show proven by the fact that the first non-transfer in the two B-Mains were Jeff Aikey and Kyle Brown.
Joel Rust would race off to a sizable early lead as drivers raced three and four wide behind him with slide jobs going on in nearly every set of turns. Tim Ward soon cleared himself into second and Hunter Marriott made his way into third, but by now Rust had more than a straightway on Ward with Marriott several car lengths behind him. The racing remained intense behind them though and on lap fourteen while battling for seventh Tyler Droste and Ricky Thornton Jr. made contact coming off turn four with Thornton also slapping the wall. His car suffered enough damage that it would not turn as he entered turn one and he went over the top of the race track. Lap fifteen was scored before the caution waved as Thornton then slowly drove down the back stretch.
With no caution Rust would have cruised to the win, but now he had Ward and Marriott lined up right behind him and ready to challenge with just five laps remaining. Marriott moved to second and was able to put a nose under the leader in the corners with Rust holding steady running the higher line and using the momentum off the turns to maintain the lead. With two to go though the leader went into turn three a little lower, so Marriott went high and then shot off of turn four to pull even with Rust on the low side. As those two ran lap nineteen wheel-to-wheel, just behind them Tyler Droste had charged into the mix throwing a big slider at Ward so on the final lap the top two, Rust and Marriott were side-by-side and right behind them Droste and Ward were wheel to wheel. The nice crowd on hand risked losing their warm blankets to get to their feet for this one as the four drivers crossed the finish line in tight fashion with Rust nosing out Marriott for the win and Droste nipping Ward for third. And just behind them California driver Ethan Dotson was taking fifth.
The first three features of the night all had a driver that would have been considered the pre-race favorite find victory lane. In the Sport Mods it took Jared VanDeest four laps to work his way past Travis Storjohann, but once he did "The Beast" went unchallenged to take the win. Brayton Carter started tenth and finished in second. Austin Luellen apparently had an issue in tech following his heat race as he had to come back and transfer from the B-Main to start in the twenty-second position. Using a lap three restart to his advantage Luellen then picked his way toward the front to finish in the third position with Dusty Masolini fourth and Sam Wieben from the seventh row to fifth.
It took four tries to get the Hobby Stock feature started and on that fourth try Shannon Anderson moved from fourth to first on the opening lap. Worthington, Minnesota driver Keeran Sampson first challenged Anderson, then after a lap seven restart Justin Wacha was able to pull even in the corners but could not take the lead. Following a lap ten caution Eric Stanton moved to second and while he was able to keep pace with Anderson running the same line around the track, when he tried to challenge down low Stanton would lose ground so he settled in for second as Anderson secured the win. Gene Nicklas lined up eleventh on the original starting grid and finished third, Wacha was fourth and Sampson completed the top five.
After the delays in the Hobby Stock main event it was a blessing to have the Stock Cars go twenty laps non-stop with Jay Schmidt the early leader. He was being stalked by Damon Murty though and on lap nine Murty powered by for the lead in turn two. As Murty pulled away to chalk up another win at Motown the battle for second was interesting as Schmidt rode the top side while Jeff Mueller catfished down low. In the end it would be Mueller prevailing for second with Schmidt in third as Paul Shepard and Tyler Pickett filled out the top five.
The Late Models were set to close out the evening and on lap two Joe Zrostlik got a bit loose exiting turn two and when he over corrected on the back stretch contact with another car caused the back half of the eleven car field to pile up at full speed. Todd Cooney went over the top of the track, hit a dirt mound and rolled his car while his teammate Curtis Glover caught the nose of another car and put his Late Model upside down as well. We waited to confirm that all drivers were okay, but with the clock nearing eleven and it being likely that only six or seven cars would restart we decided to pack up and hit the road for home. A check of the results this morning show that Darrel DeFrance went flag-to-flag to score the win at his hometown track, Chad Holladay was second followed by Rob Toland, Curt Schroeder and Luke Pestka.
If you are a fan of slide jobs, and tell me who isn't, you will be a fan of the Marshalltown Speedway and it was fun to introduce my Positively Racing colleague Danny Rosencrans to the highbanks for his first visit. It was also good to see our resident Super Fan Ed Reichert in attendance and as always it was a treat to have seat next to Dick and Joyce Eisele. Don't forget that you can always get the reports from Marshalltown as well as Boone and Oskaloosa at their 4dFan Report on Positively Racing. And as I link each of their blogs this morning it looks like I have the first post up, but check back soon for their coverage of night one of the Highbanks Hustle.
That is likely all of the racing for me this weekend as tonight I am going to see the ACM Vocal Group of the Year Old Dominion at Carver Hawkeye and on Saturday it will be the blue oval for me with the Drake Relays. Sunday will likely be a day of Spring cleanup around the house, but hopefully you have one, two or even three shows in your plans this weekend so have fun out there on the Back Stretch!
No comments:
Post a Comment