An interesting mix of twenty IMCA Late Models were on hand and it is easy to tell who is running the Crate motors as they sound like heavy duty vacuum cleaners as they idle by you. But when the green flag drops that rules package seems to be every bit as strong as the traditional spec motors and the speeds were high around the quick quarter-mile. With this being the opening night for track points in this division a draw and redraw format was used and as luck would have it two of the best, Todd Cooney and Justin Kay would pull the front row for the twenty lap main event.
With Cooney racing to the preferred high line into turn one, Kay drove low and deep into that opening corner before drifting up the track exiting turn two to take the lead. No doubt that Cooney would have fired back with a slider of his own, but he now had the fourth starting Joel Callahan next to him and I would have to say that the next five or six laps had to be some of the most entertaining action that I have seen so far this season. As Kay pulled away Cooney and Callahan waged a war for second trading lines, tossing sliders and cross overs at each other and even bending some sheet metal on both cars. Finally Callahan would prevail and settle into second, but by now Kay had put a full straightway between himself and the two warriors.
Lapped traffic provided some challenges, but there would be no stopping Kay from going flag-to-flag for the victory. Callahan would chase him home for second with Cooney finishing third ahead of his teammate Curtis Glover who gets faster every time that I see him. Defending All Iowa Points champion Jeremiah Hurst rounded out the top five after starting ninth. Some of that "interesting mix" of drivers included the return of Jill George, Late Model rookies Dalton Simonsen and Stacy Griffis, the return of Mike Smith driving Blair Barton's #7 and Lake Knutti who made the trip over from Lanark, Illinois.
Ronn Lauriten would pace the first four laps of the Modified finale before Zach Rawlins went over the top of turn two to bring out a caution. On the restart both Joel Rust and Tim Ward would drop Lauritzen from first to third out of turn two with Rust taking the point and while Ward was a rocket in his heat race earlier in the evening, he could not keep up with Rust now as the driver from Grundy Center ran away with the win. Jimmy Gustin started ninth and used the bottom to move all the way up to second on the opening lap finished in the third sport with Jeff Aikey and Lauritzen next in line.
The eighteen lap Sport Mod headliner was a good one even if it did have a few too many cautions and it was some of the division's best that were the culprits. Matthew Webb would lead the opening lap before track point leader Jake McBirnie spun in turn one. On lap two the driver ranked second in points Thomas Egenberger would spin in turn one as well with both drivers now restarting at the rear of the twenty-four car field. On the third lap turn one was again the hot point as Tony Olson and Austin Kaplan tangled to bring out another caution. For the restart I couldn't help but notice that while Kaplan lined up begrudgingly at the rear, Olson only found a spot about mid-pack that seemed to go unnoticed and we were back to green.
Kyle Olson was now the leader and after scoring three more laps Jack Housley slowed out of turn two and appeared to be confused as to whether he should turn left into the infield or try to drive it off the top of turn three and head for the pits. He accomplished neither and when he coasted to a halt the caution would wave once again. Olson had plenty of company now as he tried to hold onto that lead with drivers such as Cory Rose and Brayton Carter coming from row seven and eight respectively in to challenge, plus after a lap eleven caution for a Brody Hilmer spin both Jonathan Logue who had started eighteenth and McBirnie who had recovered from his earlier incident also lined up in the top five.
With Olson still leading the way the action was intense just behind him and with two laps to go McBirnie was sent spinning down the back stretch stopping at the top of turn three. With this being his second caution though he was done for the night and for this restart the other driver who started in row eight, Joe Docekal would line up in the top five. Docekal was driving the #89 that will usually be driven by Danville's Ron Kibbe, but the car builder was shaking it down tonight and it definitely looked fast.
Carter would put a slider on Olson once we were back to green, but when Logue got into Docekal exiting turn four coming to the white flag, Logue would wind up sideways for yet another yellow that would put us back to a green white checkers finish. On this one Carter was able to get "the White Castle" ( a slider as referred to by the always entertaining Jerry Vansickel) to stick and he would have the lead crossing the stripe under the white flag with Olson trying to complete the crossover. Heading for turn one for the final time Olson wanted the high line while Carter was looking to go low and contact nearly wiped out the whole field, but the two leaders were able to recover and it would be Kyle Olson back out front for the win as the checkers waved. Carter would settle for second with Rose in third, Docekal would end up in fourth while Tyler Soppe methodically made his way up to fifth after starting seventeenth.
Along with the Cooney/Callahan battle, that Sport Mod feature definitely made me thankful that I had made the trip.
After watching him come from sixteenth to finish second the night before in Stuart, I had a feeling that Shawn Ritter would be hard to beat starting from the front row of the eighteen lap Stock Car feature and he proved me right by going flag-to-flag for his first ever win at Marshalltown. There was plenty of action behind him though including a big charge from Damon Murty who came from ninth to second before slowing suddenly with mechanical issues on on lap twelve.
Joey Hofbauer rolled his car off the top of turn two with two laps remaining and following the restart it would be Steve Meyer holding off Todd Reitzler to finish in second. Defending All Iowa Points Champion John Oliver Jr. made the tow up from Danville to finish fourth after starting from the ninth row and David Atcher would complete the top five.
For the second night in a row I saw a full field of IMCA Hobby Stocks go non-stop in a feature race on a quarter-mile, so now what are the odds of that? David Rieks would pass Ray Fees for the lead on lap two and by the time that Shannon Anderson cleared himself into second on lap six, Rieks was gone and was a very happy winner in victory lane. Last week's winner here Leah Wroten finished third, Nathan Ballard started eleventh and finished fourth while Fees held on for fifth.
The Mod Lite division thrilled the crowd with some five-wide action early on as Mike Morrill came from ninth to score yet another feature win.
A big thanks to Joyce and Dick Eisele for saving me one of the best seat's in the house and as always it was fun to spend the evening with Kevin, Jack, Brad, Fred and my PR colleague Danny Rosencrans for a great night of racing. I even had the chance to announce a heat race and a half of the Hobby Stocks and if you know the nickname of this movie character you will know why.
Tonight I look forward to the MLRA Late Model show at the West Liberty Raceway and on Sunday I will follow the series down to the Quincy Raceways as well. Hope to see you there!
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