After losing its first two events on the schedule at Fort Dodge and Vinton, the Arnold Motor Supply IMCA Modified Dirt Knights Tour, formerly known as the Hawkeye Dirt Tour, kicked off the 2019 slate with a Tuesday night show at the Marshalltown Speedway. The weather was perfect for racing including a nice southerly breeze that kept the minimal dust away from the stands, but with a forecast for potential "pop up" showers promoter Toby Kruse and his staff hustled through the program in hope of beating any rain that might develop. In fact during one of the Modified B-Mains we did feel a couple of sprinkles from a little blip on the radar, but that was it as the show was completed just before ten o'clock.
Thirty-six Modifieds checked in, a solid roster from top to bottom meaning that there would be some good drivers who would not even make the twenty-four car feature field tonight. A unique passing points system is now used for qualifying on the Tour events where not only do you gain points for passing cars in your heat race, you also lose points for being passed with the basis still being the position that you actually finish the race in. It is stated that the top twelve in the passing points through the heats will qualify for the feature, although announcer Jerry Vansickel also said that the four heat race winners would be "locked in". So actually it is the four winners and the eight drivers with the most points who didn't win a heat that qualify for the A-Main. That may sound like being a bit picky, but if you start on the pole and win your heat under this system, it is still a possibility that you might not make the top twelve in passing points, but I digress. The point that I want to make is this. When you use a passing points system to qualify through the heats, it would seem logical that the driver who scored the most points would have "earned" the pole position for the feature, but instead those twelve drivers participate in a redraw and on this night it would be Troy Cordes and Tim Ward starting from the front row for the thirty lap feature.
Ward would ride the high line to the lead on the opening lap bringing along the fourth starting Richie Gustin with him into second. The action was hot and heavy behind them with all kinds of three and four wide racing before the caution waved on lap four as Nebraska's Jason Hobscheidt and Nevada's Kollin Hibdon tangled in turn four. On the restart Gustin really went to work on Ward first trying a slider that he couldn't hold, then on lap eight Richie was able to inch ahead of Ward at the stripe to be scored as the leader. Ward battled back though and had regained the lead in turns one and two, but with Cayden Carter now stopped on the track in turn three the caution waved and that narrowest of leads on the last lap scored would now put Gustin out front for the restart.
Five more laps would be completed before Jeff Larson spun in turn one while running sixth and on this restart it would now be Joel Rust who would become that challenger to Gustin's advantage. Rust would pitch a slider of his own that Gustin would shrug off and after making one last try on the inside Rust would retreat back to the top of the race track as Gustin gradually opened up his lead. Jordan Grabouski would get past Rust late for second, but not even the former IMCA National Champion would be able to reel in the leader as Richie Gustin won for the third time with the Tour here on his home track. Behind Grabouski and Rust it would be Arizona natives Ward and Ricky Thornton Jr. that would complete the top five.
Thornton had a top twelve passing points total in the bag during his heat race, but when he slipped off the top of turn three coming to the white flag, he gave back two of the positions that he had gained and wound up winning the second B-Main to start him fourteenth in the feature. The other B-Main winner, California driver Cody Laney came from thirteenth to finish sixth. Jimmy Gustin started next to his brother in the second row, but faded to seventh. Kyle Brown was eighth, Kelly Shryock finished ninth and the pole-sitter Cordes completed the top ten.
The Dirt Knights will now wait another six weeks before embarking on a four race swing July 22nd through the 25th at Park Jefferson, Britt, Alta and Algona.
Two heats and a feature in each of the other four divisions was a perfect compliment to this Tuesday night show and the IMCA Hobby Stocks would be up first for fifteen laps with multi-time National Champion Shannon Anderson drawing the pole position so you can pretty much guess how this one went. The race was red flagged on lap four when Luke Bird was spun sideways entering turn one and then was drilled in the drivers door by Craig Lovig who was racing for position and did not see the stalled Bird until it was too late. The impact was hard enough to turn Bird's car over and he rolled twice down the banking. Thankfully both drivers emerged from their battered equipment uninjured.
Once back to racing Anderson continued his steady drive through the middle groove and even though Dylan Nelson was able to make his way up from sixth to second, he could not get close enough to the leader to mount a challenge as Anderson added to his trophy collection. Kaden Reynolds was the early race challenger, but he would end up third in a car borrowed from Leah Wroten after he demolished his own car here last Friday night. Wroten would follow Reynolds in for fourth as Gary Pfantz took fifth.
Kyle Olson would lead the opening laps of the twenty-lap Sport Mod main event before Hunter McWhirter spun in turn two on lap three. On the first try at a restart a mid-pack scramble piled up five cars on the front stretch and on the next restart Brayton Carter would sail around Olson out of turn two to take the lead. As Carter pulled away the action behind him was intense as drivers shuffled for position. With four laps to go the fourth place car of Cam Reimers spun in turn two right in front of Adam Birck and Josh Foster who were side-by-side for fifth. Birck was able to miss him, but Foster could not and that would send both Reimers and Foster to the rear for the restart.
There would be no staying with Carter as he again pulled away to take the win with Jake McBirnie edging out Dylan VanWyk for second. Olson would pick up the fourth place check while Foster was able to climb back into fifth at the checkers. And here's a bit of trivia for you that race fan and friend Jeff Terhune reminded me about last night, Josh Foster was the winner of the first ever Hawkeye Dirt Tour event that was held at the Independence Motor Speedway.
There were no slouches in the twelve car Stock Car lineup and pole-sitter Austin Even did his best to hold off the challenges, but when the top groove is working at Marshalltown you can put your money on Damon Murty. Starting from the eight spot, Murty was flying around the top of the high banked quarter mile and would take the lead from Even coming off turn four on lap four. Not even Jordan Grabouski could keep pace with Murty as the "Chelsea Charger" took the win ahead of the driver who had won the big money down in Hays, Kansas last week. Todd Reitzler started seventh and finished third with Curt Hook and Even fourth and fifth.
Sixteen IMCA Late Models were on hand as well and with Jeremiah Hurst and Jeff Aikey drawing the front row, it was likely that this would be a shootout between those two. Hurst would take the lead with Aikey putting up several challenges through the opening laps, but after Hurst denied each of those Jeremiah then pulled away and took the win in a race that went twenty laps non-stop. Justin Kay started sixth and once he made it up to third the lead duo already had a full straightway advantage on him that he was not able to erase. Andy Eckrich would finish fourth and, after missing his heat race, hometown favorite Darrel DeFrance rallied to fifth.
I know that the threat of rain had something to do with it, but this was a perfectly presented mid-week event that started right on time, the next event was on the track in a timely fashion all night long and there was no intermission. The result was a bunch of race fans happy to be on their way home at ten o'clock having seen a fantastic night of racing and very likely to come back the next time. Amazing how that works, isn't it?
I also want to give a tip of the fedora to announcer Jerry Vansickel who, as the lone announcer, had to be on his toes to get all of the lineups in as well as give all of the sponsors of the Tour and this particular event the credit that they deserve. And in true JVan fashion he would call it as he sees it when two back markers in a Modified B-Main decided to start beating on each other right in front of the leaders. Well done, Sir!
With an extra hour of sleep that I didn't expect I am now looking forward to tonight's road trip to the Stuart Speedway where the Malvern Bank Super Late Model Series will be in action and where promoter Mike Van Genderen is known for presenting an efficient mid-week show as well. Perhaps we'll see you there.
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