Kay and Rust Dominate, Ritter, Olson, Rieks and Morrill Win As Well At Marshalltown

With every other IMCA sanctioned Friday night track to the south and east of them rained out, the Marshalltown Speedway drew in some extra cars for its weekly racing action that is already supreme even without the extras. I mentioned earlier this year that Marshalltown had moved into the list of my five favorite race tracks so with it being my closest option last night I didn't even hesitate about making the trip that takes just over two hours for my third visit to the Toby Kruse promoted facility in this young season.

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!

Pierce Impressive In MLRA's Debut At Stuart

When the MLRA Late Models visited the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson for the first time a couple of years ago they loved the place and when their follow up appearance was even better with drivers coming from deep in the field to finish near the front several of them proclaimed it as their new favorite track. On Thursday night the MLRA visited the Stuart International Speedway for the first time and they put on a spectacular show with high speed slicing and dicing, racing grooves from top to bottom to choose from and drivers making big runs to the front with the winner declaring just how much he loved this place in victory lane. So why am I bring up the past with Lee County? Two common denominators; the promoter and the race format.

Mike Van Genderen had to wait out a week of unsettled weather before he could really get to work on the track, but when the skies cleared on Thursday he obviously had a enough time to deliver a surface that the Late Models could really race on. Going with the Passing Points format tonight, gaining positions on the fast and tacky surface during the three heat races was not easy, but with some of the top talent drawing the back of the pack drivers were searching both high and low trying to make their move. And that is something that I have always felt gets lost in the argument between using Passing Points versus Group Qualifying with the fast guys then starting up front.

With Passing Points more racing grooves are developed as faster drivers try to make their way to the front while with Group Qualifying the heat races are generally a parade around the one preferred groove. Bottom line, Passing Points gives the fans a better show not only during the heats, but come feature time as well since the track will now have more room to race than it would have under the Group Qualifying format and I will sum up this argument as I always do. Our sport is called "Racing" not "Chasing".

And boy did we get to see some great racing at Stuart Thursday night, and not just in the Late Models, but more on the weekly divisions later. A solid count of twenty-four MLRA competitors signed in with three heat races to set the field. Payton Looney was impressive taking a win from his third starting spot to earn the pole position for the main event, but it was Bobby Pierce that gave a preview of things to come with perhaps the most entertaining fifth place finish in a heat race ever. Pierce had started eighth and while other stars failed to pick up any positions in just ten laps, the young driver was using every move, groove and line that he could think of to get up to fifth at the checkers. This would put him thirteenth on the grid for the forty lap main event and I couldn't help but to have my focus on Pierce as the race took the green.

Looney would race out to the early lead only to have the caution wave on lap three when Dave Eckrich spun in turn three and in those three laps Pierce had moved up to ninth. On the restart Looney again set a quick pace, but after scoring just one more lap he would slow in turn two with smoke trailing from his car ending the chances for what could have been his first ever MLRA win.

Pierce was now seventh on this restart and with him using the cushion getting the outside row on the Delaware double file realignments was definitely playing into his advantage. Tyler Bruening would now pick up the lead with Looney's departure, but we would only get to lap eight before Jake Neal stopped his car at the top of turn four after being hit in the face of his helmet by debris. The race was red-flagged as medical personal checked out the MLRA Rookie-of-the-Year contender and after a few minutes he buckled down a new helmet and rejoined the race at the back of the pack.

One more lap would be scored before a flat left rear tire sent Jesse Stovall for a spin in turn three and when Andrew Kosiski had no place to go, contact would send them both to the pit area for the remainder of the race.

Pierce was now in third for the restart, again lined up to the high side and he would quickly go to work on the leader. Bruening held tough though holding off the young star until lap fifteen when Pierce sailed past for the lead. As Pierce pulled away the battle for second heated up with both Chris Simpson and series point leader Will Vaught joining Bruening with all three holding the spot at one time or another.

Lapped traffic on the quarter-mile bullring gave Pierce a challenge where he again had to go both low and high to maintain his lead and when the caution waved for debris with eleven laps remaining that would then give him a clear track for the rest of the distance to the checkers. Simpson would prevail in that battle for second followed by Bruening and Vaught while Jordan Yaggy posted another solid run in fifth. Billy Moyer started tenth and finished sixth while Chad Simpson made a big run up to seventh after starting from the tenth row. Mitch McGrath who started next to Chad followed him up to eighth, Richie Gustin proved that his IMCA legal car was capable of posting a top ten in ninth while Logan Martin raced from the eleventh row up to tenth. So as you can see, there was plenty of passing going on in this one!

A stout field of twenty-two IMCA Hobby Stocks started out the feature races in fine fashion going sixteen laps non-stop. Chuck Madden would lead the way early with Jack Phillips applying the pressure along with Shannon Anderson who quickly moved up from fifth. When Phillips tried to get a bite off the bottom, Anderson slipped around him on the high side into second and on lap seven as Phillips again dove low Shannon would split the middle to take the lead. There was plenty of lapped traffic to negotiate and with two laps to go Madden dove low into turn one pulling even with the leader, but Anderson had the momentum off the top to retain the lead and secure the victory. Madden and Phillips were second and third, Clint Nelson started eighth and finished fourth while Adam Ayers moved from tenth to fifth.

The twenty lap Stock Car feature was a good one with Jeremy Gettler setting the early pace. Last week's winner Buck Schafroth would drive past him on lap four dragging along his teammate Todd Van Eaton, but Gettler was not about to give in and on lap six he would dive into turn one extra hard to make it three-wide for the lead going down the back stretch. Unfortunately though on his very low entrance into turn one Gettler had clipped one of the tires marking the infield knocking it just enough on to the racing surface to require a caution flag and the field was rest for the restart.

Van Eaton would keep the heat on Schafroth until lap ten when his driveshaft decided that it had other plans for the evening and following that caution it would now be multi-time IMCA Stock Car National Champion Mike Nichols who would pick up the challenge. Schafroth would hold his line nicely despite the pressure and nearing the finish Shawn Ritter would join the battle after he had started at the back of the sixteen car field. On the final lap Nichols would make one last bid to the inside of the leader in turn three, but when his car bicycled up on its right side wheels he had to let out of the throttle to bring it back down and that would allow Ritter to slip by to finish second as Schafroth made it two wins in a row at Stuart. Kyle Brown started twelfth and finished fourth while the opening night feature winner Josh Daniels was fifth.

The Late Model feature took the checkers just before ten o'clock and with nearly a three hour drive ahead of me I chose to leave knowing that I would be missing a twenty-six car Sport Mod field in their main event. Checking the results I see that Tyler Inman got vindication by taking the win after last week when he went from leading the race entering turn three on the final lap only to finish in third. Hunter Longnecker, Brayton Carter, Austin Kaplan and Jake McBirnie completed the top five.

A big thanks to Mike Van Genderen and his staff for their hospitality as we had five representatives from Positively Racing in attendance. Look for additional reports soon from Danny Rosencrans, Brian Neal and Ed Reichert while Barry Johnson will have some photos up on our Facebook page as well.

Tonight's MLRA event at the Davenport Speedway has been canceled due to wet grounds, but I hope to catch the remaining two events on this swing on Saturday at the West Liberty Raceway and on Sunday when the series makes its first ever appearance at the Quincy Raceways. For tonight though look for the PR gang to be out in full force again joining Joyce and Dick Eisele at the Marshalltown Speedway where the car count could swell even higher after rainouts at Donnellson and Columbus Junction as well. Perhaps we'll see you there!

Short Track Action Provides Excitement At Stuart

It has been a long time since I have been to the Stuart International Speedway, perhaps as many as eighteen years ago when we would have run an NKF Tour event there, but after what I saw on Wednesday night I can virtually guarantee you that it will be eighteen weeks or less before I return!

Mike VanGenderen purchased the facility this past Thanksgiving weekend and since it has been so long since I have seen the place I really can't tell you how much had to be done to it, but I can say that it looked exactly like a track that I would expect MVG to be in charge of. The place is clean, well organized and of course the track preparation was spectacular with plenty of racing room from bottom to top come feature time.

For a long, long time Stuart was a Sunday night track, but when the State Fairgrounds closed down they moved to Friday's in hope to capture some of that Des Moines crowd and drivers. After running the numbers though, and considering the current lineup of other tracks in the area the decision was made to move to Wednesday nights and it will be interesting to see if the mid-week show will catch on. The weather was very nice, especially when compared to last week's opener although the car counts stayed pretty consistent from week one to week two.

Last week there were eleven IMCA Modifieds on hand while this week there were ten, but four of them were drivers that were making their first appearance including Dan Menk who took advantage of the nice weather to make the 242 mile drive down from Franklin, Minnesota. David Brown would race to the early lead in the twenty lap main event with Josh Gilman looking like the man to beat. Gilman picked off Tony Hilgenberg for second on lap five and then quickly reeled in Brown to mount a challenge for the lead. Brown was smooth on the top, but Gilman had his car working both high and low taking the lead on lap nine. A late caution for John Davis who had stopped at the exit of turn two bunched the field back together for a restart, but there would be no catching Gilman who posted the win. Brown would hold on to second as one of those newcomers Shane Demey would edge out Scott Bash for third. Hilgenberg and Menk would go fifth and sixth.

Buck Schafroth rolled his Stock Car here last Wednesday night, but the one positive to take away from that is with the IMCA average points inverted lineup it would place him on the pole position for this week's twenty-lap headliner. Fellow front row starter Chris Pruitt would get the jump though and set the pace with Schafroth racing in his tire tracks waiting for a mistake. Buck would take a peek to the inside of Pruitt with about five laps to go only to lose a little ground to the leader, so he went right back to the top and appeared to be destined to finish in second. When Pruitt pushed a bit high in turns one and two though on lap eighteen the challenger saw his chance and when Pruitt again slipped high in turn three, Schafroth dove low and took the lead as the green flag was held high. Pruitt tried his best to recover over the final two laps, but knew that this one had slipped away as Schafroth turned his luck around from a week ago in a big way with the win. Brandon Pruitt came from his fifth row start to finish third, Anthony Goldsberry was impressive in fourth and after scratching from his heat race Ricky Thornton Jr. started fourteenth and finished fifth.

The fifteen lap Sport Compact feature had a a good battle for the lead with last week's winner Denny Berghahn Jr. making it two in a row. Tyler Fiebelkorn would lead the opening lap before Ryan Bryant who had made the long pull down from Mason City for the second week in a row took over the point. On lap four top contender Mitchell Bunch was spun in turn two and Colton Garside had no time to react as he was racing for position making hard contact with Bunch. Both drivers were not hurt, but both cars were eliminated.

Once back to racing Berghahn would go to work on the leader looking to the low side with Bryant able to fight him off with the momentum off the banking. Working lap nine Berghahn would try an even higher line in three and four and after Bryant squeezed him back down the front stretch again the challenger went high into turn one. Trying to take away that line, the leader went in a bit too hot and it would be Bryant who would smack the outside barrier causing enough damage that he would slow down the back stretch to bring out the caution.

John Gill would stay within a few car lengths following the restart to take the runner-up title to Berghahn's second win of the young season. Des Moines area drivers Kory Sabin, Nathan Castellano and Bruce Hower would complete the top five.

The Hobby Stock main event would have a bit of drama involving two brothers and the many-time IMCA National Champion Shannon Anderson. Chuck Madden would take the lead from the pole before the caution waved on lap two for a synchronized spin involving Dylan Nelson and current All Iowa Points leader Adam Ayers. Cautions on lap four and lap five would again tighten the field and by now the two fourth row starters Anderson and Corey Madden were now side by side behind the leader for the restart. Racing out of turn two with Chuck out front, Shannon trying to come through the middle and Corey racing off the bottom, contact between Corey Madden and Anderson then caused Shannon to hook the left rear of Chuck's car send him spinning across the nose of each of them and creating a caution. You can do one of those "You Make The Call" deals here with Craig Allendar's video at the 8:39 mark. Anderson then expressed his point of view to Corey Madden under caution before heading to the pit area.

With Chuck now sent to rear for causing the caution, Corey Madden assumed the lead and he would hold it the rest of the distance to pick up the win. He did express some remorse for the incident during his victory lane interview, but is obvious that the brothers from Avoca are ready to race the King of the Hobby Stocks hard here at Stuart. Brandon Cox nipped Nick Foster at the stripe to finish in second, Dylan Nelson made a nice run back up to fourth and John Watson came from twelfth to fill out the top five.

By the time that the IMCA Sport Mod feature came to the track the wind had picked up and the temperature seemed to have dropped ten degrees, but with eighteen cars set to go for eighteen laps I was not about ready to leave despite the fact that I was nearly three hours from home on a weeknight. Brett Vanderheiden would lead the way for the first two trips around the quarter-mile before Tyler Inman powered to the front. Fifth row starters Kody Havens and Brayton Carter were putting on the show though as they often went three-wide with others who had started ahead of them as they raced their way to the front.

A series of four cautions between lap eight and lap fifteen made it pretty tempting to leave, but with Havens and Carter now restarting right behind Inman with just three laps to go I was here to stay especially since Carter had been using the extreme high side to get to the front. Brayton would go up there again as Havens catfished around the bottom with Inman doing his best to ward off the charge. As the white flag waved Carter had lost some ground while Havens was still digging on the bottom and when the leader slipped a bit wide off turn two Havens made his move.

Driving hard to the inside in turn three Havens and Inman banged wheels and as they started to push up the track Inman got a bit sideways in four. That would give Havens the win, his second in a row here at Stuart, while Carter zipped around Inman at the checkers to drop him to third at the pay window. Chase Rudolf who started eighth would take the fourth spot while Colton Nelson was fifth. It was pretty thrilling way to close out the evening and give me some good adrenaline for that long drive home.

Next week there will be no Wednesday night racing at Stuart, but you will want to be there on Thursday night May 2nd as the MLRA Late Models will be on hand along with Stock Cars, Sport Mods and Hobby Stocks. I am planning to pick up Morgan in Des Moines on my way and then, if we are running early enough, we will head out to Adair to finally try some of that famous Zipp's Pizzaria pizza!

Hopefully the weather will cooperate not only with that plan, but with the coming race weekend as well. I will be watching a different type of racing on the blue oval at Drake on Friday and Saturday with plans to spend my Sunday night in Dubuque for the rescheduled Deery Brothers Summer Series event. Keep an eye on the radar and get out to a track near you!

A Few More Observations From The 2019 Slocum 50

For the tenth time in eleven years I was honored to be a part of the announcing team for the Slocum 50 at 34 Raceway. Brent's personality always stood out to me as a driver who was a fierce competitor while being a true sportsman and at the end of the evening he was always ready to share a smile and a cold one with anybody else who just wanted to enjoy the moment. An outlook on life, and especially on this sport that I wish more of us involved in it would have, so for that reason it really means a lot to me to be able to participate by doing my bit of time on the microphone in memory, and in honor of Brent Slocum.

The only Slocum 50 that I have missed came last year when I was honored to attend a friend's wedding and I nearly had to forgo this one as well when my wife and daughter scheduled the bridal shower for my soon to be daughter in law for the same day. Thankfully Brad and Jessi worked with me so that I could have both of my sons up to to watch as well and let's just say that when we got home later that night it was obvious that the girls had a pretty good time in our evening absence. The empty bottles were evidence of that.

Three of my Positively Racing colleagues have also filed their report from the Slocum 50 and I do hope that you will read Brian Neal's Midwest Racing News, Danny Rosencrans' Racin' Down The Road and Ed Reichert's One Fan's Travels to get a full rundown of this event from three different points of view. I am so proud of the people that I associate with and there is no need for me to re-tell the tale of the night's action here since they each did such a fine job of doing so. Besides, as one of the announcers along with Tony Paris and MLRA's Billy Rock I left my notepad in the car for the evening so following are just some random observations from the event.

First of all, how about the weather?! It was sunny and in the seventies with a light wind, actually the first real "nice night" for racing in 2019 and I am sure that helped put more people in the stands here than perhaps even the first appearance of the World of Outlaw Sprint Cars several years ago. Only Brad & Jessi can confirm that assumption, but early on I started asking people to slide together and make friends with their neighbors due to the steady flow of traffic into the facility. And it was a "fun loving" crowd as well. Ed Reichert talks about the party atmosphere that he only sees at a couple of other events and readers, keep in mind that this man goes to more than 150 race nights a year so when something like this stands out to him, you know that it is something special. This crowd was here to enjoy the evening and cheer on their heroes, whether or not they were a hero to them before they bought the ticket and that is what makes for a great crowd. Even though the Stock Car feature was the last of the night, there was probably still a thousand people or more sticking around and as Abe Huls, David Brandies and John Oliver Jr. crossed the stripe three-wide for the lead with three laps to go they were going nuts just like they did a bit earlier when Bobby Pierce pounded the cushion on both ends to reel in Chad Simpson.

After Oliver prevailed for the Stock Car win I asked the crowd if that was worth sticking around for and the cheer was nearly as loud as when the place was still full. It was a special crowd and if you were one of them, pat yourself on the back because not only did you see a good show, but you also made it a great show.

Yes, Paul Nienhesier was a bit of a "ringer" in the Window World Winged Sprints as he drove Caleb Wankel's #5 to victory, but Harold Pohren made him work for it with Nienheiser taking the lead mid-race when Pohren hesitated for a split second when he closed in on the slower car of Noah Samuel. Earlier in the evening I had talked with Harold about his victory in this event two years ago. Let's just say that his wing dance that night did not go as planned and we talked about the lessons learned and how he should apply them on this night. He almost had that chance!

And speaking of Samuel, no ill will on him as the young man looked pretty darn good for his first night of racing a winged Sprint Car. He is getting some coaching from Justin Newberry who retired after scoring a track championship here at 34 Raceway back in 2015, so look for Noah to get faster on a steady basis.

Also a bit of a surprise early in the night was the heat race win by Nick Eastin who was driving Gary Bonar's #97x. I knew that Eastin was a good shoe back when he was doing this on a regular basis and we have seen this car go fast in the past, I just didn't expect it to be a winning combination on the first night out. With Scott Bonar turning the wrenches though, success should never come as a surprise.

The Late Model car count was phenomenal at 37 with big names up and down the line. With it being the Easter weekend this year neither of the National touring series were scheduled, and when the weather took out everything else to the east it truly made the Slocum the place to be this weekend. Or better said as now painted on the back stretch wall "The Premiere Place To Race". While it would be tempting to say that the Slocum should always be run on Easter weekend in order to avoid conflict with the National tours, keep in mind that Easter itself bounces around so next year it will be on April 12th and in 2021 it goes to April 4th, so that is not a likely scenario. But it sure worked out great this year with touring pros Hudson O'Neal, Tyler Erb, Chase Junghans, Dennis Erb Jr., Brandon Sheppard and Kyle Bronson in the house and while Junghans went flag-to-flag to win at Davenport Friday night, he had to race his way through a B-Main and then work hard to post a ninth-place finish on this night.

I can't believe that the appearance of Brian Birkhofer in a Jason Rauen owned car #OU812 did not get leaked pre-race. It even had the name Sammy Hagar on the roof of the car and while his first lap of qualifying was vintage Birkhofer, his contact with the wall in turn three on the second lap ended his evening.

Rauen also had a tough night running in a qualifying position before slipping over the cushion in turns one and two putting him on the DNQ list.

The Group Qualifying format with a straight up start made the four heat races high speed parades, except for Hudson O'Neal who put on a show coming from the rear of a ten car field to finish third in the third heat.

Local favorite Jay Johnson had to advance a few positions to get qualified out of his heat race and he had a solid evening and perhaps the most spirited battle during the qualifying events came during the first B-Main when young drivers Jonathan Brauns and Logan Martin swapped slide jobs on three occasions while racing for the final transfer position with Martin prevailing at the checkers.

The track offered up three distinct lines during the fifty lap feature with the "faster way around" changing a time our two during the distance, exactly what you want for a big race like this. Chad Simpson was the first to get the bottom to work allowing him to drive past early leader Shannon Babb, but it was the late race assault on the precarious cushion by Bobby Pierce that had the fans going nuts. Pierce was on the edge of disaster at any moment even making a couple of saves when it looked liked he was going to nose into the wall in three and four, or go over the top of turns one and two. With seven laps remaining he would sweep around Simpson for the lead coming out of turn four, the move that would the propel him to his third victory in this event.

Perhaps lost in the moment was the great racing going on behind the leaders with Babb and Chris Simpson racing wheel to wheel for third in the closing laps, plus big runs by Garrett Alberson who came from twelfth to sixth and Junghans who moved from nineteenth to ninth at the checkers.

In victory lane Bob Pierce and another crew member quickly removed the roof from the winning ride so that Bobby could exit in style out of the top of the car and standing on the roll cage to celebrate.

I already touched on the Stock Cars who closed out the night in fashion and then the folks at J&M Displays fired off an impressive set of fireworks with the prevailing color being Brent Slocum's green, of course. Even the traffic out of the place flowed better than I have seen it on a lesser attended show, so what else can you say but "wow, that was a good one."

I hope that you were there to see it and if not, you have another chance to see some big time Late Model action at 34 in just a few weeks when the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series comes to town on Thursday night May 16th. I will look for you there!

Bruening Closes The Deal For SLMR Win At Marshalltown

I had never been to a Malvern Bank Super Late Model Racing (SLMR) series event before, so when Joe Kosiski and Toby Kruse agreed to bring them as far east as they had ever been before, I just had to make the trip to the Marshalltown Speedway Friday night. An added bonus was that I was able to get my son Morgan to make the trip up from West Des Moines as well and we joined our Positively Racing colleagues Joyce and Dick Eisele in the top row for an entertaining night of action on the high-banked quarter-mile oval.

With this being a long trip for the SLMR regulars I had set my car count expectations low, but with the series' rules that essentially allow several "types" of Late Models to race against each other on common ground, not only did a solid group of around eighteen series regulars make the tow, but the area's IMCA Late Models came out in force as well to add up to an impressive field of thirty-nine Late Models! Add that to the weekly racing series opener for the Modifieds, Stock Cars, Sport Mods, Hobby Stocks and Mod-Lites it made for a long, full night of racing.

The night got off to a rough start for one of the series' best when Tad Pospisil barrel rolled off the top of turns three and four during qualifying in an accident that looked pretty bad in the brief second that I was able to see the car twisting in the wind above the banking. Thankfully Pospisil was able to climb out of the car uninjured.

Qualifying times were used to set the four heat race lineups, and I assume that there was some level of invert as then the top fourteen in passing points were locked into the twenty-five lap main event. The top three from each of two B-Mains and then two SLMR provisionals would complete the field with the all-time winningest driver Kyle Berck on the pole and the current point leader after the first two nights of racing, series rookie Nick Deal on the outside of row one.

Deal who won twice on the opening weekend at the I-80 Speedway in early April would take the early lead with third starting Tyler Bruening quickly taking up the challenge. Earlier in the night Bruening had blown away the field in his heat race winning by more than half a lap and he was now sticking his nose to the inside of Deal looking for the lead. On lap seven Bruening was able to pull even with Deal only to have the young driver from Harlan come back on the outside to hold the point.

After scoring lap nine Bruening again mounted a challenge driving to the inside in turn one, but Deal was there as well and contact would send the leader for a spin as Bruening was able to drive away. During the caution it first appeared like both drivers would be allowed to restart up front, or perhaps Deal was just not heeding the call on the Raceceiver to go to the rear because he finally stopped on the front stretch to discuss the decision with Race Director Bill Baldwin. Baldwin who was a pretty good Late Model driver in his day as well was obviously convincing as Deal would then take his place at the back to get the race back to action.

Bruening would assume the lead, but Richie Gustin would now pick up the challenge using his knowledge of the track to go high, then low to take the lead from Bruening on lap fourteen. Tyler would come right back two laps later though to get back to the front and from there we would see that same domination as we did earlier in the evening driving away for the victory. Gustin would post a solid runner-up finish while the battle for third went right down to the stripe with Billy Leighton nipping Berck by a nose. Andy Eckrich finish fifth in his SLMR debut, Ryan Dolan was sixth, central Nebraska driver Josh Leonard was seventh with Joel Callahan, Andrew Kosiski and Darrel DeFrance filling out the top ten.

The first point that Bruening wanted to make in his victory lane interview was that he felt bad for getting into the leader stating that he was making the move into turn one and did everything that he could to stay off of him as he had come down the track. Deal was not able to make up much ground following the restart as he finished sixteenth. With some solid bonus money on the line for the first four SLMR races in Iowa this year it will now be interesting to see if Bruening makes the trip to Denison and Corning on May 3rd and 4th.

In weekly racing action Jake McBirnie started sixth and passed Austin Schrage on lap five before driving away for a convincing win in the 18-lap Northern Sport Mod main event. The division drew an impressive count of thirty-one cars as Thomas Egenberger finished second, Austin Kaplan was third, fourth went to Cory Rose and Cory Van Zante rounded out the top five.

The IMCA Stock Car feature had an entertaining three car battle for the front involving Jeff Mueller, Steve Meyer and Ricky Thornton Jr. who had left his Modified at home for the evening. Meyer would lead the first five laps of the eighteen lap distance before Mueller would dig his way around the bottom to the point on lap six, getting a bit of assistance from a lapped car that got a bit sideways in front of Meyer. On lap fourteen that same lapper would do a 360-degree spin in turn four and when Mueller had to check up momentarily to see how that would play out, both Meyer and Thornton would drive around him on the outside.

With three laps to go Thornton would throw a big slider at Meyer in three and four only to have the veteran drive back under him and as the white flag waved Thornton would again throw a "White Castle" (courtesy of flamboyant announcer Jerry Van Sickle) at the leader in turns one and two. Meyer again pulled off the perfect crossover so this time Thornton would try to stick it to the bottom in the final set of turns to no avail as Meyer would take the win. Mueller would be right behind Thornton at the checkers for third as Jay Schmidt and Damon Murty completed the top five.

Shannon Anderson was notably absent when I was here for the Frostbuster two weeks ago, but on this night it was back to normal in the Hobby Stock ranks as the two-time defending and six-time overall All Iowa Points champion picked his way to the front on lap six after starting eighth to take the win. David Rieks started next to Anderson in row four and finished second, early race leader Mike Kincaid settled for third, young Kaden Reynolds was fourth and Gary Pfantz finished in fifth.

Mike Morrill was another familiar face in victory lane taking the win over a ten car field of Mod Lites and with a long drive home ahead of me I left before the Modified feature that was won by Tim Ward.

I needed to get home for at least a few hours sleep before sharing the microphone tonight with MLRA announcer Billy Rock at the 11th Annual Slocum 50 at 34 Raceway west of Burlington. With other Late Model events to the east rained out for tonight, what was already set to be a stellar field of Super Late Models could go off the chart for the $10,555-to-win event in memory of Brent Slocum who tragically lost his life at the track fourteen years ago in a pit area accident. IMCA Stock Cars and 34 Raceway's 305 Winged Sprint Cars will be in action with big money on the line for them as well.

Hope to see you there!