After more than four inches of rain on Thursday evening, and the infield a muddy bog with a pond that the Canada geese enjoyed earlier, the Marshalltown Speedway still pulled off a full night of racing Friday. A full pit of 116 cars, that included the IMCA Late Models in their first of five consecutive weekly appearances, put on a great night of exciting racing action for the fans.
Josh May took a trip back to victory lane, winning the twelve lap Mod Lite feature. May took the lead from Joel Huggins at lap five, and from there on, never looked back on his way to the checkers. Cory Sauerman started the feature at the tail, and worked his way through the pack to take the runner up spot. Third went to early leader, Joel Huggins, fourth was Travis Stensland, and Randy Bryan was fifth. This was May’s fifth win of the season. The race went caution free.
Austin Luellen started eleventh on the grid in the 18-lap IMCA Northern SportMod A main, and inherited the lead at lap six when the front runners tangled, bringing out a yellow. Luellen went on to lead the remaining laps and take the win. Finishing a distant second place was Travis Petersen, and Jared VanDeest, who had to tag the field after he was a non-starter in his heat, flew through the field to finish third. Twelfth place starter Jonathon Logue finished fourth and Tyler Musselman was fifth. This was Luellen’s first win at Marshalltown in 2016.
Eric Stanton went home with his eleventh IMCA Hobby Stock win under his belt, winning the 15-lap feature event. Stanton caught early leader Leah Wroten at lap six, and then made the pass into the lead, two laps later. Stanton kept that top spot to the checkers flying. Visiting racer Ryan Grochala raced his way from twelfth starting spot, to take the runner up position, Leah Wroten was third, Jamie Songer started eleventh and finished fourth, and Luke Bird, who raced for the first time at the speedway last week, finished fifth after starting seventeenth.
Damon Murty used his usual top side of the track and made it work once again, winning the 20-lap IMCA Stock Car A main. He had to catch veteran racer Jeff Wollam in doing so. Wollam led from the drop of the green, but Murty had him at the flag stand on lap eight. For there on, Murty distanced himself from the field, and took the easy win. Another visiting racer, Dave Brandies from Wilton, Iowa, raced his way to score the runner up spot after starting eleventh. Wollam took third place, fourth was Dave Atcher and point leader Donavon Smith, rounded out the top five. Murty won for the seventh time this year.
After winning his first Modified feature a month ago, Trent Jackson repeated the feat, scoring his second feature of the year. Jackson took the lead from Rod Clement with a handful of laps in the book, and never relinquished it, taking the comfortable win over point leader, Jacob Murray in second place. Third place went to Jimmy Gustin, Ronn Lauritzen was fourth and Joel Rust took fifth.
The grand finale of the evening was 25-laps of IMCA Late Model feature racing. This one did not start well when the front row of Ben Seeman and John Emerson got together just after the race went green. This relegated them to the tail for the restart. When things did get back underway, it was hometown boy Darrel DeFrance grabbing the lead. By lap three, Todd Cooney had moved from his sixth row starting position, to tag on to DeFrance’s tail. DeFrance held him off for a few more laps until Cooney’s move out of turn four put him into the lead as they crossed the finish line at lap seven. Cooney then hummed along on the topside, the rest of the way to the checkers, scoring the comfortable win. Luke Goedert took second, third was Darrel DeFrance, Richie Gustin was fourth and John Emerson finished fifth.
Racing continues at the Marshalltown Speedway next Friday evening, August 12 when the IMCA Late Models will again be joining the IMCA Modifieds, Stock Cars, Northern SportMods, Hobby Stocks and Mod Lites for a full night of racing. The green flag flies at 7:30.
