Another chilly day was on the agenda for Friday, April 10th as the regular season kicked off at the Marshalltown Speedway. In fact it seemed to be a little colder then last week, mainly due to the north wind. But that didn't keep the cars away from the pit area as a weekly event record 172 cars graced the quarter-mile speedplant. The night started with a tribute to a person who had recently passed away. Ten racecars waited on the front stretch until after the national anthem and then were given three laps to run as fast as they could in memory of the person.
First up on the card were the dwarf cars/mod lites. While they may be the smallest race car on the track, they still provide the fans with a lot of exciting racing action. Tonight was no different as the feature was run without a caution. In fact, track announcer Denny Grabenbour noted that their feature was run in a little under four minutes. Defending track co-champion Mike Morrill would pull out the victory over the tandem of Tim and Andy Hennigar.
IMCA sportmods were called to the track next for their main event. Kevin Sather took advantage of his pole redraw en route to the win. Sather led every lap, although he was contested a few times by Luke Wanniger. Wanniger settled for second, followed by Scott Davis, Joel Bushore, and Jake Strayer. Sather also won last week's Frostbuster feature. Strayer was the one to watch as he had to transfer out of a Bmain and started 20th. A great field of 40 sportmods were on hand.
Up next were the IMCA stock cars. Trent Murphy and Shawn Hoskins were the lucky recipients of the redraw as they started on the front row. While the high groove seemed to be the place of preference, it was Murphy who would take the lead early and never relinquish. Steve Meyer challenge Murphy several times, but just couldn't get enough power off the corners to complete the pass. Meyer would take second followed by Dustin Smith, Hoskins, and Michael Jeannette. Coincidentally, that is two fifth-place finishes at Marshalltown this year for Jeannette.
The IMCA modifieds were next on the track. They used up every bit of track that they could find in comparison to the other classes. Many cars were slicing from top to bottom or vice-versa. Joey Schaefer kept the pattern going as he would take the checkers from the pole. He held off challenges from Ryan Ruter and others by utilizing the top side of the track. Ruter was using both lanes of racing room to get to the runner up spot. Jon Snyder also used both lanes to finish third after starting 11th. Jimmy Gustin battled his way from his 17th starting spot to finish fourth and was followed across the line by Scott Simatovich.
The final event of the night was the IMCA hobby stocks. Again, the redraw proved to be important as pole-sitter Chad Koch would take home the trophy. He had to hold off challenges from Terry Shaffar and Devin Smith. Shaffar and Koch battled side by side for a few laps before Koch distanced himself on the high side of the speedway. Smith utilized the top groove to get around Shaffar on a restart, but it was too late to catch Koch at the line. Smith wound up second, Justin Lichty battled up to third, Shaffar fourth, and youngster Michael Murphy rounded out the top five.
The racing action concluded around 11pm. The speedway yielded complaints from last week's event lasting until midnight. Hopefully promoter Toby Kruse and his staff will be able to keep the show moving along and finish at a decent time week to week. Could be a little challenging though if he continues to have 170 cars in the pit area. Not a bad problem to have if you ask me.
Results can be found at:
http://www.geocities.com/racefan85/apr10.pdf.
- Racing may be a hobby, but it's DEFINITELY addictive!
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