MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa (Aug. 5) – 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, 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.
The 25-lap Late Model feature did not start well when the front row of Ben Seemann and John Emerson got together just after the race went green. This relegated them to the tail for the restart. When things got back underway, it was hometown driver 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 DeFrance, Richie Gustin was fourth and Emerson finished fifth.
After winning his first Xtreme Motor Sports IMCA Modified feature a month ago, Trent Jackson repeated the feat. 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.
Damon Murty used his usual top side of the track and made it work once again, winning the IMCA Sunoco Stock Car main event. He had to catch 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, scored the runner-up spot after starting 11th. Wollam took third place, fourth was Dave Atcher and Donavon Smith rounded out the top five.
Austin Luellen started 11th on the grid in the Karl Chevrolet Northern SportMod 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 to take the win.
Finishing second 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 starter Johnathon Logue finished fourth and Tyler Musselman was fifth. This was Luellen’s first win at Marshalltown in 2016.
Eric Stanton went home with his 11th IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stock win. Stanton caught early leader Leah Wroten at lap six and then made the pass into the lead two laps later. Stanton kept the top spot to the checkers flying.
Visiting racer Ryan Grochala raced his way from 12th starting to take the runner-up position, Wroten was third, Jamie Songer started finished fourth and Luke Bird, who raced for the first time at the speedway last week, finished fifth after starting 17th.