Thursday night, April 26th was round one of the Twin Highbanks Hustle at the Marshalltown Speedway. I believe this was the fourth attempt to get this program in and since it was first attempted, Late Models were added to the card, making this a five class, IMCA sanctioned program.
What started out as a fine April afternoon suddenly changed when the wind switches to a Northwesterly direction and started to howl at high speed. After that it never settled down, the temperature plummeted, or more correctly, the wind chill plummeted and it turned out to be a miserable, dirty night at the races. The crowd was a decent one, given that midweek work and school on Friday morning was a consideration for many, including certainly some racers, but those on hand stuck it out mostly to the end.
One of the things I like most about Toby Kruse and also one of the things that makes him most successful is that he thinks "out of the box." Who but Toby, having lost his first special event to the weather, would consider putting on a doubleheader program leading off with a Thursday night show and then adding Late Models on top of it? While it probably wasn't a "killer show" for him financially, he likely made out all right with around one hundred twenty cars in the pits, provided a Thursday night race for his drivers that had already lost so many races this Spring, and also provided a place for all the displaced Wisconsin racers to run as they wait for the snow to melt. Plus, it provides a lot of good will for his own race operation.
They were off a little at the start with the first green flag not waving until 7:45 p.m but they were having some problems with their computer scoring system and that likely was the cause of the showdown. And hot lapping one hundred and twenty race cars does take some time. After that, however, it was nonstop racing as they plowed through five sets of heats and B Features for the sport Mods and Modifieds.
The Modifieds had by far the largest car count with forty three of them signing in to race and many of the biggest names in IMCA racing on hand. And they were "the show" on this night without doubt. Four large heat races and two B Features narrowed the field to twenty four of them that set sail on the twenty lap, one grand to win main event. And the feature race proved to be an outstanding one with great racing throughout the pack and a battle for the win plus another battle for third that was epic.
While Joel Rust led all the way for the win, that statement does not at all describe what we actually saw. Rust did indeed move out to a nice sized lead as the first fifteen laps ran green. However, watching Hunter Marriott and Tyler Droste knife through the pack was worth the price of admission alone. While Marriott was dive bombing the low groove and sliding under drivers to gain spots, Droste was riding a lane far up the track that didn't look like it even existed but he managed to keep his car from launching off the track and actually gain ground. Ricky Thornton Jr. locked onto Droste's line also until he contacted the front stretch wall, messed up his steering and flew off of turn one, requiring the yellow and setting up five lap sprint to the finish.
And what a great five lap race it was. Marriott dived under Rust and they ran wheel to wheel, each trying to find that extra bit of traction on the super slick track. They slid through the corners, each on the very edge of control and once they banged wheels quite hard under the flag stand, but "no harm, no foul" as they kept right on going.
Marriott made one last attempt on the final corner but Rust had just enough momentum to hold him off by a couple feet for the win. Meanwhile, Droste and Tim Ward were doing the same thing for third and they crossed the line in side by side fashion with Droste edging out for the third spot. It was an excellent race and only three of the starters failed to finish.
The Late Model field was disappointing as only eleven cars showed to race. Hopefully that isn't an indication of how many Late Models are left in central Iowa as if so, it could be a long year for those tracks running them regularly. Let's face it, Marshalltown's adding of the class is one of the very few tracks in the Midwest that have added the Late Model class in recent years so let's hope that the drivers don't waste this opportunity.
For home town resident Darrell DeFrance, it was a nice night as he led from start to finish to take the win. However, it was a good thing it was only a twenty lapper as Chad Holladay was closing fast at the end.
This race had a wild start as while running in a tight pack, a car got sideways and triggered a wild wreck with cars flying off the track in all directions and two cars rolling over. Curtis Glover ended up on his roof while Todd Cooney took what appeared to be an even wilder ride well off the back of the back chute and with all the dirt piles back there, it was a little tough to track the entire route of his wreck but he was also reported to have turned his car over on its lid too. Fortunately, there were no injuries but the field was nearly halved by the accident.
A couple of drivers continued their strong early season performances. Damon Murty won yet another Stock Car feature over what was to me a bit of a disappointment with only seventeen of them on hand. Murty had an early battle with Paul Shepherd and Jay Schmidt before he took control on the high banks and then pulled away in the nonstop main event. A fine ride was turned in by Jeff Mueller who had the low side working and drove up from the fourth row to finish a strong second.
Shannon Anderson won another Hobby Stock feature also. Anderson's win, much like Sunday night in Vinton, was a contested one as he has not been dominating fields to this point, but he has still been winning. Thursday night he took plenty of heat from Eric Stanton who raced in his tire tracks for many laps and continuously tried to get under Anderson, but Shannon was just strong enough off the corners as for most people on Thursday, the high side was the fast way around the track.
It was close at the finish but Anderson showed the way to edge out Stanton and Gene Nicklas. Justin Wacha and Keeron Sampson completed the top five. This was the only race of the entire night where we kind of got "stuck in the mud"with five yellows in the first ten laps keeping things bunched.
A Sport Mod master of this track is Jared VanDeest and he did it again Thursday, winning another main here. After an early yellow, the drivers raced the last seventeen laps nonstop with not a single drivers getting lapped and only three not making the checkered.
VanDeest came from the second row, got the lead early and then pulled away from Braydon Carter who was trying to track him down. But the show was put on by Austin Luellen. He got DQ'd follwing his heat race win(not sure of his violation) so he started twentieth in the main event and boy, did he cut through the field.
He was passing high and low, where ever the holes were, he found them. He continued his strong charge toward the front as he got all the way up to third but the top two had checked out and with no yellow forthcoming, he had to settle for that spot. It could have been much different if that yellow bunting had flown, but that's racing.
The track was great for Thursday's show. It was smooth and slick from top to bottom. Drivers were able to race all over it and much side by side racing was seen. It was a driver's track with the icy conditions and I love it that way. Both lanes of the track worked if you had the car from them and could drive it. It was quite dirty though, but mostly because of the gale force winds which were, of course, blowing from totally the wrong direction. Is it just me or does this feel like the windiest Spring ever?
So once they got racing, the program itself lasted just over three hours, very good for the size of the field and the number of races to be run. In summation, a nice night at the races. I just wish I hadn't had to be so bundled up as I would have enjoyed it even more if I wasn't holding on for dear life to keep from getting blown out of the bleachers!
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