The Fast Shafts Harvest Hustle on the high banks of the Marshalltown Speedway opened up on Friday night, October 24th. After a practice night on Thursday was attended by around one hundred and fifty drivers, it was apparent that with cool but rain free weather for Friday that there would be a pit full of racing cars for Friday night's qualifying sessions.
And that was certainly the case on Friday as the expanded pits were filled to the bulging point by the time everyone got parked and signed in. The whole field to the South of the pit area was used to excess race vehicle parking and it was full right up to the edge of the street both to the South and West of the normal pit area.
Of course, it takes a lot of space to park over two hundred and fifty race cars, especially these days with the larger and larger transporters that many are using. Car counts were up in four of the five core classes racing this weekend with the biggest increases in the Modifieds and Stock Cars over 2024. Only the Hobby Stock count was down slightly and the total number signed in to race was two hundred and thirty seven. Add in the twenty two Mod Lites and two hundred and fifty nine cars would be racing on Friday night.
Forty eight races plus the Mod Lite events made for a more than full racing evening which went nearly nonstop from shortly after 7 pm. The track was great on Friday with not a bit of dust, despite the rather windy conditions that would prevail throughout the weekend. It was interesting to watch the groove move from high to low and then back to the high, largely depending on which class was racing and where the drivers found their cars to work the best. I believe that once the first green flag was dropped, the track wasn't touched all night and that is testament to both a good surface and good track prep.
A unique format was used for this event. Drivers raced in two heat races with the draw setting the running order for the first round of heats and then the order shuffled for the second set of heats, both in starting positions for the drivers and also who they were racing against. Often when I see this format I note that the same drivers race against each other twice and that is wrong as the balance between the heats might not be even and it isn't fair to have to run against a stacked heat twice, unless of course you are that unlucky to draw two different heats that are both loaded.
Passing points are used to determine the Saturday night lineups and that is something not used often enough in this part of the racing world for largely attended races. Draw/redraw is simply not appropriate for fields of drivers this large, putting far to much worth on the draw for the success of the whole weekend. Drivers earn their own way into the main events when they have to race twice. And points are also deducted for losing positions during the heat races, putting a huge premium on performance.
Many excellent and intense heat races were held on Friday night, but it would be difficult to not say that the Stock Cars once again shown brightly. Right from the start in their first heat race they were running in a cluster, swapping positions in every corner and doing their fair share of leaning on each other which seems to be an excepted part of the racing as no one seems to get agitated when they get rubbed a bit. Only the top six in passing points are to be locked in for Saturday night's feature race so there will be many excellent drivers having to run B Features heats or Last Chance races.
There were a couple red flags for wild flips in the Sport Compact class on Friday night, highlighting the one safety item that I wish could be changed here. Very much like the River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks North Dakota, a high banked quarter mile, when drivers fly off the end here it usually produces bad things. On Friday night, a couple of Sport Compact drivers tried to fight their way back onto the track after slipping over the edge but the only thing that produced was a couple of wild barrel rolls.
The greatest thing that could ever happen here is if a wall was built on both ends of the track, keeping the drivers from exiting over the banking at high speed which more often than not results in a nasty flip or wreck. As it is, anyone that goes over the edge automatically triggers a yellow because track officials lose sight of the cars and don't know if they are OK or not, thus forcing a yellow.
I look at how much better Central Arizona Speedway races now that they have a wall all the way around the track to keep cars where they should be and also allow the track to build up a berm which adds to the racing. I know that some drivers and fans like an outside wall and other not so much but for me, it is a safety item as much as anything.
Amazingly, with over fifty races on the scheduled on Friday, there was not a single disqualification to be found. Perhaps the tech folks didn't make it in time but that seems so rare for a big event such as this for not a single driver to be either light or in conflict with some other rule, especially with drivers from I believe eleven states on hand and so many that never had raced here before.
With so many races on tap, it was a grueling night for both the racers, fans and track workers with the final checkered of the night waving well after Midnight. However, if it was races you wanted to see, you more than got your money's worth.
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