Saturday night marked the finale of the 2025 racing season at the Marshalltown Speedway with the second half of the Harvest Hustle on the high banks.
Saturday night was also the celebration of the Carl Moyer Memorial race as the Late Models of the Karl Chevrolet Pro Late Model Tour joined the other classes for a one night race for themselves. The addition of the Late Models put the car count over the two hundred and seventy number. With the pits so jammed, the Late Models ended up pitting on the East end of the Fairgrounds, something that I had never seen done here before.
Saturday's program saw Last Chance qualifying for the six classes that raced on Friday night plus a full show for the Late Models. The Late Model portion of the show brought a good number of the PRO regulars plus other Late Model drivers looking to get a last race in before the snow flies.
Drivers got two more chances on Saturday night to make the main events as first Last Chance heats were held which moved a few drivers up immediately into the mains and then everyone else got to run a Last Chance event to put the last feature starters into the show.
Another forty three races would be held on Saturday night and even though the program started earlier than on Friday, with so many races it would be another long evening of racing. When all the qualifying was completed, there would end of being around twenty four or so drivers in each class that would run a main event.
The first class up for their main event was the Sport Mods and there was some controversy in this main. And I must admit that most of the questions were asked by me and not by others in the crowd. Brayton Carter and Matt Avila shared the front row for the start and they took off battling each other in tight formation. They were nearly side by side down the front stretch on the opening lap and when they doze to the inside of turn one, it got tight for Avila and he spun out.
As all the cars had not completed the opening lap, a restart was called for and according to the way they operate here, it turned into a "do over" for the entire field, meaning that Avila got his spot back.
J VAN and I have gone around on this(in a good way of course) and he tells me that this is the way that they do it here every week and if so, they should indeed follow the same course on this weekend too. I believe a bit differently on this as for me, whether it was the first lap or the last, when someone triggers the yellow they should go to the back of the pack. If we give everyone a "do over", we might as well got to UMP racing where the first attempt is fair game for anyone to try anything and if it doesn't work, they try again a second time using the original lineup.
If M Town does this every week then they definitely should also do it the same way for this event; it's the philosophy behind it that I question.
In any event, the restart saw Avila get past Carter who failed to cover the outside lane and block Avila's charge and on a top side dominant track at this point of the night, Avila then pulled away for the win. There was only one yellow after that and Avila, strong on the cushion, never gave Carter a chance to catch him. Brayden Shepherd would run third for most of the race.
Twenty Late Models started their feature race and while J.D. Auringer took the early lead, he was soon under the gun from Dallon Murty who started right behind him. It took Murty only three laps to get past Auringer and he then cruised away from the field.
There were several yellows to bunch the pack but every time Murty would pull away and he was never seriously challenged. C.J. Horn moved into the second spot by the halfway point of the race but was never able to cut into Murty's lead. Brennan Chipp finished third.
I felt that perhaps the most entertaining feature was the Hobby Stock main that saw a real battle for the lead and a late race pass making the difference. It was primarily a two car battle between Bradly Graham and Carson Butt that got a bit physical several times.
Graham started on the outside pole and led most of the race over Butt. Graham was running low in turns one and two and each lap, Butt would try to run off the banking and get enough momentum to make a pass down the back chute.
This was attempted several times but each time Graham was able to squeeze off Butt and hold him back. Finally, Butt got a better run off turn two and Graham might have been just a bit lower exiting the corner, but either way, Butt was able to edge under Graham down the back chute and take over the lead with them making some contact and Graham getting squeezed himself a bit into the back chute guard rail.
Butt then held off the challenges the last few laps from Graham to take the win, and after they crossed the finish line and slowed for turn one, Graham initiated some contact that saw Butt pull into victory lane with a left front fender flapping in the breeze. He seemed to not even have noticed this and to me, there was equal give and take during the race that no one got the upper hand, but perhaps Graham wasn't happy losing to a fourteen year old. In any event, it was an action packed event.
I was expecting a wild and competitive Stock Car feature race but instead it was kind of quiet and nondescript, thanks to Murty. Braden Richards took the initial lead with Jeffrey Abbey, in the B&B House Car, moving into second. Murty started fifth but quickly moved to third and then got past Abbey to move into second by lap four as two yellows slowed the race early.
The rest of the event went nonstop and it took only a few laps for Murty to build up a head of steam and drive past Richards on lap ten and after that he was gone. He remained unchallenged as the top three stayed in the same order with not a lot of passing behind them either.
The Sport Compacts shocked when they started twenty four cars, all twenty four remained on the track to the finish and the race ran of nonstop!
Brian Hillringhouse started on the outside pole and led the first five laps. Michael Gardner started in the second row and made what was the winning pass on lap six and after that move, he was gone. Despite having to navigate through some lapped traffic, he was never in danger of losing the lead as he built up quite a comfortable edge. Hillringhouse then ran second for the rest of the race with Adam Broehm third.
The evening concluded with another domination performance as Jake McBurnie started on the pole and led all twenty five laps to win the Modified feature. There was only one slowdown in the late going but he took off strong on the restart and moved away from Tripp Gaylord and Kyle Brown to take the win.
Only four drivers failed to finish the final race of the night. The last checkered waved at 1:38 am, making for a truly long race meet. It was a cold night with a wind that never seemed to let up and while it blew in a direction that wasn't at least in our faces, it was relenting and made it feel much colder than the temperature said. Folks were bundled up like it was a snowmobile race and while the crowd was much bigger than on Friday night, it still wasn't the packed house that I imagined it might be. Perhaps football played a part in that both nights.
After a night off, the tech folks came back on Saturday with a fury as there were no less than ten disqualifications during the course of the evening, some that cost drivers from racing the mains.
It did seem a shame that the premier class at this track all year didn't run their main event until about 1 am and in front of about fifty folks that were left, either because they were zealots or were perhaps frozen down in their seats! A modified schedule might have helped that situation.
One suggestion might be to eliminate the second chances that drivers had on Saturday to qualify and just divide the remaining drivers up into B Features and qualify them out of those races, rather than having qualifying heats followed by another full round of qualifying. That would eliminate a number of races and cut down on the laps on the track.
I didn't think it possible but I believe the surface actually wore out on Saturday from so many laps. After not touching it on Friday night, there were several sessions of watering and scrapping the track to try and prevent it from rubbering up and going one lane but they were only partially successful in doing so as there were periods in certain races that it was clear that the groove was latching down and that might have played a part in some of the dominating races with less passing as I thought the prelims on Friday were excellent.
Still, while some refining might be in order for next year, who can complain about the racing we saw with so many cars, events and entertainment, all during the last week of October?
It had to have been a grind for the track employees who put in some ungodly hours, racing until the wee hours and then being right back at it just a few hours later. Thanks to them as without their efforts, this program or any other for that matter would never be able to be run.
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