Friday night October 25th, the rescheduled World Nationals kicked off at the Marshalltown Speedway with a spectacular night of racing in all four classes that appeared. No words can do true justice to the tremendous action we saw in what was just about the best racing program of the year I have seen to this point.
It was qualifying night for the Modifieds for their ten grand to win, fifty lap main event to be held on Saturday night. Along with the Modifieds, a full show was also held for the Stock Cars, Sport Mods and Hobby Stocks and none of the support classes(a term that probably should not be used to describe them) disappointed in any way as there was great racing across the board in all divisions.
One hundred and forty eight cars signed in to race in the four classes provided and while the Modified count was perhaps just a bit smaller than was expected, there were still forty seven of them on hand to battle it out and try to make the main. Cars were on hand from twelve different states including three drivers all the way from Pennsylvania with Mods plus a Stock Car. To be considered in the car counts in all classes is the large amount of farmers out in the fields and unavailable to either race or attend the races.
The program included a full show of heats, B Features and mains for three classes plus a double go round of Modifieds that saw them earn both finishing and passing points as they tried to make the main.
The track was somewhat different than normal in that it was much heavier due to all the rain in recent weeks. The infield and pits were quite muddy and the track prep crew spent most of the day pounding the track as it was quite moist. It would later prove to be blinding fast, so add in the increased speed of the night and the apparent abandon of some to drive as if their hair was on fire due to it likely being the last race weekend for most, and you have the formula for some memorable action. And the racing did not disappoint. Yet, with all the tremendously hard racing and too much action to even report, there were only just a handful of yellow flags waved as between the racing mentality here of moving when you spin and the one spin rule in force, the races just seem to keep on moving, no matter what the situation or circumstances. Once in a great while, someone gets gypped due to bad circumstances, but overall all, it makes the program move so much better and is so much better for the fans, period.
The three feature races were run after the first set of Modified heats and following the B Features that were necessary for the Stock Cars and Sport Mods. Hobby Stocks were up first and all that were still operable after the heats were allowed to run the main event which meant that twenty three would take the green for the twenty lap main.
This race saw a great battle between Kaden Reynolds and Dylan Nelson for the win. Reynolds was the early leader after starting on the pole position and he fought off Micah Hidlebaugh and Seth Janssen in the early going. Nelson would advance quickly from his tenth starting spot and join what was an intense race for the lead. Two early yellow flags kept the field bunched and Nelson made his move, ducking low and passing for the lead.
However, it wasn't long before his car started to show steam as he was having a cooling issue and the question was, would the race end before he ran out of water. The red light on the dash was visible as he ran into turn one, but he chose to keep his foot to the floor as pack of cars swarmed around him.
Finally, with only a few laps left, his motor started making very bad sounds and he quickly headed over the bank into the pits, and gave the lead back to Reynolds. Caden was able to hold off a charging Solomon Bennett to get the win with Hidlebaugh, Jason Fusselman and Wayne Gifford trailing.
Fusselman had provided some entertaining moments earlier when a yellow was thrown for him for his rear bumper dragging. Even though it appeared to be hanging by a thread, track workers wrestled with it and couldn't pull it off so he was sent to the pits. However, as he roared away from the workers and headed for the pits, the bumper fell off all by itself and Jason was flagged back on to the track and given his position back.
Incredibly, following the Reynolds victory, a second rookie driver was the winner of a main when Dylan VanWyk led from start to finish to win the Sport Mod feature. He fought off Jason Roth and Tyler Soppe in the early going for the lead until both drivers had trouble on lap twelve and two of the top five runners were then eliminated.
This left VanWyk to fight off the two top chargers of the night, Cody Thompson and. Brayden Carter. Both had started deep in the field but had made great moves toward the front of the pack and the last several laps saw both try and dislodge VanWyk from the lead. However, the impressive young driver from Osky held off all challenges to take the win. Thompson ended up coming from nineteenth to second while Carter moved from sixteenth to third with Austin Kaplan and Tyler Inman completing the top five.
But while both of these feature races were dandies, the Stock Car feature was even better. This race had more yellow flags and wrecked more cars than the previous two, but the racing was just remarkable as a wad of about ten cars took turns exchanging positions on the track and it seemed like nearly every lap there was a different car making a surge to the front.
The ending was spectacular with Jordan Grabouski and Damon Murty settling the issue. A late yellow set up a two lap sprint to the finish and these two veterans put on a great show as they crossed over on each other, trading the lead on just about every corner. Murty made a pass to take the lead on the white flag and then Grabouski dived past again to grab the top spot. Murty dived low in turn three to move in front but then Grabouski did a diamond move off the final corner. They raced back to the line and Grabo won by the smallest of margins in a classic finish to a great race. Jimmy Gustin, who had been a player for the lead the whole race, finished a very close third over Todd Reitzler and Benji LaCrosse.
In between all this action, the Modifieds provided some spectacular heat race action with more "slide jobs" than could be counted. After all the twelve heats were totaled in points, the top ten would move directly to the feature race while everyone else gets to run heat races on Saturday.
In a post race development, the top ten in total points were called for tech following the racing action which wrapped up around Midnight. However, Ricky Thornton Jr was in the midst of a family health issue with his wife that forced him to leave immediately and he didn't stick around to have his car teched. Therefore, he was disqualified, his qualifying position was given to Jacob Murray and if Thornton wants to make the main, he will have to start at the back of a heat race on Saturday. We will see how this plays out on Saturday. I can say that I witnessed Thornton Jr changing a motor on Friday afternoon, further adding interest to the issue.
It was a great night of racing and was witnessed by a good sized crowd, especially considering it was "Friday night football night" plus it did dip down to thirty six degrees before the racing was completed.
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