King of the High Banks Produces Opening Night Excellence

 Thursday night, April 10th, the opening night of the King of the High Banks kicked off at the Marshalltown Speedway in Marshalltown Iowa. It seems quite unusual to find mid week races so early in the season but that is also one way to avoid conflicts with other race tracks and provide a full and cosmopolitan field of drivers. The King of the High Banks is an IMCA Stock Car special with five grand going to the winner of Friday night's forty lap main event. Along with Stock Cars, full shows for Modifieds, Sport Mods, and Hobby Stocks are held both nights with Sport Compacts and Mod Lites also making cameo appearances. 

It was another blustery night in what seems to be an almost unending Spring of high winds. I'm going to have to start self identifying as "The Wind Man" because it seems that every race I attend the winds are blowing up a gale. Such was the case again on Thursday in Marshalltown where it is almost guaranteed that if I am in attendance, the wind is going to be blowing at hurricane strength and directly into the faces of the tough spectators on hand. Sure enough, that was the case on Thursday which made handling the conditions a challenge. Fortunately the drivers and track management did what they could to mediate the pain by running off a super fast program, something that was appreciated no end. A couple bouts of sprinkles made the night even more bitter.

There were drivers as far away as Louisiana and Texas to race for the big bucks in the Stock Car event with thirty five of them signing in to race. Good fields of drivers were also on hand in the Modified, Sport Mod, Hobby Stock and Sport Compact divisions also with the Modified field especially strong with a number of drivers taking advantage of the opportunity to make a rare visit to central Iowa with several bringing both Stock Cars and Mods to race. In all, one hundred and ten drivers signed in to race on Thursday. 

Spring spruce ups and improvements continue at Marshalltown. The new back guardrail got painted a bright white this week so no driver can say they didn't see that a new guardrail was there. Also, a C Can was positioned off turn four that now is used as the second cat walk, giving more of the pit folks a chance to have a find view of the proceedings on the track. I guessing that the announcers are still praying for the day when their perch high above the grandstand is shelled in so that they don't have to face the brunt of the wind in their face, which must be even worse on them than for us in the grandstands. 

Between the strong winds blowing and the threat of rain, the track was a bit drier than last week and it went black and slick quicker, even during the heat races. For a period of time, it kind of went one lane down on the bottom and the comment was made that the track wasn't as good as last week. However, J Van and his crew came out and gave the surface just a little tickling and a drink of water and suddenly, it was "lights out again." We then got to witness four excellent feature races, two of which were decided on the last lap and any complaints about the track were quickly quashed. 

For two weeks in a row this track has produced dynamite feature racing action, the kind that you only can hope that other tracks might produce. I'm not sure what the formula is here, but J Van might want to package it and sell it as the feature racing here so far this year has been a wonder. 

The Stock Car program would consist of double heat races with drivers earning points for passing and finishing positions in those two heats. the top six will be locked into the main event on Friday while the rest run Last Chance races lined up by points to earn their way into the main. 

The other classes running on Thursday did heats with the draw/redraw in effect and only the Mods needed a B Feature feature to cut their field to feature size. 

The first feature race up was for the Sport Mods with thirteen drivers taking the green. This race would prove to be a heart breaker for Dylan VanWyk as he led seventeen plus laps of the eighteen lap race, only to be passed by Brayton Carter on the last lap. VanWyk started off strong, taking the lead in the early going after a tangle slowed the action before a lap could be completed. The rest of the race would then go green to checkers. Cam Reimers stormed up from the fourth row to challenge Illinois driver Logan Cumby for second and they battled hard for that spot. Carter has started sixth and was not making much progress early as at the halfway point he was only up to fourth. 

As VanWyk continued to lead, the battle for second intensified with Carter starting to move on the low side of the track. He got by both the drivers also fighting for second and with just seven laps to go, he moved into second. However, he was half a straightaway behind VanWyk and it didn't seem likely that he could catch up. 

After not running well last week, Carter practiced here on Wednesday and said they have found their problem and it showed as on the next few laps he really reeled in the leader, moving to his rear bumper as the white flag waved. And when VanWyk left just a little hole on the inside of the track, Carter blasted through to take over the lead and then pull away down the back chute, stealing away the late race victory. Reimers ended up third, followed by Cumby and Colton Livezey. 

Sport Compacts have been putting on some wild feature racing action so far this year at Marshalltown and Thursday night was no exception. Things started right out on the green with a wild first lap scramble that saw "The Beard", Mitchell Bunch come for the fourth row to take the lead. But he couldn't get away from Michael Gardner, who came from the fifth row and Christian Grady as they ran in a three car swarm. 

Just at the halfway point, Grady made a strong move and took over the lead from Bunch and then started to pull away. Gardner than passed Bunch for second, and shortly after Bunch pulled off with issues. Grady had a sizable lead over the field but as the race continued under the green, Gardner found a fast lane on the top side and slowly but surely cut into the advantage that Grady held. 

The lead continued to gradually narrow and by the final lap it was only a car length or two. Gardner continued to ride the high side, gaining ground and they came off the final corner side by side. They were so close at the line that I was glad there were transponders to make the call with Gardner edging out Grady by .016 seconds in a dandy for the second straight week in this class. Kaiden Gosselink finished third trailed by Conner Adkins and Ryan Cheney. 

The Modified feature was another excellent event that saw three different leaders over the course of twenty laps of racing. Tanner Black drew the pole position and he took the initial lead with lap one producing a wild scramble of cars going in multiple directions that resulted in the only yellow flag of the contest. 

The restart saw Black continuing to lead but Chaz Baca Jr and Izac Mallicoat  were both pushing him hard. Mallicoat particularly was strong up on the banking and on lap five he drove past Black to take over the lead. Tripp Gaylord and Cody Laney then began to move also and the lead group was quite a large pack of drivers. 

Gaylord moved up to the second spot by the halfway point of the race but Laney was also right there challenging for the lead with several instances of three wide battling in the corners. One lap past halfway, Gaylord was able to get past Mallicoat to take over the top spot and he would retain that position the rest of the way. 

It was not easy though, as he had both Laney and Mallicoat trying to get past him and with each one running a distinctly different line, he couldn't just block the path of either without opening the door to the other one. So they finished in a tight bunch with Gaylord getting the win. Cayden Carter and Black spent the last half of the race battling for fourth with Cayden edging into the spot near the end. Only two drivers in the starting field failed to finish and there was not a single lapped car. 

Could there be one more excellent feature race possible? Yes indeed as the Hobby Stock feature challengers spent much of the contest racing side by side for the win until Dillon Richards edged away in the very late going. With Richards starting on the pole, it seemed like this race would be decided before the green flag was waved, but that proved to be not the case at all. Richards did take the green early but he had Corey VanderWilt all over him, challenging both high and low. Richards started out racing the tall side of the track but when VanderWilt got under him, Dillon moved to the bottom but he couldn't make his car stick there and when he slid out, VanderWilt was right there to take over the lead on lap eight. And both were being challenged by Kevin Sather who was trying to get by both on the high side of the track. 

For several laps, the leaders ran side by side in a pleasing battle for the top spot but when Kale Hemsley stalled on the front chute, Richards was ahead by inches, thus giving him the point for the restart. At this point, Richards made a slight adjustment to the line he was running as he moved right through the middle of the track and he made it work as he was able from that point to fight off all challenges and give himself just a bit of breathing room. 

While Richards pulled away by a couple car lengths, the battle for second went right down to the wire with VanderWilt edging out Sather for that spot. Behind them, Bradly Graham edged out Brad Graham for fourth. With two Eric(k) Knutson's and two Brad(ly) Graham's, this class is more than confusing to keep track of.

The Stock Car drivers ran a pair of heat races to build up points for Friday night's finale. So far, I have been unable to determine who the top six were with those drivers starting up front while everyone else races in Last Chance qualifiers. They will be joined by the Hobby Stocks, Sport Mod and Mods plus the Mod Lites with full shows. 

It was an excellent night of racing by all involved. And the best part, especially with the less than Summer like conditions, twenty three races, including four feature races, were completed in approximately two hours and fifteen minutes!

Thornton Thumps Frostbuster Modified Field at Boone

 Night number two of the annual Frostbuster series was held on Saturday night, April 5th at the Boone Speedway. While only two of the scheduled four races in this series were held due to weather conditions, the two nights of racing were well supported by racers from many states plus a tough core group of fans at both tracks.

Winners on Saturday night included Dylan Thornton, Kelly Shryock, Cam Reimers and Dillon Richards.  Only four classes were raced on Saturday night at Boone but car counts were still high with one hundred and seventy three drivers signing in to race in just those four classes and a full program of  twenty eight racing events kept the crowd entertained. 

Quite frankly, it was a miserable night for racing and only perhaps would Boone have attempted to race under such harsh conditions. With so many drivers traveling so far to race, I think there were plenty of folks just thankful that they would put their neck out and race on what was far from a nice night for auto racing, even in April in Iowa. And based on the number of pit passes alone that they sold, I hope that they came out just fine. 

While the temperature barely fought its way to the low forties, it was the bitter wind, blowing well over twenty miles an hour and never backing off until later in the program that made spectating so miserable. Of course it was right in the faces of the audience and there was really no way to avoid its blasts. It was a matter of wearing everything warm that you owned and then thinking warm thoughts as the wind blasted you right in the face. 

While the car count for Boone was right at or slightly exceeding the numbers from Marshalltown on Friday night, there were fifty nine drivers that ran at Boone on Saturday that weren't seen the previous night. By the same token, there were forty six drivers that ran on Friday that didn't follow the tour on to Boone on Saturday. 

The program consisted of four heat races for each class, a pair of B Features and then ending with four main events. Despite the large fields, track officials resisted the notion of running more than four heats with each heat containing at least nine drivers and some heats up to a dozen. While this helps speed up the overall program, using the draw/redraw method of lining up the races, this makes it tough to overcome a bad draw with heat races of only eight laps. Perhaps that is why things started out a bit rough, with the early events for the Sport mods turning into smash fests before everyone seemed to settle down and race better. After that the program ran off very smoothly and for the second straight night, track officials were able to click off a very large racing program in just four hours and with the early start time on Saturday, all racing was done by 9 pm. Boone even threw in two track prep periods but with six tractors and packers plus multiple water trucks, they can redo the track twice in about the same time as it takes me to lumber down to the restroom and back!

Twenty four car fields were set for all four of the main events with the Sport Mods rolling out first for their twenty lap event. And just like Friday night, we were in for some dandy feature races with lots of passing, great battles for the top spot and few yellow flags. 

The Sport Mods may have been the wildest of the night with my unofficial count of six lead changes between two drivers as the "White Castle" sliders were in full effect. Randy Havlik held the pole position with Cole Suckow to his outside but it was Cam Reimers who snuck up from the second row to take the lead on lap one. Suckow quickly moved in on him to pressure and two laps later, Suckow make the pass for the lead. 

Through the first half of the race, Suckow continued to lead but Reimers was all over the leader, looking to make a pass and retake the point. Havlik continued to maintain third at the halfway point with Dustin White and Nate Albrant close behind. A spin by Michael Johnson with twelve laps completed was the only yellow of the race with Dusty Masolini now cracking the top five. 

The last eight laps of the feature were wilder even than the early laps with Reimers claiming the lead on lap fourteen, only to see Suckow slide in for the lead one lap later. Not done yet, Reimers retook the lead with another slider on lap seventeen, only to see Suckow once again return the favor one lap later as the crowd was going wild. 

Reimers was not done yet, as the did another slider coming to the white flag to grab the lead one last time and he then maneuvered on the final tour so that Suckow couldn't return the favor and Cam drove across the line with a half car length on Suckow to grab the exciting win. There were also some big charges by other drivers to get to the top five, the biggest was that of Tyler Nerud. Nerud started twentieth on the grid and on the last lap, outfought Masolini for third while Taylor Kuehl completed the top five. 

Twenty four Modified drivers took the green for their thirty lap feature and when Troy Morris III came from row two to grab the lead on the opening lap, it looked like a repeat from Friday night. However, that didn't prove to be the case and using the healthy cushion to his advantage, Dylan Thornton came screaming to the front and passed Morris III on lap three. 

Thornton was flying on the top side and quickly put some distance on the field and when Morris III broke on lap seven and slowed rapidly with Tood Shute piling into him and ending the night for both, the first yellow waved. 

Thornton continued to hold the lead and pull away form the field with Jake McBurnie, Trevor Fitz, Izac Mallicoate and a charging Jeremy Mills battling behind him. Miles had really picked up the pace and after starting eleventh, he was up to third at the halfway point. 

Two yellows just after the halfway point kept the field bunched, but Miles was able to move into second but he could gain no ground on the flying Thornton, who continued to scream around the cushion. where he has much success. 

The final thirteen laps ran off nonstop and no one had anything for Thornton, who drove on for an easy win. Mills would finish off second but that late race story was the charge of Ethan Braaksma. Braaksma started tenth, was not even in the top five by halfway but in the second half of the race, tore all the way up to third where he finished ahead of Fitz and Logan Anderson as the former Sport Mod star showed the he will be a force in the Modified class also. 

The Stock Car feature was a classic example of when the track goes to a fast low groove, look out for Kelly Shryock. Even though he started tenth, he quickly picked away on the leaders, shooting pass them on the low side when they slipped out of the groove and by the halfway point of the twenty five lapper, he was up to second behind race long leader Jimmy Gustin. 

One lap after the halfway point, Gustin slipped off the bottom and Shryock, who had been plotting his move for several laps, blasted past Gustin to take over the lead and once in front, he was gone. Despite three late yellows and a red when Johnathan Logue got booted over on to his roof, Shryock dominated the late going to score the win. 

A late charge saw Braden Richards up to third and when Gustin hooked a rut on the final corner and nearly turned over himself, Richards drove under him for second. Jay Schmidt and Austin Bouzek completed the top five. 

What a weekend it was for Hobby Stock driver Dillon Richards. After blowing away the field at Marshalltown on Friday night, he again dominated a forty plus field of drivers on Saturday night, winning by a wide margin in a nonstop main event. 

It didn't hurt that he redrew the pole position or the fact that the race went twenty laps of green flag racing which didn't allow the drivers near that back to gain ground under yellow, but it probably didn't matter as he was clearly the class of the field, ever since he has been dating way back to Arizona in January. 

Eric Knutson started second and held that spot through the halfway point of the race, but a late charge by Joe Doran, who started seventh, allowed him to race into second in the late going to claim the runner up position. Knutson held on for second with rookie Kolby Sabin and Chris Krug also running in the top five. 

For the second straight night we saw a program that was very well run with little in the way of delays and a prompt starting time. Overall there was a lot of green flag racing and the one spin rule always keeps the drivers trying their best not to halt races. 

Logan Kelly was waving the flags on Saturday as he certainly works quite a few tracks in the Iowa area. The announcing duo, as usual, was the hard to beat combo of J Van and Ryan Clark. Sorry I missed seeing Clark before the races as I always like to talk to Ryan but on this day, he was probably hiding out where it was warm until the final second before race time. I even had a brief interaction with legendary promoter Robert Lawton on Saturday. He was working on the food booth in the pits when I saw him and noticing that he was wearing a walking boot, I asked him what had happened. "Broke it," was his quick comment as he moved on. That was our conversation as Robert is clearly not one to be making small talk on opening night. 

While the weather was not very pleasant either night, I have no complaints. Not many folks in this country, with all the bad weather this week, got to see two races within an hour of each other with nearly two hundred cars at each show, excellent racing and at top notch facilities. Thanks to everyone at Boone for providing the second half of a blockbuster weekend of racing. 

Morris III Tops Marshalltown Frostbuster

 The central Iowa racing season kicked off on Friday night, April 4th with the annual Frostbuster event at the Marshalltown Speedway. Scheduled to be a four night swing for the IMCA drivers, it has been cut, hopefully to no less than two events, depending if the Saturday night  show at Boone is completed. 

Even with the cold and wet weather of the early part of this week, Marshalltown promoter Jerry Van Sickel was determined to get his Frostbuster event completed and there were many race crews that obviously wanted to race also. 

When the draw window finally closed, one hundred and ninety six drivers from thirteen states and two countries had pulled a pill in the five IMCA classes offered on Friday night. As usual, the pit area was jammed as well as the field just to the South of the pit area. One of the things that always amazes me about this event is that with drivers spread out all over the county and no pa system back in the field, how everyone knows when they need to be ready to race and how such an immense event always goes off so smoothly.

Car counts were very similar to last year's event, even though races at both the front end and tail end of the tour had already been loped off due to weather considerations. The cold weather had produced one minor inconvenience at the track and because of the cold weather leading up to and potentially after the  races completion, the water could not be turned of for the restrooms, meaning that satellites were the order of the evening.

The track looks a bit different this year also. Remember that a stretch of guardrail was added on the back chute leading into turn three to keep the racers out of the neighbors. Well, that was an immediate safety hazard and several drivers had bad experiences with it last Fall. So this Spring, the guard rail was extended the whole length of the back chute, giving the track a new look. Thoughts that many drivers would test out the new rail proved to be incorrect though, as I only recall one driver that got into the barrier all night. 

Some moves within the employees of the track were noted also, with "Big Boy" Jason Froemell now calling the action as a co-announcer while "Foxman", Jeremy Fox, a former announcer and reporter for the track is now waving the flags as head starter. 

Many of the well known names from IMCA racing in Iowa and beyond were on hand, most sporting new cars and I noticed that more and more drivers are now becoming multi class racers with both the Olsons now racing in both Sport Mods and Stock Cars among many making moves. Not only does that take a big racing budget but it takes a big pit crew to keep two cars running. I also notices that more and more drivers are going to the new style Stock Car bodies but I still have not warmed up to them myself. 

With the completion of hot laps, racing would begin at 7:22 pm and once started, there would be no breaks all night except on a couple occasions to extract cars from wrecks. The drivers did an amazing job of racing with twenty of the thirty four races contested on Friday running off green to checkers including three of the five feature races. That is a remarkable statistic in my book, especially considering how many drivers are new to the track, how many are making their first races of the year and the considerable stakes on the line. 

Just as good as the racers themselves was the preparation of the track. It was smooth and wide all night with multiple racing grooves and once they rolled the cushion just a bit after hot laps, they never touched the track again all night! Fanstastic! And the drivers were still racing all over the track, right to the last checkers. It was a bit dirty after the wind nicely switched right into our faces and picked up intensity but that was a very minor inconvenience for real race fans. 

A bit archaic was the old draw redraw used for such a large field of drivers but no matter, the preliminary events were very hard fought with the drivers going three and four wide right from the drop of the first green flag. 

A big disappointment came early when fan favorite Taylor Kuehl was disqualified after her strong Sport Mod heat race run. She opted to just start in the back of the B Feature and putt around. She should have probably raced as Tony Olson started just in front of her and ended up winning the B Feature and making the main!

All five of the feature races were good ones and a couple were exceptional. The Sport Mods started things off and their twenty lap main included five different leaders and a situation where a couple of the cars battling for the top spot ended up taking each other out. 

Dustin Marquardt edged past Barden Claborn to lead the opening lap but one lap later Cam Reimers rolled from the outside lane to edge past both and take over the lead. Dylan VanWyk was on the move after starting eighth and just one lap later, he was able to pass Reimers to take over the lead.

These two then went at it, trading slide jobs as they battled for the top spot. Unfortunately, they came together while battling for the lead with Reimers flying off the end of the track and VanWyk slowing with a flat tire. The green flag stayed out and Tyler Nerud inherited the lead. 

He held the top spot through the half way portion of the race but pushing him was Gabriel Deschamp and with just three laps to go. Deschamp drove around Nerud to take over the lead. Two late yellows bunched the field but Deschamp held on to take the win over Nerud and Dustin White. 

Perhaps even more exciting was the Sport Compact feature that saw the winner not established until the final corner of the race. Pole starter Spencer Roggentien led the opening lap but Mitchell Bielenberg was on the move after starting fourth and he drove around Roggentien on lap four to take over the top spot. Roggentien then would dominate most of the race, leading right up to the finish. 

By the halfway point of the race, Michael Gardner had moved into second with Gilbert Aldape, Christian Grady and Roggentien following. Aldape continued his charge from the sixth row, as he took over second and then pulled up beside Bielenberg to challenge for the lead. 

They put on an entertaining battle with Aldape challenging on each lap but Bielenberg holding him off. On the final lap, it was time for Aldape to make his move and he drove deep into turn three, edging into the lead. Bielenberg tried to cross him over but came up just a bumper length short with Aldape taking a very exciting win. Gardner would finish up third. 

The Stock Car feature was another dandy race with the three challengers for the win crossing the line together in a close bunch. Minnesota driver Justin Luinenburg was scored the leader of all twenty five laps but the race itself was much closer than that would indicate. 

Luinenburg got the jump on Maguire DeJong to take the early lead with Steve Meyer, Kelly Shryock and Thor Anderson close behind. As Luinenburg continued to lead, the drivers close behind diced for position and were soon joined by Dallon Murty who had moved up from the fourth row. 

As the race continued past the halfway point, the top five continued to jockey for position with the running order of those right behind Luinenburg changing lap by lap. In the late going, Murty made the biggest rush, closing to the rear bumper of Luinenburg as the laps ran down. 

It would again be a last lap fight to see who would take the lead. Murty gave it his all on the high side with Luinenburg holding off Dallon while Shryock, using the low side as he often does, nearly snuck by both at the line, edging out Murty for second while Luinenburg held off both for the win. 

After a nonstop Stock Car feature race, the Hobby Stocks rolled on to the track and did the same thing, running twenty green flag laps. Solomon Bennett, running perhaps the most ugly car to take to the track on this night, grabbed the early lead, proving that speed is not skin deep. However, three laps later, he couldn't fight off Corey VanDerwitt who had started beside him on row one. 

By this point, Dillon Richards had moving in behind VanDerwitt and after trying a few preliminary moves, threw a big slider at VanDerwitt to take over the lead. And once in front, he would be hard to catch as he then led the rest of the contest. VanDerwitt stayed close but couldn't challenge and ended up second with Bradly Graham coming from mid pack to finish third. 

The Modified drivers would not be shamed by the two previous classes as they too, ran off a green to checkers race for thirty laps. In the most dominating performance of the night, Troy Morris III, a new addition to Iowa racing this year after his move from the West Coast, took the lead off the outside and then drove on to lead for all laps and grab the win. Another import, Trevor Fitz, battled with him in the early going  before sliding back. 

Ethan Braaksma, driving the #12j car on Friday, moved into second and chased Morris III, gaining that spot before the halfway point of the race and while he stayed in second, he never really pushed the leader. Jake McBurnie moved up to third at the finish with Joel Rust and Cody Laney completing the top five. 

Thirty four races were completed in just less than four hours on Friday night. How many weekly shows with eighty cars take longer to run than that? It was just an outstanding night of racing with close finishes and good management keeping things moving. Thanks to J Van and all the others involved in the production of the speedway. They have another big race coming up next week with the King of the High Banks Stock Car special on April 11-12 paying five grand to the Stock Cars with other classes also racing. Check their website for more information.