Thornton, Wollam score first Marshalltown wins

MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa (June 3)– Two drivers, Ricky Thornton Jr. in the Xtreme Motor Sports Modified division and Jeff Wollam in IMCA Sunoco Stock Cars, scored first wins of the 2016 sea­son at the Marshalltown Speedway on Friday night.

Thornton, the Chandler, Ariz., driver who is calling Iowa home for the summer, made his pres­ence known in the 20-lap Modified feature. He started 13th and grabbed the lead away from last week’s winner Eric Elliott on lap nine.

From there on, Thornton took his ride to the top side and never looked back on his way to the check­ers. Jake Murray finished second from starting ninth, and third went to 11th starting Jimmy Gustin with a late race charge. Kyle Brown finished fourth and Ronn Lauritzen came from 10th to round out the top five.

Wollam, who had run in the top three all night long, made the last-lap pass on the back stretch, slipping under Donavon Smith and beating him to the checkers for the Stock Car win. Smith had to settle for the runner-up spot while third went to Tyler Pickett, fourth to Austin Evens and Steve Meyer finished fifth. Wollam had not won at Marshalltown since August of 2011.

Sam Wieben scored his second Karl Chevrolet Northern SportMod feature win and the man who has been unstoppable in the IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stocks, Eric Stanton, kept his perfect season going by winning for the sixth time in a row.

Young Ethan Braaskma led the pack Northern SportMods in their 18-lap feature through the first eleven laps. On the restart, Wieben got the jump on Braaksma and flew to the lead. Wieben held the top spot to the checkers and the win. Last week’s winner Jared VanDeest came from 12th starting to finish second and Braaksma held third. It was a tight finish for fourth and fifth, with Cory Rose just beating out Travis Peterson.

Stanton has been unstoppable in Hobby Stock division and it was no different on Friday night. He started ninth and was in the lead at lap four, keeping it the remaining eleven laps to the checkers flying. Gene Nicklas finished as the runner-up, third went to Dustin Graham, Gary Pfantz was fourth and Leah Wroten was fifth.