By Joyce Eisele
MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa (June 18) – It was a full night of racing at the Marshalltown Speedway on Friday where it was RBF Electric Night.
In IMCA STARS Mod Lite feature racing, Dillon Raffurty of Kansas City, Mo., raced for the first time this year at the track, led lap one, and never gave it up the rest of the way to the checkers. He finished far ahead of second place Josh May and third place Kaden Cochrun who battled back and forth for position from lap five on.
Garrett Stonum started well back in the starting field and finished fourth and Cory Sonner finished fifth.
This wasn’t Raffurty’s first trip to victory Lane at Marshalltown. He won back on Sept. 17, 2020 at the 500th Summer Series Show and Dale DeFrance Memorial.
Kaylin Lopez led the opening laps of the 18-lap Karl Kustoms Northern SportMod feature only to have it snatched away by high-flying Brayton Carter on lap four. Carter never gave up that top spot and took the checkers for the third time this year. Johnathon Logue flew from 13th starting to finish as the runner-up. Thomas Egenberger was third, fourth went to Jenae Gustin and Austin Schrage rounded out the top five.
Jeremiah Andrews started fifth in the 15-lap IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stock main and had the lead at lap one. It didn’t take long until all eyes went to the no. 1 of Kaden Reynolds who was flying on the rim of the track.
Reynolds came from 11th starting and had the lead at lap five. From there on out, it was all Reynold’s race as he flew home to the flying checkers and the win, his second in a row. He finished well ahead of second place Eric Knutson. Braden Richards battled by Andrews in the closing moments, as they finished third and fourth, respectively, and Solomon Bennett was fifth. This made five regular season wins for Reynolds this season and he also won the Frostbuster special. The race went green to checkers.
Dallon Murty showed his expertise on the High Banks in the IMCA Sunoco Stock Car 20-lap main event. Murty started sixth, ran down early leader Kyle Everts, and took over the top spot at lap five. It was all his race from there on out, taking regular season win number two.
Dad Damon Murty came from 10th to finish in the second spot, Tyler Pickett finished third, fourth went to Austin Kaplan and Dave Atcher was fifth. Murty can also count the Frostbuster Special in his wins at Marshalltown Speedway in 2021 to go along with his two regular season wins.
Topping off the night’s racing was the 20-lap IMCA Modified feature. Tony Hofbauer was looking strong as he led the feature from the drop of the green all the way to just two laps remaining. That’s when a slip in turn two was his undoing. It caused him to drop several positions and allowed Ethan Dotson to take over the top spot.
Dotson, who started 10th, was making his first appearance at the track this year and hung on to the number one position and secure his first local win of the year. Jake McBirnie, last week’s winner, was second, third went to Jared VanDeest, Ethan Braaksma was fourth, and rounding out the top five was Ronn Lauritzen.