Diercks, Thornton nab Nippy 50 feature wins

Modified, Results

Spencer Diercks rallied for the $1,500 Friesen Performance IMCA Modified feature win on Friday, opening night of the Nippy 50 at Maquoketa Speedway. (Photo by Branden Aeling)

MAQUOKETA, Iowa (March 29-30, 2024) – Two nights of Nippy 50 racing at Maquoketa Speedway yielded season-first Friesen Performance IMCA Modified feature wins for Spencer Diercks and Dylan Thornton.

Both drivers were in and out of the front spot before taking the checkers in their respective main events, Diercks in Friday’s $1,500 to win show and Thornton in the $2,500 to win headliner on Saturday.

Already Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational qualifying eligible, Diercks built up a two second advantage before a lap 15 caution slowed the opening night feature.

He’d swap the lead with Jacob Hobscheidt from that point before finally nailing the spot down for good with two laps left.

“It was a good way to start the season,” said Diercks. “Jacob is pretty good and he gave me a run for my money. He came on strong but we were good enough to hold on.”

Hobscheidt, Jeff Larson, Jeremy Mills and Jacob Snyder ended second through fifth.

Thornton had qualified from his ‘B’ race, started 20th and collected hard charger honors with his eighth place finish on Friday.

He drew the eighth starting spot for Saturday and pass Diercks for the lead on the 11th of 30 circuits.

Opening night hard charger Dylan Thornton was the $2,500 Friesen Performance IMCA Modified winner on night two of the Nippy 50 special at Maquoketa Speedway. (Photo by Branden Aeling)

“We have had success at Maquoketa before – it’s a different shaped track with different dirt than any other track I’ve raced at in Iowa,” Thornton said. “I was able to run the very top, where nobody else was, to get to the lead and after I bobbled on a restart and fell back, I was able to race three-wide and get the lead back.”

Newly eligible to qualify for the Fast Shafts race, he was chased across the stripe by 11th starting Cody Laney, Scotte Lemke, Wyatt Block and 17th starting Chris Simpson.

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