By Joyce Eisele
MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa (May 31, 2024) – Marshalltown Speedway was back in action again Friday night after the prior week’s rain out. But would it happen with the questionable weather? It did! And some great racing prevailed.
Todd Shute won a “sparks flying” race at the checkers in the Friesen Performance IMCA Modified features. It was Kaden Reynolds taking the IMCA Sunoco Stock Car win. Brayton Carter saw victory in the Friesen Performance IMCA Northern SportMods. Nathan Ballard won easily in the IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stocks. RJ Gonzales went to victory lane in the Stealth Racing IMCA STARS Mod Lites and Cristian Grady took the checkers in the Mach-1 IMCA Sport Compacts.
Feature racing kicked off with the 15-lap main event for the Mod Lites.
Joe Glick was the early leader but soon had Josh May and Gonzales soon on his tail. The three ran nose-to-tail until coming to the flag on lap 13 when Glick suddenly exited the track. Gonzales got the lead and went home to the flying checkers and the victory. May was the runner up and third went to Alex Eischeid.
Gonzales, who started 10th on the field, scored his first Marshalltown win in a race that went flag-to-flag.
The Northern SportMod 20-lapper was plagued by cautions, which led to Jenae Gustin’s luck running out.
Gustin took the lead immediately from the outside front row starting spot. She soon had fifth place starter Carter challenging. When the fifth and final yellow flew on lap 16, Gustin was still in command, but by lap 17, Carter was leading.
He never relinquished that top spot and went home to the win. Kyle Olson also got around Gustin on the final restart and took second. Gustin went third.
This was Carter’s first weekly points win at Marshalltown, after having won the Frostbuster special.
Hobby Stocks ran 20 laps next and early leader Joren Fisher looked strong through the first nine of those circuits, when the third yellow flew.
By this time, Ballard, who started 12th, came calling and challenged the leader. When the race went green, Ballard immediately took command. A final caution at lap 14 was no issue for Ballard, as he drove off from the field and took the easy win.
Dustin Filloon ran at the front of the field most of the race and finished a distant runner-up. Third went to Fisher while fourth was 24th place starter Calvin Dhondt, who hard-charged through the field.
The Stock Car 20-lap main event came to the track next.
Jay Schmidt jumped to the lead as the race went green. A yellow came out for a tire on the track just after the first lap was scored. When the race returned to racing action, Schmidt raced into corner one, but got too high, dropping a wheel off the track at the top of turns one and two, saved it, but lost numerous positions.
This put Michael Jaennette to the lead with Austin Kaplan and Reynolds in pursuit. A yellow on lap five and that was what Reynolds was wanting, as he soon took over the number one position.
The final portion of the race was all Reynolds then, as he pulled away and took the easy win as the checkers flew. It was 11th place starter Jimmy Gustin taking second and third went to Austin Kaplan.
The Modified 20-lap feature was a wild one at the finish.
Joel Rust started on the outside of the front row and took command as the race went green. Third starting Shute fell in line right behind him. The rest of the race, which went caution free, was all eyes on Rust and Shute.
Rust maintained the lead with Shute taking peeks under but to no avail. Shute continued his dogging of the leader as the race neared its end. The final lap was looking like Rust was going to maintain and find his way to victory lane but a lapped car would change all that.
As Rust and Shute rounded corner four, there was a lapped car on the outside wall and it was too tight a squeeze as they ran to the finish line. Rust was the loser in that squeeze as contact was made between the three and Shute nosed ahead at the line to secure the win. Rust managed to get across the line in second place with a damaged car while third went to Trevor Fitz.
This was Shute’s first win at Marshalltown this year, after having bad luck bite him previously.
The night ended with 15 laps of Sport Compact racing.
Brooke Osler was the early leader but after a yellow flew on lap two, it was ninth place starter David Kimmel, leading on lap three. He had his hands full however as the 10th starting Grady was now pestering him.
Grady was able to make his way around Kimmel at lap six and from then on kept the top spot the rest of the way to the checkers. Kimmel held on to second place. Following a distant third was Jaice Tuttle.
Friday, June 7, will see Capital Sign’s Twin Topless Dirty 30. This will have the IMCA Modifieds and IMCA Northern SportMods going topless for 30 laps each in their features paying $1,500 to the Modifieds and $1,000 to the SportMods. Stock Cars, Hobby Stocks and Mod Lites will also be in action, with the Sport Compacts having the night off.
Hot laps are at 6:45 p.m. with racing at 7:30 p.m.
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