By Joyce Eisele
MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa (Aug. 31, 2024) – The Karl Auto Group ShowDown in MoTown was held at the Marshalltown Speedway on Friday with a whopping 178 cars from all across the United States tuning up for the upcoming IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s.
Cody Laney would take the honors in the Friesen Performance IMCA Modifieds and Austin Kaplan won the IMCA Sunoco Stock Car feature. Jenae Gustin repeated her win from last year’s ShowDown in MoTown when she took the checkers in the Friesen Performance IMCA Northern SportMods. Bradly Graham won the IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stock feature, Brandon Freeburg won the Stealth Racing IMCA STARS Mod Lite main and Michael Gardner won the Mach-1 Sport Compact feature.
Feature racing kicked off with the 16-lap Northern SportMod event.
Hometown racer Gustin started third on the grid, grabbed the lead immediately and held that top position the entire run to the checkers. Jake Sachau started seventh and tried chasing down Gustin but had nothing for her and had to settle for second place. Third went to Brayton Carter.
Mod Lites ran a 20-lap feature paying $1,000 to the winner.
Brandon Freeburg started on the pole for the feature and that would be all she wrote as he led every lap on his way to the victory. Track champion Jon Padilla started third and attempted to run down the leader but it was all in vain as he had to be content with second. Third was Joe Glick.
IMCA Stock Cars came to the track next for their 20-lap main event.
Hesston Shaw started from the pole and grabbed the lead as the race went green. Before halfway, Kaplan had tracked down the leaders and was applying pressure. He was able to make the pass on the backstretch, passing then-leader Scott Rice and took command.
It was all Kaplan’s race from then on as he stretched it out and went home to the easy B & B Racing Chassis All-Star Invitational eligibility qualifying win. Shaw finished a distant second while third went to 12th place starter Troy Foulger.
IMCA Modifieds were also vying for $1,000 to win in their 20-lap event.
Ricky Alvarado was the polesitter and grabbed the lead as the race started. By lap five, Laney was challenging the leader after coming from the 10th starting spot. The rest of the race was a battle between the two.
A slide job failed for Laney just past the halfway mark, but another on lap 14 did the trick with Laney taking over the lead. He drove off and went home to the flying checkers, taking an easy win and earning Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational qualifying eligibility. Alvarado followed a distant second. Third went to defending national champion Chaz Baca.
Sport Compacts ran 15 laps for their feature.
The entire race was between two cars up front, Cristian Grady, and Michael Gardner, both regulars at the track. Grady held the upper hand until two laps remained when he was able to sneak by Grady and then go home to the feature win.
Grady had to be content with second place, Anthony Clark was third.
The Hobby Stock feature was 16 laps. This race was led flag to flag by regular weekly racer at the speedway Graham, who was never seriously challenged on his way to victory and finished comfortably ahead of Eric Knutson. Andrew Burg took third.
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