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MARSHALLTOWN, IA (April 3) - Weekly racing began in 1964 at the current location of the Marshalltown Speedway, and after 45-years of continues racing, history was again made this past Friday evening. It was a week that Central Iowan’s would receive a wintry mix of rain, snow and high winds a challenge that promoter Toby Kruse has seen before. “It’s that time of year when you get what you get. We knew we had to keep the race track in good condition, we was able to accomplish that and with our new west side grandstands, we had an obligation to our race fans and visitors to our community to put on the best racing program that we could, and by golly I think we did just that.” What he didn’t expect was the turnout that would await him. A standing room grandstand of race enthusiasts wanting to be present on this opening night event, and a pit area which held 205-race teams that made their way to compete, a new record of entries and a figure not even Kruse could of imagined. “Sure when you set out to take a business like this or any business you always have a goal. This was in the back of my mind but I never would of imagined that we could do this in our forth season.” And not only was the car count something that will be remembered for a long time, but a driver from Canada also was on hand to compete. “I met Davin Emmel a few weeks back and just asked him if he was interested in coming, he said sure, and here he showed up.” Also on hand were drivers from six different states, which included one driver from California. “This again is the reason everyone likes to race under the I.M.C.A. banner. You can race in any part of the country and when you come to a race like this you can be competitive, because everyone is racing the same type of rules. What a turn out and what a show we had tonight.” It was a busy night of racing as 34-races were run though out the night with close side by side racing in almost every lap. Two drivers found their world turned upside down as Eric VanStration and Don Vis would go for wild rides but both drivers would walk away. Through out all of the feature events yellow flags and lap traffic would make for very interesting racing conditions. The race track would stay near perfect the entire evening with three and four wide racing in every division. As the rubber was laid onto the track, it would become evident that the high line and the low line would play a part in the out come of the feature winners. In the Meskwaki I.M.C.A. Modified feature luck would run out for one driver and another luck would play right into his hands. The twenty-five-lap feature started out with Chris Abelson taking the lead from his outside starting position. Abelson drove the first six laps with out missing a beat holding of two and three different drivers through out the early going. On lap seven his luck would run out when he slid high in turn two giving the lead to Nebraska’s Jordon Grabouski a lead that he would hold uncontested until the closing laps. With five laps to go Iowan Troy Cordes, who was running the low side of the track would close to the back bumper of Grabouski. The two would run into lap traffic and at one point Cordes was able to take the lead but Grabouski would charge back on the high side to regain the top spot. With two laps to go, the pair was side-by-side working there way in and out of the lap traffic. On the final lap Cordes would make one final low side attempt. The two would touch but Grabouski was not to be denied of the win. “I really don’t believe it, it could of gone either way. I just stayed in the gas, the car stuck and here I am in victory lane just shaking that was fun. When you come and race for Toby you know that track is going to be good, and he really did it tonight this is great”, concluded Grabouski in victory lane. Cordes would finish a close second followed by Jay Noteboom and Jimmy Gustin. Sean Johnson would take the lead from the drop of the green flag in the Aarons I.M.C.A. Stock Car feature event. A quick yellow on lap three would bunch the field behind Johnson with Wisconsin’s John Heinz dropping low and taking the lead but Johnson stayed in hot pursuit and regained the top spot, the next lap. By lap five, last year’s track champion and the defending Frostbuster Champion would slip past Johnson and take the lead. Smith would hold off challenges by Marshalltown’s Ryan Gustin and Damon Murty until the checkered flag flew. Smith would pick up his second Frostbuster victory and was followed across the line by Murty, Gustin and Dusty Vis. Johnson would finish eighth. New class sponsor Big 8 Tyre in the I.M.C.A. Sport Mod division would find one of the biggest car counts of the night. Six heat races and two B-mains would be needed to qualify the twenty-four-car field. Kevin Sather would start of front and lead the entire eighteen-lap event. Many yellow flags would slow the event but Sather would continue to find victory lane in posting this Frostbuster win. Defending track champion and Nation Champion Luke Wanninger would finish second followed by Nate Chodur Kyle Brown. Devin Smith would follow his brother Dustin as a repeat winner in the Junction Sports Bar & Grill I.M.C.A. Hobby Stock Class. Smith would take the lead from pole sitter Terry Shaffar on lap three then cruise to victory in the fifteen-lap event. Following Smith across the finish line was Shaffar, Todd Reitzer and Brandon Pruitt.
Co-track Champions Andy Hennigar and Mike Morrill would start out just like
they ended the 2008 season racing each other to the very end. Tim Hennigar
would lead the first lap before Andy Hennigar would take the lead. Andy
would then lead until lap twelve when Morrill would take the top spot. The
pair would pull away from the rest of the field, racing each other to the
very end. Morrill would pick up the victory followed by Andy and Tim with Ed
Zehm finishing forth.
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