Marshalltown Speedway Season Recap

Marshalltown Speedway rarely disappoints putting on a good race. The short track and high banking produces close side by side racing that you don’t see at Oskaloosa, the State Fairgrounds, and it rivals Boone for sure. I’ll take a 1/4 mile bull ring over any 3/8 or 1/2 mile track. But it seemed this season the racing was better than usual on the six nights I was there in person. After talking to promoter Toby Kruse mid season about it he revealed that they found something while working with some tire companies and using some of their suggestions. For some reason the bottom held up later in the night than in past years staying tacky and that trick made the racing better. The one thing I can’t figure out is the attendance at Marshalltown. Most nights I don’t think you can count 500 people in the stands. For such a great show, there should be more fans. Is it location? The night of the week? There are plenty of cars to see, especially with the fairgrounds racing 60 miles away. The tickets are cheap, concessions are reasonable, I don’t understand and maybe someone can explain.
Breaking down each class….

Modified: Jimmy Gustin won his fifth track championship and grabbed five wins. He lapped up to sixth place in the season championship feature when he started on the pole and drove away. I think Jimmy has a shot at the Super Nationals. Luke Wanninger also won five races and I look for him to be toward the front this week in Boone. Jon Snyder won two features, and those winning one feature were Richie Gustin, Ronn Lauritzen, Adam Larson, and Chris Abelson. Kyle Brown did a nice job this year finishing fourth in points in his rookie campaign in this class. Modifieds put on a great show here and it’s nice to see 16-20 cars in this class each week.

SportMod: Racer Hulin won the championship thanks to three wins and a consistent top three finish a lot of weeks. Joel Rust was also very consistent all season and ended second in points, yet didn’t win a feature. Jenae Gustin won five features including three in a row at the end of the season. Gatlin Leytham and Jake Strayer both won two features, and Strayer is moving to 305 sprint cars next season it sounds like. Other drivers winning features were Brad Iverson, Clint Luellen, Sam Wieben, and Scott Davis. It seemed like SportMod car counts were down a bit this season. I think with this class quickly becoming very expensive to compete in, it’s easy to justify moving up to Modifieds where you can race for a little more money and there are typically less cars.

Stock Car: Steve Meyer won one feature on the season with only one feature win. What a good season for Meyer who was able to be up front every week. Trent Murphy won four features. Brian Irvine, Damon Murty, Jay Schmidt, and Tracy Greinger all won two features this season. Derek Reimer, Michael Murphy, and Sean Johnson won one feature. This class was very competitive and usually put on the best show every week (I said the same for Osky).

Hobby Stock: Scott Pippert dominated this class winning eight features (8 of last 9) on his way to winning the track championship. I don’t what Pippert figured out this year but he was on another level compared to everyone else. Kevin Fee and Eric Larson were the only other drivers to win multiple features with two each. Larson was second in points. Other winners were Don Nunnikhoven, Brandon Brinton, Eric Stanton, Eric Knutson, Austin Luellen. Gary Pfantz was third in points with Josh Saunders fourth.

Mod Lites: Mike Morrill and Josh May combined won 15 of the 16 features with Andy Hennigar upsetting the field with a win on season championship night. Morrill won the championship with eight wins and May was second with seven wins. I love this little cars, they put on a good show and are fast. Good car counts as well.

Sport Compact: Merv Chandler won 13 features and the championship. I won’t repeat what I said in my Osky season review on my thoughts for this class.

I think Marshalltown lost some momentum this year somehow. Car counts were a little smaller, crowds seemed smaller, Toby Kruse is promoting a good program it seems. Something just isn’t adding up for me. The racing on the track was the best I’ve seen there in the six years I have been covering races there. Shoot me an e-mail at arniebhg@yahoo.com if you want to share your thoughts.