8/10/2020
Marshalltown Speedway
DeFrance takes Late Model track title, Berry rolls to seventh win, and Mueller sees 100th Stock Car victory
The IMCA Late Models wrapped up their regular season of racing on Friday at the Marshalltown Speedway, during Shawn's Custom Hay Grinding Night at the Races. Hometown hero Darrel DeFrance would claim the track title in the Late Models as well as winning the feature. Tom Berry continued his domination in the IMCA Modified division, and Johnathon Logue made it two in a row in the IMCA Northern SportMod class. Jeff Mueller got not only his second win of the season in the IMCA Stock Cars, but his 100th career win. Solomon Bennett snagged his first ever win at Marshalltown in the IMCA Hobby Stock and Bryan Zehm got his second win of the season in the Mod Lites.
The Mod Lites went fifteen laps for their main event. Joel Huggins was looking strong as he led from the drop of the green and was holding back the field until Bryan Zehm came calling at lap nine. The two ran closely for a couple of laps until Zehm made his move into the lead as they crossed the flagstand with just two laps remaining. Huggins tried, but was unable to regain the upper hand in the closing moments as Zehm took the checkers, with Huggins having to settle for second. Third went to Travis Stensland, Cory Sonner was fourth, and Mike Morrill finished fifth.
The yellow flag reared its ugly head often in the eighteen lap IMCA Northern SportMod feature, but in the end of the stop and go contest, it was Johnathon Logue repeating his win for the second week in a row. Logue started eighth on the field, and passed then leader Kyle Olson on lap eight, and went on to the flying checkers. Brayton Carter started seventh, and finished a close second, giving Logue a challenge in the final laps. Travis Peterson, Kyle Olson, and Austin Schrage completed the top five. This was Logue's third feature win of the 2020 season at the speedway.
A first time winner at the track came out of the fifteen lap IMCA Hobby Stock class when Solomon Bennett took the win. Bennett started tenth, and had the lead by lap five, never to give it up. Braden Richards chased the winner most of the race to finish in second. Hard charger was Jacob Floyd, coming from twentieth to finish third. Aaron Martin and Scott Ellis went fourth and fifth respectively.
It was season championship night for the IMCA Late Models who wrapped up their regular season. The field started straight up by points with hometown favorite Darrel DeFrance holding a slim two point lead over rookie Logan Duffy after the earlier heat race finishes. The twenty lap feature would determine the final outcome, and DeFrance left no doubt in this one. He would lead from the drop of the green to the checkers in the twenty lap race that went non-stop. Duffy trailed DeFrance the entire circuits to finish second. Dalton Simonsen took third, Ben Seeman was fourth, and first timer at the track, Mitch Manternach, from Dyersville started twelfth, and finished fifth.
Jeff Mueller had to dig around the bottom of the track in the IMCA eighteen lap Stock Car feature to get the win, but he got the job done. Mueller started twelfth, caught and passed rim riding Dallon Murty at lap twelve and held the lead to the finish. Dallon Murty came from tenth starting spot to take the runner up position, his dad Damon Murty started eleventh and finished third, Kyle Everts was fourth, and Tyler Pickett was fifth. This was Mueller's second win at the track this season, this one a little extra sweet as it was his 100th IMCA Stock Car feature win.
There seems to be no stopping the hot streak of Tom Berry, Jr. in the IMCA Modifieds. Berry grabbed the lead away from Jared VanDeest on lap eight and then pulled away, slicing and dicing through traffic to take the easy win. VanDeest held second, Paul Nagle, Kollin Hibdon, and Scott Simatovich rounded out the top five. This was Berry's seventh win at the High Banks this year.
Racing continues next Friday night, August 14. It will be Bob Harris Enterprises night and $1,000 to win for the IMCA Northern SportMods.
Article Credit: Joyce Eisele
Submitted By: Jerry Vansickel