My racing weekend started like many others and like many weekends in past year because the wather was in doubt but it turned out to be a great weekend for racing action despite losing one of the originally scheduled 3 nights of racing planned. The plan was to attend all 3 nights of The Tripleheader Frostbuster Weekend but mother nature had her plans to.
On Friday Night, it look like the night was going to be questionable and questionable it was. The plan was to go racing at the Marshalltown Speedway "What Friday Nights Are Made For" for The Tri-County Heating & Cooling/S&B Trailers Frostbuster but mother nature came and took the program away eventually. At 2:15 pm on Friday, every thing looked good to go right after the rain had stopped but at 2:30 pm on Friday things changed so the nights racing was cancelled.
Saturday Night it was off to "Iowa's Action Track" The Boone Speedway for its Annual Frostbuster which was suppose to be the 2nd night of The Tripleheader Frostbuster Weekend, now it was the 1st of 2 nights of the frostbuster weekend. A total of 164 IMCA cars signed in to race and 4 Dwarf Cars/Mod Lites signed in to Hot Lap.
The 1st feature of the night in Boone was the 20 Lap IMCA Sport Mod feature but before the would happen the 42 sport mods signed in would have to qualify through 6 heats and 2 b-features to get the field to 24 cars. Once that happened the A-feature would start out with a caution before one lap would be completed when Tracy Wassenberg spun in turn 2. When the race got going the race would run to its finish without another caution. Cody Hennings would lead the first 12 laps before losing the lead to "The General" Troy Jerovetz from Green Bay, Wisconsin took the lead on lap 13 and went on to the win. "Geo" Geoff Olson got 2nd, Scott Davis got 3rd, Hennings finished 4th and Jared Timmerman was 5th.
Next up was the 25 lap IMCA Modified feature but before that, the 43 modifieds signed in would have to qualify through 6 heats and 2 b-features to get the field down to 24 cars. Once this happened it was time for the A-feature. "Mad" Max Corporan from Marion took the lead on lap 1 but then the caution came out. On the restart "The Frog Station Splash" Dan Ratajczak took the lead which he kept the lead despite 6 more cautions but after the lap 19 caution he would lose the lead. It looked on the restart Ratajczak had spun his tires and "Jammin" Jimmy Gustin, who was 2nd at the time had a great restart and was able to pass for the lead. Gustin took the win, his 2nd of 2010 as he went down to texas last month and won at the 281 Speedway. Finishing behind Gustin was Josh "Happy" Gilman in 2nd, Jeff Stephens in 3rd, Jonathan Snyder in 4th and Ratajczak in 5th.
IMCA Stock Cars were up next with their 20 lap feaure, they had 37 signed in so it took 4 heats and a b-feature to set the field at 24 cars. Trent Murphy would take the lead from the outside front row starting spot. The only things that slow him down was 2 cautions, one after a lap was in the books and another with just 7 laps to go on lap 13. Murphy would take the win, "Flyin Dutchman" Mike Van Genderen was 2nd, "Chelsea Charger" Damon Murty was 3rd, Dustin Smith was 4th and Donavon Smith was 5th.
The final feature in Boone was the IMCA Hobby Stocks with their 15 lap feature. There was 42 Hobby Stocks so it took 6 heats and 2 b-features to get the field down to 24 cars. Before 1 lap was in the books there was 2 cautions but after those Chris Hupp took the race lead and lead the first 3 laps. Hupp was passed by Nick Murty on lap 4 and the only thing slowing Murty down was the caution with 4 laps to go on lap 11. Murty would still maintain the lead and cruise to the win, Hupp was 2nd. Finishing behind Murty and Hupp to round out the top 5 was Nyle Godwin, John Watson and Donnie Gustoff.
So Sunday Night aka Easter Sunday it was off to "The Birthplace of IMCA Modified" The Benton County Speedway in Vinton for the final Night of the Frostbuster Weekend. 105 cars signed in between the 5 divisions in competiton on this sunday.
IMCA Stock Cars has 19 cars signed in so all cars would go to the A-feature. They were up first for their 15 lap feature. "The Chelsea Charger" Damon Murty would take the race lead and actually lead the first 12 laps despite cautions on lap 2, 4 and 9. Murty would have to do battle with Jeff Mueller on the restart of the caution on llap 9 and those 2 would get together forcing the 26 of Brian Irvine to hit the brakes and stop on the race track to avoid getting tore up but ended up bringing out the caution. So as a result Murty, Mueller and Irvine were all penalized so that handed the lead over to the 4th place driver Scooter Dulin on lap 13. Because this caution happened with 2 laps to go the race would now end up being a 16 lap feature. Dulin would lead the remaining laps and take the win, Murty took 14th, Mueller was 15th and Irvine was 16th. Finishing behind Dulin was Justin Temeyer, Bob Ahrendsen, Jason Deshaw and Paul Shepherd .
Next up was the IMCA Modifieds for their 20 lap feature. There was 18 cars signed in so all cars went to the A-feature. Before one lap would be in the books there was 3 cautions so this forced them to start the race single file as oppose to the double file start. Adam Johnson would lead the first lap but he was passed by Marshalltown's Richie Gustin on lap 2, the only thing slowing down Gustin was a couple of cautions one on lap 4 and another on lap 6. Toward the end of the race, Richie Gustin would have to encounter lap traffic but that wouldn't faze him as he would take the win. Mark Elliott would take 2nd after picking up the feature win in Webster City on Saturday, Troy Cordes was 3rd, Scott Hogan was 4th and Jeff Waterman was 5th.
IMCA Hobby Stocks had 20 cars signed in so they were up next for the 15 lap feature. Scott Pippert would lead the entire feature, the only thing slowing down was a couple of cautions on lap 3. Pippert took the win, Nick Murty, who won on saturday in Boone took 2nd. Wes Stanek was 3rd, Jerome Wilson was 4th and Matt Brown was 5th.
The IMCA Sport Mods had the most amount of cars with 30 cars signed in so it took 4 heats and 2 b-features to get the field down to 24 cars. In the feature event, Chris Luloff would lead the first 8 laps. During the 8 laps he held the lead through 3 cautions. Danny Dvorak took the lead on lap 9, shortly after another caution came out. Then 2 more laps would be run before another caution, this caution would expire the time limit. Meaning the next caution or the checkered would end the race but infortunately on the restart it would be another caution so the race ended under yellow checkered on lap 11 just 4 laps shy of the scheduled 15 lap distance. Dvorak took the win, Johnny Whitman from DePere, Wisconsin was 2nd, Joel Rust finished 3rd, Luloff fell back to 4th and Austin Kaplan ended up 5th.
The Final division of the night was the IMCA Sport Compacts. William Mitchell lead lap 1, he was passed on the restart of a couple cautions by Nathan Chandler. Nathan Chandler held on to the lead until mechanical issues on lap 6. Brett Vanous made the pass on lap 7. Vanous held on to the top spot until lap 10 when he was passed by Justin Wacha. Wacha took the win of the 12 lap feature, Brad Chandler was 2nd, Vanous was 3rd, Steve Miedke was 4th and Jerry Osxby was 5th.
This weekend all 3 tracks will have begin their track points.
The Marshalltown Speedway will live up to its title by being named "What Friday Nights Are Made For" as the 2010 racing season gets underway with the Ryan Ashton Season Opener on Friday April 9th with IMCA Modifieds, IMCA Stock Cars, IMCA Sport Mods, IMCA Hobby Stocks and Mod Lites. Pit Gates open at 5:15p, Grandstands at 5:30p, Hot Laps at 6:45p and Racing at 7:30p.
"Iowa's Action Track" Boone Speedway will have their track points get underway on Saturday April 10th with IMCA Modifieds, IMCA Stock Cars, IMCA Sport Mods, IMCA Hobby Stocks and Mod Lites. Pit Gates open at 5:30p, Grandstands at 6p, Hot Laps at 6:45p, Racing at 7:30p.
"The Birthplace of the IMCA Modifieds" Benton County Speedway in Vinton will get their track points underway on Pepsi Night at The Races on Sunday April 11th with IMCA Modifieds, IMCA Stock Cars, IMCA Sport Mods, IMCA Hobby Stocks and IMCA Sport Compacts. Pit Gate and Grandstands open at 3p, Hot Laps at 4:30p with Racing to follow at 5p.
Also left to announce is the driver of the week, this weeks Driver of the Week or I should say Drivers of the Week are Jimmy and Richie Gustin the Winner of the Frostbuster in Boone and Vinton. Friday Night in Marshalltown is going to be Great!
See you at the races this weekend, don't forget to listen to the trackside report!
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For Pictures of the Boone Frostbuster check out these places: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=213615&id=502511214&ref=mf or http://moto.photoreflect.com/ or http://www.zippsphotos.com/
For Pictures of the Vinton Frostbuter check out these places: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=214024&id=502511214&ref=mf (i took 275 pictures on sunday but posted as many as i could in the facebook album) or http://www.actiontrackphotos.com/
