IMCA Modified driver Ronn Lauritzen continued his tear through the end of June Friday night at Marshalltown Speedway. Lauritzen races weekly at three tracks - Fridays at Marshalltown, Saturdays at Independence Motor Speedway and Sundays at Benton County Speedway in Vinton. As of Friday night, he has won the last Modified feature held at each of those tracks.
Front row starter Scott Simatovich took the early lead in Friday night's 20-lapper, pulling away from the field while a handful of drivers battled for position behind them. Among those drivers was Lauritzen, who started outside of row five.
Simatovich extended his advantage while Zach Rawlins, Kyle Krampe, Racer Hulin, Kyle Brown, Jon Snyder and Lauritzen battled two and three-wide to keep pace with Simatovich. Running the middle groove, Laurtizen snuck between Rawlins and Krampe to steal second in turns one and two on the fourth circuit, then slipped around the outside of Simatovich at the flag stand to take the lead on lap five.
Following a lap seven caution, Lauritzen pulled away from the pack while Hulin powered to second from his fifth place spot on the restart. Hulin raced into second one lap after the race resumed, however Lauritzen distanced himself from the field by half a straightaway.
Lauritzen maintained his advantage over the final half of the event to score his second win of the season at Marshalltown and his fifth overall this season. Hulin came home second, a straightaway ahead of third-running Rawlins. Brown and Snyder completed the top five.
Derek Reimer raced the high side to the early lead in the 18-lap IMCA Stock Car feature. Reimer built a huge advantage by the time the first of five cautions slowed action on lap seven. On the restart, Jay Schmidt, who restarted second, powered past Reimer to assume command while Steve Meyer worked through traffic from a fourth row start.
Meyer made his way into second following the third stoppage on lap 13, then pestered Schmidt through another pair of stoppages in the final laps. Although Meyer kept it close, Schmidt drove to victory. Reimer held on for third ahead of Tracy Gienger and Eric Knutson.
Bill Hildreth showed the way at the drop of the green in the 18-lap IMCA Northern SportMod main. A pair of early cautions kept the field bunched and allowed Brandon Williams to challenge, then pull away during a long green flag run following a lap two restart.
Williams worked the low side of Hildreth in turns one and two when racing resumed, then exited down the back stretch with the lead. Williams pulled away from traffic to score the victory ahead of Ben Kates and Ryan Ashton. Geoff Olson and Jared Van Deest rounded out the top five. A native of St. Joseph, Mo., the win for newcomer Williams was his first-ever in Marshalltown.
Nick Murty used a last lap pass to score the win in a 12-lap IMCA Hobby Stock thriller. Eric Stanton paced the field early after racing from a third row starting spot into the lead by the completion of the first lap.
Murty, Eric Larson and Garrett Eilander swapped positions and racing grooves in their pursuit of the leader. In the waning laps, the leaders ran nose-to-tail on the bottom of the fast, smooth quurter-mile before Murty tried his luck on the top side.
Murty moved a lane higher than Stanton as the leaders took the white flag. He remained in the outside groove as the powered to the outside of the leader in the final set of turns. Murty surged ahead off the corner to take the thrilling win by less than a car-length ahead of Stanton. Eilander ran third ahead of Larson and Austin Luellen.
Andy Hennigar topped a wildly entertaining Mod Lite feature. Hennigar, Mike Morrill, Josh May, Randy Bryan and Dusty Masolini ran three and sometimes four-wide at the front of the back battling for the lead.
Masolini and Morrill shared time out front before Hennigar worked the low side into the lead on the ninth of 15 laps. Hennigar then pulled away to take the win, his second straight, ahead of Morrill and May. Bryan and Mike Kennedy complete the top five.
After swapping the lead early with Merv Chandler, Adam Gates drove away from the pack to score his second straight win in the IMCA Sport Compact division. John Gill ran third ahead of Travis Losenicky and Chad Larson.
It was a great night of racing at Marshalltown. Promoter Toby Kruse and his crew prepared a fantastic race track that provided multi-groove racing all night long in a program that was completed right at 10 p.m.
Although I won the 50/50 at Marshalltown last week, I decided to test the odds and bought more tickets Friday night. I almost won back-to-back as well, missing the jackpot by just one number. I guess that puts me at 50/50 for the 50/50 in Marshalltown...
Be sure to check out the thoughts from Marshalltown regulars Dick and Joyce Eisele. Their recap of the night will be available in the 4dfan Report at Positively Racing. While you visit Positively Racing, be sure to check out the latest edition to the site. A link to Bobby Hansen's Hawkeye Racing Report, which includes audio recaps of events throughout the region, has been added to our home page. A staple of KHAK radio in Cedar Rapids for decades, we're thrilled Bobby's report has moved to our site. Welcome aboard, Bobby!
Saturday is Budweiser Mid-Season Championship night in Independence. We're excited to introduce a new qualifying format for all six divisions for that program. You can read more about it at www.independencemotorspeedway.com.
Sunday, it's back to Benton County Speedway for Hawaiian/Fuzzy Friends/Albert Auto Night. Along with all those special promotions, IMCA Late Models will be returning for their second week of competition on the Vinton quarter-mile!
Both Independence and Vinton promise to be outstanding shows, but if you're unable to make it for either of those programs, be sure to support your local track!
Have a great weekend and, as always, thanks for reading!
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