It was a rare Thursday night of racing at the Marshalltown Speedway as the 4th-Annual Dale DeFrance Memorial was held. The event honored the late racer who started the long line of future racers connected with the DeFrance family.

Justin Kinderknecht, out of Salina, Kan., made his trip to the area pay off by winning the 15-lap IMCA STARS Mod Lite feature and led all laps on his way to doing so. Kinderknecht drew the lucky No. 1 pill, started on the pole, and had no trouble in taking the checkers. Josh May took second, third was Cory Sonner, Ed Griggs from Pleasant Hill, Mo., was fourth, and Mike Kennedy was fifth.

Kaden Reynolds made it a perfect points season thus far when he captured his third-straight feature win in the IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stock 18-lap main event. Reynolds started sixth and had the lead by lap three, never to relinquish it. Braden Richards crossed the line in second place. However, a post race inspection handed Richards a disqualification, giving the runner-up spot to Eric Knutson. Kyle Parizek was third, fourth went Luke Schluetter, who recovered nicely after an early-race spin, and Jeremiah Andrews took fifth. Reynolds also won the Frostbuster special that kicked off racing at the Speedway back on April 2.

The Karl Chevrolet IMCA Northern SportMods went 18 laps for its main event and Brayton Carter went wire-to-wire in taking his first feature win of the season. Johnathon Logue came from 10th starting spot to take second, and it was a fight to the finish for third through fifth. Jenae Gustin won out for third place over Dylan VanWyk in fourth and Izac Mallicoat in fifth as the checkers fell. Hard-charger was Tony Olson, who came from 22nd starting spot to finish sixth.

Damon Murty drew the No. 1 starting position for the 20-lap Sunoco IMCA Stock Car feature. Murty set sail on the top of the track, his preferred line at the High Banks, and went for a visit to Victory Lane. Jeff Mueller consistently dug on the bottom of track but could do no better than a second-place finish. A close third went to Chanse Hollatz, while Steve Meyer, last week’s winner, was fourth, and Dallon Murty came from 17th starting position to finish fifth.

Cayden Carter started seventh and quickly moved up to challenge polesitter Richie Gustin in the IMCA Modified 20-lap clash. By lap eight, Carter had the lead, which he would hold the remaining distance to the checkers. Joel Rust threw a couple of challenges at Carter, but he could do no better than the runner-up spot. Tim Ward made big headway late in the race, finishing third after starting 16th. Last week’s winner Dylan Thornton was fourth, and Gustin took fifth.

The headline event of the evening was the running of the Dale DeFrance IMCA Late Model 44-lap event. The 44 laps was another means of honoring the late racer who ran that number on his race cars.

Veteran racer Greg Kastli started on the outside of the front row and immediately took the lead over Joe Zrostlik. By lap 10, seventh-place starter Justin Kay had made his way to second place and began reeling in the leader. Kay took the lead with a move to the outside of Kastli as they came out of corner four as lap 19 went into the books.

From there on Kay had little trouble in keeping his run at the front of the field, pulling away and taking the victory. He finished well ahead of second place Zrostlik, Todd Cooney made a late-race pass around Greg Kastli as they went third and fourth respectively. Matt Ryan, who started 14th, rounded out the top five. The win was extra special for Kay, as it marked his 100th IMCA Late Model win.

Racing returns to the Speedway next Friday, May 14, for Casey’s Salute to the Military and Haverhill Social Club Night. The green flag drops at 7:30 p.m.