When racers juggle priorities, racing is usually No. 1

WEST LIBERTY — Ask any racer's family where his or her priorities lay and the answers tend to be consistent.

Racing, more often than not, comes before everything else in life. Work schedules change, projects at home get pushed back and family functions are planned around the race weekend.

For Moscow native Nick Marolf, the above holds true — at least for now. Marolf and wife Amber are expecting their first child, a girl, and though things have stayed the same, he doesn't expect that to continue.

'It really hasn't changed anything yet, (but) when the kid comes, it's probably going to change quite a bit,' Marolf said. 'I don't get very good (cell) service in my race shop, so it's hard to reach me. Right now I'm going out and checking my phone quite a bit and I never have done that in the past.

'There's definitely other things to think about right now.'

Lucky for Marolf, he married into a racing family. Wife Amber is the daughter of IMCA Modified driver Bobby Moyer and brother to Sport Mod driver Austin.

Not having the pull away from the racetrack being as strong allows for more focus on making the car faster.

'We generally think about racing a lot,' Marolf said. 'She kind of knows what to expect.'

Marolf has been on a bit of a hot streak of late, getting three wins in his last five races coming into Saturday night at West Liberty Raceway, where he finished third.

The dad-to-be finally has his car running well enough to win after having 'lots of seconds and thirds' early in the season. That comes at a good time, since Amber is set to be induced into labor Monday. Once the baby arrives, Marolf anticipates scaling back just a bit.

He knows his preparation will change, but said Amber being the person she is will keep everything running smoothly at home.

'We'll probably have to drop one night (of racing per week),' Marolf said. 'The kid is going to bring a little life change. My wife will now be raising two children instead of just one.'

Racing priorities can be affected by family, but sometimes Mother Nature reminds everyone she's still around.

Cedar Rapids racer Tony Olson, who finished third in the Sport Mod feature last night, got that message after the recent tornado weather passed through town. Olson said his house, which sits near Cedar Rapids Jefferson High School, was hit hard by the storm, with a tree falling on his house.

It wasn't a large amount of damage, but did take up a good chunk of his week to clear debris and fix damage.

And as is appropriate for a racer, the chunk of time he took wasn't from preparing the car.

'We had a tornado go through my backyard. Luckily it's not horrible,' Olson said. 'But I took some time off work to get all that done. We don't (take away from racing). The racecar is usually the No. 1 priority during the week.'

In the main events last night, Brayton Carter won the IMCA Sport Mod main event. David Brandies took the win in IMCA Stock Cars, Shaun Slaughter in IMCA Sport Compact and Andrew Schroeder in IMCA Modified.

Brian Harris won the IMCA Late Model feature, passing Colby Springsteen off the final corner and barely beating him to the finish line.

WEST LIBERTY RACEWAY RESULTS

IMCA SPORT MOD

1. Brayton Carter; 2. Charlie Weber; 3. Tony Olson; 4. Cody Harris; 5. Aric Becker; 6. Justin Ritz

IMCA STOCK CAR

1. David Brandies; 2. Brandon Jay; 3. John Hemsted; 4. Jason Cook; 5. Chris Hinrichs; 6. Kirk Kinsley; 7. Shane Paris; 8. Ryan Walker; 9. Harold O'Brien; 10. Josh Woods

IMCA SPORT COMPACT

1. Shaun Slaughter; 2. Adam Gates; 3. Jordan Walker; 4. Bill Whalen; 5. Bobbie Lake; 6. Doug Watkins; 7. John Whalen; 8. Bill Michels; 9. Andrew Bieber; 10. Kyle Smith; 11. Dan Campbell; 12. Rick Hurlbut; 13. James Roose; 14. Jason Klerkdereus; 15. Levi Heath; 16. Alex Hayes; 17. Jacob Smith

IMCA MODIFIED

1. Andrew Schroder; 2. Mark Verbeck; 3. Larry Herring; 4. Kurt Kile; 5. Bruce Hanford; 6. Steve Stewart; 7. Cayden Carter; 8. Todd Hansen; 9. Jerry Luloff; 10. Chris Zogg; 11. Mark Schulte 12. Matt Picray; 13. Derek Walker; 14. Brandon Banks; 15. Dakota Hayden; 16. Chris Horn; 17. Mike Weikert; 18. Jonathon Huston; 19. Matt Fulton; 20. Clayton Jensen; 21. Bobby Moyer; 22. Matt Stewart; 23. Jason Roth; 24. Scott Dickey; 25. Terry Walker

IMCA LATE MODEL

1. Brian Harris; 2. Colby Springsteen; 3. Nick Marolf; 4. Andy Eckrich; 5. Ron Boyse; 6. Spencer Diercks; 7. Kevin Kile; 8. Jonathon Brauns; 9. Todd Malstrom; 10. Rob Moss; 11. Kyle Hinrichs; 12. Nate Bueseling; 13. Doug Yates; 14. Jeremy Grady 15. Jay Chenoweth; 16. Curran Beckler

l Comments: (319) 368-8884; jeremiah.davis@sourcemedia.net