Todd Shute holds off Tyler Droste to win Hawkeye Dirt Tour race at Marshalltown

MARSHALLTOWN — Todd Shute has had a lot of bad luck making trips to Eastern Iowa for IMCA Hawkeye Dirt Tour races. Broken shocks, wrecks — you name it, the Des Moines driver has encountered it on this side of the state.

Maybe he just needed to be a little closer to home.

After a last-minute scramble overnight to get his racecar ready, the veteran racer held off Waterloo's Tyler Droste for the IMCA Modified victory and the $1,000 check that came with it. The pair raced side by side for more than half the race, with Shute on the high side in Turns 3 and 4, and Droste on the low side.

Shute held him off, but had to work like crazy to do it.

'What a deal,' Shute said. 'You're on pins and needles the whole time trying to keep it straight. That Tyler Droste, I have all the respect in the world for him. He proved he's a heck of a racer.

'He wouldn't come hard enough across the track that I knew I had a lane. I was ready for the crossover.

Shute got the win ahead of Droste, Kelly Shryock, Darin Duffy and pole sitter Jimmy Gustin, who won the Hawkeye Dirt Tour opener at Benton County Speedway on Memorial Day.

Those pins and needles left Shute sweaty and out of breath, but still smiling in the tech area. His high praise for Droste wasn't just in his Victory Lane interview, either. The pair chatted for a few minutes and thanked each other for racing clean and putting on a show.

Shute echoed what many racers say about being out front in that he wasn't exactly sure where to run. He changed up his line a little in the final few laps, which secured the win, but still kind of shrugged his shoulders about it all afterward.

'I didn't really know where to be on the racetrack,' Shute said. 'I was kind of guessing and driving all over. We made some decisions there at the end that paid off for us.'

Droste was able to smile after the race, but it was one of those pained smiles.

The young racer was kicking himself in retrospect, replaying the race over in his head in the brief moments after he climbed from the car. There were a few chances he could've been more aggressive to take the lead, but didn't.

Any highly competitive racer will agree that second is no fun. Droste hedged on that just a bit at first, but ended up agreeing too.

'Going back through it, I probably should've driven a little harder to get ahead of him, but you try to keep from tearing stuff up because he raced me clean and I wanted to race him clean,' Droste said. 'You're always happy with second running with the best of the best, but it still kind of pisses you off when you feel like you had a shot to get by him and you feel like you gave it up.'

Winning a Hawkeye Dirt Tour race takes that mix of making good decisions, as Shute did late, having a fast car, as both Shute and Droste did, and having a little luck.

Shute raved about the talent at Marshalltown on Tuesday.

Closing the deal against competition like that is no joke.

'This is incredibly difficult,' Shute said. 'Only the best show up to these deals. It was tough tonight with the cars that were here.'

KAY INHERITS DEERY BROS VICTORY

Justin Kay moved into a tie for fourth all time on the IMCA Deery Brothers Summer Series for Late Models wins list on Tuesday night at Marshalltown Speedway - but not on the track.

Kay crossed the finish line second in the 50-lap main event to Jeremiah Hurst, but Hurst, who thought he had broken a long Summer Series winless streak, was disqualified for an illegal axle tube. 

It wasn't the way Kay wanted to get the win, but he'll take it nonetheless.

"I've never won a race like this before, so this is new to me," Kay said. "It's not how I want to win them, but there's a rulebook too, and you've got to follow it. It's too bad. We had a great race and I was happy with second. But I'll take it any way I can get it."

With Hurst's DQ, John Emerson was credited with second, Jesse Sobbing third, Jeff Aikey fourth and Jake Neal fifth.

IMCA HAWKEYE DIRT TOUR

MARSHALLTOWN SPEEDWAY RESULTS

1. 5 Todd Shute, Des Moines; 2. 92t Tyler Droste, Waterloo; 3. 3 Kelly Shryock, Fertile; 4. 19d Darin Duffy, Urbana; 5. 19 Jimmy Gustin, Marshalltown; 6. 21k Kyle Brown, Madrid; 7. 26j Joel Rust, Grundy Center; 8. 15k Justin Kay, Wheatland; 9. 98 Brian Irvine, Oelwein; 10. 48j Jake Murray, Harcourt; 11. 7 Clay Money, Penoke, Kan.; 12. 21 Jesse Hoeft, Forest City; 13. 4tw Tim Ward, Gilbert, Ariz.; 14. 7sr John Emerson, Waterloo; 15. 31 Corey Dripps, Reinbeck; 16. 41 Nate Hughes, Indianola; 17. 71 Troy Cordes, Dunkerton; 18. 15m Shane Demey, Denison; 19. 17r Derek Reimer, Marshalltown; 20. 83g Josh Gilman, Earlham; 21. 19j Jenae Gustin, Marshalltown; 22. 10c Cayden Carter, Oskaloosa; 23. 9e Eric Elliott, Boone; 24. 77x Kurt Kile, Nichols.

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