May 12, 2024 | By Anthony Ainslie

Holladay Breaks winless streak with Malvern Bank Late Model Independence Triumph

INDEPENDENCE, Ia. — The Defending Malvern Bank Super Late Models East Series Champion scores his first win in over a year in Saturday’s showdown at Independence Motor Speedway.

The second round for the East Series was hosted by the high-banked 3/8 mile oval at the Buchanan County Fairgrounds in Independence, Iowa. A 30+ car field from five states packed the pit area for a shot at $3,000 payday.

Chad Holladay was the fastest in time trials when he stopped the clock at 13.931 seconds in group A. Derrick Stewart was the fastest in group B with his 14.083 second lap around the speedway.

Saturday’s heat races were won by Blair Nothdurft, who was making his Independence Motor Speedway debut, along with Dave Eckrich, Luke Petska, and Dylan Thornton. The two B features on the night were dominated and won by Charlie McKenna and Zach Less. After all the preliminary action was complete, 24 cars took to the track for the 30-lap main event.

Andy Eckrich took the opening lead after making the inside lane work to start the race. The Oxford, Iowa native led the first six laps before Holladay took command of the top spot. From that point, Holladay proceeded to pull away from the field as the race progressed.

The first caution did not slow the race until there were 13 laps remaining for a slow car on the back stretch. Only four laps later, previous night’s winner Dylan Thornton went over the edge of turn four bringing out the final caution.

When racing resumed, Holladay led while Andy Eckrich continued to try and use the inside line to take back the lead but to no avail. When the dust settled after 30 circuits, Holladay snapped a 45-race winless streak. After he recorded no wins in his 2023 championship campaign, Holladay captured his fifth career series victory and became the third different winner at Independence.

Andy Eckrich had to settle for second while Derrick Stewart finished third. Nick Marolf took fourth, while Blair Nothdurft rounded out the top five.

With opening weekend for the East Series in the record books, the West Series will kick off their 2024 season on May 18th as the tour heads to the Central Missouri Speedway in Warrensburg, Missouri. After that, the East Series will gear up for a Memorial Day tripleheader weekend with stops at Davenport, Maquoketa and Dubuque May 24-26.


RESULTS

MalvernBank A Feature (30 Laps): 1. 32C-Chad Holladay[3]; 2. 56-Andy Eckrich[2]; 3. 43-Derrick Stewart[1]; 4. 33-Nick Marolf[6]; 5. 76-Blair Nothdurft[14]; 6. 76H-Jason Hahne[4]; 7. 15K-Justin Kay[7]; 8. 56S-Chris Spieker[10]; 9. 07-Matt Ryan[21]; 10. 10T-Jeff Tharp[12]; 11. 77-Jeff Aikey[9]; 12. 99-Luke Pestka[8]; 13. 58-Dave Eckrich[15]; 14. 8R-Sean Johnson[20]; 15. 44-Luke Goedert[11]; 16. 22-Charlie McKenna[17]; 17. 38T-Dylan Thornton[5]; 18. 73-Greg Kastli[13]; 19. 20-Zach Less[18]; 20. 99D-Darrel DeFrance[23]; 21. 15C-Curt Schroeder[22]; 22. 32G-Curtis Glover[24]; 23. 53-Andrew Kosiski[16]; 24. 04-Tad Pospisil[19]

Predator Custom Trailers B Feature 1 (8 Laps): 1. 22-Charlie McKenna[1]; 2. 04-Tad Pospisil[2]; 3. 99D-Darrel DeFrance[3]; 4. 17-Tim Simpson[4]; 5. 15C-Curt Schroeder[5]; 6. 32G-Curtis Glover[6]; 7. 70-Shawn Mulvany[8]; 8. 01-CJ Horn[7]

Predator Custom Trailers B Feature 2 (8 Laps): 1. 20-Zach Less[2]; 2. 8R-Sean Johnson[5]; 3. 42-Fred Remley[8]; 4. 14-Logan Duffy[4]; 5. 1-Jake Bridge[1]; 6. 07-Matt Ryan[6]; 7. 45-Curt Martin[3]; 8. 5-Rusty Patterson[7]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 76-Blair Nothdurft[1]; 2. 44-Luke Goedert[2]; 3. 15K-Justin Kay[4]; 4. 32C-Chad Holladay[6]; 5. 04-Tad Pospisil[3]; 6. 53-Andrew Kosiski[5]; 7. 32G-Curtis Glover[7]; 8. 70-Shawn Mulvany[8]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 58-Dave Eckrich[1]; 2. 73-Greg Kastli[2]; 3. 56S-Chris Spieker[3]; 4. 99D-Darrel DeFrance[7]; 5. 56-Andy Eckrich[6]; 6. 8R-Sean Johnson[8]; 7. 17-Tim Simpson[4]; 8. 45-Curt Martin[5]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 99-Luke Pestka[2]; 2. 76H-Jason Hahne[5]; 3. 77-Jeff Aikey[3]; 4. 43-Derrick Stewart[6]; 5. 22-Charlie McKenna[4]; 6. 14-Logan Duffy[1]; 7. 07-Matt Ryan[7]; 8. 42-Fred Remley[8]

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 38T-Dylan Thornton[5]; 2. 33-Nick Marolf[6]; 3. 10T-Jeff Tharp[3]; 4. 20-Zach Less[2]; 5. 1-Jake Bridge[4]; 6. 15C-Curt Schroeder[7]; 7. 5-Rusty Patterson[8]; 8. 01-CJ Horn[1]

Qualifying A: 1. 32C-Chad Holladay, 00:13.931[10]; 2. 56-Andy Eckrich, 00:14.075[6]; 3. 53-Andrew Kosiski, 00:14.190[1]; 4. 45-Curt Martin, 00:14.209[11]; 5. 15K-Justin Kay, 00:14.367[8]; 6. 17-Tim Simpson, 00:14.367[15]; 7. 04-Tad Pospisil, 00:14.370[7]; 8. 56S-Chris Spieker, 00:14.385[3]; 9. 44-Luke Goedert, 00:14.396[14]; 10. 73-Greg Kastli, 00:14.433[13]; 11. 76-Blair Nothdurft, 00:14.467[9]; 12. 58-Dave Eckrich, 00:14.529[16]; 13. 32G-Curtis Glover, 00:14.568[5]; 14. 99D-Darrel DeFrance, 00:14.690[4]; 15. 70-Shawn Mulvany, 00:14.743[2]; 16. 8R-Sean Johnson, 00:15.022[12]

Qualifying B: 1. 43-Derrick Stewart, 00:14.083[2]; 2. 33-Nick Marolf, 00:14.103[16]; 3. 76H-Jason Hahne, 00:14.114[7]; 4. 38T-Dylan Thornton, 00:14.136[6]; 5. 22-Charlie McKenna, 00:14.270[11]; 6. 1-Jake Bridge, 00:14.367[8]; 7. 77-Jeff Aikey, 00:14.372[15]; 8. 10T-Jeff Tharp, 00:14.409[3]; 9. 99-Luke Pestka, 00:14.543[10]; 10. 20-Zach Less, 00:14.547[9]; 11. 14-Logan Duffy, 00:14.585[14]; 12. 01-CJ Horn, 00:14.629[12]; 13. 07-Matt Ryan, 00:14.645[5]; 14. 15C-Curt Schroeder, 00:14.867[1]; 15. 42-Fred Remley, 00:14.902[13]; 16. 5-Rusty Patterson, 00:15.573[4]