July 13, 2024 | By Anthony Ainslie

Zeitner Triumphant in his Grandfather’s Memorial Race at Shelby County Speedway

HARLAN, Iowa — Justin Zeitner found victory lane for the second time in a row Saturday as the Malvern Bank Super Late Models made their annual trip to the Shelby County Speedway.

The first dual (East vs. West) race was the richest single night race on the calendar as both Malvern Bank tours came together for the Rallen Zeitner Memorial. The high-banked 1/3-mile at the Shelby County Fairgrounds served as the battleground for the biggest field of cars of the year. Over 40 entries from Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, California, Florida, and Pennsylvania made the trip to Harlan for a chance at a $7,600 payday.

Jesse Sobbing was the fastest overall in time trials as he topped group B with a lap of 13.844 seconds. Matt Ryan was the fastest in group A when he clocked in at 13.862 seconds. Saturday’s six heat race winners were won by Chad Holladay, Bill Leighton Jr., Corey Zeitner, Tom Berry Jr., Chris Spieker, and Jason O’Brien.
After the heat races, Luke Goedert was the highest point earner through qualifying and heat races which gave him the first chance at the Skyline Materials Lucky 6th Place Starter bonus. The Guttenberg, Iowa driver declined the offer, so Matt Ryan would have the shot at a $750 bonus.

Three Predator Custom Trailers B features were won by Tad Pospisil, Jake Bridge, and Drake Troutman, who came from the tail end to win.

After all preliminary action was completed, a massive 28-car field took to the speedway for the 40-lap main event. Along with the $7,600 to win top prize, an extra $3,040 in lap money was at stake.

Jesse Sobbing jumped to the lead from the pole position and led the first two circuits before East Series Regular Dylan Thornton took over. Thornton would proceed to run away from the rest of the pack, but as the race progressed, his lead shrank as he got into lapped traffic.

A number of drivers would face hardships and mechanical issues throughout the race. The first being Sobbing who came to a stop in turn four on lap six. He would go to the hot pit and then return, but the defending Zeitner Memorial Winner would get caught up in a later incident. He would finish 23rd.

Tad Pospisil would also face a mechanical issue. The Defending West Series Champion came to a stop on the back stretch with 13 laps to go. The Norfolk, Nebraska driver would finish 27th.

As the race got into the final ten laps, Thornton led while Justin Zeitner and Chad Holladay applied all sorts of pressure for the lead. Thornton used every ounce of the track he could find to try and keep both Zeitner and Holladay behind him.

Andy Eckrich made a charge late in the distance. The Oxford, Iowa native took command of the lead with seven laps to go. However, his time at the front was short-lived as Justin Zeitner made the winning move off turn four with four laps remaining.

When the dust settled after 40 hard-fought laps, Justin Zeitner would stand in victory lane. Two weeks after winning the Hampel Memorial for the third year in a row, he scores the big win in his grandfather’s memorial race. It was his 19th series win all-time and his second of the 2024 season.

Andy Eckrich came in second while Blair Nothdurft finished third. Drake Troutman charged from the 19th starting spot to take fourth, and Chad Holladay rounded out the top five.

As the Zeitner Memorial is now in the history books, the West Series gears up for a massive doubleheader weekend up at the Huset’s Speedway in Brandon, South Dakota for the 14th annual Silver Dollar Nationals on July 19 & 20. Then, both East and West Series will come back together again on July 26th for the Dale DeFrance Memorial at Marshalltown Speedway in Marshalltown, Iowa.


RESULTS

Rallen Zeitner Memorial Zeitner Sons Trucking A Feature (40 Laps): 1. 62-Justin Zeitner[8]; 2. 56-Andy Eckrich[4]; 3. 76B-Blair Nothdurft[11]; 4. 7-Drake Troutman[19]; 5. 32C-Chad Holladay[5]; 6. 43-Derrick Stewart[12]; 7. 38T-Dylan Thornton[2]; 8. 4-JC Wyman[22]; 9. 76H-Jason Hahne[7]; 10. 24-Bill Leighton[10]; 11. 26JR-Corey Zeitner[13]; 12. 07-Matt Ryan[6]; 13. 11X-Tom Berry Jr[14]; 14. 10T-Jeff Tharp[24]; 15. 44-Luke Goedert[3]; 16. 76Z-Zach Zeitner[20]; 17. 99D-Darrel DeFrance[26]; 18. 1-Jake Bridge[18]; 19. 58-Dave Eckrich[9]; 20. 15C-Curt Schroeder[28]; 21. 15-Jason O'Brien[16]; 22. 52-Brian Kosiski[25]; 23. 56S-Chris Spieker[15]; 24. 99-Jesse Sobbing[1]; 25. 22-Charlie McKenna[23]; 26. 53-Andrew Kosiski[21]; 27. 04-Tad Pospisil[17]; 28. 14-Kyle Berck[27]

Predator Custom Trailers B Feature 1: 1. 04-Tad Pospisil[2]; 2. 76Z-Zach Zeitner[1]; 3. 6-Cade Richards[3]; 4. 14-Kyle Berck[4]; 5. 22-Charlie McKenna[5]; 6. 13-Jason Wallace[8]; 7. 3C-Mike Collins[6]; 8. K1-Kyle Krampe[9]; 9. 5S-Jeff Segebart[7]

Predator Custom Trailers B Feature 2: 1. 1-Jake Bridge[1]; 2. 53-Andrew Kosiski[3]; 3. 35D-Dylan Sillman[2]; 4. 99D-Darrel DeFrance[5]; 5. 15C-Curt Schroeder[6]; 6. 32G-Curtis Glover[4]; 7. 33-Paul Glendenning[8]; 8. 21H-Brett Hopp[7]; 9. 9-Mark Plowman[9]

Predator Custom Trailers B Feature 3: 1. 7-Drake Troutman[9]; 2. 4-JC Wyman[2]; 3. 52-Brian Kosiski[5]; 4. 35-Kale Kosiski[8]; 5. 10T-Jeff Tharp[4]; 6. 6H-Clay Harris[1]; 7. 80-Allan Hopp[6]; 8. 1J-Jay Burdic[3]; 9. 9T-Levi Plowman[7]

American National Bank Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 32C-Chad Holladay[5]; 2. 58-Dave Eckrich[4]; 3. 35D-Dylan Sillman[3]; 4. 07-Matt Ryan[6]; 5. 80-Allan Hopp[1]; 6. 15C-Curt Schroeder[2]; 7. 13-Jason Wallace[7]

MCT Companies Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 24-Bill Leighton[3]; 2. 44-Luke Goedert[6]; 3. 62-Justin Zeitner[5]; 4. 52-Brian Kosiski[1]; 5. 99D-Darrel DeFrance[2]; 6. 1J-Jay Burdic[4]; 7. 33-Paul Glendenning[7]

MHC Kenworth Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 26JR-Corey Zeitner[2]; 2. 38T-Dylan Thornton[5]; 3. 4-JC Wyman[3]; 4. 3C-Mike Collins[1]; 5. 43-Derrick Stewart[6]; 6. 14-Kyle Berck[4]; 7. 35-Kale Kosiski[7]

American National Bank Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 11X-Tom Berry Jr[2]; 2. 1-Jake Bridge[3]; 3. 22-Charlie McKenna[1]; 4. 99-Jesse Sobbing[6]; 5. 04-Tad Pospisil[5]; 6. 32G-Curtis Glover[4]; 7. K1-Kyle Krampe[7]; 8. 7-Drake Troutman[8]

MCT Companies Heat 5 (8 Laps): 1. 56S-Chris Spieker[2]; 2. 56-Andy Eckrich[5]; 3. 76Z-Zach Zeitner[4]; 4. 76H-Jason Hahne[6]; 5. 10T-Jeff Tharp[3]; 6. 21H-Brett Hopp[1]; 7. 9-Mark Plowman[7]

MHC Kenworth Heat 6 (8 Laps): 1. 15-Jason O'Brien[2]; 2. 6H-Clay Harris[3]; 3. 76B-Blair Nothdurft[5]; 4. 6-Cade Richards[4]; 5. 5S-Jeff Segebart[1]; 6. 9T-Levi Plowman[7]; 7. 53-Andrew Kosiski[6]

Inserra, Kelley Sewell Qualifying A: 1. 07-Matt Ryan, 00:13.862[1]; 2. 44-Luke Goedert, 00:13.913[2]; 3. 43-Derrick Stewart, 00:13.951[7]; 4. 32C-Chad Holladay, 00:14.002[8]; 5. 62-Justin Zeitner, 00:14.070[9]; 6. 38T-Dylan Thornton, 00:14.076[15]; 7. 58-Dave Eckrich, 00:14.082[4]; 8. 1J-Jay Burdic, 00:14.091[3]; 9. 14-Kyle Berck, 00:14.112[17]; 10. 35D-Dylan Sillman, 00:14.169[13]; 11. 24-Bill Leighton, 00:14.174[12]; 12. 4-JC Wyman, 00:14.204[19]; 13. 15C-Curt Schroeder, 00:14.227[6]; 14. 99D-Darrel DeFrance, 00:14.256[20]; 15. 26JR-Corey Zeitner, 00:14.290[11]; 16. 80-Allan Hopp, 00:14.430[5]; 17. 52-Brian Kosiski, 00:14.497[21]; 18. 3C-Mike Collins, 00:14.659[16]; 19. 13-Jason Wallace, 00:14.678[10]; 20. 33-Paul Glendenning, 00:14.683[18]; 21. 35-Kale Kosiski, 00:14.719[14]

Inserra, Kelley Sewell Qualifying B: 1. 99-Jesse Sobbing, 00:13.844[11]; 2. 76H-Jason Hahne, 00:14.004[13]; 3. 53-Andrew Kosiski, 00:14.108[9]; 4. 04-Tad Pospisil, 00:14.108[7]; 5. 56-Andy Eckrich, 00:14.120[5]; 6. 76B-Blair Nothdurft, 00:14.224[21]; 7. 32G-Curtis Glover, 00:14.244[10]; 8. 76Z-Zach Zeitner, 00:14.282[14]; 9. 6-Cade Richards, 00:14.305[19]; 10. 1-Jake Bridge, 00:14.413[2]; 11. 10T-Jeff Tharp, 00:14.437[17]; 12. 6H-Clay Harris, 00:14.447[20]; 13. 11X-Tom Berry Jr, 00:14.530[6]; 14. 56S-Chris Spieker, 00:14.538[3]; 15. 15-Jason O'Brien, 00:14.575[12]; 16. 22-Charlie McKenna, 00:14.586[18]; 17. 21H-Brett Hopp, 00:14.606[1]; 18. 5S-Jeff Segebart, 00:15.006[15]; 19. K1-Kyle Krampe, 00:15.151[16]; 20. 9-Mark Plowman, 00:15.158[4]; 21. 9T-Levi Plowman, 00:15.501[8]; 22. 7-Drake Troutman, 00:15.502[22]