May 11, 2025 | By Anthony Ainslie

Dallon Murty gets first Malvern Banks Series win at Independence

INDEPENDENCE, Ia.—A new face made it to victory lane Saturday as Dallon Murty took his first Malvern Bank Super Late Model Racing Series win at Independence Motor Speedway.
The high-banked 3/8 mile oval on the Buchanan County Fairgrounds played host to the East Series for round 2 of the 2025 season. It was only the fourth time the series visited Independence, Iowa. A field of 26 drivers across Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin packed the pit area.

Local favorite C J Horn was the fastest overall in Keyser Manufacturing qualifying as the Cedar Rapids native topped group 1 with a lap of 13.531 seconds. Dallon Murty and Tim Ward were on top of groups 2 and 3 respectively.

The three heat races on the night were won by Jesse Sobbing, J.D. Auringer, who was making his Malvern Bank Series debut, and Chad Simpson. Simpson’s performance was enough for him be the Skyline Materials top point driver and had first chance to be the Lucky 6th Place Starter, which he accepted. A bonus $200 was at stake for Simpson should he win the main event.

After Stuart Speedway winner Dylan Thornton won the Predator Trailers B Feature, 22 cars took to the track for the 30-lap finale. C J Horn would start on pole position with Tim Ward on his outside.

Ward would jump to the race lead and proceeded the first half of the race. As the race progressed, Dallon Murty found his way to back end of Ward, and the battle was on for the top spot.

Murty tried to get lapped traffic to work to his advantage. Ward would get off the top side of the speedway to get around traffic in turn one, and that was the setup Murty needed. As the two came around turn 4 to reach the halfway mark of the race, Murty charged to the lead.

Trouble struck Ward with 11 laps to go. As he battled Murty for the lead, Ward went too high and fell off the race track and struck the turn one wall bringing out the race’s only caution. Ward came back out from the hot pit, but he would later pull of the race track finishing in 19th.

When racing resumed, Murty led while Chad Simpson made his way to second around Jesse Sobbing in search of that $200 bonus. Simpson proceeded to hound Murty for the lead and would force him into lapped traffic in the closing laps.

On the final lap, Simpson sized up Murty for the lead and proceeded to try for a last-lap, last-corner slide for the win but came up short. Murty would cross the line first securing his first ever Malvern Bank Series feature win, and he became the 50th different winner all-time in the series’ history.

Simpson had to settle for second while Jesse Sobbing took third. C J Horn took fourth, and Tad Pospisil rounded out the top five. Extra mention goes to Dylan Thornton who won the hard charger award bonus as he finished sixth after starting back in 17th position.

The Malvern Bank Series is off for a week before the East Series gears up for a tripleheader weekend in eastern Iowa over Memorial Day weekend. The tour heads to Davenport Speedway on May 23rd followed by the Maquoketa Speedway on the 24th and then rounding out the weekend at Dubuque Fairgrounds Speedway on the 25th.


RESULTS

Malvern Bank A Feature (30 Laps): 1. 99X-Dallon Murty[4]; 2. 25-Chad Simpson[6]; 3. 99-Jesse Sobbing[3]; 4. 01X-CJ Horn[1]; 5. 04-Tad Pospisil[5]; 6. 38T-Dylan Thornton[17]; 7. 22-Charlie McKenna[7]; 8. 76-Blair Nothdurft[14]; 9. 51W-JT Wasmund[10]; 10. 10T-Jeff Tharp[12]; 11. 4-JC Wyman[11]; 12. 00J-JD Auringer[8]; 13. 58-Dave Eckrich[13]; 14. 76H-Jason Hahne[16]; 15. 42-Fred Remley[20]; 16. 53-Andrew Kosiski[15]; 17. 15C-Curt Schroeder[22]; 18. 56-Andy Eckrich[18]; 19. 4TW-Tim Ward[2]; 20. 07-Matt Ryan[19]; 21. 11X-Tom Berry Jr[9]; 22. 99D-Darrel DeFrance[21]

Predator Custom Trailers B Feature 1: 1. 38T-Dylan Thornton[3]; 2. 56-Andy Eckrich[1]; 3. 07-Matt Ryan[4]; 4. 42-Fred Remley[2]; 5. 14-Logan Duffy[6]; 6. 99P-Luke Pestka[8]; 7. 15C-Curt Schroeder[7]; 8. 45-Curt Martin[5]; 9. 44W-David Webster[9]; 10. 99D-Darrel DeFrance[10]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 99-Jesse Sobbing[3]; 2. 10T-Jeff Tharp[1]; 3. 04-Tad Pospisil[4]; 4. 56-Andy Eckrich[2]; 5. 42-Fred Remley[8]; 6. 01X-CJ Horn[6]; 7. 07-Matt Ryan[9]; 8. 15C-Curt Schroeder[7]; 9. 38T-Dylan Thornton[5]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 00J-JD Auringer[1]; 2. 22-Charlie McKenna[2]; 3. 99X-Dallon Murty[6]; 4. 4-JC Wyman[3]; 5. 51W-JT Wasmund[4]; 6. 11X-Tom Berry Jr[5]; 7. 45-Curt Martin[7]; 8. 99P-Luke Pestka[9]; 9. 99D-Darrel DeFrance[8]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 25-Chad Simpson[5]; 2. 53-Andrew Kosiski[1]; 3. 76-Blair Nothdurft[2]; 4. 58-Dave Eckrich[3]; 5. 4TW-Tim Ward[6]; 6. 76H-Jason Hahne[4]; 7. 14-Logan Duffy[7]; 8. 44W-David Webster[8]

Qualifying 1: 1. 01X-CJ Horn, 00:13.531[9]; 2. 38T-Dylan Thornton, 00:13.757[6]; 3. 04-Tad Pospisil, 00:13.903[1]; 4. 99-Jesse Sobbing, 00:13.958[2]; 5. 56-Andy Eckrich, 00:14.112[5]; 6. 10T-Jeff Tharp, 00:14.189[4]; 7. 15C-Curt Schroeder, 00:14.227[3]; 8. 42-Fred Remley, 00:14.381[7]; 9. 07-Matt Ryan, 00:14.662[8]

Qualifying 2: 1. 99X-Dallon Murty, 00:14.025[7]; 2. 11X-Tom Berry Jr, 00:14.125[8]; 3. 51W-JT Wasmund, 00:14.174[3]; 4. 4-JC Wyman, 00:14.174[1]; 5. 22-Charlie McKenna, 00:14.394[6]; 6. 00J-JD Auringer, 00:14.510[4]; 7. 45-Curt Martin, 00:14.604[9]; 8. 99D-Darrel DeFrance, 00:15.003[2]; 9. 99P-Luke Pestka, 00:18.000[5]

Qualifying 3: 1. 4TW-Tim Ward, 00:13.865[8]; 2. 25-Chad Simpson, 00:13.932[5]; 3. 76H-Jason Hahne, 00:13.968[6]; 4. 58-Dave Eckrich, 00:14.425[4]; 5. 76-Blair Nothdurft, 00:14.447[2]; 6. 53-Andrew Kosiski, 00:14.662[7]; 7. 14-Logan Duffy, 00:14.885[1]; 8. 44W-David Webster, 00:15.099[3]