May 31, 2025 | By Anthony Ainslie

Murty outduels Thornton, McKenna and Sobbing in Lee County Barn Burner

Donnellson, Iowa—Dallon Murty returned to victory lane in thrilling fashion in Saturday’s Malvern Bank Super Late Models East Series return to Lee County Speedway.
Race 6 of the 2025 season took the series to the semi-banked 3/8 mile oval at the Lee County Fairgrounds in Donnellson, Iowa. A field of 27 cars from Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and Illinois made the trip to Lee County for a chance at a $3,000 payday on a beautiful Saturday night.

Racing action was delayed following a power outage, but after electricity was restored, Rookie of the Year Contender Tim Ward was fastest of everyone in Keyser Manufacturing. The Harcourt, Iowa driver led group one with a lap time of 16.735 seconds. Fellow rookie Dallon Murty clocked in at 16.904 seconds to be the fastest in group two. The third and final qualifying group was led by Dylan Thornton as he turned in a 17.011 second lap.

The three heat races on the night were won by Jay Johnson, Bill Leighton Jr. and Kaden Clatt. Later, Tim Ward would be the top point earner and accepted the
Skyline Materials Lucky 6th Place Starter challenge. Ward had the chance to add a $1,000 bonus if he could pull of the feature win.

Andy Eckrich went on to win the nigh’ts Predator Custom Trailers B feature, and after provisionals were decided, 22 cars took to the speedway for the 30-lap main event. Charlie McKenna capitalized on his pole starting position as he jumped out to the lead while Dylan Thornton ran in a close second and Dallon Murty ran third.

The race stayed incident-free throughout the entire distance. McKenna led as the leaders made their way into lapped traffic, and once the slower cars became a factor, Thornton and Murty began trying different lines and pulling slide jobs for the second position. Meanwhile, Points Leader Chad Simpson waged war with Jesse Sobbing for the fourth position.

As the race entered the final ten laps, Thornton and Murty applied extra pressure on McKenna for the lead. The trio went 3-wide on multiple occasions, and with six laps to go, Thornton made a 3-wide pass for the lead coming off turn four. His lead was short-lived as only three laps later, Dallon Murty made the pass on the outside of turn two.

Murty would run out the final three laps and claimed victory for the second time of his career with the Malvern Bank East Series. Murty also became the third different winner in 3 visits to the Lee County Speedway. Dylan Thornton would have to settle for second while Jesse Sobbing took third. Chad Simpson finished fourth while Tim Ward rounded out the top five.

The Malvern Bank Super Late Model Racing Series will now have a 2-week break before the East Series returns to action on Sunday, June 15th at the Mason City Motor Speedway in Mason City, Iowa. After that, the East series heads to Lafayette County Speedway in Darlington, Wisconsin on June 20th followed by the series’ debut at the Winnishiek Raceway in Decorah, Iowa on the 21st.


RESULTS

Malvern Bank A Feature (30 Laps): 1. 99X-Dallon Murty[3]; 2. 38T-Dylan Thornton[2]; 3. 99-Jesse Sobbing[4]; 4. 25-Chad Simpson[5]; 5. 4TW-Tim Ward[6]; 6. 22-Charlie McKenna[1]; 7. 76H-Jason Hahne[8]; 8. 24-Bill Leighton[11]; 9. 50-Kayden Clatt[9]; 10. 01X-CJ Horn[15]; 11. 93-Jay Johnson[7]; 12. 4-JC Wyman[16]; 13. 56-Andy Eckrich[17]; 14. 58-Dave Eckrich[13]; 15. 42-Fred Remley[10]; 16. 7B-Tommy Elston[18]; 17. 10T-Jeff Tharp[12]; 18. 53-Andrew Kosiski[19]; 19. 15C-Curt Schroeder[14]; 20. 52-Brian Kosiski[20]; 21. 07-Matt Ryan[21]; 22. 74-Ron Boyse[22]

Predator Custom Trailers B Feature 1 (10 Laps): 1. 56-Andy Eckrich[5]; 2. 7B-Tommy Elston[2]; 3. 53-Andrew Kosiski[6]; 4. 52-Brian Kosiski[1]; 5. 07-Matt Ryan[8]; 6. 74-Ron Boyse[3]; 7. 99D-Darrel DeFrance[7]; 8. 33-Nick Marolf[4]; 9. 22B-Austen Becerra[9]; 10. 01-Jacob Hobscheidt[10]; 11. 72-Dave Hammond[11]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 93-Jay Johnson[2]; 2. 4TW-Tim Ward[6]; 3. 15C-Curt Schroeder[1]; 4. 42-Fred Remley[4]; 5. 4-JC Wyman[7]; 6. 10T-Jeff Tharp[5]; 7. 33-Nick Marolf[8]; 8. 7B-Tommy Elston[3]; 9. 99D-Darrel DeFrance[9]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 24-Bill Leighton[1]; 2. 99-Jesse Sobbing[4]; 3. 58-Dave Eckrich[2]; 4. 76H-Jason Hahne[5]; 5. 99X-Dallon Murty[6]; 6. 52-Brian Kosiski[3]; 7. 56-Andy Eckrich[7]; 8. 53-Andrew Kosiski[8]; 9. 07-Matt Ryan[9]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 50-Kayden Clatt[2]; 2. 22-Charlie McKenna[4]; 3. 25-Chad Simpson[5]; 4. 38T-Dylan Thornton[6]; 5. 01X-CJ Horn[8]; 6. 74-Ron Boyse[1]; 7. 22B-Austen Becerra[3]; 8. 01-Jacob Hobscheidt[7]; 9. 72-Dave Hammond[9]

Qualifying 1: 1. 4TW-Tim Ward, 00:16.735[3]; 2. 10T-Jeff Tharp, 00:16.970[1]; 3. 42-Fred Remley, 00:17.058[4]; 4. 7B-Tommy Elston, 00:17.112[2]; 5. 93-Jay Johnson, 00:17.244[8]; 6. 15C-Curt Schroeder, 00:17.257[7]; 7. 4-JC Wyman, 00:17.269[9]; 8. 33-Nick Marolf, 00:17.412[6]; 9. 99D-Darrel DeFrance, 00:17.594[5]

Qualifying 2: 1. 99X-Dallon Murty, 00:16.904[9]; 2. 76H-Jason Hahne, 00:17.279[7]; 3. 99-Jesse Sobbing, 00:17.302[5]; 4. 52-Brian Kosiski, 00:17.327[3]; 5. 58-Dave Eckrich, 00:17.341[4]; 6. 24-Bill Leighton, 00:17.383[2]; 7. 56-Andy Eckrich, 00:17.575[8]; 8. 53-Andrew Kosiski, 00:17.643[6]; 9. 07-Matt Ryan, 00:17.991[1]

Qualifying 3: 1. 38T-Dylan Thornton, 00:17.011[3]; 2. 25-Chad Simpson, 00:17.186[6]; 3. 22-Charlie McKenna, 00:17.421[2]; 4. 22B-Austen Becerra, 00:17.505[5]; 5. 50-Kayden Clatt, 00:17.650[8]; 6. 74-Ron Boyse, 00:18.264[1]; 7. 01-Jacob Hobscheidt, 00:20.000[4]; 8. 01X-CJ Horn, 00:21.000[7]; 9. 72-Dave Hammond, 00:22.000[9]