August 29, 2025 | By Anthony Ainslie

Bruening tops Malvern Bank East Series at Cresco

CRESCO, Iowa—Tyler Bruening returned to the Malvern Bank Super Late Model Racing Series in a big way winning Thursday’s Blue Ribbon Classic at Cresco Speedway.

The fourth round of the Dirt Track Bank Elite 8 Series saw both East and West tours make the trip north to the 3/8-mile oval at the Mighty Howard County Fairgrounds in Cresco, Iowa. This race, which was initially an East Series only race, was rescheduled from its previous date in June after rain washed out the event before the night even began. A strong field of 29 cars from Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin, South Dakota, Minnesota, and California packed the pit are to battle for a big $5,000 top prize.

The Keyser Manufacturing Top Qualifier on the night was the West Series Points Leader, Jesse Sobbing. The Malvern, Iowa driver, fresh off his first win on the tour the previous week, topped the fourth and final qualifying group with a blistering 17.219 second lap. The first group belonged to Charlie McKenna as the Ames, Iowa native clocked in at 17.442 seconds. Group 2 saw a 17.259 second lap on top set by Reigning West Series Champion Bill Leighton Jr. Meanwhile, East Series Rookie of the Year Point Leader, Dallon Murty, set the fastest lap in group 3 at 17.234 seconds.

The four heat races on the night were won by Joe Chisholm, Dylan Thornton, Tyler Bruening, and Andy Eckrich. Bruening would be the first to have a chance at the $600 Skyline Materials Lucky 6th Place Starter bonus. Bruening did not take the challenge leaving the starting spot to Jesse Sobbing.

After Jesse Glenz won the Predator Custom Trailers B Feature, and after six provisional spots were awarded, 26 cars took to the speedway for the 30-lap Malvern Bank main event.

Dylan Thornton took the race lead to kick off the event, but his lead was short-lived because after just four laps, Tyler Bruening took over the top spot. Thornton was left to fend off Bill Leighton Jr. for second while Dallon Murty and Blair Nothdurft put on a close battle for fifth.

The only caution came out with 13 laps to go when Andy Eckrich and JC Wyman got tangled up on the back stretch. Wyman would make repairs and came back to salvage a 15th-place finish while Eckrich ended up 22nd.

On the restart, Thornton missed his marks letting Bruening slip away, and Thornton ended up falling back to fifth. That led to Leighton, Murty and Sobbing to go 3-wide coming off of turn 4 the next lap around with Sobbing getting second at the start/finish line. Murty would secure the second spot the next time the two drivers went through turns 1 and 2.

The race would come down to Bruening trying to hang on against Murty as the two navigated lapped traffic. Most of the lapped cars stayed out of the leaders’ paths, but the lead continued to shrink for Bruening.

Bruening and Murty split a lapped car coming off the final two corners, and as they came to the line, Bruening hung on to secure the feature victory and the $5,000 payday. Bruening became the 10th different winner of the 2025 season for the Malvern Bank Series, and the win was his first with the series since September of 2021 when he won at Dubuque, Iowa.

Dallon Murty would have to settle for second while Jesse Sobbing came in third. Dylan Thornton took fourth, while Bill Leighton Jr. rounded out the top five.
The Dirt Track Bank Elite 8 Series heads further north as both tours make their big debut with two shows at the Deer Creek Speedway in Spring Valley, Minnesota. Then, there will be a 2-week before the tour heads to the Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, Iowa for the Maaschman Memorial.


RESULTS

Malvern Bank A Feature (30 Laps): 1. 16-Tyler Bruening[2]; 2. 99X-Dallon Murty[5]; 3. 99-Jesse Sobbing[6]; 4. 38T-Dylan Thornton[1]; 5. 24-Bill Leighton[3]; 6. 25-Chad Simpson[9]; 7. 76-Blair Nothdurft[7]; 8. 53-Andrew Kosiski[4]; 9. 01X-CJ Horn[8]; 10. 22-Charlie McKenna[10]; 11. 76H-Jason Hahne[11]; 12. 26JR-Corey Zeitner[13]; 13. 04-Tad Pospisil[17]; 14. 14-Kyle Berck[14]; 15. 4-JC Wyman[19]; 16. 25C-Joe Chisholm[16]; 17. 42-Fred Remley[23]; 18. 15C-Curt Schroeder[21]; 19. 99D-Darrel DeFrance[25]; 20. 10T-Jeff Tharp[12]; 21. 58-Dave Eckrich[18]; 22. 56-Andy Eckrich[15]; 23. 01-Jacob Hobscheidt[20]; 24. 52-Brian Kosiski[24]; 25. 35D-Dylan Sillman[22]; 26. 7X-Jesse Glenz[26]

Predator Custom Trailers B Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 7X-Jesse Glenz[1]; 2. 04-Tad Pospisil[2]; 3. 58-Dave Eckrich[4]; 4. 4-JC Wyman[3]; 5. 15C-Curt Schroeder[5]; 6. 42-Fred Remley[7]; 7. 01-Jacob Hobscheidt[11]; 8. 99D-Darrel DeFrance[6]; 9. 37-Jason Rogers[9]; 10. 52-Brian Kosiski[8]; 11. 90-Lance Matthees[10]; 12. 07X-Troy Morris III[12]; 13. 35D-Dylan Sillman[13]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 25C-Joe Chisholm[1]; 2. 53-Andrew Kosiski[4]; 3. 14-Kyle Berck[3]; 4. 76H-Jason Hahne[5]; 5. 22-Charlie McKenna[6]; 6. 42-Fred Remley[2]; 7. 90-Lance Matthees[7]; 8. 35D-Dylan Sillman[8]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 38T-Dylan Thornton[3]; 2. 58-Dave Eckrich[1]; 3. 10T-Jeff Tharp[4]; 4. 76-Blair Nothdurft[5]; 5. 24-Bill Leighton[6]; 6. 52-Brian Kosiski[2]; 7. 07X-Troy Morris III[7]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 16-Tyler Bruening[5]; 2. 4-JC Wyman[1]; 3. 01X-CJ Horn[4]; 4. 99X-Dallon Murty[6]; 5. 15C-Curt Schroeder[3]; 6. 99D-Darrel DeFrance[7]; 7. 37-Jason Rogers[2]

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 56-Andy Eckrich[1]; 2. 25-Chad Simpson[3]; 3. 04-Tad Pospisil[2]; 4. 26JR-Corey Zeitner[4]; 5. 99-Jesse Sobbing[6]; 6. 7X-Jesse Glenz[5]; 7. 01-Jacob Hobscheidt[7]

Qualifying 1: 1. 22-Charlie McKenna, 00:17.442[4]; 2. 76H-Jason Hahne, 00:17.496[3]; 3. 53-Andrew Kosiski, 00:17.504[8]; 4. 14-Kyle Berck, 00:17.538[5]; 5. 42-Fred Remley, 00:17.575[1]; 6. 25C-Joe Chisholm, 00:17.592[7]; 7. 90-Lance Matthees, 00:17.660[6]; 8. 35D-Dylan Sillman, 00:17.788[2]

Qualifying 2: 1. 24-Bill Leighton, 00:17.259[5]; 2. 76-Blair Nothdurft, 00:17.298[3]; 3. 10T-Jeff Tharp, 00:17.658[2]; 4. 38T-Dylan Thornton, 00:17.677[4]; 5. 52-Brian Kosiski, 00:17.777[1]; 6. 58-Dave Eckrich, 00:17.881[6]; 7. 07X-Troy Morris III, 00:17.966[7]

Qualifying 3: 1. 99X-Dallon Murty, 00:17.234[4]; 2. 16-Tyler Bruening, 00:17.308[5]; 3. 01X-CJ Horn, 00:17.359[1]; 4. 15C-Curt Schroeder, 00:17.627[6]; 5. 37-Jason Rogers, 00:17.651[3]; 6. 4-JC Wyman, 00:17.662[2]; 7. 99D-Darrel DeFrance, 00:18.000[7]

Qualifying 4: 1. 99-Jesse Sobbing, 00:17.219[5]; 2. 7X-Jesse Glenz, 00:17.274[1]; 3. 26JR-Corey Zeitner, 00:17.341[6]; 4. 25-Chad Simpson, 00:17.384[4]; 5. 04-Tad Pospisil, 00:17.545[3]; 6. 56-Andy Eckrich, 00:17.548[7]; 7. 01-Jacob Hobscheidt, 00:17.951[2]