KELLER, Texas – Her career first win in the division has been the season highlight thus far for Kamera McDonald.
Qualifying for the main event when Scoggin-Dickey Parts Center Southern SportMods join the opening night program for the IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s will rank just as high.
McDonald, 15 years old and from Keller, Texas, is currently the rookie points leader and is fourth in national standings for the Southern SportMods. The Timber Creek High School sophomore-to-be won for the first time on June 11 at Kennedale Speedway Park and later added June 17 and July 8 victories at Boyd Raceway.
“My first win at Kennedale was very memorable and my season has gotten even better from there,” she said. “Going to Super Nationals is going to be a good experience for me. My main goal is to make the big race.”
“I’ve talked to some of the guys around here who have been to Super Nationals to get an idea of what to expect,” McDonald added. “I’m sure it’s going to be a little overwhelming but I set my expectations high. I’m pretty competitive.”
While’s she’s in her first season in the Southern SportMod, McDonald started her racing career at the age of eight in a go-kart.
“That was when my dad had promised me I could start racing and I was just hooked,” she said.
McDonald advanced through Bandolero and Legends ranks before moving to a mini stock, racing regularly at Kennedale and on a part-time basis at Heart O’ Texas Speedway and Abilene Speedway.
The Southern SportMod is part of that natural progression to bigger and faster cars.
“It’s a class that’s still relatively new to IMCA,” she notes. “This is still a very male dominated sport and the guys I race against are very nice, but they still race as hard against me as they race against anybody else.”
McDonald is on the varsity drill team and dances at a private studio, but her Friday and Saturday night hobby is not common knowledge among her classmates.
“Some of my friends have been to the track and watched me race,” she said. “They know I’m doing what I love.”
Along with parents Tim (a former driver) and Karan, she gets help working on the car from two-time national champion Dean Abbey and his crew.
“We’ve known the Abbey family for a long time and Dean has helped me a lot,” McDonald said. “He used to tell me what to do but now he’s asking me questions about what the car is doing and making me figure out things myself.”
Her sponsors are TM Racing of Keller, DAE Enterprises of Fort Worth and Abbey Racing of Comanche.
“We’ve talked about moving to a Modified but that will have to wait until after high school,” McDonald said. “Right now, I’m going to focus on the SportMod.”