Crow rescues old car from weeds, wins Sport Compact rookie award

Richard Crow (left) filled his weekly race schedule at tracks with big fields of Mach-1 Sport Compacts and was deservedly re­warded with rookie of the year honors in the 4-cylinder class. He is pictured with IMCA President Brett Root. (Photo by Bruce Badgley, Motorsports Photography)

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. – A car rescued from the weeds carried Richard Crow to the national rookie of the year award in IMCA’s Mach-1 Sport Compact division.

“I had wrecked late in the season so I got my old car out of the weeds to finish the year,” he said. “I won three times in that car, twice at RPM Speedway and once at Salina Speedway.”

From Grand Island, Neb., Crow had opted to race with IMCA because of the number of sanc­tioned tracks. He collected nine wins in all, with victories at five of the 10 different tracks in four states that he raced at.

“We didn’t decide to race for rookie points until about a month into the season,” said Crow, sparked by back-to-back April checkers at U.S. 30 Speedway and Lincoln County Raceway. “We told ourselves ‘Let’s go for it.’”

RPM ranks as his favorite venue.

“It’s like my home track that I used to race at but has way more cars,” explained Crow. “I’d rather race against a lot of cars. When you’re only racing against six other cars it’s not that much fun.”

Battling Jake Newsom and David Norquest for the rookie title, he had three wins and five more top five finishes in his last 11 starts. That late-season success helped him move up to eighth place in the national standings.

“I had to keep traveling. I went where they had the most cars and replaced some bad (points) nights,” he said.

Starts: 53

Wins: 9

Additional Top Fives: 21

HIS CREW: Wife Tanya, Darrin and Kelly Lucas, and John “Billy Bob” Snipes. 

HIS SPONSORS: Tim’s Janitorial and OK Lawn Care, both of Grand Island; Darrin and Kelly Lu­cas of Hastings; and South 40th Bar of Red Cloud.