COMANCHE, Texas – A former national and Super Nationals champion was quick to find success in a new IMCA division this season.
Jeffrey Abbey collected 11 feature wins on the way to earning IMCA Modified national and Razor Chassis South Central Region rookie of the year honors.
“I went from a class where you couldn’t make a lot of changes to one where there were endless options,” said Abbey, who had won both national and IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s Smiley’s Racing Products Southern SportMod titles in 2016. “I really enjoyed the competition and the challenge of a Modified.”
From Comanche, Texas, and a first-year precision machining student at Texas State Technical College, Abbey earned his first feature win in the division in just his fifth night out as part of a Feb. 18-19 sweep at 281 Speedway.
He’d register 24 top five finishes over the course of 49 starts at 10 speedplants, earning Southern Oklahoma Speedway and Oklahoma State crowns as well as the rookie prizes.
“We had a lot of fun at Southern Oklahoma and always looked forward to racing there. I like the track configuration and surface,” said Abbey, a two-time winner at Ardmore. “It’s well promoted and you are treated like family every time you go there.”
He was runner-up to Josh McGaha in the race for the regional crown.
We had started the season racing for rookie of the year and midway through thought we’d give the regional championship a shot,” he said. “We had a lot of fun racing with Josh for the points championship.”
Abbey’s national rookie award is the family’s third: Brothers Steven and Dean topped first-year standings for Southern SportMods in 2009 and the Modifieds in 2014, respectively. Younger brother Westin was champion of the EQ Cylinder Heads Southern Region for IMCA Sunoco Stock Cars this season.
Wins-11 Top Five Finishes-24 Starts-49
HIS CREW: Father Randy, brothers Dean and Westin, Payton Branch and Robert Scrivner.
HIS SPONSORS: Abbey Racing of Comanche; Berta Built Bodies and JL Custom Technology, both of Waco; Abilene Powder Coating of Abilene; 517 Designs of Whitney; Swenson Shocks of San Antonio; Larry Shaw Race Cars of Batesville, Ark.; Brass Monkey Racing Products of Ada, Okla.; Tumbleweed BarBQue of Stephenville; J & J Motorsports of Haynesville, La.; Dynamic Drivelines of Des Moines, Iowa; and KS Engineering of Albert Lea, Minn.