COMANCHE, Texas – Another low key approach to the season ended with Westin Abbey winning another EQ Cylinder Heads Southern Region championship.
Abbey was 16 years old when he became the youngest driver to win an IMCA Sunoco Stock Car regional crown in 2016. A dozen feature wins, including four during the inaugural Red River Tour, helped propel him to the top of the region again in 2018.
“We hadn’t even planned to chase points,” said Abbey, who ended up sixth in the national standings despite taking some weekends off and registering just 38 starts. “A lot of things just went right for us this year.”
He won features at five of the six tracks he raced at this season. Five of those checkers flew at 281 Speedway, where Abbey ended third in point standings, and three more at Heart O’ Texas Speedway.
Abbey sandwiched second place showings at Kennedale Speedway Park and 281 around a win at HO’T in the first three Red River Tour events, then put an exclamation point on the tour championship with back-to-back-to-back victories at Devil’s Bowl Speedway, Grayson County Speedway and Southern Oklahoma Speedway.
“We hauled in the same trailer as my brother (and national Modified rookie of the year) Jeffrey and ended up winning four of the six tour features,” he said. “So everything just turned out pretty good for us.”
He’ll return to the division next year. No decision has been made yet on whether he’ll chase a third regional title, as he’s still enjoying the latest championship.
“It’s hard to compare the 2016 title with this year’s,” said Abbey, now a first-year student in the diesel technology program at Texas State Technical College in Waco. “They’re both great.”
Wins-12 Top Five Finishes-28 Starts-38
HIS CREW: Father Randy and brothers Dean and Jeffrey.
HIS SPONSORS: Abbey Racing of Comanche; Swenson Shocks of San Antonio; 517 Designs of Whitney; Tumbleweed BarBQue of Stephenville; Don Wilde Racecraft of Wall; Easterling Farms of Rule; B & B Racing Chassis of Belle Plaine, Minn.; KS Engineering of Albert Lea, Minn.; J & J Motorsports of Haynesville, La.; and Dynamic Drivelines of Des Moines, Iowa.