Abilene wraps up season with 27th annual Southern Challenge

ABILENE, Texas (Feb. 15) – Following his opening night Sniper Speed Lone Star Tour win Saturday at Abilene Speedway, Westin Abbey will take aim at a much bigger payday.  The three-time and defending EQ Cylinder Heads Southern Region champion topped the main event for IMCA Sunoco Stock Cars, earning $1,000 and a shot at a $10,000 bonus if he can win Texas Motor Speedway’s Wednesday night Dirty 30 show as well. Eighty drivers from 11 states saw tour action at Abilene. Ninth in Friday’s opening night show at the Ice Breaker, Abbey won the first of 10 heat races, started outside the front row and caught Derek Green for the lead midway through the 30-lapper. Green, the Friday winner, ran side-by-side and bumper-to-bumper with Abbey the last half of the race. The front pair caught up to lapped traffic with two laps left but Abbey found the fastest way through and left Green to settle for second.  “We didn’t know what the car was going to do. We changed a lot of stuff after the heat race,” [Read More]

ABILENE, Texas (Oct. 14) – Another win at another late-season IMCA Modified special put another $2,000 in Chase Allen’s bank account. Allen aced Abilene Speedway’s Ryan Bard Memorial Southern Challenge main event, taking the lead early and running away from the rest of the 20-car field. “We got a little redemption this year, thankfully,” said Allen, who broke leading his previous Southern Challenge outing. “We had a tough Friday night in qualifying and tore up the car some but we got everything fixed and we were fast the next night.” The 2013 race winner, Allen started outside row two and passed tough customers Dean Abbey on the outside and Josh McGaha on the inside in making his way to the front. Abbey ended his night in second. Chris Elliott, Tommy Fain and McGaha rounded out the top five in the 25-lapper. Allen had raced his way onto the Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational ballot by winning Kennedale Speedway Park’s rescheduled Showdown special the previous weekend. Other winners at Abilene’s 23rd annual Southern Challenge were Andy Roller in [Read More]

ABILENE, Texas (Jan. 26, 2024) – Rob Poor was racing a Friesen Performance IMCA Modified in the early days of Ice Breaker at Abilene Speedway. He’ll promote the 30th annual event, one of the longest continuously running specials in the GRT Race Cars South Central Region and in all of IMCA, Feb. 16 and 17. Modifieds run for $1,000 to win, IMCA Sunoco Stock Cars for $750, Smiley’s Racing Products IMCA Southern SportMods for $600 both nights. IMCA.TV 30th anniversary bonuses – $1,000 for the Modifieds, $750 for the Stock Cars and $600 for the Southern SportMods – will be paid to drivers who can win both nights in their respective divisions. “We had some good runs at the Ice Breaker but we never won it,” recalled Poor, starting his 23rd year in charge at Abilene. “This was one of the earliest specials of the season so there were always a lot of good cars here, from across the region and from a lot of the country.” Modified winners become Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational qualifying eligible while Stock [Read More]