MILTON, Fla. (March 2, 2024) – His Florida roller coaster ride saw Izac Mallicoat end the IMCA Clash on the Coast on top.
The 17-year-old speedster from Boone, Iowa, stayed close to leader Trevor Fitz the first 19 times around the track in the Saturday finale for Friesen Performance IMCA Modifieds at Southern Raceway, and took over up front after Fitz fell off power on a restart.
Mallicoat then outran Benji LaCrosse, Ethan Braaksma, speedweek champion Jeff Larson and Tanner Barnhart to the $1,000 checkers.
“We have struggled with consistency but the whole week, we knew we had a fast car. We just didn’t know it would be this good,” said Mallicoat, who became eligible to qualify for the Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational aboard a new Brand X ride. “This was a big confidence booster before we start racing around home.”
Mallicoat ran fourth in his opening night ‘B’ and exited early from the night two feature at Northwest Florida Speedway, then was kayoed by a flat tire early in his ‘B’ Thursday at Milton.
“We drew better, started on the pole and won our heat, and the started fourth in the feature,” said Mallicoat, who had to focus on the cars ahead of him while Larson, Joel Rust and Jeff Taylor duked it out for the championship close behind him. ”The dirt here is different, but I kept trying to set myself up to be able to make a run at the leader.”
Larson, winner of the opening night Clash feature at Baker, took the title and $2,500 share of the Modified point fund by five points over Rust and six ahead of Taylor.
“This is something pretty big to me,” said Larson, noting that the top three in points all came out of the same Saturday night heat. “There are some pretty good cars here and we pulled it off.”
Dallon Murty wrapped up a speedweek championship and $2,500 payday of his own, winning a second straight IMCA Sunoco Stock Car feature after starting eighth.
He’d come into the night a single point better than Gage Neal, a double winner at Baker. Neal got on his side to bring out the red flag just before midway. Murty took the lead on the next circuit and was chased to the finish by Hunter Rasdon and Justin Kay.
Davin Snellenberger passed Mike VanderMark Jr. for fourth on the last lap.
“It was pretty cool. We had a really good car,” Murty said following his latest $1,000 B & B Racing Chassis All-Star Invitational checkers. “I felt like I calculated every move I made and it paid off.”
“It was definitely a perfect track for a championship night.”
Owen Barnhill won the Jerovetz Motorsports Modified Chassis Challenge. Charlie Sancinati topped the Wehrs Machine & Racing Products Stock Car Chassis Challenge.
One hundred IMCA Modifieds vied in their second annual Clash on the Coast while 51 IMCA Stock Cars were on hand for that division’s first ever appearances in Florida.
Checks for shares of $9,600 point funds paid to top 16 drivers in each division, and $25 pre-entry bonuses for the first 50 drivers in each division that were not picked up at the track on Saturday will be mailed.
IMCA.TV broadcast all four nights of Clash on the Coast.
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