OAKLEY, Calif. (Nov. 5, 2024) – If they gave an award for determination, Jacob Mallet Jr. would have won that, too.
The Oakley speedster made the step up from a Northern SportMod to a Friesen Performance IMCA Modified in 2024, traveling to 15 different tracks, 10 of them in his home state, and finished with five wins and another 20 top five finishes in his 47 starts.
Those numbers were good for national and Shaw Race Cars Western Region rookie of the year honors.
“We started and went into the season with a goal and wanted to achieve it no matter what it took. We had to keep on truckin’ no matter what the outcomes were,” said Mallet, the first California driver to win the national rookie prize since Scott Pounds in 1993. “We went through a lot of lows, from wrecking a bunch and flipping one night at Willamette.”
“We just stayed focused on the goal and did our best not to let anything negative affect us.”
Also the California state champion, Mallet made 30 starts before earning his first Modified win, on July 6 at Diamond Mountain Speedway.
Win number two came just a week later at Ocean Speedway.
“We’d known at the end of last year we would be moving to the Modified,” explained Mallet, who started the season in a borrowed Twyzted Chassis and later switching seats into a new Clay-Daly built ride. “We were really looking for new challenges and new opportunities. In the grand scheme of things we wanted to be part of a team and put more into an IMCA Modified. Thankfully it all worked out in the end.”
“It was definitely a lot of living and learning, and it definitely helped having Clay by our side,” he continued. “Clay is pretty smart when it comes to that stuff. There was a little bit of fine tuning here and there in the new car, and we were able to get her done.
“With our number of races, it kind of made sense that we would run for the state championship, too,” he noted, “but the national rookie of the year was our tippity-top goal for sure.”
The 20-year-old Mallet, is the first member of his family to race, knowing from an early age that his future was on the track.
He had been a 10-time winner in his three Northern SportMod seasons. A fan of Yreka Speedway – “A well prepared track and a nice facility” – Mallet also won at Petaluma Speedway before venturing north later in the season for checkers at Cottage Grove Speedway and Southern Oregon Speedway.
“The Modified is different, for sure, in the way it drove, and that’s something I’m still figuring out, to be honest,” Mallet admitted. “And the level of competition is definitely different. It’s also very awesome at the same time. The Modified has been a whole new learning experience for me and I’ve learned a lot from watching and talking to other drivers.”
Wins-5
Top Five Finishes-25
Starts-47
HIS CREW: Parents Jacob Sr. and Denae; and Clay Daly.
HIS SPONSORS: JDJ Engineering and Construction of Oakley; Twyzted Motorsports of Prunedale; DeCarlo Racing Products of Martinez; and Bay Area CNC and Ashman Auction, both of Walnut Creek.
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