By Bill Martin
NEBRASKA CITY, Neb. (Oct. 22, 2025) — It’s hard to believe now, but there was a time not so long ago when Shawn Harker wondered if he’d ever win a Friesen Performance IMCA Modified feature.
The Nebraska City ‘shoe would total six checkers at Eagle Raceway, on his way to earning state and ultimately his first Jet Racing Central Region crown in 2025.
“We ended the season with five wins in a row. We won the first time at Eagle in June, and we won the last five points races of the year there,” said Harker. “It was a good feeling. Our mentality was race for the wins and the points will take care of themselves.”
“Last season we never paid attention to regional points because we were just racing to race. We got toward the end, and somebody called to ask me why I wasn’t racing more because we were up there in points and could maybe win it, but it was too late,” he continued. “So, we set out this year with goals to win state points and regional points, and top 10 in national points, which we knew would be tough given the number of races we would run.”
Harker was a top five finisher in another 16 Central Region outings, besting rookie of the year Cale Lagroon and six-time regional champion champ Johnny Saathoff in that points race while ending 16th nationally.
“There wasn’t much pressure to win the region because we can’t control how other drivers are doing. The most pressure I felt was winning the track championship,” he said. “The crowd at Eagle is so electric, whether they’re booing you or cheering you, the feeling is unreal.”
“Being able to win at Eagle proves that hard work does prove off in the end.”
Harker, 44, started his fourth Modified season by enjoying a family vacation while shaking out some of the racing cobwebs during the Peyton Taylor-promoted Clash on the Coast.
General manager of the rigging division at Patriot Crane and Rigging out of Omaha, he juggled work with 32 home region starts while squeezing in wheel time in another dozen races at tracks in Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota.
“We made as many starts at different tracks as we could,” Harker said. “The whole idea was to race more to get better.”
He had collected 40 wins while capturing a pair of Northern SportMod titles at Eagle during his 2013-2021 career in that class, then moved into the Modified division.
“The SportMod was a fun, economical class and it seemed like we could be competitive wherever we went,” Harker said. “But we also felt our time had been played out in the division. We won some track championships, my son Preston Wieckhorst wanted to start racing and if I was racing a SportMod with him I wouldn’t be able to help him.”
While an injury sustained at a dirt bike race short circuited Preston’s SportMod plans, Harker was full speed ahead in the Modified, tossing dirt with the likes of Jordan Grabouski and other stars of the Central Region.
“We went from running really good and winning quite a bit in the SportMod to really struggling in the Modified,” said Harker, who did most of his racing at Eagle in a 2023 Rage Chassis and kept a 2025-built ride as his backup. “The setup, going from the SportMod to the Modified, was just so different and we had to learn how to get it right. We made a chassis change at the very end of the 2023 season to a Rage Chassis and in the 2024 season is when our program turned around and started to take off and we started to have success.”
Harker followed his father Alan, who drove a couple times in the 1970s before becoming a car owner and crewman, into racing.
“With my dad being in the sport, I had been going to Eagle Raceway and Sunset Speedway back in the day, basically since I was born,” he said. “I’ve loved racing ever since I could remember and it’s all I’ve wanted to do.”
“The last 20 years of my racing career wouldn’t have been possible without the support of my wife and family. My wife Aimee is the best partner I could ever ask for. She has been behind me supporting every adventure through the ups and the downs of this crazy racing life. She is my support rock no matter how my day at work went or how our night of racing played out. She has sacrificed so much for our family to follow our dreams, “Harker said. “Our daughter Lextyn and our two boys Preston and Boston have always been involved and put in a lot of work towards our race team over the years, and my parents have always supported me over the 25-plus years of my career.”
Feature Wins 6
Total Top Five’s 23
Total Starts 49
HIS CREW: Father Alan, sons Boston Harker and Preston Wieckhorst, and Braydon Thorton.
HIS SPONSORS: 240 Motorsports, Sharkbait Candies, Charlie White Sawmill and R Carts, all of Nebraska City; Speedway Racing Engines, Speedway Shocks, Vis Technical Sportswear and Todd Howard, and Dunn’s Deer Processing, all of Lincoln; Final Grade Construction of Manly; Underdog Design and Drawing of Stanton; Noonan Industries of Dorchester; Arcut Fabrication of Waterloo; Patriot Crane and Rigging and King Rental Equipment, both of Omaha; Rage Chassis of West Union, Iowa; and Heitman Farm and Custom Ag of Glenwood, Iowa