By Bill Martin
CHULA VISTA, Calif. (Oct. 31, 2025) — An early January suggestion became reality in late September as Kevin Reuter sailed to rookie of the year honors in the B & B Racing Chassis Southern Region for Sunoco IMCA Hobby Stocks.
He’d raced the first four nights of the IMCA TV Winter Nationals at Casa Grande’s Central Arizona Raceway, planning “a hit or miss kind of season” and racing when and where he could, all depending on when he’d be at sea as a U.S. Navy aviation ordinance man, loading and arming bombs, missiles, rockets and small caliber weaponry on jets that fly off aircraft carriers homeported in San Diego.
Those deployments can last six to eight months and despite the uncertainty, Reuter agreed to make the rookie chase when friend and fellow Hobby Stock driver Scott Tenney suggested it.
From Chula Vista and the first California driver to earn the Southern Region rookie title, he collected six top five finishes in 25 starts, racing at one track, Barona Speedway, in his home state while towing 20,000-plus miles to another six venues spread across Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah.
“I was a one-man crew but did get help from other drivers when I was at the track. When I first started the season, I wanted to get my feet wet and get seat time,” Reuter said. “Scott had helped me get the car (a homebuilt ride purchased in the off-season) set up and my schedule kind of reflected his. I kind of followed his travel schedule minus the time I was at sea and wasn’t able to race.”
“After I decided to go for regional rookie, I got more serious and got more into it. Once I start something I tend to finish it to the best of my ability,” he continued. “Some other drivers from Colorado said they were going to start running for it and that’s what got me determined to going to Colorado and Utah to chase points.”
Reuter went a month and a half between starts from early August to the last weekend of the 2025 point season, serving on board a carrier in the Pacific, returning to the States just in time to run the Castle Country Clash at Desert Thunder Raceway.
“It was hard to not be racing when I knew there were races,” he said, “and I knew when I got back, I needed to make as many races as I could to stay ahead in the points.”
An Iowa native, Reuter grew up at Independence Motor Speedway and wrenched for Justin and Todd Temeyer while also following the on-track heroics of Greg Kastli, Darin Duffy and Troy Cordes. He later made the acquaintance of J.J. Wise, The Racing Auctioneer, and helped build and crew for his Hobby Stock team.
“I knew back then that someday I wanted to race IMCA,” he said. “Friday through Sunday we were pretty much at the racetrack until I graduated and joined the military.”
Reuter has since seen a lot of the country and of the world in his 19-year Navy career. Both he and Tenney were stationed in Nevada but at different times and didn’t meet in real life until well after their mutual interest in dirt track racing connected them via Facebook.
They’ve since become good friends and have raced with and against each other the last four years.
“I ran a 4-cylinder in Nevada before transferring to California and sold my car and trailer. I came here in 2020 with no plans to race,” Reuter said. “I was going to be stationed on a ship and would be going in and out (of port) all the time and didn’t think there would be any chance of racing for the five years I was going to be here.”
“Scott was racing a Hobby Stock, told me he knew of a Sport Compact that was available, and I went over, bought it and raced the IMCA TV Winter Nationals and won them in 2023.”
Reuter would total 14 wins in two Mach-1 IMCA Sport Compact seasons but made just a handful of starts in that class before and after his time on the water in 2024.
Regional rookie of the year ranks third on Reuter’s list of titles in 2025. He’s also crew chief and number one fan for son Camden, nine years old and a competitor in the mini dwarfs, a go-kart version of a modified, at Barona.
Feature Wins 0
Top Five’s 6
Starts 25
HIS SPONSORS: Painter-Built Motorsports of Ramona; SFR Graphics of Seeley; Ford Racing of Sacramento; 21 T Motorsports and Scott Tenney of Yuma, Ariz.; Tilley’s of Fallon, Nev.; Colorado Baller Brand; and Five Hole Hockey Memorabilia.