By Bill Martin
THORNTON, Colo. (Jan. 19, 2026) – By making the most of his opportunities, Ryan Moser made his way into the IMCA history book.
Winner of three of just 13 Karl Chevrolet IMCA Northern SportMod starts close to home in 2025, the Thornton, Colorado, hotshoe finished no worse than fifth in any of those outings.
That consistency translated into a quartet of championships, track crowns at I-76 Speedway in Fort Morgan and Phillips County Raceway in Holyoke, and in both the Colorado Alliance Tour and the Great Plains IMCA Tour.
Two-division star and Sunoco IMCA Stock Car National champion Kelly Shryock, and fellow Northern SportMod speedster Colton Blankenship were the only other drivers with four local crowns to their credit in 2025.
“We usually get around 20 nights in, but it seemed like we had a lot of rainouts. Still, everything kind of just worked out,” said Moser, agreeing that the stars and all the circumstances aligned in his favor.
Ryan Moser raced to a rare accomplishment, winning four local championships – two track titles and a pair of special tour crowns – during the 2025 Karl Chevrolet Northern SportMod campaign. (Photo by Ronda Troudt)
“We mainly set out at the start of the year to run for the track championship at Fort Morgan,” he continued, “then after looking at how everything else lined up, it made it nice to be able to run the Colorado Alliance Tour, which allowed us to run Phillips County and the Great Plains Tour, too.”
Half a dozen of his weekly starts doubled as CAT shows, while seven also gave Great Plains points.
“It was pretty crazy with the way everything worked out,” Moser said. “Another thing I thought was cool was that the Great Plains Tour took us out to Lincoln County Raceway in North Platte (Neb.) which is one of my favorite tracks. We’ve gone out there at least once or twice every year since about 2017. It’s just a track we really like to race at.”
Thirty-eight different IMCA drivers have won four or more local championships 48 times in a single season, dating back to 1982.
Moser had won two track and a single special series track title twice previously, during his rookie season in 2015 and again in 2022. He’ll look to add to a career total of 40 feature wins in a new-to-him 2022 Jet Chassis he hopes to have race ready for the Icebreaker Challenge at Nebraska’s Eagle Raceway in April.
Moser has been a Jet Chassis driver since Day One in the division, previously learning his way around the class in 2009 and 2015-built cars.
“I began racing quarter midgets at the age of five. A lot of our local tracks ran their own version of a Hobby Stock, so we pretty much did them for a few seasons, then we did a few seasons in what they called ‘E’ Mods,” he said. “When our local tracks went IMCA, we converted our car to the Northern SportMod rules.”
“When we made the change, it wasn’t a huge deal to transfer everything over and make it IMCA legal. We ended up going with a 602 because everything was a little bit more open in the motor rules,” explained Moser, “but everything else was already pretty much the same as the IMCA rules.”
He now works out of a two-stall garage, with most of that space dedicated to the race car and a smaller portion allotted to his motorcycle, while the car he drives to work sits outside, even through the snowy off-season.
Buddies Jay Thorndyke and Mike Sabo helped turn wrenches and his mother Ronda Troudt rode along on some of those long tows – I-76 is a tick over 80 miles from home and El Paso County is about 90, while Phillips County is a 160 mile haul – to keep him company and help with food, but Moser lost the most integral part of his team with the passing of his father Gary four years ago.
A demolition derby and later bomber class driver, Gary ended his own career on dirt to crew chief for Ryan, working on whatever car his son was racing and traveling with him to weekly and series events, the IMCA Speedway Motors fueled by Casey’s Super Nationals and local and national awards banquets.
“Shop time, when I’m working on the car by myself, is probably when I miss him the most,” Ryan said. “We worked on the car together all the time, that’s what he enjoyed doing. Some of the drives are hard too, when it’s just me. I’m kind of a one-man band now.”
With all track and series schedules yet to be announced, the Icebreaker Challenge, chasing points at I-76, and a return to Boone Speedway are the only plans Moser has set in stone this season.
He made his final start last season at the NAPA Auto Parts Prelude, then made the opening night qualifier but battled set up issues and DNQ’d at Super Nationals.
“We’ve been going out there for about the last eight or nine years and we have a great time,” said Moser, 16th in the Big Dance in 2023. “We have a group of friends that pit together when we go to Boone. It’s a good vacation, a good week to go out and play with the race car.”
