By Bill Martin
INDEPENDENCE, Iowa (Oct. 23, 2026) – The secret is out, Leah Wroten really was chasing another Lady Eagle championship this season.
After six months of trials and tribulations, the Sunoco IMCA Hobby Stock driver from Independence, Iowa, adds a bookend award to her trophy from 2018 after winning the closest nationwide points race of 2026.
She got the tiebreaking nod ahead of Mach-1 IMCA Sport Compact pilot Brooke Osler after the pair finished tied atop a points race contested by more than 300 female drivers in the nine divisions sanctioned by IMCA.
“My goal from the start was to win the Lady Eagle but I didn’t tell a lot of people that because if I didn’t, I might have been more disappointed. I’m not getting any younger – I’m kind of the old gal in the group – and I’m not sure how much longer we want to run 30-40 nights a season,” she explained.
Track champion at Benton County Speedway in a 2025 Dominator Chassis built by husband Nick, Wroten had one feature win and 19 top five finishes in 34 starts made at seven different tracks.
“Not only do I race against some of the best drivers in the country, but our car counts in Eastern Iowa are also extraordinary. I feel like being able to finish in the top five so many nights was an accomplishment,” the 43-year-old Wroten said. “I think consistency has pretty much been the model of my entire racing career.”
“I won the track championship at Vinton and didn’t win a feature there. Looking back, we just had a lot of consistent nights and not a lot of DNFs. I feel like I try to race smart and not put myself in bad situations,” she’d continued. “Maybe there were some nights I could have won but coming home with a car in one piece and air in all the tires is more important than winning and possibly wrecking somebody. That’s not how I want to race.”
Wroten ran a Sunoco IMCA Stock Car from 2020 to 2024 before returning to the Hobby Stock division last season.
“The Stock Car was a great time, super fun and ultra-competitive but it was a lot of work. It started to feel like another job. There’s just a lot more involved,” explained Wroten, who works in the insurance department at the Mental Health Institute in Independence. “We decided to go back to the Hobby Stock. It’s fun and doesn’t require so much shop time.”
She believes the switch to a best 20 finishes in their first 40 starts structure gave more drivers a chance to win it, making her second Lady Eagle championship a bigger accomplishment than the first.
“We had a lot going on this season. Nick had some health issues this summer, my father-in-law passed away and we ended up having carbon monoxide poisoning from a buildup in my race shop,” Wroten said. “We had a lot of trials and tribulations. If you had told me mid-summer that we would still have a chance at the Lady Eagle, I would have told you no way.”
Prioritizing Nick’s health, going to nephews’ flag football games and cheering on an Independence High School girls basketball team she’d helped coach are in her immediate plans before the 2027 race season.
Wins – 1
Top Five Finishes – 19
Starts – 34
HER CREW: Husband Nick, Dakoda Sellers, Cody Bergmeier, Rick Hemseth, Brett Dage, Steve Gibbs, Chris Schares and Jaice and Jacob Tuttle.
HER SPONSORS: Dominator Chassis, Northeast Iowa Fur Exchange and Rowley Wrecker and Repair, all of Rowley; Gibby’s Downtown, Color Divine with Kristan and Marc and Shelly Cabalka, all of Independence; Dage Farms of Brandon; Running NW Company, Magnum Auto & Transportation and Enhance The Spark by Dolly Rasmussen, all of Quasqueton; Nutrien Ag of Winthrop; Galli Racing of Urbana; Don’s Ninew Inch Gear & Transmission and Rooster Auto Sales and Trailers, both of Vinton; Borrowed Moment Photography of Cedar Rapids; Fuzzy’s Frame Straightening of Manchester; Hansen’s Fun Bus of LaPorte City; Hankin’s Trucking of Corwith; Jared Bailey Photography of DeSoto; APEX Decals and Signs of Waterloo; Jordan Hanish Photography of Williams; Performance Bodies of Cedar Falls; Bob Harris Enterprises of Ames; Fast Shafts of Des Moines; Hyperco of Pontotoc, Miss.; Brooke Fluckiger Racing of Columbus, Neb.; Albrant Motorsports; and the Barnes Family.