By Bill Martin
NORWALK, Iowa (Oct. 25, 2026) – A couple starts in the class was all it took for Brandon Cox to get hooked on the Stealth Racing IMCA Mod Lite division.
Cox made 28 starts this season, racing and making new friends at eight different tracks in four states. Those travels paid off with the national rookie of the year award.
“We started off at the IMCA TV Winter Nationals in Arizona racing just to have fun. When we left there, we were leading rookie national points. We kind of had that in the back of our mind all season, but we were really racing for fun,” he said. “We wanted to experience different tracks and track conditions, race against different competitors and get the most points as we could.”
“Around Iowa, it’s arguably racing against many of the best of the best drivers. We wanted to race at some smaller tracks down south this year too, had a lot of fun and made some new life-long friends doing that.”
The Norwalk hotshoe had won 19 features and three track titles over the course of his 2014-2022 Sunoco IMCA Hobby Stock career, then scored championship and top rookie honors in the 2023 Karl Chevrolet Dirt Truck Series.
He made a handful of 2025 starts in a Sunoco IMCA Stock Car, then got an offer to pilot a Bullet Chassis by Randy Bryan ride owned by Cory Sonner.
“Cory is a good friend of mine, he had an extra car, he put me in it and I got hooked, the first time I got in it,” Cox stated matter-of-factly.
“The first night I raced was at Dirt at the Downs at Hawkeye Downs (in Cedar Rapids) at the end of the season,” he continued. “The second time was at the Harvest Hustle at Marshalltown. If memory serves me, we ran third or fourth at Hawkeye Downs, then set fast time and finished sixth at Marshalltown.”
After making four Winter Nationals starts at Central Arizona Raceway with the IMCA TV Winter Nationals, he’d post seven top five finishes in Iowa, Illinois and Missouri.
“Norwalk is just south of Des Moines, so we had Boone, Marshalltown and Stuart all pretty close to race at weekly. When the wet weather hit around here, we started going south to Missouri and raced Valley Speedway and Electric City Speedway,” Cox said. “We had a ton of fun down there. Those tracks are just little tiny bullrings, and we just had a blast.”
“Racing one night at East Moline was spur of the moment, on a Sunday night we didn’t have anything else going on, and we had a lot of fun there, too.”
Four of his top five runs came in Show Me State outings near the end of the point season. Brother-in-law Chad Reeves was a big part of the team and Cox noted a steady improvement turning more laps in the new-to-him class.
“Mod Lites handle totally differently than a Hobby Stock. They’re just like go karts on steroids. They’ve got quick reaction, they’re quick on the throttle and the cockpit size is smaller, which took some getting used to,” he said. “Track conditions are huge for these cars and the setup itself is huge. One little adjustment can really change the whole setup. What I like best about them is the racing is good and close.”
The racers themselves are a tight bunch, too.
“It’s a very close-knit group of racers in the Mod Lites. At Boone especially, after we get done racing nearly every week the guys would get together with their wives and have potlucks,” Cox said. “Everybody is there to help each other out. It’s just a close group of racers.”
He’ll return to the class next year but probably won’t make it to the track on as many nights: Cox and wife Kelsey will be watching sons Kale and Owen play travel league baseball.
Wins – 0
Top Five Finishes – 7
Starts – 28
HIS CREW: Car owner Cory Sonner, brother-in-law Chad Reeves and grandfather Leonard Cox.
HIS SPONSORS: Bob Harris Enterprises of Ames; Eagle Homes and the Brick and Ivy Sports Bar, both of Altoona; Austin Glick and Racers Edge of Ankeny; Hogrefe Trucking of Norwalk; Wehrs Machine and Racing Products of Bangor, Wis.; Strange Performance; Hinchman Race Gear of Indianapolis, Ind.; and Ultra Shield Race Products of Flint, Texas.