Ryan Clark

Kuehl soars to seven wins, first IMCA Lady Eagle honors

AMES, Iowa (Nov. 7, 2023) – The theme to Taylor Kuehl’s Lady Eagle championship winning season had to be Have race car, will travel. The Arizona native, relocated to Ames, Iowa, since last spring, traveled to 14 different tracks in four Midwestern States over the course of the season, winning seven of 41 Friesen Performance IMCA Northern SportMod starts in topping point standings for the nearly 300 female drivers competing in IMCA in 2023. “We had a lot of racing planned. We ran mostly weekly shows, deciding on some of them last-minute, and filled in our schedule with specials,” said Kuehl, a top five finisher on 20 nights. “We didn’t start the season running for the Lady Eagle but winning it was really cool to do. It’s another prestigious award to put on our racing resume.” Kuehl found victory lane at Stuart Speedway three times while getting single wins at Interstate Speedway, Independence Motor Speedway, Buena Vista Raceway and 141 Speedway. “We had a really good year at Stuart. That track was good to us,” she [Read More]

CJ Speedway to host 2023 awards banquet

By Jerry Mackey CJ Speedway set to host 2023 awards banquet By Jerry Mackey COLUMBUS JUNCTION, Iowa (Nov. 14, 2023) – The annual CJ Speedway awards banquet will be held Saturday, Nov. 18 on the Louisa County Fairgrounds in the Youth Center Building located in the center of the fairgrounds in Columbus Junction. Drivers earning top ten in points who are eligible for awards will be honored and recognized for their outstanding achievements. The evening will kick off with a social hour getting underway at 5 p.m. followed by the meal being served at 6 p.m. The awards presentation will get underway at 7 p.m. Following the awards portion of the evening, banquet attendees will be treated to a show presented by hypnotist/comedian Cheryl Shagen. Tickets for the CJ Speedway Banquet can be obtained by contacting the CJ Speedway through the Facebook page.

CJ Speedway drivers earn IMCA national honors

By Jerry Mackey COLUMBUS JUNCTION, Iowa (Nov. 3, 2023) – CJ Speedway provided great racing throughout the 2023 season and the primary reason that the racing was so good was because of the caliber of the competition each and every Friday night. Columbus Junction regular Tucker Richardson won national and Northern Region Rookie of the Year in the IMCA Sunoco Hobby division. Richardson recently turned 17 and is a junior at Winfield Mount Union High School. He raced a Hobby Stock after running two seasons in the mini hauler division (small trucks). Richardson comes from a racing family as he competes weekly with his uncle Shane Richardson and great uncles John and Chuck, who have both raced many laps at CJ Speedway. The Hobby Stock that Richardson raced was a proven car as the Dominator Chassis was raced to a national championship by Kaden Reynolds in 2021 and later raced by Ryan Havel to multiple wins before the Richardsons purchased the car and the young Richardson drove the car to a third place in points [Read More]

New approach, same results: Looft takes off Fridays, races to sixth IMCA Northern SportMod national title

SWEA CITY, Iowa (2023) – Matt Looft took a new approach in his pursuit of another Friesen Performance IMCA Northern SportMod national championship. He raced less. Looft chased points at just two tracks, winning titles at Thursday night venue Kossuth County Speedway and Saturday night speed plant Arlington Raceway. Three Monday night checkers at Clay County Fair Speedway and three more in as many Friday night starts at Murray County Speedway would help give the Swea City speedster 31 wins and his third straight and career sixth national crown. “The only thing that’s harder than getting to the top is staying there. Our family is busier and work is busier. It’s a real balancing act,” said Looft, the division’s all-time leader with 263 feature wins and 35 track and special series titles. “My wife and I decided that we’d take some nights off from racing to focus on family things with the kids and make sure the car was ready when we did race. My wife and family are my biggest support system and we [Read More]

The Professor changes point chasing plans, becomes first IMCA Sport Compact national champ from Texas

SPRINGTOWN, Texas (Nov. 2, 2023) – A driver who wasn’t even planning to race for points at the start of the season led them all at the end of it. Twenty feature wins helped make Randall Martin the first Texas driver to win the Mach-1 IMCA Sport Compact national championship. The speedster from Springtown won track titles at Boyd Raceway, Kennedale Speedway Park and Southern Oklahoma Speedway as well as Texas and Oklahoma State titles in his first full season in the 4-cylinder class. “It means a lot for me to win the national championship, and to be the first driver from Texas to do it in the Sport Compacts. That’s one of the reasons why I ran for it,” Martin said. “It’s an awesome feeling and now there’s a sparkle in my eye. I wanted my name on that trophy.” Trophies may have been the last thing on Martin’s mind after his engine went up in smoke on opening night, but he was the king of consistency from that point. The wins … seven [Read More]

Car photos needed for Allstar Performance heat winner awards

VINTON, Iowa (Nov. 1, 2023) – The 2023 point season may be over and the champions announced, but Allstar Performance will still make winners of drivers in all nine IMCA divisions. Drivers who won 10 or more heat races during the season receive $100 gift cards from the Watervliet, Mich., high performance parts manufacturer and heat race winner decal program sponsor. The driver with the most heat race wins gets a $250 gift card. What drivers MUST do to make themselves eligible for gift card awards is email a photo of their car showing proof of heat win decal placement, as distributed by tracks, to IMCA Marketing Integration and Sponsorship Director Carson Becker-Gramm at cbgramm@imca.com by Nov. 7. No pictures will be accepted after that date. “This is easy money,” said Becker-Gramm, “and I encourage all eligible drivers who have not done so already to get a picture of their car showing proof of heat winner decal placement taken and emailed to me by next Tuesday.” Allstar Performance gift cards will be presented during the IMCA national [Read More]

Back on track after six years, Phillips wins IMCA Southern SportMod national crown

TUSCOLA, Texas (Nov. 1, 2023) – Back in a race car after six years away from the track, David Phillips couldn’t have scripted a better start to his 2023 season. The ending was pretty special, too. Phillips, from Tuscola, was quick to knock the rust off after his lengthy hiatus, winning a dozen features, Boyd Raceway and Texas State honors on the way to earning the Smiley’s Racing Products IMCA Southern SportMod national championship. “I had something to prove,” stated Phillips, who’d wheeled IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stocks, IMCA Sunoco Stock Cars and then a SportMod over 12 seasons before that break. “I had a pretty bad year the last year I raced. It was rough on us. I wanted to come back, prove to myself and show I still had it.” “It’s a really, really cool achievement to win a national championship, especially when you look at the list of the other guys who have done it,” he continued. “You don’t realize what it takes ‘til you do it yourself and it was a 100 [Read More]

Olmstead races to 100th career win on way to first national IMCA Hobby Stock crown

OVERTON, Neb. (Oct. 31, 2023) – Zach Olmstead’s 27th feature win of the season was the 100th of his IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stock career. His 28th checkers of 2023 made the Overton, Neb., driver a first-time IMCA national champion. “It hasn’t sunk in yet,” admitted the Overton, Neb., driver, who also has an IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s crown and three straight Stephenville Starter Race of Champions victories on his IMCA resume. “Being a national champion is something I dreamed would happen.” “We knew it would be tough but we thought we had a good chance at the start of the season. We had some luck and it just seemed like everything happened at the right time on the track for us.” Olmstead, who shares a 60×60 shop in Overton with brothers Jacob and Morgan, traveled to 11 different tracks in Kansas and Nebraska and won at all but one of them in earning IMCA Northern Region and Dawson County Raceway and RPM Speedway track titles. He had averaged 14 feature wins over each of [Read More]

2023 is another season for the IMCA record book as Nichols races to 12th Stock Car national crown

HARLAN, Iowa (Oct. 31, 2023) – Mike Nichols had three lessons to share, following his career 12th IMCA Sunoco Stock Car national championship. First, do the work. Second, surround yourself with good people. And third, when you find a penny, pick it up. Nichols won 22 features, along with the EQ Cylinder Heads Northern Region and track championships at Dawson County Raceway and Shelby County Speedway, in matching the legendary Ernie Derr’s IMCA career total of 12 national championships in 2023. “Since I started racing, we have always remembered to do the work away from the track. You can never get away from that,” said Nichols, already laying the groundwork for 2024. “And when you continue to surround yourself with good people, good things will continue to happen.” “My racing has become 10-fold better since becoming part of a team,” continued the Harlan, Iowa, hotshoe. “Since getting together with my wife Anita late in 2011 we have eight national championships together.” Nichols started his latest championship campaign with nine checkers before the Memorial Weekend, then endured [Read More]

Dumpert does everything right in racing to fifth straight IMCA Late Model national title

NEWMAN GROVE, Neb. (2023) – Cory Dumpert vowed last fall that he’d “hit the ground running” when the 2023 IMCA Speedway Motors Weekly Racing point season rolled around. He made good on that promise, racing to 15 feature wins, three track titles and a record-extending fifth straight IMCA Sunoco Late Model national championship. “Last year was more for fun. This year we just kept our head down and kept racing. It was more of something I wanted to do,” said Dumpert, from Newman Grove, Neb., now the third driver in IMCA’s modern era to win national championships in five consecutive seasons. “And now that I have won five straight, the feeling is hard to describe.” “We’re in uncharted waters.” Dumpert was quick to find victory lane after switching to a Longhorn Chassis, topping the opening night show at U.S. 30 Speedway and collecting another 10 checkers by mid-June. While he did most of his racing in Nebraska, a visit to Crawford County Speedway in Denison, Iowa, on June 16 provided the second of three feature wins that [Read More]