Ryan Clark

Finish to 2024 already has IMCA Central Region champ Nightingale looking ahead to next season

MAIZE, Kan. (Nov. 12, 2024) – How he finished his 2024 campaign already has Jake Nightingale looking forward to next year. The Maize, Kan., clipper repeated as back-to-back champion in the Jet Central Region for Friesen Performance IMCA Modifieds, with the same consistency but none of the late-season drama as last year. “We were getting down to the last month and realized we were in the fight, we were right there,” said Nightingale, who tallied six feature wins and 23 top five finishes in his 31 starts, all but one of them coming in his home state. “We didn’t win as much as I think we should have. We had a lot of second place finishes and some of them were hard to swallow,” he’d continue. “We were good, but we weren’t good enough and I’ll be the first to tell you that.” Fast but not fast enough through the middle of June, Nightingale picked up a slew of runner-up’s before winning consecutive outings at Saltcity Racing, RPM Speedway and Salina Speedway. “That was a [Read More]

Gould gets 200th IMCA Modified win, takes seventh turn as South Central Region champ

CALERA, Okla. (Nov. 12, 2024) – A season that started with no clear-cut goals still produced what William Gould called “some pretty cool” accomplishments. Gould became just the ninth Friesen Performance IMCA Modified driver to reach the 200-career win mark while earning a career seventh championship in the GRT Race Cars South Central Region. “My only goal was to win when it was my turn,” said Gould, who took his turn on top of the podium 10 times in all in 2024. “It always means a lot to us when we’re able to win our region and getting the 200th win was pretty cool, too. “We’ve raced a Modified for a lot of years and I’m glad we were able to get it this season,” he’d add. “We didn’t have a regular Friday night track so moving up the list in wins isn’t easy.” From Calera, Okla., Gould also raced to the All-Star Shootout and a career seventh state championship, the sixth of them coming in Texas. He’d started the season sweeping Kennedale Speedway’s Spring Kickoff [Read More]

IMCA Eastern Region king DeYoung is Modified winner in 30th straight season

STANTON, Mich. (Nov. 12, 2024) – The numbers that stand out most from Myron DeYoung’s 2024 race season are two, eight, 11 and 30. From Stanton, DeYoung motored to a second straight championship in the DeVilbiss Racing Chassis Eastern Region, along with a career eighth Michigan State crown and career 11th track title, at Lake Odessa’s I-96 Speedway. And notably, DeYoung became the first driver to win at least one Friesen Performance IMCA Modified feature in 30 consecutive seasons. He captured seven checkers over the course of his latest campaign, matching the career total of 150 of Michigan legend Rick Stout, IMCA’s national champion in 1995, DeYoung’s rookie season. “It took a little while to really set in,” admitted DeYoung, who got his first win of the season on May 18 at long-time home track Crystal Motor Speedway. “It made me think a lot about all the people who have helped me since I started racing. I’ve been real fortunate – we’re not rich or anything, we’re just normal people who like to race and have [Read More]

Feature

Fett finesses his way to IMCA Stock Car national, northern region rookie awards

ALGONA, Iowa (Nov. 8, 2024) – Nobody was more surprised than Colby Fett after he won his career-first start in an IMCA Sunoco Stock Car. But no one was surprised that he became the national and EQ Cylinder Heads Northern Region rookie of the year in The Class Too Tough To Tame. The Friesen Performance IMCA Northern SportMod veteran from Algona, Iowa, made 48 Stock Car starts at nine different tracks in three states, finishing with a flourish and counting seven wins among 22 top-five finishes “We were going to race the SportMod most of the season and hit specials in the Stock Car. We were never thinking about running for rookie of the year,” said Fett, “but then we went out and won our first race in the Stock Car at Clay County Fair Speedway and figured we’d keep going and see where it took us.” “The Stock Car seems to be the division everyone is gravitating toward,” continued Fett, a built motor fan and sixth in national point standings for 2024. “It’s one of [Read More]

Roth answers call to drive an IMCA Late Model, then races to national rookie of the year award

PLATTE CENTER, Neb. (Nov. 8, 2024) – At first, Anthony Roth wasn’t sure if the offer he got to drive a Late Model this season was serious. It was, and next he’ll be making room in the display case for another IMCA rookie of the year award. Roth raced to an impressive nine feature wins, along with the track title at U.S. 30 Speedway on the way to earning IMCA Sunoco Late Model national rookie of the year honors. “I had goals set that I wanted to win races and I wanted to be successful. When we went out and won four of our first five races it was like gosh, this is fun. We were on to something,” said Roth. “Rookie of the year really wasn’t a goal. The goal was just to win races and have fun, and we did that.” From Platte Center and a veteran Friesen Performance IMCA Modified driver, he had another 12 top five finishes in 26 starts and ended third in the national points race. “In January, Jerry [Read More]

Another first for Arizona as Partain reigns in Southern region for IMCA Stock Cars

CASA GRANDE, Ariz. (Nov. 6, 2024) – A racing vacation to California ultimately took Bo Partain straight to the IMCA record book. His mid-July sweep of Summer Shootout features at Barona Speedway was part of an eight in a row win streak that made the Casa Grande speedster the first driver from Arizona to earn the EQ Cylinder Heads Southern Region championship for IMCA Sunoco Stock Cars. “I did not plan to run for the region, not at all. We had three races left, somebody called me and told me ‘Hey, you’re leading regional points,” said Partain, who wrapped up 2024 two months later with a win at home track Central Arizona Raceway. “I hadn’t even looked at ’em. I had no idea.” “I just bounced around this season and raced to have fun,” he explained. “My wife Tina and I had decided to race Barona, which is a fun little track for sure, spend a couple days on the beach and go deep sea fishing while we were over there in California and then [Read More]

Aiming high, Arizona’s DeRagon returns to rule IMCA’s Southern Hobby Stock region

PEORIA, Ariz. (Nov. 6, 2024) – Nathan DeRagon aimed high when setting goals for his first full-time IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stock season in five years. As a result, the Peoria pilot and pretty keen statistician became the first Arizona driver to earn the B & B Racing Chassis Southern Region championship. “My initial goal was to race as much as I could, go to new tracks and get at least one track championship and the state championship,” said DeRagon, who had become the first Arizona driver to win Hobby Stock regional rookie of the year honors in 2019, before a two-year stint in the Air Force. “If all went well and I had a shot at the regional championship, that was going to be an over achievement.” He led the national points race much of the season, finishing fourth in those standings. DeRagon counted 20 feature wins and 36 top-five finishes in his 48 starts, that on-track success translating into Central Arizona Raceway, Cocopah Speedway and Deuce of Clubs Thunder Raceway track titles, plus the [Read More]

Determined Mallet hammers down in drive to national, regional IMCA Modified honors

OAKLEY, Calif. (Nov. 5, 2024) – If they gave an award for determination, Jacob Mallet Jr. would have won that, too. The Oakley speedster made the step up from a Northern SportMod to a Friesen Performance IMCA Modified in 2024, traveling to 15 different tracks, 10 of them in his home state, and finished with five wins and another 20 top five finishes in his 47 starts. Those numbers were good for national and Shaw Race Cars Western Region rookie of the year honors. “We started and went into the season with a goal and wanted to achieve it no matter what it took. We had to keep on truckin’ no matter what the outcomes were,” said Mallet, the first California driver to win the national rookie prize since Scott Pounds in 1993. “We went through a lot of lows, from wrecking a bunch and flipping one night at Willamette.” “We just stayed focused on the goal and did our best not to let anything negative affect us.” Also the California state champion, Mallet made [Read More]

B & B All-Star eligible list adds eight

VINTON, Iowa (Nov. 4, 2024) – Eight more IMCA Sunoco Stock Car drivers will contend for the 2025 B & B Racing Chassis All-Star Invitational crown. Zane DeVilbiss earned an automatic berth in that event with his $10,000 checkers at Batesville Motor Speedway’s Schoenfeld Headers Mid-America IMCA Stock Car Championship. Jeff Larson won twice during the Fall Bash at Cedar County Raceway while Dallon Murty’s night two win at Tipton proved to be his first of three qualifying victories during October. Jordan Grabouski swept the Octoberfest weekend at Beatrice Speedway. Patrick Linn and Hayden Linn each made visits to victory lane during the Natural State Nationals at Two Dollar Pistol Motor Speedway. Mike Mullen banked the big money at 141 Speedway’s Car Wars, David Brandies was the class of the field at Maquoketa Speedway’s Allstar Classic and Jason Batt was best at Abilene Speedway’s Southern Challenge. Drivers winning specials paying $750 or more who were already qualifying eligible were Tathan Burkhart and Branon Schmitt. Drivers already eligible to qualify for the B & B All-Star Invitational [Read More]

Career highlights bookend Zogg’s IMCA North Central Region championship season

NEW LIBERTY, Iowa (Nov. 4, 2024) – After starting his season with one career highlight, Chris Zogg ended it with another. The Friesen Performance IMCA Modified veteran from New Liberty, Iowa, ventured to Arizona’s Cocopah Speedway in January, outrunning Tim Ward and 68 other Modified entries on opening night of the IMCA.TV Winter Nationals. He’d return to the Midwest and race to another 13 feature wins among 34 top five finishes in earning his career-first Razor Chassis North Central Region crown and national runner-up honors. “I like going to different race tracks and racing against different people. I can learn more about the car and make myself faster,” said Zogg, also the Davenport Speedway track and Iowa State champion. “This year I decided we’d travel more, and when I say travel I mean we have like eight tracks within three hours of us. I consider myself spoiled with all the tracks we have.” “I decided to race Davenport and 34 Raceway weekly and we started clicking off wins,” continued Zogg, who had looked at the [Read More]