Ryan Clark

Dakota Tour title complements Arneson’s specials, weekly racing accomplishments

FARGO, N.D. – Austin Arneson capped a season of firsts with a second-time IMCA Modified accomplishment. The winner of the inaugural Don Gumke Racers Memorial earned both career-first Moritz Sport & Machine Dakota Classic IMCA Modified Tour powered by Bismarck Motor Company and Red River Valley Speedway track championships. The Fargo, N.D., driver also added a second Stock Car Stampede trophy to his collection, finishing with a career-best 10 feature wins in just 24 starts. “We’re a small group. We build our own cars and work hard to get things done,” said Arneson. “This was a really fun year. We couldn’t have asked for much more.” While brother Casey won the first race held in honor of Gumke, a long-time family friend, in Arizona, Arneson took the checkers in an equally extraordinary event closer to home at Jamestown Speedway. Consistency put him at the top of the standings for the 31st annual Dakota Classic Tour. Arneson ran in the top five in four of six tour starts, starting at home track Red River. He was [Read More]

Wild West champion Sample scores two big wins after final race in 10th annual tour

WINNEMUCCA, Nev. – Consistent throughout the 1st Class Chassis Wild West Tour for IMCA Modifieds, champion Cory Sample was a double winner after the tour concluded. Sample had a pair of third-place finishes and finished no worse than ninth in eight events to pace point standings for the 10th annual tour. He then drew his own number to win a new chassis given by the tour title sponsor, and won the Top 20 Showdown during the Duel In The Desert at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway Dirt Track. “It was definitely the icing on the cake,” said Sample. “We’d wrecked the car at Boone but got it fixed for the Duel. It took us a couple practice sessions to feel comfortable but it was a good note to end on.” One of just seven drivers to qualify for every WWMT feature, Sample wrapped up the tour championship, by a 15-point margin, with seventh- and sixth-place showings at Desert Thunder Raceway on the final weekend of the season. “It had been a while since we followed the tour [Read More]

Gronning’s short season ends with top award for Shaw Race Cars Western Region rookies

CASPER, Wy. – A racing career that started on the drag strip led Dino Gronning straight to an IMCA Modified. Gronning saw his steady finishes at home state tracks Casper Speedway, Gillette Thunder Speedway and Sheridan Speedway rewarded with rookie of the year honors in the Shaw Race Cars Western Region. “I always wanted to race a Modified and thought I’d step in and be a natural, but it threw me a curve with the 4-link suspension,” he said. “We spent half the season to get the car to my liking. I’ve had a lot of conversations with the guys at Shaw.” Gronning purchased a 2019 car the previous owner had made just three starts in, and has already got a 2021 Shaw on order. The first in his family to develop a need for speed, he’d started racing drag cars, enjoying success on the track but tiring of the expense and travel time involved. What’s become a 20-plus year circle track career has included everything from ‘B’ modifieds and street stocks to four cylinders. [Read More]

Late start doesn’t slow Bennett in pursuit of Dirt Works Eastern Region rookie crown

CARO, Mich. – Chad Bennett has added a new title on his already extensive racing resume: Rookie of the Year in IMCA’s Eastern Region for Modifieds. Bennett won five of 24 outings in his first IMCA season, not making his first start until mid-June, and finishing third in the national rookie and Tri-City Motor Speedway point races and fourth at Silver Bullet Speedway. “We struggled early, then stumbled across a simple little mistake we were making with the car, got it corrected and started winning. We had a blast this season,” Bennett said. “The people I raced with try to kick your ass when you’re on the track but we still have a camaraderie that wasn’t there when I was racing on pavement.” “This is the most technical racing I’ve ever done,” he continued, “and it’s the most family oriented and most fun I’ve ever been part of.” From Caro, Mich., Bennett started his racing career on the drag strip in the late 1980s. He moved over to oval tracks in 1993 and won his [Read More]

White has rookie, state awards to show for 1st Razor Chassis South Central campaign

RED OAK, Texas – Jon White Jr. had regional and state awards to show for his first season running with IMCA Modified national championship caliber competition. The Razor Chassis South Central Region rookie of the year and KMJ Performance Texas State champion counted the likes of former national champs P.J. Egbert and William Gould among his regular weekly top-flight foes. “I love the class,” said White, runner-up in the national rookie points race to Dakota Sproul following a successful Smiley’s Racing Products Southern SportMod career. “I had fun, I got to go fast and I got to race with a ton of guys who are stiff competition. I’m ready to start next season.” White’s 42 starts took him to nine different tracks in Texas and Oklahoma. He was fourth in points at Heart O’ Texas Speedway, where he won for the first time in a Modified during the Sniper Speed Lone Star Tour program in February, and runner-up at Kennedale Speedway Park, site of his second feature win, on the final weekend of the season. [Read More]

McBirnie tops IMCA Modified rookie class in Side Biter Chassis North Central Region

BOONE, Iowa – The results from his first season in an IMCA Modified already have Jake McBirnie looking forward to his second. McBirnie made the quick transition from a Karl Kustoms Northern SportMod, winning twice at hometown Boone Speedway and finishing as rookie of the year in the Side Biter Chassis North Central Region. “I was ready to push myself and get better and learn more about racing,” McBirnie said. “I wanted to make myself a better driver and race against a new level of competition.” He found the competition he was looking for at nine different tracks, qualifying for the main event in all but one of his 33 starts and ending fifth in points at Boone. McBirnie won back-to-back starts there on Aug. 15 and Aug. 29. “There were several nights we ran decent, tried some different things and learned a lot about the car,” said McBirnie. “That first win was awesome. I raced with Joel Rust before he broke and the win kind of helped us get some things figured out before [Read More]

Mooney shines in race for rookie award in EQ Cylinder Heads Southern Region

FORNEY, Texas – A quick learner with a good teacher raced to rookie of the year honors in the EQ Cylinder Heads Southern Region for IMCA Sunoco Stock Cars. Dustin Mooney won a pair of features and finished in the top five in another 23 starts, finishing just a point behind Cameron Wilkinson in the race for the national prize. He’d run junior minis, Smiley’s Racing Products Southern SportMods and then winged modifieds before helping girlfriend Taylor Florio and her father Chris with their cars. Mooney got back on the track himself after trading that winged modified for a former Caleb Crenshaw-driven 2016 Destroyer Chassis. “I had not raced in three years. I got the car, scaled it, jumped in it and went racing,” he said. “We left the original body on. The only thing I did was buy shocks.” “There was some adaptation and I am not God’s gift,” he added, “but I am a fast learner. Stock Cars are fun to race.” He traveled to six different tracks, winning the title at Cotton [Read More]

IMCA Hobby Stocks perfect fit for youngest Big Daddy Northern Region ROY Eckerdt

GRAND FORKS, N.D. – Brodee Eckerdt wrote his name all over the record books in 2020. The youngest rookie of the year, and the first from North Dakota, crowned in the Big Daddy Race Cars Northern Region for IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stocks, Eckerdt didn’t celebrate his 15th birthday until two weeks before the end of the season. He collected three of his four feature wins on the year at Red River Valley Speedway, becoming both the youngest feature winner and youngest track champion in the storied history of the West Fargo speedplant. “My main goal this season was to finish races and get in the top five,” said the Red River High School freshman, who discussed chasing rookie of the year and the Junior National Champion awards with his parents before his first family-funded IMCA season. “We decided that the Hobby Stocks were a perfect fit for me because of my age, my driving experience and because I could race weekly within an hour from home.” Eckerdt had previously raced go-karts, 50 hp sling shots and [Read More]

More laps, more money in IMCA Wild West Tour plans for 2021

MYTON, Utah – Drivers in three IMCA divisions will have the opportunity to run more laps and earn more money on each night of the 2021 Wild West Tour. IMCA Modifieds, IMCA Sunoco Stock Cars and Karl Kustoms Northern SportMods see 14 dates at six tracks in as many different states on next season’s tentative schedule, beginning with the tour’s first-ever visit to Cocopah Speedway and Arizona on March 19 and 20. Friday-Saturday tour twinbills follow April 16 and 17 at Aztec, N.M., Speedway; May 21 and 22 at Winnemucca, Nev., Regional Raceway; June 18 and 19 at Sweetwater Springs in Rock Springs, Wy.; July 16 and 17 at Desert Thunder Raceway in Price, Utah; and Aug. 20 and 21 at new Blue Valor Speedway in Emmett, Idaho. The tour returns to Price for the Sept. 17 and 18 finale, and to Cocopah for the Nov. 6 Top 20 Showdown. All tour events will be broadcast on IMCA.TV. All Modified features will be 2021 or 2022 Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational ballot qualifying events, with a [Read More]

Bransom earns Sport Compact rookie award, races to 4th straight prize for Lone Star State

BURLESON, Texas – Fast all season long, Jack Bransom found the momentum he was looking for with his career first feature victory. The Burleson, Texas, driver and Centennial High School freshman went on to win five more times in his last 10 starts and earn both IMCA Mach-1 Sport Compact national rookie of the year and the Boyd Raceway track championship. He’s just the second 14-year-old, and the fourth Texan in as many seasons, to earn the rookie of the year award in the class. “I wanted to learn, have fun and get some seat time,” said Bransom, son of 2008 IMCA Crate Model national champion Jay Bransom and younger brother of Jerrett Bransom, who was rookie of the year in the EQ Cylinder Heads Southern Region for IMCA Sunoco Stock Cars three years go, at 15. “We didn’t start the season with any goals. We just wanted to do the best we could and have fun.” He’d raced a mini stock a couple times and thought about getting into a Stock Car. Bransom agreed [Read More]