Articles by Ryan Clark

BLOOMFIELD, N.M. – Rex Higgins first saw Karl Kustoms Northern SportMods in action at the IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s. Impressed, the long-time and highly successful IMCA Sunoco Stock Car driver promised himself he’d give the division a try if it ever migrated to his home state of New Mexico. Fast forward to 2019: The now fifth-year Northern SportMod driver from Bloomfield won once and finished in the top five in another seven events in earning the championship of the division’s inaugural Wild West Tour. “We decided to follow the series shortly after the schedule was announced in January. We decided we wanted to do something different,” Higgins explained. “Following the tour was exciting. We got to travel and race at a lot of different tracks.” The tour’s nine events saw as many different winners. Higgins topped the second show in early May at home track Aztec Speedway before traveling to Diamond Mountain Speedway in Utah, Winnemucca Re­gional Raceway and Battle Mountain Raceway in Nevada, Sweetwater Speedway in Wyoming and Idaho Falls [Read More]

FAIRFAX, Iowa – Dalton Simonsen recalled going to Andy Eckrich’s shop as a kid, then working there part-time during his high school and college days. The memories he made this summer were racing with the eventual tour champion and earning rookie of the year in the IMCA Deery Brothers Summer Series. “I used to go to Deery events with my friends. Now it’s cool that I’m racing in them,” said Simonsen, who made the move to the IMCA Late Model division after five seasons in a Karl Kustoms Northern SportMod. A heat race winner on the series’ opening night, his best finish in eight main event starts was sixth, at the Aug. 11 show at Quad City Speedway. After his motor expired in the ‘B’ feature at West Liberty, Simon­sen borrowed a powerplant from Trent Hala to complete his rookie series bid at the IMCA Speedway Mo­tors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s. The Fairfax, Iowa, flyer also totaled eight top five finishes – one of those was a second place showing behind Jeff Aikey at [Read More]

OXFORD, Iowa – Team Eckrich can finally add a Deery Brothers Summer Series championship to its resume. 2010 series rookie of the year and 2011 runner-up Andy Eckrich raced to the IMCA Late Model tour crown, complementing a feature win at West Liberty Raceway with a trio of second-place outings. “We have been going for this. We ran consistently, we had good setups and we got it done,” Eckrich said. “My dad (Larry) is 74 and he’s had drivers win a lot of series and a lot of big races but never a Deery championship. He’s my car owner and mentor and has done a lot with drivers since the 1980s but one thing he never conquered was the Deery Series.” Eckrich, from Oxford, Iowa, gained the tour point lead for good with back-to-back second place fin­ishes at Fayette County Speedway and Lee County Speedway. The West Liberty checkers flew in what proved to be the next-to-the-last event in the rain plagued 33rd annual series. That victory was his ninth in 125 career tour starts. Also [Read More]

DRAPER, Utah – Being the only repeat winner and staying consistent made Ed Henderson champion of the first annual Wild West Tour for IMCA Sunoco Stock Cars. Being prepared when he got to the track made that title, and Sweetwater Speedway and E3 Spark Plugs Wyoming State crowns, possible. From Draper, Utah, Henderson won features at Diamond Mountain Speedway and Sweetwater and ran in the top five in six of nine tour starts. His season-long statistics show seven wins in 28 starts, at eight different tracks in six states. “I like to be ready when I get to the track. I didn’t have any DNFs this season and that was a result of time in the shop,” said Henderson. “We had decided to follow the tour the second the schedule came out and one of the things I liked best about it was getting to race at tracks I’d never been to before because they didn’t run IMCA Stock Cars weekly.” The former pure stock driver is now a three-year veteran of the IMCA division. [Read More]

BONHAM, Texas – Gary Williams was better than good the first four nights and good enough on the last night of the Red River Tour for IMCA Sunoco Stock Cars. Williams won two features, with second- and fourth-place finishes as well going into the finale at home track Southern Oklahoma Speedway. He started 17th that evening and was up to sixth before breaking a spindle bolt. Wobbly tire and all, Williams still managed to earn the tour title with a 14th place finish. “We weren’t even planning to run the whole tour. Then we won the first night out at Kennedale Speed­way Park,” the Bonham, Texas, driver said. “We had been chasing some things and what we found worked. We knew we had a fast car.” How fast? Williams was fourth the next night at Heart O’ Texas Speedway, then duplicated his KSP showing with another flag-to-flag run at 281 Speedway. He was runner-up in another star-filled feature at Big O Speedway. “It was really good to be able to win this tour, racing with the combination [Read More]

COMANCHE, Texas – A first-time accomplishment in an already much accomplished dirt track career made Jeffrey Abbey champion of the Sniper Speed Lone Star Tour. Abbey won the final two IMCA Sunoco Stock Car features, held at 281 Speedway on the same day due to inclement weather. Each checkered was worth $750 while the tour title that accompanied the sweep paid $5,000. The Comanche, Texas, pilot had never won two features in the same division on the same day before. “We’d watched the tour last year. We were looking for some races to go to in February and the tour seemed like a good way to start the year.” He’d won both Stock Car features at Abilene Speedway’s Ice Breaker, the second show doing double duty as opening night for the tour. Minnesotan Curt Lund won the next two events, also at 281. “We did have an advantage over the guys from the Northern Region,” said Abbey. “These were tracks we race weekly or on a regular basis.” Abbey would prove to be a regular [Read More]