Feature – IMCA – International Motor Contest Association

Entries top 300 for 21st annual Duel as Hughes, Sachau get LVMS Dirt Track wins

By Mike Spieker LAS VEGAS, Nev. (Nov. 10) – Entries numbered more than 300 and Jason Hughes backed up his opening night qualifying feature victory by winning Saturday’s IMCA Modified Duel in the Desert main event and taking home a $7,777 check. More than 20 states were represented at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway Dirt Track and drivers from 13 of them qualified for the Modified main event while a record 97 Karl Chevrolet Northern SportMods took the green. Hughes had earned the Modified pole by virtue of his Thursday victory and started the 40-lap main event with Friday’s qualifying feature winner, Ricky Thornton Jr. to his outside. At the drop of the green, Hughes powered to the lead and brought third-place starter Ricky Alvarado with him. Hughes quickly opened up a 10 car length lead in the first lap as all the drivers inside the top five rode around the low side of the speedway. Thornton challenged Alvarado for the runner-up position on a restart with 23 circuits remaining. That allowed Hughes to pull away [Read More]

Thornton, Frenier collect wins on night two of IMCA Duel in the Desert

By Mike Spieker LAS VEGAS, Nev. (Nov. 9) – The 21st annual IMCA Duel in the Desert continued Friday evening at the Dirt Track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. By night’s end, Ricky Thornton Jr. and Jeremy Frenier visited victory lane with qualifying feature wins in the IMCA Modifieds, while Jake Sachau claimed the Karl Chevrolet Northern SportMod qualifying feature. Zane DeVilbiss applied heavy pressure to Frenier in the closing laps of the first IMCA Modified qualifying feature. Frenier and DeVilbiss distanced themselves by a straightaway over the rest of the field as they both jockeyed for position on the low side of the speedway. DeVilbiss pulled to within a car length of Frenier on the final lap, but could not get any closer as Frenier held on to take the win. “It seemed like I could hear him on me,” said Frenier of the pressure from DeVilbiss behind him. “I didn’t want to have to push it any harder than I needed to. Until I felt a bumper, I was going to keep my same [Read More]

Hughes, Alvarado visit victory lane at Duel in the Desert opener

By Mike Spieker LAS VEGAS, Nev. (Nov. 8) – The 21st annual IMCA Duel in the Desert kicked off Thursday evening at the Dirt Track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. With the largest number of pre-entries in five years, the IMCA Modifieds boasted a field of 206 drivers, while the Karl Chevrolet Northern SportMods came in at a record 97 entries. Jason Hughes and Ricky Alvarado picked up $777 wins in their respective IMCA Modified features. The first main event began with Hughes taking the lead from the pole position, but the race was quickly slowed on lap one for a multi-car pile up in turn one. On the ensuing restart, Hughes led over Tom Berry Jr. and Peyton Taylor as Cody Laney slipped from second to fourth. R.C. Whitwell took advantage of the lap five restart, moving by Laney for the fourth and final transfer position to Saturday night’s $7,777 to win main event. Whitwell applied heavy pressure on Taylor but couldn’t complete the pass. Hughes and Berry broke away from the rest of the [Read More]

Larry Shaw Race Cars repeats as IMCA Manufacturers’ Cup winner

BATESVILLE, Ark. – Larry Shaw Race Cars has repeated as the winner of IMCA’s Manufacturer’s Cup. The Batesville, Ark., chassis builder had the top point total of the 18 builders enrolled in the 10th annual contest; points were awarded based on the make of chassis driven by drivers finishing in the top 10 in each of the five regions for IMCA Modifieds. Shaw led the way with 40 points. Completing the top five were Rage Chassis with 33, Razor Chassis with 30, GRT Race Cars with 27 and CAM Chassis with 24. Harris Auto Racing and Skyrocket Chassis both had 16 points, DeVilbiss Racing Chassis and BMS Race Cars both 10, Longhorn Chassis nine, Side Biter Chassis and Victory by Moyer both seven, and Dirt Works Race Cars one. “It’s a huge honor for us to win this award again. There are so many good chassis builders all across the country,” owner Larry Shaw said. “We have to share credit with the drivers, sponsors and with IMCA.” “IMCA has done a lot for us and [Read More]

IMCA Duel In The Desert entries at 260

LAS VEGAS, Nev. – Pre-entries for the Nov. 7-10 Duel In The Desert at Las Vegas Motor Speedway have already reached 260. One hundred and seventy-two IMCA Modified drivers and 88 Karl Chevrolet Northern SportMod drivers are entered in the 21st annual event. That’s 31 more Modified and 25 more SportMod entries than for the same time a year ago. At stake at the biggest event of the season in the Larry Shaw Race Cars Western Region is a top prize of $7,777 as well as a 2019 Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational ballot berth for the Modifieds while SportMods vie for $1,777 to win. The Duel will be contested on the half-mile Dirt Track. In addition to Nevada, entries now in hand are from Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming, as well as the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan. Modified drivers pre-entered are: Chris Abelson, Sioux City, Iowa; Chase Allen, Midlothian, Texas; Ricky Alvarado, [Read More]

43 tracks to receive sanction awards at IMCA national banquet

LINCOLN, Neb. – Forty-three tracks, representing 22 states and Canada, will be honored with sanction awards during the Nov. 24 IMCA national banquet. In all, 55 track awards will be given in recognition of a cumulative 790 years of sanctioning one or more divisions with IMCA. A 35-year Stock Car award goes to Marshalltown Speedway while Arlington Raceway is recognized for 30 years of sanctioning its Modified, Sprint Car and Stock Car divisions. Thirty-year plaques also go to Shawano Speedway for Modifieds and Luxemburg Speedway for Stock Cars. Receiving 25-year awards are Abilene Motor Speedway, Dawson County Raceway, Montezuma County Fairgrounds Speedway and U.S. 30 Speedway for Modifieds and Independence Motor Speedway for Stock Cars. Twenty-year plaques will be presented to Hancock County Speedway for Modifieds and Stock Cars; Lee County Speedway, Merced Speedway and Rattlesnake Raceway for Modifieds; Quad City Speedway for Late Models; 281 Speedway, Boyd Raceway and Kossuth County Speedway for Stock Cars; and Beatrice Speedway for Hobby Stocks. Tracks to be honored with 15-year awards include Atomic Motor Raceway and Dodge [Read More]

Wolla takes winning ways to Texas for $5,000 Fall Classic IMCA Modified checkers

Wolla takes winning ways to Texas for $5,000 Fall Classic IMCA Modified checkers WACO, Texas (Oct. 27) – Add Texas to the list of states Jason Wolla has scored first-time wins in this season. Wolla topped the IMCA Modified main event at the Heart O’ Texas Fall Classic, leading the last 15 of 25 circuits to earn the $5,000 top prize. “The thing I liked best about this was that any time you can go to a track you’ve never been to and win, it says a lot about your race program,” he said following his biggest IMCA career payday. “This season we went to Kansas, Montana and Texas and won for the first time in each state. We’ve had a lot of fun traveling.” Wolla had started fourth, was running second when a well-time caution came out and used multiple lines to work his way into the lead. He had a comfortable lead on the rest of the field when he caught up with lapped traffic late in the race. Outside pole starter Anthony [Read More]

26 sponsors honored at IMCA national banquet

LINCOLN, Neb. – Twenty-six of the sponsors that support IMCA and its member drivers will receive special awards during the sanctioning body’s national banquet Saturday, Nov. 24 in Lincoln, Neb. AFCO receives a 25-year award while Bilstein, Dirt Works, Holley, QA1, Schoenfeld Headers and Speedway Engineering all will be honored for 20 years of support. Day Motor Sports, Moser Engineering and MSD are 15-year award recipients while AMI Graphics, BSB Manufacturing, Dominator Race Products, Eibach Springs, Genesis Shocks, Jones Birdsong, Mach-1 Racing Solutions and Stephenville Starter all receive 10-year plaques. Five-year awards go to Big Daddy Race Cars, Finishline Racing Products, Friesen Chevrolet, Jerovetz Shock Service, Longacre, Out-Pace Racing Products, Razor Chassis and Ricochet Race Components. Drivers winning championships and rookie of the year awards will be honored and track sanction awards presented during the banquet, at the Marriott Cornhusker Hotel in downtown Lincoln. Cocktails are at 5 p.m. with dinner at 6 p.m. and the awards ceremony to follow. Tickets are $35 each and available by calling the IMCA home office at 319 472-2201. [Read More]

Hurst, Ramey are first-time IMCA national champions

VINTON, Iowa (Oct. 11) – Jeremiah Hurst and Kevin Ramey earned career-first crowns while six other IMCA drivers have added to their national championship trophy collections. Hurst topped IMCA Late Model standings while Ramey paced the point race for IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Cars. Jordan Grabouski won the IMCA Modified championship for the third time while Mike Nichols and Shannon Anderson both raced to third straight and record-extending career eighth titles in the IMCA Sunoco Stock Car and IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stock divisions, respectively. Matt Looft’s Karl Chevrolet Northern SportMod crown was his career third; two-time champions are Gabe Tucker in the Smiley’s Racing Products Southern SportMods and Ramsey Meyer in the Mach-1 Sport Compacts. Looft, Tucker and Meyer were all national champions in 2013. Hurst had seen his 2017 season ended mid-summer by health issues. Along with seven feature wins, including his first Deery Brothers Summer Series victory since 2002, Hurst raced to the track title at Maquoketa Speedway and his first Iowa State championship this year. The first driver to win both national and [Read More]

Grabouski gets bookend hardware at Fall Nationals

HAYS, Kan. (Oct. 6) – Jordan Grabouski came home from Hays with a bookend Fall Nationals trophy. Grabouski led all 40 laps of Saturday’s IMCA Modified main event at RPM Speedway. The victory was good for $5,000 and hardware to complement the trophy he got at the 2011 event. “I had a five second lead at one point so we definitely had a good car,” said Grabouski, already on the Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational ballot. “It’s hard to know how much you’re leading by, especially when you’re in lapped traffic. There was a restart with six laps to go and I was able to pull away a bit after that.” He’s had mixed luck at RPM in the past – a late flat tire took him out of contention at last year’s Fall Nationals – but Grabouski won both his heat and qualifying feature on Friday night. Clay Sellard, Eddie Belec, Steven Bowers Jr. and Tanner Black completed the top five. More than 200 IMCA race teams competed during the 12th annual event at Hays. [Read More]