Feature Archives

IMCA Frostbuster starts 60th season at Stuart Speedway

By Josh Reynolds STUART, Iowa (March 30) – The engines came to life Tuesday evening with drivers from all around in attendance for the IMCA Frostbuster opener at Stuart Speedway. Feature winners for the night were Cayden Carter, Dallon Murty, Brayton Carter and Brandon Cox. Tony Hilgenberg and Jake McBirnie led a stacked IMCA Modified field to the green flag with Clay Money getting the jump from his fourth starting spot to lead lap one. Derrick Stewart slid into second on lap three as Money continued to lead. A couple yellows in the middle of the race tightened the field and set up a great run to the finish. Carter ran down the top two cars and used a slide job coming into turn three on the last lap to take the lead and the $1,000 win. Already on the Fast Shafts All-Star ballot, Carter earned the win ahead of Money with Stewart third, McBirnie fourth and Tim Ward fifth. Miciah Hidlebaugh and John Watson showed the way at the start of the IMCA Sunoco [Read More]

Final checkers fly for Arizona Speedway this Saturday

SAN TAN VALLEY, Ariz. – They’ll dance for the last time this weekend at Arizona Speedway. A decade and a day after the first race night at the 3/8-mile clay oval, the San Tan Valley speed plant, part of the Jonah Trussell-promoted ET Motopark, shuts off the green light for good. A special land use permit expires this year and the Arizona State Land Department has concluded that the facility, while popular with drivers and fans and with a growing national reputation, does not mesh with its neighboring development plan. IMCA Modifieds, a staple on weekly race programs since Day One, plus Karl Kustoms Northern SportMods and IMCA Sunoco Stock Cars will help bring the curtain down during the show billed as The Last Dance at Arizona Speedway this Saturday, April 3. “It’s been a good ride. We want to invite everyone to join us Saturday night,” said Trussel, who started racing motocross at ET after moving from Indiana, later taking over the facility lease and adding sand drag and RC courses, then building the race track after [Read More]

Benton County Frostbuster rescheduled to Sunday, Stuart opens tonight

VINTON, Iowa – Wednesday’s scheduled IMCA Frostbuster at Benton County Speedway has been rescheduled to Sunday, April 4. Track officials made that announcement after determining they could not get the dirt oval at Vinton race-ready for the number of cars expected to compete on the original date. Along with IMCA Modifieds, IMCA Sunoco Stock Cars, IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stocks and Karl Kustoms Northern SportMods, Mach-1 Sport Compacts will be on the Sunday card. Racing starts at 5 p.m. and there will be Easter eggs for the kids. More information about the Benton County Frostbuster is to be announced. Frostbuster Week starts tonight (Tuesday) at Stuart Speedway. IMCA Modifieds, Stocks, SportMods and Hobbies also run at Frostbusters Thursday, April 1 at Independence Motor Speedway; Friday, April 2 at Marshalltown Speedway; and Saturday, April 3 at Boone Speedway.

Merced’s Shannon Tribute wins go to Laney, Bannister

MERCED, Calif. (March 27) – Cody Laney won for the fourth time already this season while Tyler Bannister won for the first time in his brief IMCA career Saturday at Merced Speedway’s Tribute to Jerry Shannon season opener. Laney started 11th, had the lead before halfway in the IMCA Modified feature and outran Ethan Dotson to the $2,000 checkers. The rookie Bannister started from the pole and swapped the front spot with Fred Ryland before pulling away from a field full of West Coast Karl Kustom Northern SportMod heavyweights. Thirty-eight Modifieds and 32 SportMods contended at the inaugural event. Already on the Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational ballot, Laney posted the second fastest qualifying time and won his heat before lining up inside row six for the 30-lap main event. He passed Jim Pettit II and then Kellen Chadwick for the front spot. “The bottom was the fastest and I knew Kellen wasn’t going to move off it,” Laney said. “I caught him on the backstretch, rolled around him on top and moved back to the [Read More]

First Arizona shows for Wild West Tour see Baca, Hibdon top IMCA Modifieds at Cocopah

SOMERTON, Ariz. (March 19-20) – The first visit to Arizona by the Pitt Stop Motorsports Wild West Tour saw two IMCA Modified drivers race to career-first tour wins at Cocopah Speedway. Defending Shaw Race Cars Western Region, state and track champion Chaz Baca topped the Friday show, then ran second to Kollin Hibdon under the Saturday lights at Somerton. Both feature events on the opening weekend for the 11th annual tour paid $1,000 to win. Baca started on the pole Friday, tangled with Hibdon racing for the lead near midway and went on to lead all 25 laps. Darrell Hughes II was second and Steve McCollough third. “It was definitely a good way to start the tour. It was nice to pick up a tour win at one of my home tracks with my sponsors there to watch,” said Baca, who plans to chase the WWT crown. “I haven’t won a tour title before. It would be cool to get this one.” Scored 19th after his early exit on night one, Hibdon led green to checkers on [Read More]

Spring Nationals first for Grabouski with IMCA Modified, Stock Car sweep

BEATRICE, Neb. (March 20) – The leader in Spring Nationals career wins raced to a new Spring Nationals accomplishment Saturday at Beatrice Speedway. Jordan Grabouski won the IMCA Sunoco Stock Car for the first time at his hometown track’s season-opening special, then topped the IMCA Modified headliner for the record 11th occasion . “It was unbelievable. It just sets the tone for the whole year,” said Grabouski, a former national champion in both divisions and three-time defending king in the Jet Racing Central Region for Modifieds. “We’ve had an unbelievable start to the year already.” Entries again topped 200 for the 28th annual event, shortened to a single day due to weather. Grabouski beat Todd Shute and Ethan Braaksma to the $2,500 Modified checkers and outran Cody Nielson and Dan Nelson to the $1,000 Stock Car victory. He led the last 19 of 20 laps after starting seventh in the Stock Car feature and then every circuit after starting outside the front row in the Modified main. “The bottom groove worked for me better in the Stock [Read More]

IMCA set for record 2021 season

VINTON, Iowa – Wherever you call home or travel to this year, odds are good that there will be IMCA Racing close by. The 2021 season will be a record breaker for IMCA, with more than 600 sanctions in nine divisions, in 39 states coast to coast and border to border and in Canada. “It’s gratifying to see the support we get from tracks in adding new divisions to their current sanctions, and to be able to announce new sanctions at so many different tracks,” said IMCA President Brett Root. The Modified division, of course, will remain IMCA’s biggest both in terms of licensed drivers and sanctioned tracks. Stock Car, Hobby Stock and Late Model sanction numbers all increased in 2020 and Northern or Southern SportMods run at more than 100 tracks for a fifth consecutive season this year. New records have already been set by the more than 90 tracks to host RaceSaver Sprint Car events and the nearly 60 tracks with Mach-1 Sport Compacts on their schedules. More than 20 tracks are already [Read More]

IMCA’s best are at Beatrice for March 19-20 Spring Nationals

BEATRICE, Neb. – IMCA’s best will be at Beatrice Speedway on March 19 and 20, for the 28th annual Spring Nationals special. IMCA Modifieds run for $2,500 to win, a minimum of $250 to start and Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational ballot berths in their Friday, March 19 and Saturday, March 20 features. IMCA Sunoco Stock Cars and Karl Kustoms Northern SportMods vie for $1,000 top checks each night while IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stocks duel in $500 to win and Mach-1 Sport Compacts in $200 to win main events. IMCA Speedway Motors Weekly Racing National and KMJ Performance Nebraska State points will be awarded in all divisions; Modifieds earn Jet Racing Central Region points while Stock Cars chase EQ Cylinder Heads Northern Region points and Hobby Stocks earn Big Daddy Race Cars Northern Region points. Pit gates open at 3 p.m. and racing starts at 5:30 p.m. on Friday. Gates open at 1:30 p.m. Saturday and racing starts at 4 p.m. Social distancing guidelines will be in effect in the pit area, grandstands and catwalk. Pit stalls [Read More]

Ramey adds to IMCA RaceSaver resume with victory at Texas 305 Sprint Nationals

By Ben Deatherage MESQUITE, Texas (March 12-13) – Kevin Ramey added to an already impressive IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car resume Saturday night. Ramey led all 30 laps of the Texas 305 RaceSaver Sprint Nationals main event, earning the $2,000 victory at home track Devil’s Bowl Speedway. “Being’s as this was the first one and on my home turf, this was pretty special. There were tons of really good racers from all over here this weekend,” he said. “This is my home track so it was special to win here.” The Fort Worth flyer, IMCA’s national, RaceSaver Nationals and Devil’s Bowl champion in 2018, started outside Friday winner Martin Edwards on the front row. He took the lead coming out of the final turn on lap one and began to take off from the rest of the pack The second and final caution of the contest came on lap nine, with the race ending with a long green flag run. Zach Blurton stayed close to midway, then fell a couple lapped cars off the pace and [Read More]

Ward rewarded for IMCA Modified efforts with $3,000 Southern Stampede checkers

ARDMORE, Okla. (March 11) – The race Tim Ward has watched on TV is the race he won Thursday at Southern Oklahoma Speedway. Ward charged all the way from 12th starting to win the IMCA Modified main event and $3,000 on opening night of the Southern Stampede. The victory was the first in Oklahoma for the much-traveled Ward and the second of the season for the Arizona native. Already on the Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational ballot, he was one of 53 Modified and 120 IMCA entries for the season-opening special. “We guessed right on the car,” he said following a 30-lapper interrupted by a single caution. “We had watched this show the last couple years and it looked fun. I’m glad we’re here.” Into the top three before midway, he’d passed the ninth starting Ethan Braaksma for the lead with 13 laps to go. That pair got into lapped traffic with five circuits left; early leader Jared Baird took third from Jimmy Day late in the contest. Tommy Fain won a second straight IMCA Sunoco Stock [Read More]