Feature Archives

Rainy start to season slows, but can’t stop Looft’s charge to seventh IMCA Northern SportMod crown

SWEA CITY, Iowa (Nov. 4, 2024) – His season didn’t begin like any other in Matthew Looft’s Friesen Performance IMCA Northern SportMod career, but the way it ended was plenty familiar. “It was just a different year with all the rainouts early in the season. We went almost a month (April 15 to May 11) without a race,” said Looft, asked to compare national championship number seven with any of the six that preceded it. “So we worked and we relaxed and had more family time, which was good.” Looft, from rural Swea City, Iowa, totaled 33 feature wins among 46 top-five finishes in his 50 starts in 2024, earning track titles at Arlington Raceway, Kossuth County Speedway and Murray County Speedway. The biggest payday of his 296 career wins in the division came at Clay County Fair Speedway’s Quarter Million Dollar Challenge in May; his checkered flag run at Boone Speedway’s NAPA Auto Parts Double Down Prelude came with the national points race heating up. “The Quarter Million Dollar Challenge paid $16,667 and that made [Read More]

After plans change, Herrera sets winning pace for IMCA Hobby Stock rookie, Junior National awards

PRICE, Utah (Oct. 25, 2025) – After his dad talked to some of the “big names” in IMCA, Payce Herrera made a name for himself in an IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stock. The Carbon High School sophomore hotshoed his way to 24 feature wins and national and B & B Racing Chassis Southern Region rookie of the year honors, as well as the coveted Junior National Championship. “We weren’t even planning to race a Hobby Stock this season,” said Herrera, whose father and crew chief J.R. was thinking more along the lines of an IMCA Sunoco Stock Car or Friesen Performance IMCA Northern SportMod. “Then he talked to Chad Wehrs and some of the big name drivers and they all recommended a Hobby Stock.” Those guys with the names you know clearly knew what they were talking about as the 16-year-old from Price scored Diamond Mountain Speedway and Utah State championships, while finishing eighth in national point standings and second in his region. “We set a goal at the end of last year to run for [Read More]

Goos adds to South Dakota IMCA Sprint Car heritage with 2024 RaceSaver national crown

HARTFORD, S.D. (Oct. 25, 2024) – Lee Goos Jr. knew all about the rich heritage of IMCA Sprint Cars in his home state of South Dakota when he started racing. Now he’s an even bigger part of it. From Hartford, Goos is the 2024 Racesaver Sprint Car national champion, joining the likes of Matt Richards, Steve Ballenger, Doug Wolfgang and Dusty Ballenger in earning IMCA’s top award for the winged division. “The first car I ever bought, which I still have, is 1994 Schnee that Matt Richards won the 1994 IMCA Championship with. I remember thinking how cool is was a local guy being the national champion. I never imaginedmI would be in the same group of (South Dakota) drivers to win a national championship,” Goos said. “And I’ll never forget years later after buying Matt’s car, he came up to me at the race track and mentioned I turned out to be a much better racer then he ever expected.” “Winning the national championship is definitely a great accomplishment. I realized more last year what it meant [Read More]

Relaxed approach to racing takes Raffurty to fourth straight IMCA STARS Mod Lite title

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (Oct. 24, 2024) – Dillon Raffurty says he “just races” and doesn’t worry about wins. This season, he took that relaxed attitude to the track and raced to a fourth consecutive Stealth Racing IMCA STARS Mod Lite national championship. “It’s cool, especially to be the only national champion since IMCA began sanctioning the class (in 2021),” said Raffurty, from Kansas City, Mo., and the winner of 30 out of 40 starts this season. “IMCA definitely has a different point format than what we were used to and it’s made us work along the way, but it’s been neat to compete against everybody in the country and come out on top.” Track champion at Electric City Speedway and at Valley Speedway – his IMCA career 100th win came on June 1 at Grain Valley – Raffurty also four-peated as the Missouri State king. He’d started 2024 with another successful Southern swing, winning the night two show at Ocala Speedway’s Brick City Nationals and night three at Hendry County Motorsports Park’s Sugar Bowl Winter Nationals [Read More]

Probst caps decade of success with second IMCA Hobby Stock national championship

BREWSTER, Minn. (Oct. 24, 2024) – A couple wins at a track that hasn’t treated Cory Probst too kindly in the past gave him a big boost of confidence. Four wins racing closer to home to wrap up the season made him a two-time IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stock national champion. Probst, from Brewster, Minn., matched his career-best total with 29 feature wins, in 46 starts, for the tie-breaking championship edge over Mike Smith and Cody Williams in the national standings. All three had finished the season with the maximum 1,000 points, plus 30 points for two track titles. “I wasn’t planning on racing for national points this year but it’s always something that’s in the back of your head, especially when you’ve won it before and put together some good seasons. It wasn’t until maybe early August that I saw I could have a shot,” said Probst, who’d previously hoisted the national champion trophy in 2020 and dedicated this campaign to late chassis builder Dale Bittner, who passed away in May. “We knew it would [Read More]

Nichols races to record 13th IMCA crown, he’ll move national title trophies to Texas

HARLAN, Iowa (Oct. 23, 2024) – Another IMCA racing season, another IMCA record. Mike Nichols raced to a career 13th IMCA Sunoco Stock Car national crown in 2024, breaking the all-time mark set by Late Model legend Ernie Derr. While appreciative of his own efforts and his IMCA Speedway Motors Weekly Racing competition – Nichols won 30 features and four track titles this year, boosting those career record totals to 657 and 51, respectively – he cautions that comparisons between eras are difficult to make. Nichols’ first national championship came in 2002, Derr’s last in 1971. “There should always be an asterisk with breaking Ernie Derr’s record. It was a different time. I didn’t beat Ernie Derr because I didn’t compete with Ernie Derr,” Nichols reasoned. “I have a lot of family history of talking about Ernie Derr and how awesome he was back in the day.” Nichols was nothing short of awesome himself this season, racing to a fifth consecutive crown. He also stood on top of the podium in 2004, 2007, 2010, 2014 and [Read More]

Richards races to unique championship combination by winning IMCA Sport Compact, Lady Eagle crowns

Kaylee Richards raced to a unique championship double this season, earning both Mach-1 IMCA Sport Compact national and Lady Eagle titles. (Photo by Joe Orth) WYMORE, Neb. – Kaylee Richards wasn’t even thinking about racing for points in 2024. Now she’s thinking about knocking out walls to make room for an expanded trophy room in the basement. Richards capped a 24-Mach-1 IMCA Sport Compact feature win season with a unique double, becoming the first driver to win both a national championship and the Lady Eagle award the same season. “Originally, I didn’t even want to race for points this year. I’d done it for so long I kind of wanted to take a step back and race for fun and not for points,” said Richards, from Wymore, Neb., and just the second female driver to win an IMCA national crown. “My husband Dillon talked me into racing for national points and to give it everything I had.” IMCA’s first husband and wife national champions – Dillon won the Sport Compact crown in 2017 and topped [Read More]

Notable season sees Shepperd change dynamics in drive to IMCA Southern SportMod national crown

WACO, Texas (Oct. 21, 2024) – Twenty years after he first gave any thought to being an IMCA national champion, Jeff Shepperd has started making notes about who all to thank when his turn comes to speak at the IMCA awards banquet in November. Shepperd won 13 features, along with the track title at Cotton Bowl Speedway, in racing to the 2024 Smiley’s Racing Products IMCA Southern SportMod national crown. “We basically did the same thing we’ve always done,” said the veteran from Waco, more than a little motivated to run for the top spot on the podium this year after his national runner-up finish last season. “We tried to bring the best prepared car to the track that we could, and we tried to get a little bit more sponsor help throughout the year to keep fresh tires on the car, which I think is a huge key in this division.” “Everything we have, motor, transmission, rear end, we try to get the best we can get. Other than that, we just try to [Read More]

Wisdom, Batt, Spalding each bank $2,000 at Southern Challenge

ABILENE, Texas (Oct. 19, 2024) – Kyle Wisdom had impressed at last year’s Southern Challenge Ryan Bard Memorial, racing from his ‘B’ feature to finish fourth in the Friesen Performance IMCA Modified feature. He turned heads again at Abilene Speedway’s 30th annual season-ending event on Saturday night, this time winning the main event and $2,000. “I’ve run second here in a SportMod a couple times and raced the Southern Challenge in a Modified four times but have never been able to win it before,” said the hometown hotshoe, newly eligible to qualify for the Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational. “It’s something every driver around here wants to do. It means a lot.” Wisdom had started from the pole in the Friday night qualifier but was a DNF after getting into the wall with six laps left. Returning to the speedway the next day, he made the most of Scotty Cook’s expertise and the track wrecker “to correct the geometry” and got the wheels and tires on with all of three minutes to spare before hot laps. Wisdom [Read More]

Never give up attitude drives Dumpert to record sixth straight national crown in IMCA Late Model

NEWMAN GROVE, Neb. (Oct. 17, 2024) – While there’s a lot to be said for consistency, Cory Dumpert credited a never give up approach to his latest IMCA Sunoco Late Model national championship season. The Newman Grove, Neb., driver collected 15 feature wins en route to his sixth consecutive national title, a record for IMCA’s modern (1979-) era. “That’s pretty cool, surreal, really,” said Dumpert, also the Nebraska State champion for a sixth straight season, as well as track champion at both Boone County Raceway and Off Road Speedway. “We started racing a Late Model with IMCA in 2019 and while we’ve had a lot of success since then, this season was definitely the most challenging and our most rewarding championship.” “Consistency was important – on paper it shows 38 top five’s – but there was a lot of stuff that happened that we had to overcome, too,” he’d add. “It was a terrible year with some of the mechanical stuff that happened but it was still a very rewarding year.” “We just never gave up.” [Read More]