Feature Archives

IMCA announces 2022 national and regional champions, rookies of the year

VINTON, Iowa (Oct. 5, 2022) – First-time Smiley’s Racing Products Southern SportMod king Rodney White joins fellow luminaries Jordan Grabouski, Cory Dumpert, Justin Clark, Mike Nichols, Dillon Richards, Matthew Looft, Dillon Raffurty and Nate Coopman in IMCA’s national championship class of 2022. Nichols is the IMCA Sunoco Stock Car champion for the 11th time while Grabouski, Looft and Coopman all earned career fifth titles in the Friesen Performance IMCA Modified, Friesen Performance IMCA Northern SportMod and Mach-1 IMCA Sport Compact divisions, respectively. Dumpert won a fourth straight IMCA Sunoco Late Model crown. Clark repeated as the IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car king, Raffurty as the IMCA STARS Mod Lite champ. Richards won his own second national IMCA title, this time in the Sunoco Hobby Stocks. He’d ruled the Sport Compact standings in 2017. Shelby Alves raced to her first Lady Eagle prize and Mike Smith is the Junior National Champion. Grabouski also ruled the Jet Racing Central Modified Region while Ty Clemens paced the Shaw Race Cars Western Region, Travis Denning the Razor Chassis North Central Region, [Read More]

A first for Arkansas as Peyton Taylor paces Race for Hope

BATESVILLE, Ark. (Sept. 22-24, 2022) – The goal Peyton Taylor set back in January was achieved on the final weekend of the 2022 IMCA Speedway Motors Weekly Racing point season. Taylor won two of the weekend’s three Race For Hope 71 Friesen Performance IMCA Modified features at hometown Batesville Motor Speedway, earning $11,000 in all, along with Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational qualifying eligibility. More importantly, however, he became the first home state driver to win the Race For Hope crown. “It was just a solid weekend,” said Taylor, runner-up to brother Jeff in Thursday’s opening night show and the winner Friday and Saturday. “Any time you do the points thing it can be stressful but to be the first Arkansas-based team to win this championship is big for our Andrews Autosport team.” Taylor collected $4,000 for each of the wins, $2,000 for Friday’s runner-up finish and a $1,000 bonus for the three-night high points finish. He led every lap but the last one on Thursday, losing the lead on the 30th and final circuit and ending [Read More]

Incredible and amazing: Strand, Krogh share superlatives after Stock Car Stampede wins

JAMESTOWN, N.D. (Sept. 24, 2022) – Shawn Strand became a two-time champion while Luke Krogh was a two-time winner at Jamestown Speedway’s 51st annual Stock Car Stampede. Strand added a bookend trophy to the hardware he took home in 2020 and earned $3,000 for his Friesen Performance IMCA Modified feature win. Krogh won the first-ever Stampede main event for IMCA Sunoco Stock Cars and the Friesen Performance IMCA Northern SportMod main, collecting $2,000 for each. One hundred and eleven IMCA cars ran in Jamestown’s traditional season-ending special. “This was incredible,” said Strand, who passed Wayne Johnson for the lead and then outran hard charger Kollin Hibdon in the race to the Modified checkers. “This is our most prestigious race in North Dakota. To get the first (trophy) on my shelf was amazing. To get the second one … I’m almost speechless.” “Since the Stampede went IMCA we’ve run pretty well,” continued Strand, who sat out last year’s event after selling his car. “Just the last couple years we’ve had even better success.” He’d started the 25-lapper [Read More]

Morris has whale of a weekend at Ocean with Pettit Shootout IMCA Modified sweep

WATSONVILLE, Calif. (Sept. 23-24, 2022) – Troy Morris III had a pair of DNQ’s to show for his first Pettit Shootout outings in 2020. He has a pair of Friesen Performance IMCA Modified feature wins to show from his second trip to Ocean Speedway’s season-ending special. The Bakersfield driver led every lap of Friday’s $1,003 to win main event and the last 18 circuits while checking out in Saturday’s $3,006 to win 53-lapper. “I was super pumped,” said Morris, who won ahead of Bobby Hogge IV and Cody Burke on night one, and was six seconds in front of Nick DeCarlo and then Burke on night two. “I was feeling good after Friday but to be able to win again on Saturday was really special.” “I grew up watching my dad race there and his birthday is the week after the Pettit,” continued Morris, who celebrates his 19th birthday in early October. “It was fun to go up there and win for him.” Morris started outside row one on Friday and had Hogge, a double winner [Read More]

Raffurty wraps up 30-win season with checkers at father’s IMCA STARS Mod Lite memorial race

GRAIN VALLEY, Mo. (Sept. 24, 2022) – Dillon Raffurty’s 30th win of the 2022 IMCA Speedway Motors Weekly Racing season will be the one he’ll treasure most. Raffurty put the wraps on the IMCA STARS Mod Lite campaign with the $2,064 checkers at Valley Speedway’s inaugural David Raffurty Memorial, held in honor of Raffurty’s late father and fellow driver, who died in January. “This is the one I wanted to win most of all,” he said. “All kinds of friends and family were there and it was a great show. Winning Super Nationals and the race of champions again was amazing but this win was closer to home.” The checkers were his 16th straight since July 9 and 17th in as many Grain Valley starts this season. After his uncle Rick piloted his father’s racer as the pace car, Raffurty started the 20-lapper from seventh. Following multiple cautions in the early going, he was in the lead by lap five and then had his hands full with challenger Brandon Freeburg, running side-by-side with the Illinois challenger after midway. [Read More]

DeBenedetti makes rare Skagit visit pay with $10,000 IMCA Survive the 55 victory

ALGER, Wash. (Sept. 24, 2022) – After picking his way through lapped traffic, Jon DeBenedetti picked up a $10,000 Friesen Performance IMCA Modified paycheck. The Rogue River, Ore., driver made a rare visit to Skagit Speedway pay off big time on Saturday night, leading the last half of the Survive the 55 special at Alger. “At this point in my career, to be at the top of my game pushing 25 years and win this race is really special,” said DeBenedetti, newly eligible to qualify for the Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational. “To come up here and be able to go against the best of the Pacific Northwest means a lot.” SDMF Chassis teammate Jesse Williamson was next to the checkers in the 55-lapper. Eston Whisler, Bricen James and Ian Whisler rounded out the top five. DeBenedetti was making just his second career start at Skagit after a runner-up finish in a weekly show there eight years ago and compared the Alger oval to Arkansas’ Batesville Motor Speedway. “It’s a very racy place,” he said. “I [Read More]

Brenten DeYoung is best at Great Lakes Nationals

CRYSTAL, Mich. (Sept. 18, 2022) – The latest addition to Team DeYoung’s Great Lakes Nationals trophy collection will have a special place in the display case. Brenten DeYoung topped the 50-lap, $3,000 to win special for Friesen Performance IMCA Modifieds Sunday at Crystal Motor Speedway. The checkers were his career first at one of the premier events for the division in Michigan and in the Dirt Works Eastern Region, and came ahead of his father and seven-time Great Lakes Nationals king Myron. “It’s incredible,” the younger DeYoung said following his second feature win of the season at the family’s long-time home track. “This is a race I’ve wanted to win for a long time and I’m grateful to finally pull it off.” Fourth on the initial grid, he moved up to the outside of the front row following a lap one restart, used the outside line to pass pole starter Nathan Patrick going into the first turn and led every time around the track. Multiple cautions kept the field close throughout before DeYoung was able [Read More]

IMCA Super Nationals history for Olmstead with RoC win and Hobby Stock championship

BOONE, Iowa (Sept. 10, 2022) – Zach Olmstead thought he had the car to win the Saturday show at Boone Speedway last September. That same ride took him straight to the history book at the 40th annual IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s. Olmstead became the first driver to win both the Stephenville Starter Race of Champions and the Hobby Stock championship event at the same Super Nationals, topping Tuesday’s RoC and the Big Dance on Saturday. He had worked his way up from 10th starting and was running close, but not too close, to the front stretch calamity that kayoed race-long leader Brandon Nielsen, defending champion Mike Smith and Jimmy Johnson. “It’s humbling,” said Olmstead, who had finished fourth in his one prior main event start, in 2018. “Last year we won the Prelude and the race of champions. I felt like we had a winning car but got taken out and didn’t qualify. This year I wanted to go back and prove it.” Still on board the same 2019 Brendan Eilts Racing & [Read More]

Looft’s IMCA Super Nationals SportMod championship is best birthday present ever

BOONE, Iowa (Sept. 10, 2022) – Matthew Looft brought home his first IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s championship and the best birthday present an 8-year-old boy could ask for on the same night. Looft raced from 13th starting and held off familiar weekly foe Colby Fett Saturday in winning the Northern SportMod main event and $5,000 Saturday at Boone Speedway. “I promised to do my best to give my son Brayden a tall trophy for his eighth birthday,” said Looft, from Swea City and IMCA’s four-time and defending national champion. “We have gotten a lot of help from a lot of people and have won a lot of races and this was the biggest by far.” “A national championship is pretty cool. At Super Nationals there are 171 other cars and you’re racing against the best drivers in the country just to get in the feature,” he continued. “All the pressure is on one night. You can have some bad nights when you race during the season but you can’t have a bad [Read More]

Murty races to rare Stock Car repeat crown at IMCA Super Nationals

BOONE, Iowa (Sept. 10, 2022) – A race that began as a battle between two of the best young guns in the division became a battle between father and son on championship night at the IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s. When both those battles at Boone Speedway were over, Dallon Murty had defended his Stock Car championship, becoming just the second driver in division history to go back-to-back at America’s Racin’ Vacation. “This was a really special win. There’s a lot of weight lifted off your shoulders when you’re the defending champion and can win again,” said Murty, 17 years old, from Chelsea and a senior at BGM High School. “Last year’s win was probably my best ever because it was my first. This win and last year are at the top of all my wins, by far.” A record 246 Stock Car drivers competed at the 40th annual Super Nationals and the main event saw 30 of the best of them racing for a $7,500 top check. Murty had become the youngest champion [Read More]