Feature Archives

World IMCA Stock Car Championship opening night checkers fly for Thornton

BATESVILLE, Ark. (Oct. 13) – Challenged throughout a fast-paced 25-lapper, Dylan Thornton held off all challengers in winning Wednesday’s World IMCA Stock Car Championship presented by IMCA.TV opening night qualifying feature at Batesville Motor Speedway. Racing into the lead from fourth starting on the opening circuit, Thornton battled with Johnathon Logue much of the way before taking the win ahead of seventh starting Dallon Murty of Chelsea, Iowa, and 11th starting Benji LaCrosse. “Hopefully we can get the big one done Saturday,” said Thornton, who will start on the pole for the $50,000 to win main event. Opening night saw 95 drivers in action in the 50th anniversary season finale at Batesville, and drivers from a dozen states took the green flag for the qualifier. Logue, of Logansport, Iowa, ended in fourth. Rounding out the top nine were Curt Lund of Redwood Falls, Minn., Tim Brown of Stoutland, Mo., Tim Johnson of Brainerd, Minn., Jake Timm of Winona, Minn., and Derek Brown of Stoutland, Mo. Jeffrey Abbey of Belton, Texas, topped the “B” feature and Jack Sullivan [Read More]

16 states represented at Batesville’s World IMCA Stock Car Championship

BATESVILLE, Ark. – Qualifying for the World IMCA Stock Car Championship presented by IMCA.TV gets under Wednesday night, with drivers from 16 states already registered for the $50,000 to win special at Batesville Motor Speedway. The top-paying event for The Class Too Tough To Tame brings the 50th anniversary season at Batesville to a close Oct. 13-16. Thirty cars start Saturday’s main event, running for shares of a $125,000 purse with $15,000 paid to the runner-up, $10,000 for third, $5,000 for fourth, $3,000 for fifth and a minimum of $1,500 to start. Top two drivers from each of 15 heat races transfer to nightly ‘A’ features Wednesday, Thursday and Friday with the top nine from those races advancing to Saturday’s big show. Third and fourth place drivers, fifth and sixth place drivers and seventh and eighth place drivers transfer to nightly “B,” “C” and “D” features to race for points. Tonight’s (Tuesday) practice session runs from 6:30-9:30 p.m. Pit passes are $20. Pit gates opens at 2 p.m. Wednesday and at 4:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday. The grandstand [Read More]

Bowers’ third straight Missouri Nationals IMCA Modified win mirrors 2020 checkers

OSBORN, Mo. – Steven Bowers Jr.’s third straight victory at US 36 Raceway’s Missouri Nationals played out a lot like last year’s run to the checkers. A DNQ due to fuel pump-related issues again on Friday, Bowers won his last-chance IMCA Modified qualifier on Saturday, started 13th and took the lead 20 laps into the main event, leading the last 10 circuits to earn $2,000 and Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational qualifying eligibility. “It was déjà vu,” said Bowers, who’d won every weekly feature at Osborn except opening night. “This has been a good track for me, that’s for sure. “It’s a fast track and you’ve got to be up on the wheel. “It’s definitely not a finesse track. It’s a driver’s track.” Bowers went to the top to catch the leaders, then moved down a line. He pulled away following a late caution, winning by two-plus seconds ahead of Drew Janssen. Jeff James, Terry Hurt and Brandon Conkwright completed the top five. Stuart Snyder was the $2,000 IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car winner, Mike Nichols repeated his [Read More]

Fast start sparks Larson in charge to IMCA Modified national championship

VINTON, Iowa – A fast start close to home was all it took to convince Jeff Larson this was the year to run for the IMCA Modified national championship. He was right. Larson won 35 features and raced to three track titles on the way to the 2021 crown. From Freeport, he became the first Illinois driver to win the IMCA Modified national championship since 1987. “We won our first five nights out weekly and decided to keep going because we’d been so close last year,” explained Larson, the winner of 22 features and national runner-up in 2020. “We definitely put a lot of miles on this year but it turned out to be our best season.” Also the first Illinois driver to win a regional title in any division, Larson topped point standings at Maquoketa Speedway, East Moline Speedway and 300 Raceway en route to the national and Side Biter North Central Region titles. “There were maybe six races we won this year that we maybe shouldn’t have. The caution came out or somebody [Read More]

IMCA announces national and regional champions, top rookies

VINTON, Iowa – IMCA has announced its National Championship Class of 2021. Jeff Larson is the IMCA Modified champion, Cory Dumpert the IMCA Sunoco Late Model champion, Justin Clark the IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car champion, Dillon Raffurty the first-ever IMCA STARS Mod Lite champion, Mike Nichols the IMCA Sunoco Stock Car champion, Kaden Reynolds the IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stock champion, Matthew Looft the Karl Kustoms Northern SportMod champion, Matthew Day the Smiley’s Racing Products Southern SportMod champion and Caine Mahlberg the Mach-1 Sport Compact champion. Dallon Murty raced to the Junior National Championship, Kaytee DeVries to another Lady Eagle crown. Larson also reigned in the Side Biter Chassis North Central Region, Chaz Baca in the Shaw Race Cars Western Region, Dylan Sillman in the Jet Racing Central Region, William Gould in the Razor Chassis South Central Region and A.J. Ward in the Dirt Works Eastern Region for Modifieds. Nichols and Aaron Spangler paced point standings for the EQ Cylinder Heads Northern and Southern Regions, respectively. Reynolds and Jason Duggins were Big Daddy Race Cars Northern [Read More]

Big-time IMCA Modified special at RPM leads to another big win for Hobscheidt

HAYS, Kan. (Oct. 2) – Another big-time event ended with another big payday for Jacob Hobscheidt. After starting on the pole, running second most of the way and passing Tanner Black late in the 40-lapper, Hobscheidt was the $5,000 IMCA Modified winner Saturday at RPM Speedway’s 15th annual Fall Nationals presented by Nutrien Ag Services. “It’s been a pretty good year,” said the modest Hobscheidt, recently the winner of Park Jefferson Speedway’s Iron Cup and Southern Oregon Speedway’s R. Charles Snyder Salute and now eligible to qualify for the 2022 Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational. “We’ve focused and worked hard. We’ve made some mistakes but we’ve learned a lot.” His IMCA travels took Hobscheidt to 16 tracks in six different states in 2021. He drew the pole for his first post-season start at Hays, saw Black motor by on lap two and then stayed in the runner-up spot before a restart opened the door. “The season started out terrible,” he said. “We finally got things rolling when I got this new car (a 2020 GRT) put together.” [Read More]

World IMCA Stock Car Championship is next at Batesville

BATESVILLE, Ark. – The top-paying IMCA Sunoco Stock Car event in the world takes The Class Too Tough To Tame to Batesville Motor Speedway for the $50,000 to win World IMCA Stock Car Championship Oct. 13-16. Presented and broadcast by IMCA.TV, the inaugural event will start 30 cars and boasts a main event purse of $125,000 with $15,000 paid to the runner-up, $10,000 for third, $5,000 for fourth, $3,000 for fifth and a minimum of $1,500 to start. The top two drivers from each of 15 heat races transfer to nightly ‘A’ features Wednesday, Thursday and Friday with the top nine from those races advancing to the Saturday main event. Third and fourth place drivers, fifth and sixth place drivers and seventh and eighth place drivers transfer to nightly “B,” “C” and “D” features to race for points. The pit gate opens at 2 p.m. Wednesday and at 4:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday. The grandstand opens at 5 p.m. and racing starts at 7:30 p.m. each night. Entry fees are $250 if paid by Oct. 1 or $350 [Read More]

Money, Sherfick cash top checks at Mid-America Clash

SALINA, Kan. (Sept. 24-25) – Clay Money and Dylan Sherfick cashed the big checks at Salina Speedway’s Mid-America Clash. Both IMCA Modified winners pocketed $1,500, along with Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational qualifying eligibility. Money won the ‘B’ feature and the main event on Friday while Sherfick won Saturday’s 25-lapper from the pole. Money started the opening night show headliner from 13th. He was running third when the caution came out with 10 laps left and took the lead on the restart. “We like to go to Salina when we can. I kind of like that track when it slicks up. I know where to run it,” said Money, who took the checkers ahead of Sherfick, Brandon Conkwright, Marcus Tomlinson and Tim Watts. “I know where to run it.” Sherfick had started seventh and improved one position from his Friday finish the next night. He’d run at Salina one time before this season, DNF’ing five or six years ago. “We’ve had a pretty decent car. We changed a couple things for Saturday and that definitely helped [Read More]

Hogge, Kanke both bring brooms to Ocean Speedway’s Pettit Shootout

WATSONVILLE, Calif. (Sept. 24-25) – Bobby Hogge IV added to his collection of Pettit Shootout trophies while Cale Kanke started his. Both drivers swept weekend events at Ocean Speedway, with Hogge picking up $1,003 and $3,006 IMCA Modified victories, his career sixth and seventh at the event. Kanke earned $503 for Karl Kustoms Northern SportMod career win number one on Friday and $1,003 for win number two the next night. “It was a pretty amazing weekend for us,” said Hogge, who wheeled the Rage by Precision Performance ride he’d debuted at the Prelude and IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s. “We started our venture in California with this car really well. Things couldn’t have gone any better for us.” Newly eligible to qualify for the Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational, he won from 10th starting on opening night and from outside row one on Saturday. “We floundered around mid-pack for a while before we found our way toward the front and battled with Paul Stone,” he said, “and got the lead around midway of the [Read More]

DeVilbiss spins but wins Race For Hope 71 and $50,000

BATESVILLE, Ark. (Sept. 25) – There were storylines aplenty as Batesville Motor Speedway’s 50th anniversary season proved golden for Zane DeVilbiss. The New Mexico driver went into the Race For Hope 71 main event for IMCA Modifieds with a fast car, a front row starting spot and plenty of confidence. He ended the Saturday night special with the first of what he hopes becomes two $50,000 feature wins at the famed Arkansas speedplant. DeVilbiss somehow survived a lap 22 spin after contact with Terry Phillips running at the front of the field, regained the lead with 16 circuits left and then checked out on everybody following a restart late in the 71-lapper. “We’ve had a real good car the last couple months and had a lot of confidence after winning the Thursday night qualifier,” DeVilbiss said following his career-best payday and 197th victory in the division. “Our program is right where we want it and to have a car that good was unbelievable. It was the perfect night for that.” Phillips ended in second, with Tripp [Read More]