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GLENDALE, Ariz. – A season of firsts saw Clay Erickson race to national Karl Kustoms Northern SportMod rookie of the year honors. From Glendale, Erickson became the first IMCA driver from Arizona to earn the national rookie title in any division, edging younger brother Justin for the prize. His first feature victory came March 7 at Canyon Speedway Park, the same venue where he’d ultimately win his first track championship. “Our consistency really stood out in our first season. We went to a lot of different tracks and ran well,” said Erickson, also the KMJ Performance State champion. “The top five’s weren’t as good as getting wins but it was good to know we could run up there.”  Erickson complemented career win number one with 18 top five finishes. Twenty-six starts came at home state tracks, another 11 at Fairgrounds Speedway in Colorado.  Team Erickson made 800 mile round trips to Cortez when Arizona tracks were closed during the warm summer months for weekend double or tripleheaders on five occasions. “We went there to run [Read More]

AMES, Iowa – IMCA drivers Chris Elliott, Jeff Mueller, Darren Medler and Eric Knutson are headed back to class early next season.  All four won designated specials in 2020, then were selected by drawing to attend Bob Harris Enter­prises Race Tech Info dirt chassis schools.  Elliott topped the IMCA Modified feature at Abilene Speedway’s Ryan Bard Memorial Southern Chal­lenge. Mueller was the IMCA Sunoco Stock Car winner at Marshalltown Speedway’s Dale DeFrance Memo­rial. Medler collected the checkers on night two of the Stock Car Stampede at Jamestown Speedway and Knutson was the World Nationals IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stock winner, also at Motown. BHE, of Ames, Iowa, and in its eighth season as an IMCA sponsor, added Stock Car and Hobby Stock awards to its established and much appreciated program.  Top five finishers at designated Modified, Stock Car, Hobby Stock, Northern SportMod and Smiley’s Racing Products Southern SportMod events were entered in the drawing and all received BHE certificates good for two shock rebuilds. Modified drivers receiving certificates included Tom Berry Jr., Steven Bowers Jr., Ethan [Read More]

FARMINGTON, N.M. – Kyler Duggins had all of one night on the track under his belt at the start of the 2020 season. Thirty-three races and four feature wins later, he was the IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stock national and Big Daddy Race Cars Southern Region rookie of the year. “I tried it out for that one night at Aztec,” said Duggins, son of two-time and repeat regional champion Jason Duggins. “The track looked a lot different that night than when I had been watching from the pits.” Duggins’ first two wins came right ahead of his dad, on July 17 at Fairgrounds Speedway and the next weekend at Desert Thunder Raceway. August and September checkers figured in his run to the track title at Desert Thunder. He drove a Grumpy Chassis three or four years older than his father’s 2003 ride that had served as a loaner for four other drivers last season.  “My first win was a real confidence booster. We’d gotten in a wreck early in the race, restarted from the back and [Read More]

FARMERSVILLE, Texas – Running with the national champion helped Matthew Day earn na­tional IMCA honors of his own. Day, 17 years old and a Farmersville High School junior, won five features while racing to the national Smiley’s Racing Products Southern SportMod rookie of the year award. He ran with Dean Abbey, who won a career third national title this season, in 26 of his 38 starts.  “We knew we wanted to race for rookie of the year,” said Day, who began racing Fridays at Boyd Raceway in addition to Saturdays at Southern Oklahoma Speedway in Ardmore and saw even more of Abbey. “We learned a lot from him. The more we raced Dean, the faster we got.”    Day had started racing go-karts at the age of four and had success in the junior limited modifieds, a local class similar to Southern SportMods before joining his father Dan in the sanctioned divi­sion this year. Third in national, Southern Oklahoma track and KMJ Performance Oklahoma State standings and fifth in points at Boyd, he was runner-up [Read More]

NELIGH, Neb. – Pressure? Bring it, says Cameron Wilkinson. The third generation speedster from Neligh, Neb., clinched IMCA Sunoco Stock Car national and EQ Cylinder Heads Northern region rookie of the year awards on the final weekend of the season, with third- and first-place finishes at Junction Motor Speedway. “A lot of people knew I had pressure on me. That’s what I like,” said Wilkinson, who welcomed the high stakes opportunity despite having to change engines and swap bodies after a tough outing the previous weekend. “We had a lot of confidence at the start of the season and winning rookie of the year is what I set out to do.” Wilkinson won the national rookie prize by a single point, over Texan Dustin Mooney. He was the track champion at Off Road Speedway, where he won for the first time on July 1, and runner-up at Boone County Raceway.  He’d finished second in four straight features leading up to career win number one. “We’d had a lot of nights when we were real close [Read More]

STUART, Neb. – Mitchell Dvorak rode a three-year labor of love to national IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car rookie of the year honors this season.  After starting his career in a Hobby Stock, Dvorak sold that ride to help fund his move to the winged division. He and crew chief Pete Kubik built a car piece-by-piece over the next three years with the ultimate goal of racing, and winning, at hometown Stuart, Neb., Raceway. “I wanted to get some seat time in a hobby stock. It had always been a dream to race a Sprint Car. That was always in the plans for sure,” Dvorak said. “My dad Bob has raced a Sprint Car for 20 years so racing has definitely been a part of our family.” Dvorak was runner-up to his father in the race for the Stuart track title. He was also a frequent visitor to South Dakota’s I-90 Speedway and counted three Sprint Series of Nebraska outings among his 25 rookie season starts as well.  RaceSaver career win number one came on Aug. [Read More]