News Archives

Bruening gets best of Deery Series foes in 30th annual Late Model tour

DECORAH, Iowa – Tyler Bruening admits that there were a few sleepless nights before the end of his Deery Brothers Summer Series dream season. Bruening and Jeff Aikey took their race to the 2016 IMCA Late Model tour title down to the final event. While engine issues sidelined the seven-time champion, Bruening rocketed from 21st starting to sixth at the finish to capture his career first crown. “This was a huge dream come true. When I started racing, my goal was to not get lapped so we’ve obviously come a long way. We have come leaps and bounds with our entire program,” he said. “I’m really proud of becoming the Deery Series champion. When my dad (Greg) raced, this was a goal of his. I’m very proud to have accomplished this feat.” From Decorah, Iowa, Bruening qualified for his first Deery feature in 2005 and has been a series regular since 2009. He won the Yankee Dirt Track Classis and $7,500 at Farley Speedway – all three of his career tour wins have come at the [Read More]

Carter adds Late Model tour to repertoire, earns Deery Series rookie of the year award

OSKALOOSA, Iowa – Already a two-division star, Cayden Carter impressed in a third IMCA class this season. Five top-five finishes figured in his run to rookie of the year honors in the Deery Brothers Summer Series for Late Models. “Everybody is good in this series. Just about anybody can win on a given night,” said Carter, who qualified for all 16 series main events and finished as runner-up in just his fourth tour start, at Quad City Speedway. That May 15 showing preceded three more top five’s in the next four series events. “Rookie of the year was our goal from the start of the season. We struggled in the first couple of races. The biggest challenge for us was dialing the shocks in and learning what to change and what not to change,” Carter said. “I led 32 of 40 laps at Quad City and while it was disappointing not to win, it was still a big confidence booster.” He followed with top five’s at Marshalltown Speedway, Independence Motor Speedway and Kossuth County Speedway. [Read More]

Stien scores second career Sprint Series of Minnesota championship

CEYLON, Minn. – The feature victories weren’t there like they were in previous years but his consistency made Michael Stien a big winner this season. Along with his second Sprint Series of Minnesota title in three years, Stien scored his career third Allstar Performance State crown plus third straight Arlington Raceway and first Jackson Motorplex track championships. “We set out to win the series and Arlington track championship,” said Stien, from Ceylon. “Everything started going our way at Jackson so we started chasing points at the end of the point season.” Stien finished in the top five in half a dozen of his series starts. He complemented three wins with seven second-place showings while finishing fifth in the national standings. “We’ve had years where we’ve won more but we got a lot of seconds this season,” he said. “You’d always rather win but second places were good enough to have a good season this year.” Long-time driver Mike Sargent heads up the crew for Stien, who lives an hour and a half from the shop, [Read More]

Sprint Series of Texas plaque latest addition to Day’s IMCA trophy case

GREENVILLE, Texas – After following the tour for the first time, veteran Jeff Day added the Sprint Series of Texas championship plaque to his collection of IMCA awards. Day won three of the 11 IMCA EMI RaceSaver events, finished in the top five in five more and – best of all – got to spend the summer racing with his son Michael, the SST runner-up. “We were competing against each other all season, and the races weren’t just between us, but a lot of times we were swapping slide jobs for the lead,” said the senior Day. “We both had a lot of fun on the series this year.” From Greenville, Texas, Day started racing a Sprint Car in 1996 and was champion at the IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s two years later. This season, he traveled with and pitted next to three-time national champion Johnny Miller, who was successful in his pursuit of the Elite Non-Wing Series title. “I thought we had a real shot at winning the series, but about [Read More]

Robertson nears perfection with sprint to Western RaceSaver Series championship

VISALIA, Calif. – Blake Robertson came as close to IMCA EMI RaceSaver Sprint Car perfection as you can get in 2016. Robertson won 14 of his 15 Western RaceSaver Sprint Series starts this season, scooping up Allstar Performance California State honors in addition to the tour title. “We’ve never had a season like this,” he acknowledged. “When we needed luck it fell our way. The stars were getting in line at the Sprint Nationals before we ran out of time, but we had a very blessed season.” Robertson racked up all those wins at Thunderbowl Speedway, Bakersfield Speedway, Keller Auto Speedway at Kings Fairground and Santa Maria Raceway. The one race he didn’t win was the second of the season, when he tangled with a lapped car while running second at Kings and ended in 11th. The hands-on owner of BR Motorsports, a mail order parts supplier of parts for Sprint Cars and Midgets, and King Racing Products, which manufactures those parts, Robertson is from Visalia and began racing Sprint Cars more than 20 years [Read More]

Martin wins finale to clinch Nebraska Sprint Series crown

LINCOLN, Neb. – Jason Martin couldn’t have picked a better night to win his first Sprint Series of Nebraska feature of the season. Martin became the sixth different winner in as many IMCA EMI RaceSaver tour events on championship night at U.S. 30 Speedway. The victory made him the series champion by all of one point over Joey Danley. “We never really set out to race for points. We race for wins,” said Martin, from Lincoln and a 20-year veteran of the winged division. “U.S. 30 is a track where I’ve been successful at in the past. It just fits my driving style but we had so many rainouts in the series and a lot of them (four) were at Columbus.” Despite the rainouts and the resulting pro-rated bonus points, Martin was fourth in the national standings. He had five feature wins, including specials at the Iowa State Fairgrounds Speedway and Dodge City Raceway Park, along with 12 top five finishes. His 26 starts came at tracks in four states. “I like to travel and [Read More]

Duke reigns in race for PASS championship

SELINSGROVE, Pa. – A Duke is king of the Pennsylvania Sprint Series. Third-year RaceSaver driver Kenneth Duke topped points for the IMCA-sanctioned winged tour, with a win and 12 more top five finishes in 25 PASS tour dates. “It’s a tough series here in Pennsylvania,” noted Duke, from Selinsgrove. “When you get 25-30 cars a night, it’s hard to get a lot of wins.” He raced go-karts up and down the East Coast before 11 seasons in the micro sprints. The RaceSaver cars caught his eye one night at Clinton County Motor Speedway. “We decided we wanted to give them a try but could never afford it until we started watching the 305s at Clinton County,” Duke said. “It was kind of surprising at first with the difference in horsepower. I really think the key was that I started to understand the car, what it needed to go fast and getting seat time on bigger tracks.” “After running micro sprints on quarter-miles, running on 3/8- and half-mile tracks took a little getting used to,” he [Read More]

Harris adds third straight plaque to Virginia Sprint Series title collection

DAYTON, Va. – A feature win in North Carolina proved the highlight of Jerald Harris’ third consecutive Virginia Sprint Series championship campaign. Harris already had victories at Eastside Speedway and Shenandoah Speedway before taking the much-hoped for IMCA EMI RaceSaver tour checkers at Dixieland Speedway. “We’ve tried for years to win there,” said Harris, who thought way outside the box ahead of the Aug. 12 event. “I was just trying a setup that went away from how you should set up a Sprint Car and it worked. And after our heat race, all I did was change a pound or two of air pressure.” While his win total was down from five in 2014 and six last year, the Dayton, Va., driver was consistent enough throughout the year to edge Anthony Linkenhoker for the series crown despite breaking and being scored 10th on championship night. “Each year it gets harder to win in this series. We were happy we won it again. There was some luck involved,” he said. “Some nights were easy and some were [Read More]

Better than competitive, Chadwick dominates Wild West Shoot Out

OAKLEY, Calif. – Kellen Chadwick had a feeling that he could be competitive in the Wild West Shoot Out. He didn’t anticipate winning four of the six $1,000 to win Xtreme Motor Sports IMCA Modified tour features in his home state of California, Oregon and Washington. After a runner-up finish on opening night at Southern Oregon Speedway, the Oakley charger took back-to-back checkers at Siskiyou Motor Speedway and Cottage Grove Speedway. He was 15th on night two at Cottage Grove and Willamette Speedway got rained out after he won qualifying heats and redrew the third starting spot in the main event. Chadwick wrapped up the tour crown with wins at Sunset Speedway Park and Willamette Speedway. “We had talked about going on the tour earlier in the year but didn’t decide to go until about a month ahead of time,” he said. “I had been to all the tracks before except Willamette. I’d raced at Southern Oregon’s Lon Skinner Memorial and done well and had won before at Elma and Cottage Grove. While a record [Read More]

Barnhill repeats in IMCA Bay Area Emerald Coast Tour

PACE, Fla. – At the end of a nerve-wracking finale, Jason Barnhill became a repeat champion in the Bay Area Emerald Coast Tour. Locked in a tight battle with Kyle Rutkoski for the Xtreme Motor Sports IMCA Modified series crown, Barnhill had to race his way through the Sept. 24 field at Southern Raceway after exiting to replace a cut tire and restarting at the back. His fourth place finish gave him a one-point edge over Rutkoski in the final tour standings. “I think the second championship was more satisfying. It was good to know we could back it up and winning it last year wasn’t just luck,” said Barnhill, from Pace, Fla. “One of the biggest things for us this year was maintenance. I spent more time under the car than in it. The two times I finished outside the top five were both drive train issues.” The second annual series returned with dates at Southern, Northwest Florida Speedway and Flomaton Speedway. Barnhill won five of the 15 Bay Area Tour features, including a [Read More]