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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]

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]

BROOKFIELD, Mo. – The motto for Hunter Marriott’s 2016 season was “Have race car, will travel.” The Brookfield, Mo., driver was champion of the Kupper Chevrolet Dakota Classic Tour during a season that saw him win Xtreme Motor Sports IMCA Modified series and special events, as well as weekly features in Arizona, Iowa, Wisconsin and North Dakota. “Winning the tour championship was pretty awesome. The more work we put into it, the better we got. We got a ton of races, we’ve got a good team and we learned a lot,” said Marriott, who traveled to a staggering 28 different tracks over the course of 46 starts. “I believe if you can unload at someplace you’ve never been and race well, you become a better driver. You’ve got to be a traveler.” Marriott prevailed in a record-setting tour that saw an average of better than 90 entries a night. He followed the main event win at Williston Basin Speedway with a runner-up showing at Southwest Speedway and wrapped up the title by finishing third at [Read More]

JACKSON, Wy. – The opportunity to travel helped Chris Clark decide the Xtreme Motor Sports IMCA Modified division was right for him. Following a stellar 2016 season, the Jackson, Wy., hotshoe traveled to the IMCA national banquet in Lincoln, Neb., to accept his first track and state awards in the class. “We did some things, especially the first half of the season, when everything I touched turned to gold,” said Clark, a seven-time feature winner as well as the top driver in track standings at Atomic Motor Raceway and Idaho Falls Raceway, as well as the Allstar Performance Idaho State champion. “I never expected to have a season like this.” His success came aboard a 2012 GRT Clark has driven for three years. He’d purchased the car from perennial top runner and former Wild West Tour foe Justen Yeager. “Justen really helped with the learning curve. Buying that car and stepping up in other areas of our program, from custom built shocks and other components and even a better seat from The Joie of Seating [Read More]

MONROETON, Pa. ­– Brad Sites got a championship and a lesson out of his 2016 race season. Sites didn’t have any wins to show for his efforts but was consistent enough to top the point race for the Atomicwraps.com Empire State Series, finishing in the top five in five of 12 Xtreme Motor Sports IMCA Modified tour outings. “I finished well but didn’t have any wins. Our goal is always to win races,” said Sites, from Monroeton, Pa., and younger brother of three-time series champion Eddie Sites. “I made some changes in setup that didn’t work and we didn’t realize the tire pressure gauge wasn’t working like it should until late in the season.” Sites brought four career tour wins into the season, including a pair in 2015. He had two second-place showings this year, both of them at Skyline Raceway Park. While he hit every series show, Sites wasn’t a weekly regular anywhere. He owns a seamless gutter business and spent a lot of time on a ladder after a tornado and accompanying hail storm that [Read More]

OCHEYEDAN, Iowa – Elijah Zevenbergen returned to familiar surroundings to win the Kupper Chevrolet Dakota Classic Stock Car Tour for the third time in four years. Then he made his first-ever visit to Boone Speedway and won on IMCA’s biggest stage. “The Dakota Tour is a nice little vacation. We have some friends out there,” said Zevenbergen, from Ocheyedan, Iowa. “Williston and Nodak are my favorite tracks on the tour and were two that got rained out, but nonetheless we won at Dickinson and Mandan, so it was a good tour.” His week at Boone was even better as Zevenbergen topped the Saturday night IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s main event. “It was kind of a standing joke in the pits, people asking me why I was there because I’d never raced at Super Nationals before,” he said. “It was a pretty crazy deal, no doubt about it, but I had a lot of good people helping me.” “Super Nationals was the biggest win of my career. It was pretty surreal. To [Read More]