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RIVERDALE, Calif. – When you have a passion for racing, like Grant Duinkerken, even family vacations revolve around being at the dirt track. Loading up the trailer to race for two weeks in Texas this past summer, making many new friends at the track, including eventual national champion Marcus Thomas was just one high­light for Duinkerken, who had a national award of his own when the season was complete. The Riverdale High School senior, an honor student, with a 4.0 GPA, became the first California driver to win national IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car rookie of the year honors. He had 13 top five finishes on the season and was runner-up in Western RaceSaver Sprint Series standings. A veteran of two seasons in both micro sprint and outlaw kart classes, the 17-year-old speedster bought a used 2013 KPC Chassis and motor to begin his career in the class with. He tied George Tristao Jr. in the series points race but Tristao had a feature win to get the tie-breaking edge. “We wanted to get into the Sprint [Read More]

NASHUA, Iowa – A veteran of the IMCA Modifed and IMCA Sunoco Stock Car divisions has na­tional rookie of the year honors to show for his first IMCA Late Model campaign. Bryce Carey of Nashua, Iowa, was a regular at Marshalltown Speedway, Independence Motor Speed­way and Benton County Speedway, while starting and ending his season with Deery Brothers Summer Series outings. “I had raced three years in a Stock Car and three years in a Modified. We had been competitive and I decided it was time to go to a Late Model,” he explained. “I think the Late Model is a premier divi­sion, one of the better classes you can be in in dirt track racing.” Carey bought a 2013 Wallybilt from Curt Martin, benefitting from the expertise of the former na­tional and Deery champion, the chassis builder and house driver Ben Seemann. “When we struggled with setup, those guys helped us make the changes,” he said. “The biggest part of the learning curve was having the spoiler and the wider tires. Late Models seem [Read More]

MINBURN, Iowa – Yes, said Clint Luellen, winning IMCA Modified national rookie and Side Biter Chassis North Central Region rookie of the year awards were goals for the 2017 season. But no, he admitted, he didn’t think much beyond that. “We set out trying to have the best season we could and learn from the best. We wanted to win re­gional and national rookie of the year,” he said. “We had a goal of six feature wins and one track champion­ship. We were astonished by how we exceeded ourselves.” From Minburn, Iowa, Luellen won nine features and finished third in regional points and ninth nation­ally. He was the only driver in the division to win three track championships, topping standings at Buena Vista Raceway, Stuart Speedway and Shelby County Speedway. “I had raced a Karl Chevrolet Northern SportMod weekly at Stuart and Harlan. We added Alta on Wednes­days because that would give us a couple days to work on the car if we needed it,” explained Luel­len, also the Allstar Performance Iowa State champion. “We [Read More]

SHERRILL, Iowa – Advice from a driver who’s been there and won that helped Tyler Soppe in his quest for the IMCA Karl Chevrolet Northern SportMod national championship. Soppe parlayed 25 feature wins and track titles at Farley Speedway and Maquoketa Speedway into the 2017 national title. “We knew it would be close because of bonus points but we had a pretty good idea we had the national championship wrapped up,” said Soppe, from Sherrill, Iowa, and a first-time Allstar Performance Iowa State champion as well. “It was nice to be able to call people and tell them we’d won it after we got the official notice from IMCA.” Driving a 14-year-old car purchased for $1,500 as recently as 2015, Soppe was the national runner-up last year. He ascended to the top spot in the standings in mid-July this season and took the crown ahead of defending champion Tony Olson and two-time king Matt Looft. “I had raced an outlaw super bomber, which is similar to an IMCA Stock Car, at Farley, Maquoketa and Dubuque. [Read More]

BEATRICE, Neb. – His success in spring specials convinced Dillon Richards he could be a contender for the national Mach-1 Sport Compact championship in 2017. Armed with a willingness to travel and race in some of the biggest weekly fields the class had to offer, he had that title wrapped up before ending the season with another special event victory at his hometown Beatrice Speedway. “After we won Spring Nationals at Beatrice and then both nights at RPM Speedway (the Sunflower Classic), we decided this was the year to go for it,” said Richards, 18 and already a four-year-veteran of the division. “This was our first year traveling this much and there were a lot of late nights in the shop, but it was all worth it.” His 57 starts took Richards to 11 different tracks in Nebraska, Kansas, South Dakota and Iowa. Eight of his 27 feature wins, and a third straight track title, came at Beatrice. Richards won another six times at Eagle Raceway and five times at Junction Motor Speedway. “We changed [Read More]

DES MOINES, Iowa – Two of the important numbers leading up to Shannon Anderson’s record-extending seventh national championship were 300 and 35. Anderson raced to his IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stock career 300th win in mid-June and won for the 35th time this season at the IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s. “We had an excellent year. Honestly, it was unbelievable,” Anderson said. “We’d had a hard time even getting to 30 wins the last three years but this year we started strong and kept it rolling.” Along with national and Super Nationals titles, the Des Moines, Iowa, driver motored to the Big Daddy Race Cars Northern Region and Marshalltown Speedway and Southern Iowa Speedway crowns. He recorded a dozen wins at both Southern Iowa – site of his 300th, on June 14 – and Mar­shalltown, six at Kossuth County Speedway and three at Heartland Park Topeka after starting the sea­son in Texas with the opening night victory at Abilene Speedway’s Ice Breaker. “I hadn’t run Osky since 2012 and only lost there one [Read More]