Results

OVERTON, Neb. – Jacob Olmstead proved up to the challenge in a second IMCA division this season. Olmstead earned national Karl Chevrolet Northern SportMod rookie of the year honors, winning 10 of his 43 starts and the track title at Lexington Raceway. “We started strong, won a feature, wrecked a car and had some bad luck,” the Overton, Neb., driver summarized. “I got to run with guys I grew up watching and kept racing hard locally as many nights as we could.” Third in national point standings for the Hobby Stocks in 2015 – the year his brother Zach was the top rookie in that class – Olmstead ran an abbreviated 2016 season before selling his car and crewing full-time. “I wanted something different. I wanted a new challenge, so I bought the car that Tyler Frye had driven to the national championship and ran that a couple times after the point season,” he ex­plained. “Our goal in 2017 was to run for national rookie. I wanted to get some seat time and experi­ence so [Read More]

BISMARCK, N.D. – After putting on some miles during the final weekend of the point season, Eric Harpole could make plans on where to display IMCA Sunoco Stock Car national and EQ Cylinder Heads Northern Region rookie of the year awards. From Bismarck, Harpole became the first North Dakota driver to win either award, by a scant one point margin over Tommy Fose. He ran both nights at Beatrice Speedway’s Septemberfest, then loaded up the next morning to head for Quincy Raceway in Illinois. “I left Beatrice at 10 a.m. on Sunday and pulled into Quincy with just enough time to zip tie the car together,” he said. “We went out, hoped for the best and finished fourth.” Harpole had raced a Wissota street stock, which he said was similar to an IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stock, for five years. Buddies Bob Fuegmann and Mike Swallers already raced in the Stock Car division and encouraged him to do so as well. “I wanted something more. The Stock Car is more of a race car. You can’t [Read More]

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]