Results Archives

Rookie Welshonse finishes close second at Southern Oregon

By Ben Deatherage MEDFORD, Ore. – The IMCA Modified division is considered one of the toughest classes to compete in no matter what the track is. For James Welshonse, he would make his debut in 2016 in this stacked group of drivers at White City’s Southern Oregon Speedway. The nearby Medford native had limited experience prior to the campaign including a handful of SportMod starts and a couple of years in both the street stock and mini stock ranks. The year would feature an unbelievable amount of success beyond Welshonse’s dreams. “It was a really good experience and we had a blast,” commented Welshonse, “it was really just a learning year for me and trying to figure out how these cars work.” The year would see four top-five finishes at White City had just only one finish outside of the top 10, an 11th place result. Without a doubt, Welshonse’s greatest achievement was his main event victory on Sept. 17 to cap the 2016 race season off. In addition to his main event performances, he [Read More]

34 Raceway banquet honors drivers

By Dana Royer WEST BURLINGTON, Iowa (Jan. 7) – 34 Raceway held its 2016 season awards banquet in Burlington Saturday evening, Jan. 7. The evening included a banquet meal, recognition of top 10 drivers, sponsors and a number of special award recipients. 34 Raceway completed another successful year and track officials are looking forward to another great season in 2017 with some familiar and new events on the upcoming schedule. Drivers who finished in the top ten and were eligible for money and awards were recognized as well as the 2016 track champions. In order to receive recognition and point money, each driver had to participate in a minimum of 75 percent of 34 Raceway’s point events in 2016. In 2016, 34 Raceway paid out just over $500,000 to racers during the six-month season. In seven divisions, 50 drivers were eligible to receive money and awards. More than $12,000 was paid out. Jeff Waterman of Quincy, Ill., was the Xtreme Motor Sports IMCA Modified track champion while John Oliver, Jr. of Danville won both IMCA [Read More]

141 Speedway promoters back on ballot for RPM award

FRANCIS CREEK, Wis. (Jan. 9) – 141 Speedway promoters Toby Kruse, Dan Ratajczak and Scott Ratajczak are back on the ballot for the Auto Racing Promoter of the Year award given by Racing Promotion Monthly. They were nominated from RPM’s Northern Region for the second consecutive year. A Saturday night venue, 141 sanctions its Modified, Stock Car, Northern SportMod and Sport Compact divisions with IMCA. “It’s almost overwhelming because your peers nominate you for this award. You take a minute to reflect and realize how fortunate you are,” Kruse said. “Being nominated is pretty darn exciting. It makes all the miles and hours worth it.” “We averaged 141 cars a week in 2016. That’s a real testament to our goal of making this track bigger and better every year,” added Kruse, “and we’re not done, that’s for sure.” Dan Ratajczak was a long-time IMCA Modified driver and Scott was his crew chief. This is their second ARPY nomination and the third for Kruse, who also promotes Marshalltown Speedway. The Ratajczaks have promoted 141 with Kruse since 2014. Their [Read More]

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]