Newswire

Coopman disproves doubters with fourth career national title

MANKATO, Minn. – Even after he’d won a career third IMCA national championship last year, Nate Coopman had his doubters. There shouldn’t be any naysayers left after the Mankato, Minn., driver won 33 features and his fourth national Mach-1 Sport Compact crown this season. “I didn’t plan to run for it at all but there were people who told me I couldn’t do it again,” Coopman explained. “So there was some motivation there, plus I won a bunch of races early in the season and knew if I did any traveling that I’d have a pretty good shot.” Coopman scored feature wins at seven of the nine tracks in three states he raced at, collecting 14 straight checkers between May 6 and June 18. Streaks of six and then five straight victories put him atop the national point standings to stay in early August. His three track championships came at Redwood Speedway, Jackson Motorplex and Nobles County Speedway where Coopman won 10, nine and four features, respectively. He won for the 200th time in the sanctioned [Read More]

Fast start sends Anderson to record sixth modern era title

DES MOINES, Iowa – Always a contender, Shannon Anderson served notice early that he’d be the driver to beat in the race for the 2016 IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stock national championship. Thirteen wins in the Des Moines, Iowa driver’s first 19 starts set the stage for his record sixth career national title. The national points leader by mid-May, Anderson had 27 wins in 53 starts to complement Big Daddy Race Cars Northern Region and Kossuth County Speedway and Iowa State Fairgrounds Speedway track titles. He and Stock Car king Mike Nichols became the first drivers to win career sixth national championships in the same division during IMCA’s modern era, which dates from 1979. “It’s hard to believe. I know how hard it was to have five other seasons like this,” Anderson said. “It’s been a lot of work, a lot of shop time and a lot of racing.” Listen to “Episode 194 Shannon Anderson” on Spreaker. Anderson’s father Jeff was a five-time Stock Car champ and Keith White won five Scoggin-Dickey Parts Center Southern SportMod [Read More]

Olson raises bar even higher with IMCA Northern SportMod national title

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – Tony Olson didn’t leave himself a lot of room for improvement when he won 27 Karl Chevrolet Northern SportMod features and three local track titles last season. But he raised the bar even higher in 2016 with his career first IMCA national championship. “It’s kind of crazy how everything worked out,” said Olson, from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. “Last year we were a couple points short but we learned a lot. This year we started figuring some more things out and had about the same number of wins at mid-season. The points race was close and it stayed that way ‘til the end of the year.” Olson won 29 features and repeated as champion at Benton County Speedway, Davenport Speedway and Independence Motor Speedway as well as the Allstar Performance Iowa State king en route to the national title. Eight different drivers led the national points race over the course of 2016. Olson enjoyed a two-week stay in the top spot of the standings in July and captured the national prize when [Read More]

One word describes it: Nichols has phenomenal 2016 season

HARLAN, Iowa – Mike Nichols described his month of June as phenomenal. The same adjective can be applied to his entire season. Nichols won all 15 of his June starts and 54 times in all en route to his career sixth IMCA Sunoco Stock Car national championship. He joined 2016 Hobby Stock king Shannon Anderson as the first drivers to win six national titles in the same division during the modern era of IMCA. Nichols also matched the single season wins record Nate Coopman established in the Mach-1 Sport Compacts two years ago. “We started the season with 11 straight wins but our June was just phenomenal,” said Nichols, from Harlan, Iowa. “You can plan and prepare as much as you can but a month like that defies the law of averages. Our whole season defied the law of averages.” Listen to “Episode 195 Mike Nichols” on Spreaker. He finished outside the top five in just three of 66 starts at a dozen different tracks in four states. Along with the EQ Cylinder Heads Northern [Read More]

Abbey packs a career’s worth of highlights into championship-filled 2016 season

COMANCHE, Texas – Jeffrey Abbey packed a career’s worth of highlights into his fourth Scoggin-Dickey Parts Center Southern SportMod season. Along with the national championship, the Comanche, Texas, High School Senior won the division’s debut at the IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s just four days after celebrating his 18th birthday. And while more than doubling his career win total in the class to 47, he paced track point races at Boyd Raceway and Kennedale Speedway Park while reigning again in Allstar Performance Texas State standings. “We had a good year last year and didn’t change much. We freshened the engine and freshened the shocks,” said Abbey, the national runner-up in 2015. “We came into this year hoping to get more wins and run for the national championship.” “I couldn’t pick out a season highlight. Winning Super Nationals and the national championship were both outstanding,” he continued. “And I ended the season winning the Bryan Mize Memorial at 85 Speedway. If you’d told me at the start of the year that I’d do all [Read More]

Shouse sprints to seven feature wins, IMCA RaceSaver national championship

MUSTANG, Okla. – One of the best spokesmen for the IMCA EMI RaceSaver Sprint Cars is the division’s newest national champion. Andy Shouse won seven features, along with the Sprint Series of Oklahoma and Allstar Performance Oklahoma State crowns in his first full season in the 305 class. He bookended those feature victories with strings of top five finishes at the start and the end of the 2016 campaign. “We just wanted to race. We didn’t plan to chase national points but we looked up one night and saw that we were in the thick of it,” said Shouse. “We really enjoyed this season and had a lot of good finishes. The RaceSaver rules really equalize this division. It doesn’t take a lot of money to be competitive.” Six different drivers from Texas occupied the top spot in the national point standings before Shouse moved in to stay in late July. From Mustang, he became the first driver from Oklahoma to win the Sprint Car crown since IMCA resumed sanctioning the division in 1989. Shouse [Read More]

Time gives Toland a new appreciation of IMCA title

DAVENPORT, Iowa – By no means is Rob Toland ready to hang up his racing helmet. But the oldest IMCA driver to win a national championship has definitely learned to better appreciate his on-track accomplishments. Toland won the national Late Model crown for the third time, as well as track titles at his hometown Davenport Speedway and Quad City Speedway, plus the Allstar Performance Illinois State championship. He turned 55 six weeks after the point season ended. Listen to “Episode 191 Rob Toland” on Spreaker. “With age, we always appreciate things better. This national championship was pretty special to me,” said Toland, who also topped 2001 and 2005 point standings for the premier division. “I was second in points at East Moline and Davenport when I got hurt at work and ended up missing the last half of 2014 and all of 2015, so it was good to be able to come back and be competitive.” “It was an amazing year. I would have never fathomed I would win the national championship and two track [Read More]

Lessons learned in first title chase pay off for Grabouski

BEATRICE, Neb. – The lessons he learned winning his first IMCA national championship paid off again this year for Jordan Grabouski. So did his success at a slew of early-season specials in Kansas and Nebraska. The Beatrice, Neb., hotshoe parlayed a division leading and single season career-best 33 feature wins and two local track titles into the 2016 Xtreme Motor Sports IMCA Modified national title. “When I won my first national championship in 2011, the points really went down to the last weekend and I had to win my last race,” he said. “I had a better understanding that the point season was 50 races and was more patient this year.” “We only finished outside the top five eight times (in 51 starts) this year,” Grabouski noted. “A lot of that was because as you race more, you don’t put yourself in position to wreck or get a DNF.” “We’ve run a crate engine from Friesen Chevrolet for a couple years and that’s been a big boost for us,” he added. “We had another year [Read More]

IMCA national awards banquet honors 2016’s best

LINCOLN, Neb. (Nov. 26) – IMCA honored the best of the best Saturday night, during the national awards banquet in Lincoln, Neb. National champions taking their turns on stage and at the podium were Jordan Grabouski, Xtreme Motor Sports IMCA Modified; Rob Toland, IMCA Late Model; Andy Shouse, IMCA EMI RaceSaver Sprint Car; Mike Nichols, IMCA Sunoco Stock Car; Shannon Anderson, IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stock; Jeffrey Abbey, Scoggin-Dickey Parts Center Southern SportMod; Tony Olson, Karl Chevrolet Northern SportMod; and Nate Coopman, Sport Compact. Nichols, who matched Coopman’s single-season record with 54 wins this season, and Anderson became the first drivers in IMCA’s modern era to win career sixth national crowns in the same division. Coopman raced to his career fourth crown, Toland to his third and Grabouski to his second. Shouse, Abbey and Olson all earned career-first national titles. Modified regional champions included Cory Sample, Larry Shaw Race Cars Western; Grabouski, Jet Racing Central; Matt Guillaume, Razor Chassis South Central; Chris Abelson, BMS North Central; and A.J. Ward, Dirt Works Eastern. Nichols reigned in the [Read More]

IMCA Manufacturer’s Cup winner has new name, seventh title in eight years

GREAT BEND, Kan. – While the name engraved on the trophy will be different, BMS by Xtreme continued its IMCA’s Manufacturer’s Cup success in 2016. The chassis builder now located in Great Bend, Kan., had the top point total for the sixth straight year, and for the seventh time in the program’s eight years. Points are awarded based on the make of chassis driven by drivers finishing in the top 10 in each of the five regions for Xtreme Motor Sports IMCA Modifieds. BMS by Xtreme paced both the Western and Eastern regions and finished with 49 points. Razor Chassis ruled in the North Central region and was second with 37 while GRT Race Cars led the way in the Central and South Central regions and totaled 36 points. Larry Shaw Race Cars was fourth with 20 points. Harris Auto Racing was fifth with 18 points and Victory by Moyer rounded out the top six builders with 13 points. All regional cup winners get plaques and BMS by Xtreme receives a $500 cash prize and [Read More]