Newswire

Three IMCA Hobby Stock track titles complement Church’s rookie awards

MOORHEAD, Minn. – Three decades after his last race, Tim Church returned to the track with that same competitive spirit. The IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stock driver from Moorhead, Minn., has national and Big Daddy Race Cars Northern Region rookie of the year awards, as well as a trio of track championships to prove it. Now 52 years old, Church had run a handful of enduros in the 1980s before getting married, starting a business and raising his family. Wife Bonnie and daughters Teresa and Carla encouraged him to get back behind the wheel so he bought Shannon Anderson’s 2015 ride and made the tow home to Moorhead, Minn., through a snowstorm with an open trailer. “Whatever I raced, it had to be a big body car. That’s what I like and I wanted to race IMCA because I wanted to run a crate engine,” Church said. “I got seat time at Spring Nationals in Beatrice and wore out two sets of tires at an open practice at North Central Speedway.” He ended his rookie season [Read More]

IMCA Modifieds new in 2017 at N.Y.’s Thunder Mountain Speedway

CENTER LISLE, N.Y. – IMCA-sanctioned Modifieds return to Thunder Mountain Speedway in 2017, headlining Saturday programs at the south central New York speedplant. The first point race for the newest addition to the Dirt Works Eastern Region will be April 15. The tentative schedule for the 3/8-mile clay oval just north of Center Lisle sees the Xtreme Motor Sports IMCA Modified season running to Sept. 2. “There are a lot of IMCA Modified drivers in this area and I know many of them personally,” Thunder Mountain owner and promoter Karl Spoonhower said. “IMCA Modifieds are good looking cars, they put on pretty decent shows, the fans like them and that’s the name of the game.” The upcoming season will be the 26th at Thunder Mountain. Spoonhower had started his own construction company to build the facility in the early 1990s and got back into the race track promotional business in 2014. “I think we’ve got the nicest racing surface of any track in the area. We put 700 truckloads of new clay on it last year,” [Read More]

Unafraid of tough competition, Pfeifer earns IMCA Stock Car rookie honors

HILL CITY, Kan. – A tough 2015 Hobby Stock season didn’t deter Kyle Pfeifer from moving to the IMCA Sunoco Stock Car division this year. “I wanted to see what I could do in a new class,” Pfeifer said, after winning eight of his 52 starts and earning national and EQ Cylinder Heads Northern Region rookie awards. “The competition level around here is second to none. I got to race with guys I grew up watching, and racing side-by-side with them for the win was awesome.” Also the Thomas County Speedway track and Allstar Performance State champion, Pfeifer was 12th in national points. His career first Stock Car victory came on April 22 at Oberlin. He wrapped up the season with four wins and four more top five finishes in his last 10 starts. “It was pretty cool to get my first Stock Car win at Oberlin because that’s where I got my first Hobby Stock win, and the competition was really good that night,” said Pfeifer. “The seat time helped for sure but we started [Read More]

Finishing every start helps Blurton finish as Sprint rookie of the year, URSS champ

QUINTER, Kan. – Winning national rookie of the year honors and the United Rebel Sprint Series championship had Zach Blurton stoked about his first IMCA EMI RaceSaver season. So did finishing each of the 34 races he started in 2016. The Quinter, Kan., driver set the pace for all first-year drivers in the sanctioned Sprint Car division, winning five times and ending in 10th place in the national points race. He’d been second in URSS points twice in the previous five years. “I was really excited when the series announced they’d be IMCA this season. It was really cool to be able to follow that and chase rookie points,” said Blurton. “We had a really good year. It was our first year ever with no DNFs. We didn’t have any torn up parts and we did everything on one motor.” All five of his feature wins, in Colorado, Nebraska and Kansas, came over the course of 25 series starts. “We had a lot of races close to home but still towed 18,000 miles this year,” [Read More]

Frye adds national, regional rookie awards to already crowded IMCA trophy display case

BELLEVILLE, Kan. – Tyler Frye will make room for a couple more trophies in his IMCA display case. Frye raced to Xtreme Motor Sports IMCA Modified national and Jet Racing Central Region rookie of the year honors. The Belleville, Kan., clipper won eight of 48 starts this season in IMCA’s premier division. “When we started the season, we told ourselves that rookie of the year would be something we could accomplish,” said Frye, the 2015 Karl Chevrolet Northern SportMod national champion. “By the middle of the season we knew it was possible and kept working.” “It took a lot of nights to figure out what I wanted to do as a driver and what we wanted the car to do,” he continued. “I would have liked to get more starts this season but that wasn’t possible for a variety of reasons.” His first win came in just his eighth Modified start, on April 9 at RPM Speedway. Two of the four wins Frye registered between May 21 and June 11 came at Salina Speedway. “I [Read More]

Stock Car regional crown puts Westin Abbey in IMCA history book

COMANCHE, Texas – After earning rookie of the year awards each of the last two seasons, Westin Abbey took the logical step up in 2016. The 16-year-old from Comanche, Texas, became the youngest driver to win a regional IMCA championship, topping the EQ Cylinder Heads Southern Region for IMCA Sunoco Stock Cars. Abbey, the youngest of four brothers to have made names for themselves on Lone Star State dirt ovals, won 14 of his 54 starts this season. He was eighth in the national points race with Boyd Raceway track and Allstar Performance State championships to his credit. “We didn’t plan on racing for points but we got caught up in it,” said Abbey, a junior at Comanche High School. “The second year of experience really made a big difference.” The regional Hobby Stock rookie of the year in 2014, Abbey had won three features in his first Stock Car campaign. He won six straight times between June 4 and June 24 this season. “This was a great year. It was pretty cool to win [Read More]

Warren achieves goals of winning 2016 IMCA Hobby Stock regional, state titles

FAIRFIELD, Texas – Wesley Warren saw a lot of the Texas countryside during his drive to the Charger Chassis Southern Region championship. The IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stock pilot from Fairfield won nine features, plus 281 Speedway track and Allstar Performance State honors in his third season in the division. “We set goals of winning the region and state this year and we did it,” said Warren. “It was a lot of work so we have a pretty good feeling of accomplishment.” While nearly half his starts came an hour away at Waco’s Heart O’ Texas Speedway, Warren also logged a dozen 4-1/2 hour trips to Abilene Speedway, while Cotton Bowl Speedway and 281 are both about 2-1/2 hours from home. He was a three-time winner at 281, at Abilene and at Cotton Bowl, and posted 10 top-five finishes at HO’T. His first checkers at Stephenville, on March 26, came in his first race at 281 since totaling a street stock there during the 2013 season. “I like the Hobby Stocks – they’re a challenge to [Read More]

Ward joins exclusive Michigan fraternity by winning Dirt Works Eastern Region crown

IONIA, Mich. – A.J. Ward was right on target when he decided the time was right to run for 20 wins and the Dirt Works Eastern Region championship. Ward totaled 24 Xtreme Motor Sports IMCA Modified feature victories, including a pair in New York, while becoming the first Michigan driver to reign in the region since Rick Stout in 1996. “I’ve been shooting for a 20-win season for a couple years. We got a new car (a 2013 BMS) and were flirting with 20 wins by early August,” said Ward, third in the national point standings despite logging just 38 starts, and champion at Tri-City Motor Speedway for the third time in four seasons. “It’s huge for me to be mentioned in the same sentence with Rick Stout.” From Ionia, Ward collected 22 checkers in his home state, winning 13 times at Tri-City, another five features at I-96 Speedway and four more at Crystal Motor Speedway. “Tri-City re-opened in 2011 so it’s still a relatively new track to all of us,” he said. “I don’t [Read More]

Brenn named IMCA executive director of competition

VINTON, Iowa – Dave Brenn has a new job and some new responsibilities with America’s oldest automotive racing sanctioning body. Brenn has been named executive director of competition for IMCA. As such, he’ll be in charge of the competition department while continuing the same responsibilities he’d held as the organization’s director of division development for the past four years. “This is really a change in workload,” explained IMCA President Brett Root. “Competition Director Tom Gutowski will continue his current duties. While Dave will be taking on more responsibilities, for example he’ll still research new products for their possible use in IMCA.” While Brenn will continue traveling to and heading up tech at IMCA events around the country, he also becomes the first point of contact for drivers and local track officials with tech-related questions. “This seems like a natural progression. I am very excited about this position and am proud to be associated with IMCA,” Brenn said. “After a career of 30-plus years in the telecommunications industry, I’m happy to be working for IMCA. I [Read More]

Abelson’s third straight BMS North Central Region title complemented by tour, special events success

SIOUX CITY, Iowa – Chris Abelson wanted to concentrate on winning his first Hawkeye Dirt Tour crown and hitting more special events this season. He accomplished both goals, while racing to a third straight BMS North Central Region title. “Following the Hawkeye Dirt Tour was my goal for the year. That and racing at more specials were the extent of my plans,” said Abelson, from Sioux City, Iowa, and the defending Xtreme Motor Sports IMCA Modified national king. “To get better, you need to race against better competition and I knew a lot of those drivers would be in the Hawkeye Dirt Tour and at the bigger shows.” “I wanted to become a better driver and see how I measured up,” he continued. “When you can race with drivers like that and be a top four car, you’ve got to consider that a success.” Largely a one-man team this season, Abelson ended with 31 wins in 70 starts – at 19 different tracks in three states – and paced the points at Buena Vista Raceway. [Read More]