Newswire

Opening night checkers a sign of success to come for top rookie Johnson

MOORHEAD, Minn. – Luke Johnson accomplished the rare feat of winning his first race in a new division. After the May 6 victory at Norman County Raceway, he followed with six more checkers on the way to earning the national Karl Chevrolet Northern SportMod award. “Winning rookie of the year and my first-ever feature were definitely the highlights of my season,” said the Moorhead, Minn., driver. “It didn’t get any easier after the first win but after we got some more things figured out with the car, we got six more wins.” He won three times in all at Norman County and twice each at Buffalo River Race Park and Red River Valley Speedway. Johnson has been a regular at all three tracks since his mod-4 days and is partial to the West Fargo oval, where he finished third in the point standings this season. “I wanted to go to a Northern SportMod and made the switch to IMCA, and I’m glad I did,” said Johnson. “I like the way these cars drive and handle. [Read More]

Crow rescues old car from weeds, wins Sport Compact rookie award

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. – A car rescued from the weeds carried Richard Crow to the national rookie of the year award in IMCA’s Mach-1 Sport Compact division. “I had wrecked late in the season so I got my old car out of the weeds to finish the year,” he said. “I won three times in that car, twice at RPM Speedway and once at Salina Speedway.” From Grand Island, Neb., Crow had opted to race with IMCA because of the number of sanctioned tracks. He collected nine wins in all, with victories at five of the 10 different tracks in four states that he raced at. “We didn’t decide to race for rookie points until about a month into the season,” said Crow, sparked by back-to-back April checkers at U.S. 30 Speedway and Lincoln County Raceway. “We told ourselves ‘Let’s go for it.’” RPM ranks as his favorite venue. “It’s like my home track that I used to race at but has way more cars,” explained Crow. “I’d rather race against a lot of cars. [Read More]

Rust, Armstrong win drawings to attend 2017 Bob Harris Race Tech Info chassis schools

AMES, Iowa – Joel Rust and Adam Armstrong were winners of drawings to attend Bob Harris Enterprises Race Tech Info dirt chassis schools next month. Winners of 30 designated events for Xtreme Motor Sports IMCA Modifieds and 15 specials for Karl Chevrolet Northern SportMods and Scoggin-Dickey Parts Center Southern SportMods were entered in that drawing. Rust will attend the Jan. 13-14 session while Armstrong can look forward to the Jan. 27-28 school. All race winners received certificates good for two shock rebuilds. Modified winners were Chris Abelson, Kyle Brown, John Corell, Myron DeYoung, Tracy Domagala, Kevin Green, Richie Gustin, John Hansen, Bobby Hogge IV, Jeff James, Justin Kay, Benji LaCrosse, Josh McGaha, Hunter Marriott, Jay Noteboom, Jeremy Payne, Reed Payne, Travis Peery, Robby Sawyer, Johnny Scott, Brad Sites, Dylan Smith, Alex Stanford, Kevin Sustaire, Ricky Thornton Jr., A.J. Ward and Justin Zeitner. And SportMod drivers included Jeffrey Abbey, Justin Addison, Travis Arenz, Lance Borgman, Darren DeLoach, Kinzer Edwards, Daniel Gottschalk, Shawn Harker, Levi Kiefer, Johnathon Logue, Tony Olson, Tyler Soppe and Nick Spainhoward.

Top competition helps McDonald to top of Southern SportMod rookie point standings

KELLER, Texas – Better competition made Kamera Kaitlin McDonald a better driver. The Scoggin-Dickey Parts Center Southern SportMod national rookie of the year from Keller, Texas, tallied three feature wins while running weekly at Boyd Raceway and Kennedale Speedway Park, also the regular venues for national champion Jeffrey Abbey and a host of the division’s heavy hitters. “I have raced with the Abbeys forever. It’s always been a goal of mine to be competitive,” said McDonald, 15 years old and a sophomore at Timber Creek High School. “I got three of the wins Jeffrey could have had. Once I won my first race (on June 11 at Kennedale) we strived even harder.” McDonald was runner-up to Abbey at KSP, third behind Abbey and Ronnie Welborn at Boyd and fourth in the national points race. “Seat time was very important. I learned to get a feel for the car and read more into the track,” said McDonald, who made 47 starts at five different speedplants in Texas and Oklahoma. “That helped me develop as a driver. [Read More]

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]