Newswire

Estevan fans cheer Scholpp to IMCA.TV Dakota Tour checkers

ESTEVAN, Sask. (July 10, 2023) – Fans at Estevan Motor Speedway cheered one of their own to the checkers Monday night, when the IMCA.TV Dakota Classic Tour returned to Canada. Hometown driver Kody Scholpp led all but one lap of the 30-lap Friesen Performance IMCA Modified main event, taking his first-ever tour win, good for $2,000, ahead of Jason Wolla and Tim Ward. “I’ve never done that great on the tour,” said Scholpp, who had a career-best third place finish the previous night at Minot. “This was my main goal for the tour this year. I wanted to win at Estevan and defend my home track.” “It’s amazing,” he added. “I’ve raced here for 19 years and in a Modified since 2008. The fans here support me so well.” Scholpp was fast from the get-go, taking charge from his outside front row starting spot and running three seconds ahead of Ward before he got into lapped traffic at halfway. Ward, who’d won Sunday’s opening night feature Sunday at Jamestown, was in front briefly following a lap [Read More]

Johnson comes up big at Arlington

ARLINGTON, Minn. (July 8, 2023) – Rollovers and crashes made for an interesting night for the safety crew at Arlington Raceway on Saturday. A first lap red flag in the IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car feature saw several cars get together in turn two, which resulted in both national points leader Trevor Serbus and Mike Stien rolling their cars. Dave Becker and Owen Carlson also got taken to the pits. The front row was gone so everyone moved up and that gave an opening for Matt Johnson to take the lead and he was a fourth of a lap ahead of the rest of the field. On lap 11, a yellow came out for Dan Griep who had been running second but clipped a tire, spun and was then done for the night. A couple laps later, the no. 4 of Jeremy Snow was moving to the front when he spun. On that restart, Matt and Bill Johnson were neck and neck but Brandon Buyesse made a last-lap pass and got around Bill to take behind [Read More]

124 race teams pack pits at Maquoketa Speedway

By Jerry Mackey MAQUOKETA, Iowa (July 8, 2023) – Saturday night the weatherman provided near perfect conditions for racing at the Maquoketa Speedway and the drivers and fans responded by packing the infield with 124 race teams and a really nice crowd took in an action packed program that saw the final checkered flag of the night wave at 10 pm. The IMCA Sunoco Late Models saw 17 drivers take the green flag for their 25-lap feature. One minor caution slowed the feature before a lap was completed, then the main event went flag to flag. Chance Huston led early taking off from his pole position start. Huston had built a comfortable lead before rookie Jaden Fryer was able to close driving around the extreme high line of the quarter mile. Fryer advanced from the third row and closed on Huston with less than 10 laps to go. Fryer overtook Huston and went on to collect his first-ever IMCA Late Model feature win. Huston was able to hold on for second just ahead of a [Read More]

Nichols scores IMCA Stock Car career best payday at Pelster Memorial

ALBION, Neb. (July 9, 2023) – A couple laps in and Mike Nichols knew he had a pretty good car. At the end of 30 laps, that pretty good car took Nichols to the highest paying victory in his remarkable IMCA Sunoco Stock Car career, Sunday’s Tanner Pelster Memorial at Boone County Raceway. Nichols raced from 12th starting, passing Tyler Iverson for second and then Jordan Grabouski for the lead in the waning laps of the $6,111 to win main event. The checkers, Nichols’ IMCA best 617th, were accompanied by an automatic starting spot in the B & B Racing Chassis All-Star Invitational. “We’ve been out to Albion a dozen times over the years and they always have a good track. They did a great job, with how many cars and races there were. The track was phenomenal. You could run anywhere,” said Nichols, from Harlan, Iowa. “We changed our setup after the heat race for more drive in the feature and everything worked like we wanted it to. We knew in the first couple laps [Read More]

I-37 fans salute first-time IMCA Modified winner Torres

By JM Hallas PLEASANTON, Texas (July 8, 2023) – It was a blast, literally. While many tracks celebrated the Fourth of July during the previous week, I-37 Speedway celebrated the next weekend, hosting its Military Appreciation Night with free admission to active and retired military, discounts for the rest of their families and loads of service members from the San Antonio bases. Last year the cannon was a big hit. #herecomestheboom At the start of the Friesen Performance IMCA Modified 20-lap feature it was Greg Dinsmore getting a good launch to get the lead followed by Ryan Doyon, Rick Green, Johnny Torres and Chris Carroll. Doyon quickly began looking on Greg Dinsmore getting the top spot on lap two with Johnny Torres getting third from Green. Logan Dinsmore made his way past Carroll for fifth. Darrell Boyd had his first of two spins for a lap four caution. Once back to green, Torres worked past Greg Dinsmore for second while Logan Dinsmore took fourth from Green. Greg Dinsmore fought back, running side-by-side with Torres for a couple [Read More]

Point leaders come up short at Off Road Speedway

By Randy Pospishil sports@norfolkdailynews.com NORFOLK, Neb. (July 8, 2023) – Saturday night was a difficult night for the points leaders in the various divisions at Off Road Speedway. Primarily due to issues beyond their control, which forced exits from the racing surface to the pits, none of those drivers finished anywhere near contention for a spot among the top three during the feature races in any of the five divisions. Those circumstances, with just seven nights of points racing remaining this season, leaves the competition for track championships wide open. In the Friesen Performance IMCA Late Model feature, for example, Cory Dumpert was forced to leave the track twice with fuel system problems, ending a performance that had the Newman Grove driver battling for the lead with Dylan Schmer for much of the race. When Dumpert left for the first time with seven laps remaining, which required him to report to the rear of the field upon his return, three cars – Schmer, Chase Osborne, and Nelson Vollbrecht –continued the up front competition. After several [Read More]

Stedjee makes first visit of season to Shawano’s victory lane

SHAWANO, Wis. (July 8, 2023) – Vern Stedjee turned his IMCA Sunoco Stock Car luck at Shawano around 180 degrees with the Saturday night feature win. Seventeenth, 12 and 15th in his last three starts at the Wisconsin speed factory, Stedjee sped to the early lead from his fourth place starting spot and began to pull away from the rest of the field. Business then picked up behind him as Travis VanStraten, Kyle Frederick and Dan Michonski each began making a charge to the front. In the end, however, the challenge of VanStraten was not enough to deny Stedjee the checkers, his first of 2023. Friesen Performance IMCA Modifieds had kicked off the nights feature events, with Nick Holtger and Jerry Muenster responsible for leading the field to green. Marcus Yarie quickly made a charge for the lead after a few early cautions, followed by Lucas Lamberies, Johnny Whitman and Jordan Bartz. By lap five, Whitman found his way around his fellow competitors on the top of race track and grabbed the top spot. Lamberies was [Read More]

Reed repeats PASS win at Selinsgrove

By Frank Buhrman SELINSGROVE, Pa. (July 8, 2023) – Austin Reed squeezed past Zach Rhodes on the outside after a brief but furious battle for the lead and went on to win the 20-lap River Valley Builders Pennsylvania Sprint Series feature Saturday night at Selinsgrove Speedway. It was the second straight win at the Snyder County oval for the veteran from Etters, who finished second in PASS points last season, and it came on a night that saw misfortune strike several front-runners, while those with better luck entertained the fans with some great on-track action. Reed claimed a victory margin of 1.77 seconds at the checkers. Rhodes, who drew the pole position after winning his heat race, led the first 17 laps and nearly scored his first career PASS win – he won an IMCA RaceSaver feature earlier this year with the Virginia Sprint Series at Winchester, Va. He hung on for second place ahead of a hard-charging Doug Dodson, who took third from Kruz Kepner on the final lap after starting ninth. Thirteenth starting [Read More]

Rick races to a share of history Sunday at Benton County Speedway

VINTON, Iowa (July 9, 2023) – It took Lukas Rick a little longer than normal to get there, but by night’s end he again stood victorious in victory lane at Benton County Speedway. With Sunday’s win, the Mach-1 IMCA Sport Compact driver accomplished something that had only been done once 44 years ago at The Bullring. Colton Stewart was the early leader in the iHeart Radio 12-lapper. Stewart quickly pulled away from the 18-car field, leaving the rest of the pack to battle two and three-wide behind him. A pair of stoppages kept the field tightly bunched, allowing Rick and Devin Jones to work through traffic from mid-pack starts. The pair of pursuers kept pace with Stewart until Rick was able to make the pass for the lead with only a couple laps to go. He held off pressure from Stewart late to score his fifth straight win in weekly racing to open the season. The only other time a driver won the first five points races of a season at the speedway was Dave [Read More]

IMCA.TV Dakota Tour battle lives up to billing as Berry is best at Nodak

MINOT, N.D. (July 9, 2023) – What the announcers promised to be a battle royale lived up to its billing Sunday at Nodak Speedway. Defending champion Tom Berry Jr. passed Travis Hagen for the lead just after midway, then worked his way through lapped cars to win a fast-paced 30-lap Friesen Performance IMCA Modified main event on night two of the 34th annual IMCA.TV Dakota Classic Tour. Berry put on a clinic working in and through heavy traffic, finally running with an open track in front of him for the last four circuits. He led Hagen across the stripe by just more than a second with Kody Scholpp third, five seconds off the pace. “I was just being patient. Travis drove a great race,” said Berry, who’d swept the six-race tour last year but exited early from Saturday’s opener at Jamestown with mechanical issues. “I just timed it out just right to get him.” Hagen, also the runner-up at Jamestown, and Berry drew front row starts and both had caught up with the back of the field [Read More]