STERLING, Ill. (Nov. 11, 2022) – Dustin Schram was already familiar with the view from victory lane at East Moline Speedway.  His latest trip there ranked among the highlights of his IMCA Sunoco Late Model national rookie of the year season.  “We decided to do something different this year,” Schram said, after winning a pair of track titles at East Moline along with 28 features over the 2017-2021 course of his Friesen Performance IMCA Northern SportMod career. “Our goal was to win rookie of the year in the Late Model. We did that, we won two features and we even led the national points for a couple weeks.” Wheeling a 2018 MastersBilt purchased from Chuck Hanna – the last Illinois driver to win IMCA Late Model national rookie of the year honors, in 2012 – along with three pickup loads of spare parts, Schram made 34 starts at six different tracks, getting his first win on June 4 at 34 Raceway, just a week after breaking big time at Dubuque Fairgrounds Speedway. “It seemed like [Read More]

ARMOUR, S.D. (Nov. 10, 2022) – Koby Werkmeister went from starting in back getting seat time at the start of the 2022 season to winning the IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car rookie of the year award at the end of it.  Along the way, the 16-year-old from Armour, S.D., picked up his first feature win in the winged division, in addition to I-90 Speedway track and South Dakota State championships. “We just went into the year looking to get seat time and a feel for the car. The rookie award was not a goal until we were told about it mid-season,” he said. “We started watching points more closely then and really concentrated on doing our best every night.”  “Now I look back and ask myself ‘how did we do this?’” continued Werkmeister, 14th in the national point standings. “I can’t thank my parents and everyone who has helped me enough for everything they’ve done for me. It’s been a lot of fun.”  Werkmeister’s prior racing experience had been solely in go-karts, starting at the age of [Read More]

HAMERSVILLE, Ohio (Nov. 10, 2022) – Winning a RaceSaver Sprint Car national championship is a special accomplishment. Winning national championships in IMCA’s winged division in consecutive years even more so and Justin Clark not only accomplished the feat, he did it in a car rescued from the scrap heap. The Hamersville, Ohio pilot defended his 2021 title, outlasting Minnesota rival and friend Trevor Serbus in a close race to the 2022 crown.  He was a 14-time feature winner, also repeating as the top driver in Ohio Thunder Sprint Series and Ohio State point standings.  “We decided this spring that this would be our final RaceSaver season. Winning our first national championship last year still hadn’t set in and we decided we wanted to run for it again,” he explained. “The start of the season was very good and even when we didn’t win our finishes were really consistent.”  Clark reeled off three straight wins to start the year and had just one finish outside the top 10 before starting a streak of six straight victories [Read More]

STERLING, Ill. (Nov. 9, 2022) – A season that began with high expectations ended with Travis Denning winning his career-first Razor Chassis North Central Region championship. Denning more than doubled his career total with 15 Friesen Performance IMCA Modified feature wins, while topping East Moline Speedway and Maquoketa Speedway standings. From Sterling, the Illinois State king was fourth in the national points chase. “We started the season wanting to win the East Moline championship, get 10 feature wins and do as well as we could in national points. As far as those go, you never quite know where you’re going to end up,” Denning said. “We knew we were going to be good in our new Performer by Precision Performance car, but we didn’t know we were going to be that good.”  “Everybody has high expectations at the start of the season. Ours became reality.”  Denning’s seven wins at East Moline included checkers at both the Ron Weedon Memorial and season championship night shows. He also won three times at Maquoketa and at Davenport Speedway, [Read More]

CALERA, Okla. (Nov. 8, 2022) – While William Gould’s 28th Modified season was a learning one, he still taught his GRT Race Cars Southern Region foes a thing or two, too. Gould motored to a second straight and career sixth regional championship while collecting 14 Friesen Performance IMCA Modified feature wins, along with track titles at Boyd Raceway and Kennedale Speedway Park and the Texas State crown. “The goals we set for ourselves every year are to win the region, two track championships and, depending on how good we are, to see where we are in the point standings,” said the Calera, Okla., hotshoe, third nationally this year behind Jordan Grabouski and A.J. Ward. “You can spend God knows how much money chasing specials, or you can race weekly, then put on a suit and tie and go to the national banquet and get checks for $7,000-$10,000.”  “That’s pretty good money for a working man who just likes to race.”  Every indication early in the season was that the 2022 season would be a special one. [Read More]

IONIA, Mich. (Nov. 8, 2022) – A.J. Ward found himself almost out of options just 14 starts into his 2022 season. After wrecking and rebuilding his Friesen Performance IMCA Modified, the Ionia charger was fast but not fast enough and six checkers short of the long-time goal he had set of surpassing Rick Stout as the winningest driver in division history from Michigan. “We had already won six times, then got air borne and twirled around hard mid-May from an outside retaining wall tractor tire at Thunderbird Raceway,” explained Ward, in the hunt for Dirt Works Eastern Region and national championships as well. “We rebuilt the car but it just had that feeling where you knew you couldn’t get any more out of it. We were fast enough to do everything but win for about the next month.” “The change we made in our setup was the kind of stuff you do when you’re all out of options,” he continued, “but it worked and we started turning those second and third-place finishes into wins and [Read More]