Newswire

Shannon leads California chargers, Roberts races to Modified checkers in nightcap

BOONE, Iowa (Sept. 5) – They were dancing in streets all over the Golden State Thursday night. Nick Roberts had them dancing in the street in Des Moines later in the evening. Californians D.J. Shannon of Merced, Cody Laney of Torrance and Randy Brown of Chowchilla led 2010 champion Jimmy Gustin of Marshalltown across the stripe in the first of two Modified qualifying features at the IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s. The nightcap saw Roberts, from Des Moines and the 2012 Northern SportMod champion at Super Nationals, beat Jordan Grabouski of Beatrice, Neb., Kelly Shryock of Fertile and Jeff Taylor of Cave City, Ark., to the checkers. The national Modified and Stock Car point leader, Grabouski had won a Stock Car qualifier earlier in the program. Taylor was the Modified champ at Super Nationals seven years go. All eight drivers will advance to the middle row of Saturday’s main event at Boone Speedway. Brown led the first three laps of the opening qualifier before Shannon buzzed by. Shannon, Laney and Brown ran [Read More]

Californians D.J. Shannon of Merced, Cody Laney of Torrance and Randy Brown of Chowchilla ran 1-2-3 in Thursday’s first Modified qualifying feature at the IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s. (Photo by Jim Zimmerline)

Top tosser Dotson will start on Modified pole

BOONE, Iowa (Sept. 5) – Ethan Dotson picked up another win at the IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s … one that will put him on the pole for Saturday’s Modified main event. The California hotshoe got the best of Ricky Thornton Jr. in a single round bag toss matchup in the Fan Zone at Boone Speedway. Both had won qualifying features on Wednesday. The pole start is worth several thousand dollars in contingency awards and Thornton will take the initial green behind Dotson in the inside row. Second through fourth place finishing drivers squared off to decide the next six spots. Tom Berry Jr. defeated Zane DeVilbiss for third and Tim Ward beat Corey Dripps for fifth. Jeffrey Abbey made earlier practice he gotten in the Stock Car bag toss pay off, topping Jeremy Mills.

Smith bags Saturday pole start

BOONE, Iowa (Sept. 5) – Multi-talented Devin Smith will start on the pole of Saturday’s Stock Car main event, at the IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s. Smith defeated fellow Wednesday night qualifying feature winner Jason See in a one-round bag toss tournament, held during a track prep session at Boone Speedway this afternoon. See will start second on the inside row. Second through fourth place finishers from last night went one-on-one with varying degrees of bag toss ability and accuracy for their respective starting spots. Bryan Rigsby will start third, Abe Huls fourth, Donavon Smith fifth, Jeffrey Abbey sixth, Josh Daniels seventh and Mike Van Genderen eighth.

Smith, See score in Super Nationals Stock Car qualifiers

BOONE, Iowa (Sept. 4) – Devin Smith and Jason See added to their trophy collections by taking home the hardware in Wednesday night Stock Car qualifying features at the IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s. 2014 champion Smith outran Abe Huls, brother Donavon Smith and Josh Daniels for top four transfer spots in the opener. The nightcap was a battle of hard chargers as 11th starting See, 27th starting Bryan Rigsby, Jeffrey Abbey and 30th starting Mike Van Genderen also moved on to Saturday’s main event at Boone Speedway. Devin Smith set the fast pace from the initial green in the first qualifier, stopped by caution just once. Defending champion Damon Murty was on the move before getting caught up in a turn two mishap at midway; Huls regained the second spot from 2009 and 2012 champion Donavon Smith with two laps left. See made like a rocket in the second qualifier, moving from inside row six at the start to the front in just eight circuits. A succession of potential challengers took their turns running [Read More]

Dotson, Thornton are super in Wednesday Modified qualifying wins

BOONE, Iowa (Sept. 4) – Ethan Dotson took the next step toward winning his career first IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s championship while Ricky Thornton Jr. took the next toward winning his second of the week Wednesday at Boone Speedway. Dotson, from Bakersfield, Calif., got the best of fellow Shaw Racing Western Region foe Zane DeVilbiss in topping the first Modified qualifier feature. Thornton, meanwhile, led all 25 laps of the second qualifier. The 2016 champion at Boone, he’d started the week by winning Monday’s Deery Brothers Summer Series Late Model main event. Top four finishers from each qualifier advance to the inside row of Saturday’s main event. DeVilbiss, from Farmington, N.M., Corey Dripps of Reinbeck and Jeremy Mills of Britt completed the top four behind Dotson. Tom Berry Jr. of Newburg, N.D., Tim Ward of Harcourt and Jeffrey Abbey of Comanche, Texas, chased Thornton to the checkers. Abbey had qualified for Saturday’s Stock Car main event earlier in the program. He’d won the Southern SportMod crown at Super Nationals in 2016. [Read More]

Kevin Roberts

GRESHAM, Ore. – Kevin Roberts was so impressed the first time he saw an IMCA Sunoco Stock Car that he went out and bought one for himself. Now he’s one of the driving forces behind the growth of the division in the Pacific Northwest and the first Stock Car driver from Oregon to compete at the IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s. “We are helping start a class that is going to take off anyway,” Roberts said Wednesday afternoon, shortly after making his debut at Boone Speedway. “It’s going to happen. People love this class.” Roberts, from Gresham, saw how much the drivers and fans loved the sanctioned class during a trip to Arizona. He bought his first car used out of Texas, then – much impressed by owner Paul Burger’s knowledge – bought three B & B Chassis rollers. After racing everything from a street stock to modifieds and late models, Roberts quickly found a new favorite division. He’s won two of the first 11 Big Sky Landscaping Series events so far [Read More]

Larry Sutton

BOONE, Iowa – Larry Sutton was ecstatic to watch son Tyler qualify for the Modified main event at last year’s IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s. The 35-year veteran would be almost as happy to match that accomplishment at the 37th annual event. “Tyler had a real good week last year and I was ecstatic to see him qualify. It was the greatest feeling in the world,” said Sutton, from Beloit, Kan. “It would be great if I made it in this year, knowing that would be two years in a row we made it.” A regular at Salina Speedway, Sutton is in his 33rd year in an IMCA Modified. This is his 11th trip to Boone Speedway to be part of America’s Racin’ Vacation. “Qualifying would be another notch in longevity. It would show I still have some talent at this age,” he said. “There are a lot of good cars and a lot of talent out there these days.” What he enjoys about Super Nationals is the friends old and new and the challenge of [Read More]

Ernie Martin

BOONE, Iowa – An IMCA Modified that’s racked up its share of feature wins in the Empire State returns to Boone Speedway and the IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s this week. Ernie Martin will drive the Victory Chassis formerly piloted by Dale Caswell and Chris Fleming, the latter of whom drove it into the Saturday show seven years ago. “This car has won a lot of races. It has a strong history in New York State,” said Martin, wheeling for owner Rich McNeal. “It would be phenomenal for me to come out here and be competitive.” The Troy, Pa., pilot has crewed for other drivers in his first four trips to Super Nationals. While he’s raced for 20-plus years, this will be the first time he raced at Boone. “Nothing else compares to racing at Super Nationals. This is something I’ve wanted to say I’ve been to and done,” he explained. “Nothing else compares to this.”

Weekly Racing Bonus doubled as result of record Stock Car entries at Super Nationals

BOONE, Iowa – The record number of Stock Car entries could result in a record payout Saturday night at the IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s. An event-record 202 Stock Cars will compete today (Wednesday) at Boone Speedway. IMCA President Brett Root announced before the start of this afternoon’s program that the Weekly Racing Bonus paid to the winner of the Sept. 7 main event would be doubled to $100 for each of as many as 50 sanctioned starts made during the 2019 season. With as much as $5,000 in bonus money added to the guaranteed $1,000, that makes the Saturday night checkers worth a potential $6,000. “We have not lost sight of the core of IMCA racing, the weekly racer,” said Root. “There is no better way for us to support the drivers who support IMCA and no better event to do so than at Super Nationals.” Stock Cars have been part of the Super Nationals program since 1988. The previous divisional car count record was 193, set in 2015. A $100 [Read More]