SIOUX CITY, Iowa – Chris Abelson got to celebrate his birthday the way few other IMCA drivers have. The Sioux City, Iowa, driver blew out the 44 candles on his cake on the final day of the point sea­son before getting the call congratulating him for winning the 2015 Xtreme Motor Sports IMCA Modified national championship. “I could sit back and relax. I was kind of glad the season was over,” admitted Abelson, also the winner of 32 features, three local track titles and a second straight Belleville Motorsports North Central Region crown. “After we got done racing (at September Fest in Beatrice) we came home and waited to hear something official.” That waiting process is something Abelson is already familiar with. He was the Karl Chevrolet Northern SportMod national champion eight years ago and joins just a handful of drivers to have earned national crowns in more than one division. “I think the national championship just kind of happened in the Northern SportMod. It wasn’t some­thing we were trying for,” Abelson said. “We were [Read More]

READING, Minn. ­ – With a month to go in the 2015 point season, Justin Luinenburg sat down and penciled out that he still had a pretty good chance at winning the IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stock national championship. Those calculations proved correct. Luinenburg topped six features in his stretch run and became the first Minnesota driver to capture the title in the 25 years the division has crowned a national champion. “We had decided at the start of the year that we were going to run a lot, but we weren’t going to run for national points,” explained the Reading racer. “Things really didn’t start falling into place until the last seven or eight nights, then we raced much as we could.” “We got to where we needed three or four more wins to do it and fortunately they came for us,” he continued. “Finishing races was important and I can’t say enough about maintenance. Another thing that really helped us this year is that we ran a 2015 Terminator and as the season went [Read More]

BELLEVILLE, Kan. ­– After an uncharacteristic 2014, Tyler Frye got back into a chassis he’d had so much success with in the past. The result was 33 feature wins, three track titles and his career first Karl Chevrolet Northern SportMod national crown. “After last year, there was a huge feeling of relief. We were all in shock for a while,” Frye admit­ted. “We were pretty sure we’d won the national championship but it was nerve wracking waiting for the official call from IMCA.” The Belleville, Kan., clipper had averaged better than 20 feature wins each of the five previous seasons before winning just 14 times last year. “We used the same shocks and setup that we had before but we just never got the car to work for us,” he explained. “So we went back to a DMR by BMS car this year, ran second on opening night of Spring Nationals at Beatrice and won the second night. We knew we were onto something and just had to fine tune it a little.” After getting [Read More]

MANKATO, Minn. – It’s hard to believe, but Nate Coopman had an even better season in 2015 than he did in 2014. The Mankato, Minn., driver won a second straight and career third Mach-1 Sport Compact na­tional championship, 48 of 62 starts ­– including 25 straight during one early stretch during the point season, and track titles at Arlington Raceway, Fairmont Raceway, Nobles County Speed­way and Redwood Speedway, plus Allstar Performance Minnesota State and North Star Touring Series crowns. The icing on the cake, however, was a convincing win at the IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nation­als fueled by Casey’s. For all his many accomplishments in the 4-cylinder class, Septem­ber success at Boone Speedway had eluded Coopman until this year. “Winning Super Nationals was the highlight of my season by far. That was my main goal from the start of the year,” he said. “I broke while leading with five to go at Boone last September and that was still on my mind late in the race this year.” “I was still shaking when I got [Read More]

NORTH RICHLAND HILLS, Texas – A solid month of rain in Texas sent Chad Wilson out of state to keep his sprint car racing skills sharp, but probably not the way you’d expect. Wilson had raced his way to the top of the IMCA Eagle Motorsports RaceSaver Sprint Car na­tional point standings by winning the May 2 main event at Kennedale Speedway Park. Then the dark clouds moved in to stay and the North Richland Hills, Texas, pilot didn’t get back on the big dirt tracks until after the calendar had flipped over to June. “We had rain like crazy. We had like 11 rainouts and didn’t race for a solid month,” Wilson said. “I didn’t think I had a chance at the national championship so what I was doing was driving four hours to race radio controlled sprint cars in Lawton, Okla.” Using a hand control to accelerate, brake and steer a 1/10 scale sprinter kept the competitive fires stoked and Wilson was ready to resume what would prove to be a successful pursuit [Read More]

HORTONVILLE, Wis. ­– Travis Van Straten’s championship season is proof that hard work and patience pay off. So does a little luck. Thirty-four feature wins, including an incredible 11 straight checkers at Shawano Speedway, paved the way for Van Straten’s drive to the IMCA Sunoco Stock Car national crown. “A lot of times it seemed like someone upstairs wanted us to win this thing. There were definitely times when someone was watching over us,” said Van Straten, citing a main event won despite a loose wheel as one example. “There were nights when I had to ask myself ‘Is this really happen­ing?’ usually I’m the guy who should have won but then something went wrong at the last minute.” There were few last-minute disappointments to speak of in 2015. Van Straten completed a rare Friday, Saturday, Sunday sweep at OshKosh SpeedZone Raceway, Shawano and Seymour Speed­way in July, a month that saw him win eight of 11 outings. With the national points chase narrowed to a battle with five-time and defending champion Mike Nichols, the [Read More]