Newswire

No sleeping in for Stuart after Batesville win

BENTON, Ark. (Aug. 10, 2024) – The smile in victory lane belonged to Dustin Stuart. The smile the next morning belonged to his daughter Scarlette. Stuart won Saturday’s IMCA Sunoco Stock Car feature at Batesville Motor Speedway, his first sanctioned checkers since 2021. After a two-hour tow home to Benton, the trophy went straight to the bedroom of six-year-old Scarlette, who woke up to find it early … too early … the next morning. “She came in our bedroom, jumped on top of me and said ‘You got me a trophy!’ She was ecstatic,” said Stuart. “We’d gotten home about three in the morning and this was at 8 a.m. I wasn’t ready to get woken up quite that early.” A five-time feature winner and the first-ever Stock Car state champion crowned in Arkansas in 2020, Stuart dialed up GRT and inquired about getting a new car after realizing he’d be eligible to qualify for the IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s Race of Champions. He picked up that ride, the first one [Read More]

Alley tops RaceSaver Sprints in return to Eagle

By Greg Soukup EAGLE, Neb. (Aug. 10, 2024) – For those of you who aren’t familiar with Billy Alley, he was a fixture at Eagle Raceway and other tracks until his father passed away in 2020. Alley decided to step away from the sport he loved and just came back to Eagle last week, finishing 11th in the IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car ‘B’ feature. Saturday night proved to be his triumphant return as Alley led every lap in winning the Work Hard, Play Hard Night main event, beating Stu Snyder, Gene Ackland and Jason Danley to the stripe in a green, white, checkered finish. “It’s a tough deal out here, racing against the cars at Eagle Raceway. When I stepped away I never thought I would be back,” said Alley. “I tried to figure out how many years I’ve been away from Eagle but I never thought I was going to win a Sprint Car race again in my life, let alone here at Eagle Raceway. “It’s a pretty proud moment for me. I’m happy and grateful that Toby Chapman [Read More]

Points, Kennerly collect Cottage Grove checkers

By Ben Deatherage COTTAGE GROVE, Ore. (Aug. 10, 2024) – Checkers flew Saturday for Trevor Points and Michael Kennerly following their respective IMCA feature wins on Wallbanger Cup Night at Cottage Grove Speedway. Don Moore began the Friesen Performance IMCA Northern SportMod main event as the race leader. Shortly after securing the lead, Todd Shandy put him under fire, coming to challenge and make a pass underneath Moore to become the new leader on lap three. Shandy took off, but before he could get too far ahead, a caution came out with six complete. Dalton Bloom powered his way into second on the restart. He tried to reel in the leader but experienced a severe tire rub that flattened his right rear tire, resulting in another yellow on lap nine. Jordan Henry inherited the position. Henry was under a heavy barrage when the field returned to speed from Points. Points finally got into second on the 14th circuit, just before the final caution came out. On the restart, Points got around Shandy for the race [Read More]

Foulger is double winner at Merced’s Central California Clash show

By Ben Deatherage MERCED, Calif. (Aug. 10, 2024) – Troy Foulger celebrated his first win this season at Merced Speedway with fireworks. The Oakley flyer celebrated twice when he returned to the Central Valley oval Saturday night for the latest installment of the Central California Clash. Foulger, first to the checkers in the July 3 Friesen Performance IMCA Modified headliner at Merced, topped both the Modified and IMCA Sunoco Stock Car features at Merced. The Modified feature paid $1,000 to win with Foulger already Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational qualifying eligible. Jason Bannister was the Friesen Performance IMCA Northern SportMod victor. Cody Burke led the Modified pack in the early stages, challenged around the sixth lap by Foulger, who got around for the lead on the next circuit, with the lap scored complete just before what proved to be the only caution of the contest came out. On the restart, Burke was under fire from Paul Stone, a fight that Stone would win on the eighth circuit. Bobby Hogge followed, putting his machine into third [Read More]

James, Williamson split wins at Willamette

By Ben Deatherage LEBANON, Ore. (Aug. 9 and 10, 2024) – Friesen Performance IMCA Modifieds were in action at Willamette Speedway on Friday and Saturday for a pair of exciting races on the historic 1/3-mile clay oval. The main event on Friday began with Matthew Drager taking control at the start. A caution on the second circuit set up a battle for second between Carter Patterson and Dan Sheller. Patterson held on to the runner-up spot but a new force to reckon with towards the front emerged in Bricen James. James worked his way into third on lap five and, after dealing with some traffic, was up to second on the 11th circuit. The former Shaw Race Cars Western Region champion was not content with remaining behind the leader and began challenging the inside of the pacesetter, threading the needle in the second corner to procure the coveted position and be the new trailblazer on the 13th lap. While James secured the lead, Grey Ferrando motored his way forward. Ferrando went from fourth to second [Read More]

Off Road winners are Mielke, Landauer, Kirk

By Randy Pospishil sports@norfolkdailynews.com NORFOLK, Neb. (Aug. 10, 2024) – Tejay Mielke, Travis Landauer and Willy Kirk all won IMCA main events Saturday at Off Road Speedway. Mielke began the IMCA Sunoco Stock Car feature in the middle of the pack but used two caution restarts to move into the top five, battling with Cameron Wilkinson and Justin Bertschinger to challenge race leader Kyle Wilkinson. Mielke pulled away from that competition to pursue Kyle Wilkinson, closed the distance, then passed on the outside of turn four to take over the lead. Four laps later, despite one final caution, Mielke took the checkered flag for the win. Cameron Wilkinson, meanwhile, had been in third place behind the leaders but passed brother Kyle immediately after that last caution, spun out as the cars entered turn four on the final lap, leaving brother Kyle to secure second place with Derek Sehi finishing third. In the IMCA Sunoo Hobby Stock feature, Landauer parlayed a chance to start on the pole into a wire-to-wire win, while the other front-row starter, [Read More]

Nielsen, Garrigan dominate IMCA features at Black Hills

By Ben Deatherage RAPID CITY, S.D. (Aug. 9, 2024) – Friday had Black Hills Speedway fire things up again at the South Dakota 1/2-mile oval. The Friesen Performance IMCA Modifieds and Sunoco IMCA Hobby Stocks filled the pit area as the two sanctioned divisions on the card. Jack Hubbard Jr. sprinted to the early lead in the Modified ranks. However, Brent Nielsen closed the gap between himself and the leader to contest for first place. Nielsen successfully obtained the position by moving inside Hubbard at the line on lap three. From there, the new pacesetter had no issues. He extended his lead to a sizable advantage and took care of business the rest of the distance to win by 6.551 seconds after starting last in the lineup. The race for second was a thrilling battle that kept the audience on the edge of their seats. Nate Hand made a daring move to secure the runner-up spot, with Hubbard and Adam Boggs following closely behind. Brent Nielsen was nothing short of dominant in winning Friday’s Friesen [Read More]

Bencken’s latest pretty big accomplishment is 100th career IMCA Hobby Stock feature win

OAKLEY, Kan. (Aug. 9, 2024) – Brady Bencken raced his way into the IMCA history book Friday night but probably wasn’t the proudest person standing in victory lane. Bencken won for the 100th time in his IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stock career at home track Thomas County Speedway and was joined after the checkers flew by father Rod and grandfather Wes in displaying the congratulatory banner. “It’s pretty big. When I got my first track championship, it was unbelievable. Now we’re 10 years down the road and 100 wins. It’s pretty neat,” the Oakley, Kan., driver said. “I didn’t even realize until last year that we were even that close. I was just racing, not paying attention to the wins, and then IMCA contacted me.” “It’s a pretty big accomplishment.” Bencken has racked up a lot of pretty big accomplishments since recording his first Hobby Stock win, also at Thomas County, in 2014. The 2016 Kansas state and an 11-time track champion, he won at least 10 features every season from 2016 to 2021. Bencken had a [Read More]

RaceSaver checkers fly at Arlington for Graf

ARLINGTON, Minn. (Aug. 10, 2024) – New cars in victory lane and a rain-free evening provided a great night of racing for the Back to School Kids’ Night at Arlington Raceway. Hunter Hanson had some bad luck in the IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car feature as he had a commanding lead before his motor expired on lap four and he drove to the infield, ending up in a water hole off the front straightaway. Hannah Graf then took the lead on the restart with Brett Allen and Matt Johnson behind her racing side-by-side and trading second and third. Allen got to second and had his sights on Graf but it was Graf taking the checkered first with Allen following and Johnson in third. There were three different leaders in the Friesen Performance IMCA Northern SportMod feature and close racing throughout the entire 15 laps. The early leader was Tony Stephensmeier, who saw Joey Reimers get around him on the third circuit. On the 10th lap, a tire was hit in turn four, causing a yellow flag. That [Read More]

Pickett, Filloon find first Boone checkers of season

By Joyce Eisele BOONE, Iowa (Aug. 10, 2024) – Boone Speedway held another of its weekly racing series events Saturday with only one more week of points racing to go. Two drivers picked up their first season wins as Tyler Pickett took the checkers in the IMCA Sunoco Stock Cars and Dustin Filloon went to victory lane for the first time when he won the IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stock feature. Jake McBirnie won the Friesen Performance IMCA Modified main event, Brayton Carter took the honors in the Friesen Performance IMCA Northern SportMods and Bryan Zehm was the winner of the Stealth Racing IMCA STARS Mod Lites. Feature racing kicked off with the 15-lap Mod Lite main. William Nobles was holding down the lead when the race was red flagged at lap three when Joel Huggins, in just his second night out this year, rolled several times in corner one as he appeared to wheel hop a car trying to avoid another that was sitting still on the track. It was a relief to have Huggins emerge from [Read More]