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Shawn Natenstedt: A Century of Wins Forged in the Nevada Desert

By Ben Deatherage FERNLEY, Nev. (Oct. 6, 2025) — The desert around Fernley stretches wide and golden, framed by the distant Sierra Nevadas and stitched with the old irrigation canals that turned sagebrush into farmland more than a century ago. Freight trains roll past the cement plant, the hum of Highway 80 in the distance, and every so often, the bark of a race engine echoes from a nearby shop. For Shawn Natenstedt, that sound is home — the rhythm of long nights, late drives, and the relentless pursuit of one more win. That pursuit reached a milestone this summer when he captured his 100th IMCA-sanctioned victory on Aug. 2 at Lovelock Speedway, earning his place among the prestigious Century Club. That milestone also put Natenstedt in rare company — only four other Nevada drivers have ever reached the 100-win plateau in the Friesen Performance IMCA Modified division. “It was a hard feat, but we finally made it happen,” he said. “It didn’t come as soon as I wanted, but when it did, it meant a [Read More]

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Cody Kalmer: Digging Deep On and Off the Track

By Ben Deatherage WINNEMUCCA, Nev. (Jul. 2, 2025) — For Cody Kalmer, every lap behind the wheel is built on grit — both on the dirt and deep underground. The Friesen Performance IMCA Modified driver from Winnemucca, Nevada, spends the middle of the week more than a mile below the earth’s surface as an underground gold miner. Come the weekend, he’s racing above ground, chasing checkered flags at tracks like Winnemucca Regional Raceway, Summit Raceway in Elko, and Lovelock Speedway. “I got to run Lovelock once in 2020 and then they shut down,” said Kalmer. “So I was excited they came back a few years ago. My friend Zach Cail and his stepdad Brett Wilkins have done a great job running that place, and Jeff Olschewka is giving us a great surface.” Kalmer’s journey into racing began not behind the wheel, but behind the fence. “I was never really part of the racing community. I used to just watch here at Winnemucca and thought, ‘You know what, it’d be cool to get a car of my [Read More]

Feature

Two $2,000 feature wins are result of McDaniel’s Frontier Days sweep

LOVELOCK, Nev. (July 27-28) – Ryan McDaniel’s first visit to Lovelock Speedway has him look­ing forward to a return trip to the Nevada speedplant. McDaniel swept Frontier Days IMCA Modified features picking up $2,000 wins Friday and Satur­day night. “I had never been to Lovelock before Friday and this was the first time I’d swept weekend shows with big payouts,” the new Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational ballot qualifier said. “It’s been a long time coming, that’s for sure.” McDaniel won from eighth starting, ahead of James Thibodeaux and Cory Sample, on opening night and from seventh starting, in front of Sample and Joel Myers, on Saturday. A good run on the outside line took him to the front following a restart with seven laps left on Fri­day. McDaniel then went to the lower groove and used lapped traffic to his advantage in leading to the finish. Rounding out the top five were Robert Miller and Myers. Traffic didn’t do McDaniel any favors while he ran second on Saturday, however, as Sample found the way through [Read More]