BLOOMFIELD, N.M. – Rex Higgins first saw Karl Kustoms Northern SportMods in action at the IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s.
Impressed, the long-time and highly successful IMCA Sunoco Stock Car driver promised himself he’d give the division a try if it ever migrated to his home state of New Mexico.
Fast forward to 2019: The now fifth-year Northern SportMod driver from Bloomfield won once and finished in the top five in another seven events in earning the championship of the division’s inaugural Wild West Tour.
“We decided to follow the series shortly after the schedule was announced in January. We decided we wanted to do something different,” Higgins explained. “Following the tour was exciting. We got to travel and race at a lot of different tracks.”
The tour’s nine events saw as many different winners. Higgins topped the second show in early May at home track Aztec Speedway before traveling to Diamond Mountain Speedway in Utah, Winnemucca Regional Raceway and Battle Mountain Raceway in Nevada, Sweetwater Speedway in Wyoming and Idaho Falls Raceway in Idaho.
“I’d raced regularly at Aztec and once before at Rock Springs, but all the other tracks were new to me,” he said. “The car counts were always good and the tour got a lot of exposure.”
“We had a good car and a lot of fun running with different people,” Higgins continued. “I managed to stay out of trouble, which was good because I didn’t seem to draw very good and had to work my way up toward the front.”
Also track champion at Fairgrounds Speedway in Colorado this season, the well-traveled Higgins ended with 10 wins in 31 starts.
Starts 9 Wins 1 Additional Top Five’s 7
HIS CREW: Wife Becky and Ramone and Shannon Seize.
HIS SPONSORS: Los Barelas and WCC Sheet Metal, both of Bloomfield; XL Concrete, DeVilbiss Racing Chassis, San Juan Measurement and Family First Chiropractic, all of Farmington; Crane Insurance of Aztec; and Wilderness Country Catering of Ignacio, Colo.