Mahlberg does plenty of passing to get IMCA wins 99 and 100

Feature, Sport Compact

Caine Mahlberg won the 100th Mach-1 IMCA Sport Compact feature of his career Saturday night at Shelby County Speedway. (Photo by Left Turn Photography)

DUNLAP, Iowa (Aug. 17, 2024) – Caine Mahlberg was plenty fast on both pavement and the dirt over the weekend.

As a result, the Dunlap driver passed a total of 23 cars – that’s counting only those on the track and not the highway – in winning career 99th and 100th Mach-1 IMCA Sport Compact features, at Crawford County Speedway on Friday and at Shelby County Speedway on Saturday.

“Both nights I had car issues so I didn’t even know I was going to make it. I broke some studs, didn’t have any more and had to run home and get them off another car,” Mahlberg said. “I came late for both nights, didn’t run my heat and had to start in the back.”

“I made it back just in time for the feature both nights.”

Mahlberg hauled from ninth starting at Denison and from 16th at Harlan.

“I was kind of thinking ‘Let’s just win tomorrow night and get it over with’ after Friday, but there were a lot of good cars there,” he said. “I really didn’t know that I’d be able to win both nights. We were able to get to the lead fairly quickly at Denison but it was closer to the middle of the race before I got to the front at Harlan.”

Win number 100 was Mahlberg’s fifth of the season and came in his 19th start of 2024. 

A 16-year veteran of the class and the 2021 national champion, he’s fought motor problems, switched between cars  and watched it rain on race night far too often this year, going winless in eight straight starts before Friday night.

“This is another accomplishment and one I’m proud of,” said Mahlberg. “It’s taken a lot of years to get to 100 wins.”

He became the third driver in the history of IMCA’s four cylinder class to reach the 100 win mark, and was the second of three drivers to get their 100th wins over thee weekend, following Jorddon Braaten in the Friesen Performance IMCA Northern SportMods on Friday night and shortly before John Garrigan Jr. in the IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stocks the same evening.

Other drivers getting career 100th wins at Shelby County Speedway were Dustin Smith in the Hobby Stocks in 2006 and Jesse Sobbing in the Northern SportMods in 2012. Shannon Anderson got his 200th Hobby Stock win at Harlan in 2013 and Mike Nichols tallied his career 600th Stock Car victory at his hometown track in 2022.

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