JOSHUA, Texas (Nov. 14, 2023) – Blake Clark got the job done in the dirt and on it again this year.
A heavy equipment operator by trade, the Joshua, Texas, driver raced to a second consecutive EQ Cylinder Heads Southern Region championship, his total of 11 IMCA Sunoco Stock Car wins giving him the edge over Matt Guillaume after the two finished in a tie at the top of the point standings.
“I had to win the last few races or I wouldn’t have won the region so there was a lot of pressure,” said Clark, who scored three wins in his last four home region starts to repeat as king in the South. “We really made the car work those last few nights. It was pretty hard and pretty cool at the same time.”
Clark’s travels took him to eight different eight different tracks in Texas and Oklahoma. His first wins of the season came in back-to-back starts March 31 at Boyd Raceway and April 1 at Southern Oklahoma Speedway, shortly before he swapped the 2022 title winning car for a 2023 Terminator.
“We started out the season traveling, hit a bunch of different tracks and had a blast. It was a lot of fun racing at tracks that were new to us,” Clark said. “About the middle of the season we were doing real well with the car, looked at the points and figured we still had a real good chance to win the region.”
“I sat down and talked it over with my mom and dad, we started racing at our local tracks more and we just kept doing what we were doing.”
Clark was a five-time winner at Boyd and a four-time winner at Southern Oklahoma Speedway. Fifth in national standings for The Class Too Tough To Tame, he also had single checkers at Heart O’ Texas Speedway and Kennedale Speedway Park.
“In all honesty, we didn’t miss a beat in the new car. We put everything in the same setup-wise, I got in and it just took off,” he said. “It was pretty crazy some nights but we kept our heads up and kept track of how many starts we had left.”
“Now, it’s pretty neat to be a back-to-back regional champion,” Clark continued, “especially because we did it this year without bonus points from a track championship.”
He’ll look to three-peat in 2024, adding a goal of qualifying for the Saturday night IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s as well.
“We’ve gone to Boone the last two years, learned a lot and had a lot of fun,” said Clark, who ran at Marshalltown Speedway’s Showdown at Motown and the Prelude leading up to Super Nationals. “I love the three- and four-wide racing and the tracks up north are always multi-grooved.”
“Hopefully we can make the Big Dance next year.”
Wins 11
Top Five Finishes 32
Starts 52
HIS CREW: Parents Thomas and Stephanie and girlfriend Kaitlyn Baker.
HIS SPONSORS: HD Chassis and Custom Metal Fabrication of Joshua; Leslie Gill and Stealth Oilwell Services of Odessa; KCW Recovery of Fort Worth; Dirt Defender of Waxahachie; Trophy Material LLC of Burleson; IM Racing Fuels LLC of Grandview; Stephenville Starter & Electric of Stephenville; Horton Trucking & Equipment of Godley; Midstate Machine of Des Moines, Iowa; Harris Auto Racing of Boone, Iowa; and Jim White and Joe White at JW Motorsports of Howard, Wis.
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