Avila sails to $10,000 checkers at 141’s Captain of the Creek

Feature, Northern SportMod

Matt Avila raced to a career-best $10,000 payday, taking the Friesen Performance IMCA Northern SportMod checkers at 141 Speedway’s sixth annual Captain of the Creek. (Photo by danlewisphoto.net)

FRANCIS CREEK, Wis. (Aug. 14, 2024) – Starting from the pole was easy.

Staying on the front not so much.

Matt Avila tamed a top-flight field of Friesen Performance IMCA Northern SportMods, racing to the $10,000 checkers in winning Wednesday’s 50-lap Captain of the Creek main event at 141 Speedway.

“It’s huge. It probably hasn’t even set in yet,” said Avila, who had a slew of congratulatory phone calls and texts waiting for him by the time he got back to his trailer. “This is probably my biggest win, definitely my biggest payday, one of the biggest wins a guy can get in the SportMod class and one of the most prestigious for sure.”

He’d raced from ninth to third and started and finished second in his Tuesday night heats. The pole position was the last pill left when his turn came in the redraw.

“The clean air was good. I think I was on lap 13 and I thought to myself ‘Man, if I have to race more than 35 laps through this it’s going to be a long race,’ but a few cautions helped and I was able to keep clean air in front of me,” Avila said. “I was able to move around on the track and my car (a 2023 Rage) was really good.”

“Coming up to lapped traffic there at the end, I was racing like there was somebody right behind me.”

Cory Kemkes, 2021 race winner Cam Reimers, 2023 runner-up  Logan Anderson and Elijah Koenig completed the top five.

Drivers from Illinois, Iowa and Michigan joined home state competitors at Francis Creek. 

Avila had helped crew for Modified and Stock Car teams traveling to 141 before racing there himself, finishing 16th at last year’s Captain of the Creek.

“This is my third year in a Northern SportMod and I had a goal of going up there and running better than I did last year,” he said. “I ran well last year, it’s just that when the feature came I’d made the wrong adjustments. We kept track of that in the notebook and adjusted for this year.”

He’ll look to check another big win off his bucket list, at the upcoming IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s at hometown Boone Speedway.

“I really wanted this one and the other one I want is Super Nationals. Hopefully we can carry the momentum into Boone,” Avila said. “It’s definitely a confidence booster. We spent a lot of time making sure everything was 100 percent before we came up here. My brother Brayden helps me on the car and we just made sure we had the best chance we could give ourselves.”

The sixth annual Captain of the Creek was presented by East Central Coin.

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