Ryan Clark

Quest for Hobby Stock rookie honors sees Smith score Colorado IMCA firsts

BRUSH, Colo. – A season full of firsts saw Hunter Smith race to national IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stock and Big Daddy Race Cars Northern Region rookie of the year honors. The 14-year-old Brush High School freshman became the first Colorado driver to win either award. He’s the second 14-year-old to earn the national prize and the youngest to win in the ROY in the Northern Region. “Hobby Stocks are a good class to get started in. I wanted to be in a full-sized car in case I wanted to move up,” he said. “Our goal at the start of the season was regional rookie of the year and we just kept pushing. We dropped out of the national lead but got it back, and we were really excited when points became official. It was really cool to be the first from Colorado to do it, and I was surprised to be the youngest to win the regional rookie.” Smith did a lot of winning as a rookie, starting with 10 feature victories. His 51 starts [Read More]

Stock Car award is IMCA national rookie second for Richards

LINCOLN, Neb. – His finish in what was billed as a mechanics’ race was all it took to prove to Cade Richards that he had the tools to drive an IMCA Sunoco Stock Car. Richards won 14 times in his first season in the Class Too Tough To Tame, earning an unprecedented bounty of awards that included national runner-up and rookie of the year honors, as well as EQ Cylinder Heads Northern region rookie, Eagle Raceway and Beatrice Speedway track and KMJ Performance Nebraska State championships. “Finishing second in national points really stands out. I never figured we’d be able to do that in a homebuilt car,” said Richards, 17 years old and a junior at Lincoln East High School. “So many things had to go right just for us to win the two track championships. Winning the first Stock Car championship was pretty big for me.” Richards parked his Karl Kustoms Northern SportMod in late spring to focus on the Stock Car. Top rookie in the Northern SportMods in 2019, he’s now the sixth driver [Read More]

DeVries adding unexpected fourth IMCA Lady Eagle award to trophy case

SPENCER, Iowa – Kaytee DeVries will make room in her trophy case for an award she originally hadn’t planned to chase. The winningest female driver in IMCA history raced to her career fourth, and second consecutive Lady Eagle award, topping point standings for the 273 female drivers who competed in the nine sanctioned divisions in 2021. From Spencer, Iowa, DeVries won 17 Mach-1 Sport Compact starts and complemented her latest Lady Eagle prize with track championships at Buena Vista Raceway, Kossuth County Speedway and Worthington Speedway. “We wanted to focus more on track championships and weren’t planning to run for Lady Eagle at the start of the season. We were doing really good at the start of the year and our goals were to top last year’s wins (19) and not destroy the car,” said DeVries. “It turned out to be a long season and my husband Jay spent more time working on my car than he did racing his Hobby Stock and with the luck I was having,” she continued, “I didn’t think I’d [Read More]

Murty ending super season as IMCA Junior National Champion

CHELSEA, Iowa – Dallon Murty will add another championship to his IMCA resume. The 16-year-old from Chelsea, Iowa, won 30 IMCA Sunoco Stock Car features, topping point standings for the nearly 500 drivers ages 13-18 who competed in IMCA this season on the way to earning Junior National Champion honors. “It means a lot to be to be able to win Junior National Champion,” the BGM High School junior said. “We had fallen just short and finished second last year. To win it on our second try is pretty good. I think the Junior National Championship is a great thing for drivers getting into the sport.” “At the start of the season, we weren’t focusing on points. We wanted to run as many big events as we could but at one point we took the lead in both national and Junior National points and we changed our focus,” he added. “National points didn’t work out but the Junior National Championship did.” Murty was at the top of his game at IMCA’s biggest event, becoming the [Read More]

Oliver sprints to rare two state championship feat

PENDERGRASS, Ga. – Some day, Jeff Oliver will look back at the 2021 IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car season and have an even better appreciation for his accomplishments. But right now, he wishes the season wasn’t over and he was still racing. Along with the Carolina Sprint Tour crown, Oliver won KMJ Performance State championships in North Carolina and South Carolina. He’s just the fourth driver to win multiple IMCA state titles in the same division in the same season since the awards program was started in 2000. “It’s very cool. Statistics are cool but they’re something you can get caught up in. They’re something I want to look back at some day,” the San Diego native and Pendergrass, Ga., transplant said. “We had a very good season and I wanted to keep pushing. When you’re running good, you don’t want to stop.” Oliver won seven of his 12 CST starts, taking the checkers at five different tracks. He also saw action with the Southern United Sprints, Pennsylvania Sprint Series and Laurel Highlands Sprint Series. He [Read More]

Ex-mechanic Mahlberg is Mach-1 Sport Compact national champion

DUNLAP, Iowa – An on-track career that started in a mechanics’ race has taken Caine Mahlberg to an IMCA national championship. The 13-year veteran from Dunlap, Iowa, raced to 17 feature wins and track titles at Shelby County Speedway and Crawford County Speedway in earning the 2021 Mach-1 Sport Compact national crown. “It still hasn’t sunk in yet. I’ve finished second but never even had a track championship before,” said Mahlberg, now sixth on the all-time wins list for 4-cylinder division with 73 career victories. “I know it’s been a long time since an Iowa driver won the national championship (the only other Iowan was Jena Barthelmes, in 2007) because every other year it was somebody from Minnesota or Nebraska, so it means a lot for me to be able to do it.” Mahlberg crewed for brothers Shannon and David before getting behind the wheel himself. “They used to race two man cruisers at Harlan and I used to work on their car all the time,” he explained. “Shannon started racing 4-cylinders and I drove [Read More]

Spangler collects Colorado Stock Car first EQ Cylinder Heads Southern Region crown

DOVE CREEK, Colo. – Early season races in Arizona laid the foundation for Aaron Spangler’s regional championship run. His success at tracks closer to home cemented it. Spangler, from Dove Creek, won 19 IMCA Sunoco Stock Car features in four states to become the first Colorado driver to win the EQ Cylinder Heads Southern Region crown. Three of those wins were complemented by a dozen top five finishes in 21 starts at Grand Canyon State venues. Spangler then won another 16 times in 38 home state, New Mexico and Utah starts. “We were fortunate this year in that we got to spend a lot of the winter racing in Arizona. I was learning and trying some different things the first half of the season and got faster the second half,” he said. “”We’re right in the four corners (geographically) and can go in all directions to race in Colorado, Utah and New Mexico.” Sixth in national standings, Spangler topped Fairgrounds Speedway point standings. His seven wins at Cortez this season included the $1,600 Ute Mountain [Read More]

Keen on weekly track support, Nichols earns 10th Stock crown

HARLAN, Iowa – An achievement that stands out in Mike Nichols’ latest IMCA Sunoco Stock Car national championship season isn’t one he’ll be getting a trophy or plaque for, but it’s one that he’s most proud of. Nichols became the first driver in IMCA’s modern era with 10 national titles while adding 22 feature victories and two track championships to his all-time IMCA best totals in both categories. “One thing that makes me smile is that in today’s age of chasing specials, we supported four weekly tracks that are loyal to IMCA and had perfect attendance at three of them this season,” said Nichols, who ran a Thursday through Sunday gauntlet at U.S. 30 Speedway, Crawford County Speedway, Shelby County Speedway and Dawson County Raceway. “We raced every weekend through our work schedule and still had perfect attendance at three tracks. That’s becoming more rare.” “I’m old school and I’ve been at this longer than almost everybody else,” added Nichols, now a 20-year veteran of the division. “If a special comes up and it’s convenient [Read More]

Duggins’ unbelievable year ends with third straight title in IMCA’s Big Daddy Southern Region

FARMINGTON, N.M. – Jason Duggins drove through the night, then put the final touches on a new car at the track before making his first start of the season in January. He put the final touches on a third straight Big Daddy Race Cars Southern Region championship with his 28th and 29th IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stock wins on the season’s final weekend in September. “It was an unbelievable year,” said Duggins, from Farmington, N.M. and sixth in national point standings. “You never know when your last win is coming and I cherished every one of them.” The Fairgrounds Speedway track champion made all but one of his 44 starts outside his home state, starting the year at Cocopah Speedway’s Winter Nationals and logging some 22,000 miles supporting tracks in Colorado and Utah. “We built a new car, a Grumpy Chassis, in a month and put the finishing touches on at the track,” said Duggins, who debuted that new ride on Jan. 6 at Cocopah. “I put the car in the trailer and drove through the night to [Read More]

Fender fan Reynolds races to IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stock national crown

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – Kaden Reynolds describes himself as “kind of a fender fan.” Now he’s an IMCA national champion, too. The Cedar Rapids, Iowa driver got an early season shot of confidence and won 30 features on the way to the IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stock national crown. “Everybody goes into the year thinking about or hoping to have a good season,” said Reynolds, national rookie of the year in the division in 2019 and IMCA’s first-ever Junior National Champion in 2020. “Winning seven of our first eight starts was a real confidence booster. It solidified the idea of us going for the national championship.” “It’s definitely cool to win pretty much the biggest awards I could,” he added. “My mom said something like I got a three-peat. It’s awesome.” The Big Daddy Race Cars Northern Region champion also won track titles this season at Marshalltown Speedway and Independence Motor Speedway while running third at Benton County Speedway. His 11 wins at Marshalltown included the Dale DeFrance Memorial in May, his nine wins at Vinton [Read More]