Results Archives

IMCA STARS Mod Lites join opening night show at Salina

SALINA, Kan. (April 22) – IMCA STARS Mod Lites join the lineup just in time for opening night at Salina Speedway. The newly-sanctioned division joins IMCA Modifieds, IMCA Sunoco Stock Cars, IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stocks, Karl Kustoms Northern SportMods and Mach-1 Sport Compacts on the Friday, April 23 card at America’s Fast Track To Fun. “We’ve run Mod Lites for 10 years. The fans really like them and the drivers asked for the sanction,” promoter Tommy Hendrickson said. “They’re a good group that’s willing to travel. We get drivers from Iowa and the Kansas City area who come here.” STARS Mod Lites, he adds, are a good complement to the IMCA five divisions already running at Salina. A track champion will be crowned after April 23, May 28, June 11, July 2 and 30, Aug. 13, and Sept. 3 and 17 dates for the newly-sanctioned class.

Paul prevails in opener at Petaluma

By Ben Deatherage PETALUMA, Calif. (April 17) – IMCA Modifieds made their 2021 debut at Petaluma Speedway on Saturday and Michael Paul Jr. was the driver showing the fastest way around the historic Sonoma-Marin Fairgrounds adobe clay facility. Bobby Montalvo opened the main event up by procuring the lead on the opening start before being forced to deal with a restart after a caution on lap three. On the ensuing restart, it was Paul bringing the heat on the leader. Paul captured the top spot, on lap four. The Petaluma veteran had to worry about handling two restarts once he took over the lead. After some brief heavy pressure briefly after one of the returns to green flag action, it was pretty much pure dominance by Paul in the 20-lap affair. Tim Balding ended his night second while Anthony Slaney placed third. The rest of the top five consisted of Montalvo and Paul’s wife Michelle.

Drager, Bloom are IMCA winners at Cottage Grove

By Ben Deatherage COTTAGE GROVE, Ore. (April 17) – Cottage Grove Speedway got back to its racing ways on Saturday, April 17 with feature wins going to Matthew Drager in the IMCA Modifieds and Aaron Bloom in the Karl Kustoms Northern SportMods. The Modified main event was an absolute thriller. Chad Groves got his mount to the early race lead before Drager managed to hunt him down and overtake him at the line on the third complete circuit. On lap four, Groves went back in front but Drager reclaimed the position on the following lap. However, a caution would be waved before the fifth trip could be officially completed, giving the first place position back to Groves. On the upcoming restart, Drager was able to make it around Groves for the fifth lead change in as many laps. Drager had his hands full with both Groves and Jake Mayden turning up the heat. A couple yellow flags waved around the halfway mark, which kept the field tightly knit together. After a lap 14 restart, Groves stormed past Drager which [Read More]

Ferrando captures Grays Harbor opener

By Ben Deatherage ELMA, Wash. (April 17) – Engines fired up for the first time in 2021 at Grays Harbor Raceway on Saturday with 21 IMCA Modifieds contesting the evening’s main event. Tyson Blood moved his way into first place on the first lap. Devan West hunted down Blood in lapped traffic and overtook him for the lead. However, the pass was negated due to a yellow flag coming out before the lap could get registered, handing the top spot back to Blood. Several late-race restarts turned up the intensity for Blood. A lap 23 restart resumed the race and set up an opportunity for Grey Ferrando to have a shot at the coveted position. Despite starting all the way back in 18th, Ferrando worked his way patiently and methodically towards the front. As the white flag dropped, Ferrando found the opening he needed to challenge Blood. The two raced each other hard but it was Ferrando who had the advantage coming off the second corner and down the back straightaway. Ferrando went on to become the first driver to [Read More]

Fast Shafts All-Star ballot adds four more candidates

VINTON, Iowa – Four more IMCA Modified drivers have raced their way onto the ballot for the upcoming Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational. The most recent additions are Cody Blixt, winner of the Saturday night Wild West Tour event at Battle Mountain Raceway, and Austin Kiefer, first to the checkers on opening night at Perris Auto Speedway. P.J. Egbert parked it in victory lane following a weekly show at Heart O’ Texas Speedway and Austin Wonch topped Winston Speedway’s Midwest Shoot-Out. Drivers already on the ballot winning recent qualifying events included Chaz Baca, Ethan Braaksma, Cayden Carter, Kellen Chadwick, Jordan Grabouski, Kollin Hibdon, Mitchell Hunt, Cody Laney, Jeff Larson, Dakota Sproul and Justin Whitehead. All-Star candidates now include: Jeff Aikey, Austin Arneson, Casey Arneson, Chaz Baca, Eric Barnes, Brandon Beckendorf, Eddie Belec, Chad Bennett, Tom Berry Jr., Tanner Black and Cody Blixt. Steven Bowers Jr., Ethan Braaksma, John Campos, Cayden Carter, Chris Carter, Kellen Chadwick, Ty Clemens, Nick DeCarlo, Casey Delp, Shane DeVolder, Spencer Diercks and Ethan Dotson. Tommy Dove, P.J. Egbert, Chris Elliott, Shawn Fletcher, [Read More]

Home track hero McGee gets first PASS win at Path Valley

By Frank Buhrman SPRING RUN, Pa. (April 17) – Full circle. Mikell McGee, a fourth-generation member of the family that built Path Valley Speedway, collected his first Pennsylvania Sprint Series feature victory in Saturday night’s 25-lap feature at his home track. In only his tenth PASS race, McGee survived a fierce battle – and contact – with Kenny Heffner, who also was seeking his first PASS win. Then there was the green, white, checkered finish with defending PASS and IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car national champion Garrett Bard on his bumper. McGee faced and rose above those challenges and came home the winner. Bard hung on for second, with second-year PASS driver Rowdy Heffner scoring a career-best third. Will Brunson also posted a career-best finish with his fourth and was the evening’s hard charger, advancing nine positions after starting 13th. Austin Reed completed the top five. The night was most disappointing for Heffner, who grabbed the early lead after fellow front-row starter Justin Mills jumped the cushion and had to retire his car. That made McGee Heffner’s [Read More]

Carter, Reynolds thrill in opening night wins at the Bullring

VINTON, Iowa – It was deja vu for Brayton Carter Sunday night at the Benton County Speedway Bullring. Two weeks after earning a last lap pass for the win in Frostbuster action, Carter repeated his late race heroics in the season points opener for the Karl Kustoms Northern SportMods presented by Christie Door Company. From his front row start, Brian Kauffman led throughout the 15-lapper, but was challenged by Kyle Olson during his time out front. Olson made his bid for the lead on two separate occasions, only to have those moves negated by a pair of cautions. By the time the last yellow waved to set up a two-lap dash to the finish, Carter moved into contention and was sitting outside of row two when racing resumed the final time. On the restart, Carter powered to the outside of Kauffman, who was committed to the low groove the entire race. The lead pair remained in close formation as Carter surged ahead coming off turn four to take the checkers by inches ahead of Kauffman. [Read More]

Defending champion smokes Virginia Sprint Series foes

By Jim Haines NATURAL BRIDGE, Va. (April 17) – The first dirt race of the year for the Virginia Sprint Series was an exciting one as defending champion Mike Leraas made his way to the front and fought off race-long challengers and a failure at the last lap but held on for the Saturday win at Natural Bridge Speedway. Matt Mullins and Chris Ware paced the IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car field to green. Ware was out first with Leraas, Bill Rice and Jerald Harris giving chase. Leraas got by, leaving Rice and Harris to fight with Ware for second. Ware got high in turn two with Harris getting by Rice to go after Leraas and Rice in a solid third. A quick spinner tightened up the field after they had caught the back of the field. Leraas was off again and Harris was right on him with Rice staying tough in third. The top two went after it lap after lap until coming down for the white flag Leraas started to smoke badly. But even with [Read More]

Opening night checkers at Shawano fly for Christians, Schmidt, Mullen

SHAWANO, Wis. (April 17) – Welcome sights on opening night at Shawano Speedway included a nearly packed grandstand and 111 cars checking in to the pit area. Eric ‘Chummy’ Arneson would return to racing action at the speedway in the IMCA Sunoco Stock Car division and would battle through caution the opening laps to take the lead on lap four, powering past the Chucky Forstner machine and bringing Jeremy Christians along with him. Arneson and Christians were joined by Kevin Hebbe in the top three before numerous cautions set up a final lap shoot out that found Christians jumping past Arneson to pick up another feature win. The constant throughout the Karl Kustoms Northern SportMod event was defending track champion Jayden Schmidt leading the pack. Schmidt gained the top spot from Jason Jach on lap two and survived multiple restarts to pick up the feature win. Jeff Schmuhl powered through the field from his ninth place starting spot to grab second while Jeffrey Teske took third. The IMCA Modifieds rolled on the track with Mike Mullen to the [Read More]

On a rail, Bannister outruns ‘fast guys’ for Miller Memorial win at Merced

MERCED, Calif. (April 17) – Leader Jason Bannister knew “those fast guys” would be coming as the laps clicked away at Merced Speedway’s Al Miller Memorial main event. Bannister was faster, though, and took home Saturday’s $5,000 Karl Kustoms Northern SportMod feature win ahead of Fred Ryland and Tom Fraser. “It was awesome. To be competitive and win a race like this is really exciting,” the Bakersfield hotshoe said. “We hit the setup and we were on a rail. This was my biggest win and the biggest payday of my career.” He’d passed Fraser for the front spot on lap three and Ryland took over the second spot just before a multi-car pileup on the backstretch brought everything to a halt on lap 10. The race stayed green from that point, with Ryland chasing Bannister in traffic as the 35-lapper wound down. He cleared two lapped cars and was cutting into Bannister’s lead but ran out of laps to catch the leader. “I knew Fred was back there,” said Bannister, the Friday night runner-up. “I’d [Read More]