abilenespeedway Archives

McGaha checks 100th win off IMCA Modified to-do list

ABILENE, Texas – Josh McGaha checked another accomplishment off his IMCA Modified to-do list. McGaha won his career 100th feature in the division on July 31, getting the best of Kade Ogle in a back-and-forth battle that played out in front of a big crowd at home town Abilene Speedway. “This is one of the top moments of my career and I wanted to check it off my list this year,” McGaha said following his sixth win of the season, all of them at Abilene. “Kade and I duked it out for 18 laps of side-by-side racing and I got him on the white flag lap. I raced with his dad Vince for years so it kind of felt a little bit like the passing of the torch.” “One hundred wins is a milestone most drivers never reach,” he added. “I feel like some day I can be sitting in the grandstand talking with all the other old guys knowing I’ve etched my name as a solid competitor.” Just the 63rd driver in division history and the [Read More]

IMCA opens loyalty bonus to all pre-registered Lone Star Tour drivers

ABILENE, Texas (Feb. 9) – Due to the upcoming cancellation of the other stock car tour scheduled the week before the Sniper Speed Lone Star Tour, IMCA will extend the $500 loyalty bonus to all IMCA Sunoco Stock Car drivers registered to compete in the Lone Star Tour by 5 p.m. CST today (Tuesday). Registered drivers who ran in January at Corpus Christi will be eligible for that bonus. All tour races now pay those registered drivers a minimum of $1,500 to win. The big week of racing starts with the 24th annual Ice Breaker at Abilene Speedway on Feb. 19, followed by opening night of the fourth annual tour at Abilene. The winner of the Friday, Feb. 19 Stock Car feature earns $3,000 while the winner’s share of the Saturday, Feb. 20 feature will be $2,000. Increases are parts of Brett’s Birthday Bash Doubledown as we celebrate the birthday of IMCA President Brett Root with extra money to IMCA racers. From Abilene, the Lone Star Tour travels to Heart O’ Texas Speedway on Feb. 21, Cotton Bowl [Read More]

Abilene ups ante for IMCA Stock Cars, Friday Ice Breaker pays $3,000 to win

ABILENE, Texas – When they say everything is bigger in Texas, what they’re talking about now are IMCA Sunoco Stock Car paydays at Abilene Speedway’s Ice Breaker. The winner of the Friday, Feb. 19 feature takes home a hefty $3,000 paycheck while the Saturday, Feb. 20 headliner, on the first night of the Sniper Speed Lone Star Tour, pays $1,000, with an additional $1,000 loyalty bonus added specifically for that event. “Winning the Ice Breaker is a career highlight for any IMCA driver. This is traditionally our first sanctioned event of the season in Texas,” IMCA President Brett Root notes, “and with drivers coming from across the country to compete at Abilene, it is certainly worthy of bigger paydays.” IMCA Modifieds race for $700 to win on opening night and for $1,000 to win, along with a Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational ballot berth, on Saturday. Smiley’s Racing Products Southern SportMod features both nights pay $600 to win while Mach-1 Sport Compacts run for $200 top checks each night. IMCA Speedway Motors Weekly Racing National, Razor [Read More]

Lone Star IMCA Sunoco Stock Car Tour travels to six tracks in Texas, Oklahoma

ABILENE, Texas – The fourth annual Sniper Speed Lone Star Tour for IMCA Sunoco Stock Cars travels to six tracks in Texas and Oklahoma, with a $5,000 check waiting for the champion. Both IMCA Sunoco Stock Cars and IMCA Modifieds run for $1,000 to win at Abilene Speedway on Saturday, Feb. 20, the second show of the Ice Breaker weekend; Sunday, Feb. 21 at Heart O’ Texas Speedway in Waco; Monday, Feb. 22 at Cotton Bowl Speedway in Paige; Wednesday, Feb. 24 at Grayson County Speedway in Bells; Friday, Feb. 26 at Kennedale Speedway Park; and Saturday, Feb. 27 at Southern Oklahoma Speedway in Ardmore. Stock Car feature winners are eligible for a $500 loyalty bonus from IMCA; all Modified features are qualifying events for the Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational ballot. Tuesday is an off day following cancellation of the event scheduled at Boyd and the Grayson County race moves to Wednesday. The manufacturers’ race for Stock Cars, king of the hill for Modifieds and pit party all are Thursday at KSP. IMCA Speedway Motors [Read More]

Elliott up to Challenge at Abilene’s Bard Memorial

ABILENE, Texas (Oct. 17) – After more than a year outside the winner’s circle, Chris Elliott proved more than good enough on night two of Abilene Speedway’s Ryan Bard Memorial Southern Challenge. Elliott led all 30 laps of the Saturday evening IMCA Modified main event, earning $2,000 and a spot on the 2021 Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational ballot. “It’s been a tough year,” Elliott said after taking the hometown checkers. “We’ve had some good nights but it seems like we had some rotten ones where we either broke or were in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Runner-up in three of the four Red River Tour events, Elliott saw his season really do a 180 when he qualified for the main event at the IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s and ran from 18th starting to eighth in the Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational. “We were decent at Boone but not as good as I wanted to be ” said Elliott, most recently a feature winner at Cardinal Speedway’s Sam Hodges Memorial in [Read More]

Abilene hosts 26th annual IMCA Southern Challenge

ABILENE, Texas – Two thousand dollars is the top prize in IMCA Modified, IMCA Sunoco Stock Car and Smiley’s Racing Products Southern SportMod features at Abilene Speedway’s Friday and Saturday, Oct. 16 and 17 Ryan Bard Memorial Southern Challenge. The Modified feature is a qualifier for the 2021 Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational ballot and pays a minimum of $300 to start. Both the Stock Car and SportMod features pay a minimum of $200 to start. Mach-1 Sport Compacts run for $600 to win and $100 to start their main event. The Texas Sprint Series is also on the Saturday card. Pit gates and the grandstand open at 3 p.m. and racing starts at 7 p.m. both days. Adult grandstand admission is $12 on Friday and $15 on Saturday. Kids ages 6-12 get in for $5 and five and under are free both nights. Military with ID are $10. An open practice runs from 6-10 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 15. More information about the 26th annual Southern Challenge is available from promoter [Read More]

Westin Abbey aces IMCA Lone Star Tour opener at Abilene

ABILENE, Texas (Feb. 15) – Following his opening night Sniper Speed Lone Star Tour win Saturday at Abilene Speedway, Westin Abbey will take aim at a much bigger payday. The three-time and defending EQ Cylinder Heads Southern Region champion topped the main event for IMCA Sunoco Stock Cars, earning $1,000 and a shot at a $10,000 bonus if he can win Texas Motor Speedway’s Wednesday night Dirty 30 show as well. Eighty drivers from 11 states saw tour action at Abilene. Ninth in Friday’s opening night show at the Ice Breaker, Abbey won the first of 10 heat races, started outside the front row and caught Derek Green for the lead midway through the 30-lapper. Green, the Friday winner, ran side-by-side and bumper-to-bumper with Abbey the last half of the race. The front pair caught up to lapped traffic with two laps left but Abbey found the fastest way through and left Green to settle for second. “We didn’t know what the car was going to do. We changed a lot of stuff after the heat race,” [Read More]

McGaha, Tucker, Green are gold on opening night at Abilene Ice Breaker

ABILENE, Texas (Feb. 14) – Josh McGaha and Gabe Tucker made return trips to victory lane at Abilene Speedway, while Derek Green won in his first-ever outing at the Texas speedplant on opening night of the Ice Breaker. Multi-time track champion McGaha scored IMCA Modified career win number 92 Friday night while Tucker’s checkers were his Smiley’s Racing Products Southern SportMod career 113th. Minnesotan Green, meanwhile, led all 32 laps of the Prelude To The Tour feature for IMCA Sunoco Stock Cars, contended by nearly 80 drivers. The checkers were his IMCA career 91st. Most recently the winner of Abilene’s 2019 season-ending Ryan Bard Memorial Southern Challenge, McGaha started from the pole, chased Mark Carrell across the stripe after the first lap and then went to the bottom for the lead on lap two. Jason Wolla settled into second on lap five. Carrell and Jesse Sobbing tussled over third following a lap 12 restart with Sobbing eventually getting the upper hand. Mike Hansen and Carrell completed the top five as McGaha pulled away to win by half [Read More]

IMCA Mach-1 Sport Compacts join Saturday shows at Abilene

ABILENE, Texas (Jan. 27) – A fourth IMCA division joins Saturday race programs at Abilene Speedway this season. Mach-1 Sport Compacts debut at the Texas speedplant on Feb. 15, night two of the season-opening Ice Breaker special. “I’ve watched the IMCA 4-cylinder class run at Boyd and at Kennedale. It’s a good division for a wide age range of drivers,” promoter Rob Poor said. “Sport Compacts can be a class people get into or back into racing with and only have to spend a couple thousand dollars.” “There are already three or four of these cars in town,” he added, “so we have a foundation to build on.” Twenty-one point races for Sport Compacts are scheduled at Abilene through Aug. 29. The division is also on both Southern Challenge programs in October. Abilene also features the IMCA Modified, IMCA Sunoco Stock Cars and Smiley’s Racing Products Southern SportMods weekly.

Compliments keep coming for McGaha on Southern Challenge IMCA Modified victory

ABILENE, Texas (Oct. 19) – Josh McGaha was getting compliments long after the IMCA Modified checkers flew at Abilene Speedway’s Ryan Bard Memorial Southern Challenge. McGaha stayed in front after swapping the lead late with frequent foe Chris Elliott in winning Saturday’s headliner, earning $2,000 and a 2020 Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational ballot berth for the victory. “It was a barnburner, a heck of a good race,” said McGaha, also winner of 2011 and 2012 Southern Challenge titles. “It’s one of the most fun races I’ve been in and I’ve gotten a lot of compliments on how exciting it was.” Elliott, Herring, Matt Guillaume and Chase Allen rounded out the top five. Now the six-time track champion at Abilene, McGaha had started fourth and passed Herring near midway for the lead. He built up a straightaway advantage before getting stuck behind a slower car. Elliott was quick to catch up and challenge. Their back-and-forth battle ended with McGaha ahead by a car length and a half at the finish. “I raced with Chris all year [Read More]