- Whiteaker Takes First Racin’ Vacation To Super Nationals
- April winner Lamberies seeks September success at Boone
- Moore wants to go dancing at Boone
- Beckendorf aims to end decade-long Saturday drought
BOONE, Iowa — With nearly 1,000 drivers competing at the IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s, there is bound to be a mixture of new and returning faces.
While some have come back to contest for the win that has eluded them for years, others are arriving at Boone Speedway for the first time. Young and old drivers alike, they all visit the IMCA Super Nationals for the same reason: they want to win.
Whiteaker Takes First Racin’ Vacation To Super Nationals
In a banner year for entries in general and from the Lone Star State in particular, Texan Steven Whiteaker is among the stacked field competing at the IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s.
The Friesen Performance IMCA Modified racer from Robstown makes his first-ever journey to Boone Speedway and the 40th edition of America’s Racin’ Vacation.
“I have zero expectations going into this week,” Whiteaker said. “We just came to have a good time. We’ve never been here before and we wanted to experience it. Then a couple of months ago, I got a wild hair and decided to pre-register.”
This year has seen limited action out of Whiteaker, but he has nonetheless picked up three wins in his home state — two at I-37 Speedway and another at South Texas Race Ranch.
“We haven’t raced too much this year. We took the first half of the season off and got our new CDR car done,” he explained. “We have run about 10 times around home since then and the car has been working well.”
Lucas Lamberies comes to the IMCA Super Nationals looking to park his Friesen Performance IMCA Modified back in victory lane. (Tom Macht photo)
April winner Lamberies seeks September success at Boone
With a feature win and another top five finish at Iowa’s Action Track already to his credit this season, Lucas Lamberies returns to Boone Speedway looking to build on his previous IMCA Super Nationals success.
The Clintonville, Wis., based racer was a weekly winner at Boone early in the season and ran fifth in the Saturday night Wild Rose Casino Prelude.
“We drew pretty good for our qualifying night,” Lamberies said. “We are just going to have to leave it all on the track. You’ve got to race smart but also drive hard. Everything has got to fall into place. The car’s got to go good and you’ve got to avoid any wrecks.”
Lamberies has danced on the final night four times, twice in a Friesen Performance IMCA Northern SportMod and twice in the Modified. He finished fourth in 2015 and 29th in 2018 in the SportMod before moving to the modified where he ran 20th in 2019 and eighth last year.
Lamberies has visited victory lane four times this season with wins at Shawano Speedway, Shelby County Speedway and Kossuth County Speedway in addition to his Boone checkers. Both Harlan and Algona wins came with Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational qualifying eligibility.
“Our year has been pretty good so far. The car has been good,” Lamberies said. “We just want to see what we can do here.”
Moore wants to go dancing at Boone
One driver who has visited Boone Speedway many times for the IMCA Super Nationals is Bob Moore.
The Sioux City, Iowa, racer has never qualified for a Friesen Performance IMCA Modified dance, but started his latest quest with the win in the first of the division’s 30 heat races.
“We want to get this first day out of the way and see what we got,” Moore said. “We have made at least 15 trips here. We’ve never made the big dance but to win a heat is what we are going to try and do in the feature.”
In 2022, Moore picked up four wins on the year, including three at Raceway Park and one at Park Jefferson International Speedway — both located in Jefferson, S.D.
“We’ve struggled the last few years but have gotten some good help from Precision Performance. They’ve helped me a lot and got me on the right track the last couple of seasons,” he said. “We got a track championship and four wins, so that’s considerably better than what we have been doing.”
Brandon Beckendorf returns to Boone looking to race his way back into the Saturday Night Dance for the first time in 10 years. (Tom Macht photo)
Beckendorf aims to end decade-long Saturday drought
It’s been a decade since he made the final night of action of the IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s and Brandon Beckendorf is back at Boone Speedway and looking to end that drought.
Beckendorf, from Danube, Minn., has made the Big Dance once in his distinguished Friesen Performance Modified career. It was back in 2012 when he finished in fourth place.
“You have to be open-minded for Super Nationals,” Beckendorf said. “Anything can happen. You can be really good or really bad. It’s a luck deal sometimes, and you have to take advantage of the opportunity you are given.”
And, he adds, “Every day is a new day.”
Beckendorf has seven wins on the season for 2022, most notably the Salute to Veterans show at Clay County Fairgrounds Speedway, which was his career-best payday at $3,500, and at North Central Speedway’s Mighty Axe.
“It’s been up and down year for us. We seem to run top five at the bigger shows, but we haven’t been running hard locally every week,” he said. “We’ve taken a lot of weekends off and run new places for the bigger shows, and what makes the most sense for us logistically with the prices of everything.”
Catch every single lap of the IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s live exclusively on SPEEDSPORT.tv affiliate IMCA.TV.
Keyword: IMCA Notes: Drivers Chasing The Win