PEORIA, Ariz. — Nathan DeRagon aimed high when setting goals for his first full-time IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stock season in five years.
As a result, the Peoria pilot and pretty keen statistician became the first Arizona driver to earn the B & B Racing Chassis Southern Region championship.
“My initial goal was to race as much as I could, go to new tracks and get at least one track championship and the state championship,” said DeRagon, who had become the first Arizona driver to win Hobby Stock regional rookie of the year honors in 2019, before a two-year stint in the Air Force. “If all went well and I had a shot at the regional championship, that was going to be an over achievement.”
He led the national points race much of the season, finishing fourth in those standings.
DeRagon counted 20 feature wins and 36 top-five finishes in his 48 starts, that on-track success translating into Central Arizona Raceway, Cocopah Speedway and Deuce of Clubs Thunder Raceway track titles, plus the Arizona State crown.
“This whole season was a while in planning. I won rookie of the year and up until this year that was my only full season in a Hobby Stock,” he said. “I had some starts here and there, and as soon as I found out I was getting out of the Air Force, I started planning for this year. We got the car I have now (a BMS South ride) and started going over it with a fine tooth comb.”
“My buddy Brandon Painter helps me and we have an old racer by the name of Mike Hagerman, who always preaches The Seven P’s – ‘Prior, proper preparation prevents piss poor performance,’” DeRagon continued. “On race day a variety a large variety of things can happen and only so many of them you can control. But during the week you can control your preparation and I always try my best to do everything I can, to work harder than everyone else and to make sure I show up at the race track after doing everything right.”
That approach was most evident from May 3 to June 28 when DeRagon, a heavy equipment mechanic by profession, won 10 of 12 starts at four different tracks.
“If you look through my starts, after I got a fourth at Mohave Valley Raceway (on Feb. 17) to the last weekend, if I finished the race, I finished first or second, which was pretty cool. Everything clicked in those 12 races and we found our way to the front in 10 of them,” he said, “and I didn’t do anything different. I stuck to my usual routine of being prepared and executing the best I could every race.”
Towing an open trailer behind a Ford 150, DeRagon put 11,000 miles on the odometer while weighing his chances at the national championship.
“I knew I had the bonus points and knew it was realistic. I think chasing the national championship helped me get the regional,” he said. “I told myself to keep shooting high, that everything would take care of itself and we’d see where we ended up.”
“On one hand, I’m super happy with how we did but on the other hand I feel like we left something on the table,” continued DeRagon. “There were nights that for one reason or another just did not go our way, but I also know there was a lot that did go my way.”
“To be in the top five for national was something to be proud of. To put my name up there with Cory Probst, Mike Smith and Cody Williams was pretty good.”