CASA GRANDE, Ariz. – Shelby Alves makes her next trip of the summer to the Midwest, coming to Boone Speedway to put the final checkmark on her 2022 bucket list.
The Friesen Performance IMCA Northern SportMod driver from Casa Grande, Ariz., qualified all five nights of the June Tougher Than Dirt Tour in North Dakota, and made the show at the 31st annual Harris Clash.
The crowning achievement to what’s already been a pretty good season would be taking the green in the Saturday night main event at the 40th annual IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s.
“I’ve raced at Super Nationals about five years now,” said Alves, who cheered husband Chase on to a seventh place finish in last year’s Big Dance. “It’s a very prestigious race and we have a lot of friends we see there. The racing is very good and you get a lot of racing in during the week. My goal this year is to make it into the show.”
Born into a racing family, Alves wheel a Modified and asphalt late model before returning to her roots on dirt.
On track to win her career first state championship this season, Alves was a seven-time feature winner, taking four checkers at Cocopah Speedway and three more at home track Central Arizona Speedway.
The current frontrunner in Lady Eagle standings, she is also the point leader at Casa Grande and will be eligible to qualify for the BSB Manufacturing Race of Champions.
“We only got to race in Arizona until June. It’s just too hot in the summer,” explained Alves. “We have a short season here but it’s been a pretty good year for us.”
“We fought heating issues when we raced in North Dakota,” she said. “But we learned a lot and the competition was stiff. We got to race with a lot of different drivers and size ourselves up. That can only help us get better for Boone.”
The Alves’ left their cars with sponsor Johnson Farms in Homestead, Mont., after Tougher Than Dirt, then in Marshalltown following outings at The New Raceway Park, Clay County Fair Speedway and the Harris Clash.
They’ll be back in Boone in time for the Prelude. Fourteen-month-old daughter Rowan travels with her grandmother to be at Super Nationals for Championship Saturday and hopefully see mom and dad in the Big Dance.
“That would be very cool,” said Alves.
Both the Sept. 3-4 Prelude and the Sept. 5-10 Super Nationals will be broadcast by SPEED SPORT.TV affiliate IMCA.TV.