MAQUOKETA, Iowa – He already owns the distinction of being the only Sport Compact driver to win back-to-back championships at the IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s.
Jacob Ellithorpe will next be running for membership in one of the event’s most exclusive fraternities when he returns to Boone Speedway for the 40th annual Super Nationals.
The 2012 and 2013 Sport Compact king at America’s Racin’ Vacation moved to the Northern SportMods before finding new success in the IMCA Sunoco Stock Car division. He won the track title at hometown Maquoketa Speedway in 2020 and is a six-time feature winner so far this season.
“We have gone back to Super Nationals to watch, or watched from home on IMCA.TV. This will be my first visit to Boone in a rear wheel drive car,” said Ellithorpe, one of the record 240 drivers in the division already pre-registered. “We wanted to go back this year especially because it was 10 years since my first championship and this is the 40th annual Super Nationals.”
Only five drivers among the thousands who have raced at Super Nationals in its first 39 years have won championships in different divisions.
“My main goal going in is just to make the show. But just to be there and win that … you can win races here and there but to win against 200-plus cars from all over America would be unbelievable,” said Ellithorpe. “I don’t even know what you’d say in victory lane.”
Still recognized by fans as a two-time champion, Ellithorpe still has his Super Nationals Sport Compact hardware on display at home. While he’ll be racing a Stock Car at Boone for the first time, he does have that championship event experience.
“Oh man. There were so many people there. Boone was the first track I’d ever been to that had so many people in the stands,” he recalled. “That was also the first time I’d ever started a race three wide.”
Ellithorpe is a long-time racing buddy of the defending Prelude winner and Super Nationals champion and hopes Mitch Bielenberg can match his back-to-back accomplishment.
He’s also hoping for some on-stage time with announcers Jerry Vansickle or Wade Aunger.
“I hope to talk to Jerry or Wade on stage at least once during the week,” he said. “That would be great.”
Both the Sept. 3-4 Prelude and the Sept. 5-10 Super Nationals will be broadcast by SPEED SPORT.TV affiliate IMCA.TV.