MILTON, Fla. — Already a proven winner on dirt tracks in and around the Sunshine State, J.C. Wilson saw his interest in the Friesen Performance IMCA Modified division piqued by the inaugural Clash on the Coast.
The following season, he was following the second annual tour and motoring toward rookie of the year honors in IMCA’s DeVilbiss Racing Chassis Eastern Region.
“I was beyond proud of myself for what we accomplished this season,” said the seven-time feature winner, also the Northwest Florida Speedway track and Florida State champion. “We were able to do really well and I am beyond proud and happy with what we accomplished.”
“We were just going to run hit and miss, then it got to where we were running the Modified every week,” added Wilson, who celebrated his 22nd birthday the week before the IMCA national awards banquet.
From Milton, Fla., he started racing street stocks in 2015, then moved into the crate late models.
Along with 15 feature wins, Wilson earned track titles at Baker and at Tri-County Speedway and was third in Crate Racing national standings in 2020.
“I’ve been fortunate, I’ve done really well,” he said. “We ran late models pretty much all the time. I’d watched my dad Frank run them but the class has gotten very expensive.”
“Two years ago they brought the Clash on the Coast down here. Dad and I talked about that and we ended up getting a Modified,” Wilson explained. “We were just going to run a few Modified races here and there when we didn’t race the late model, but it got to where we couldn’t run late models more than once or twice a month while the Modifieds were getting 12-15 cars every night.”
After buying a 2023 Longhorn Chassis and making a couple starts late last fall, Wilson won the first start of his rookie season, leading a field that included former regional ROY Owen Barnhill and multi-time regional champion A.J. Ward to the checkers at Southern Raceway’s Feb. 3 Don Hall Birthday Bash show.
“It was great, I was thrilled about it. Owen was there, he’s been the dominant car around here, and I was able to outrun him, and A.J. was down here from Michigan, too. There were some good cars there and had to come from eighth to do it,” Wilson said. “That’s one thing I like about IMCA. When you can come from deep in the field, it feels like you’ve accomplished so much more rather than when you win from the front row. When you do it from eighth or 10th or wherever, you feel a lot more accomplished.”
He’d continue racking up the accomplishments, becoming the only home state driver to qualify for the main event field each night of Clash on the Coast and totaling 16 top five finishes in just 24 starts.
“Throughout the season it became our goal to win the state, then we got to looking at the rookie points,” said Wilson, now the fourth generation to work at his family-owned sawmill. “We made sure we got to every race we could and it all worked out.”