SWEA CITY, Iowa — His season didn’t begin like any other in Matthew Looft’s Friesen Performance IMCA Northern SportMod career, but the way it ended was plenty familiar.
“It was just a different year with all the rainouts early in the season. We went almost a month (April 15-May 11) without a race,” said Looft, asked to compare national championship number seven with any of the six that preceded it. “So we worked and we relaxed and had more family time, which was good.”
Looft, from rural Swea City, Iowa, totaled 33 feature wins among 46 top-five finishes in his 50 starts in 2024, earning track titles at Arlington Raceway, Kossuth County Speedway and Murray County Speedway.
The biggest payday of his 296 career wins in the division came at Clay County Fair Speedway’s Quarter Million Dollar Challenge in May; his checkered flag run at Boone Speedway’s NAPA Auto Parts Double Down Prelude came with the national points race heating up.
“The Quarter Million Dollar Challenge paid $16,667 and that made our season pretty much. The track was fast and hammer down and with Jake Sachau starting up front on his type of fast track was a huge challenge. We had to run him down and pass him from a straightaway behind to secure the win. It helped us hit it hard over the summer months and keep the gas tanks full,” Looft said. “Winning the Double Down Prelude at Boone was big, too. It’s pretty neat when you win races with 150-160 cars there and it definitely helped us win the national title, too.”
Looft’s longest winning streak of the season was eight straight and started at the Quarter Million Dollar Challenge. He also had three streaks of four consecutive wins, two of those coming over the course of his final 10 starts.
After topping point standings in 2013, 2014 and 2018, Looft has another streak going with four consecutive national crowns. The last three of those titles, along with seven local track championships and 101 feature wins, have come in the same 2022 Skyrocket Chassis that will be retired some day and put on display above his office loft in the shop.
“Spencer and Arlington are two of my favorite tracks, Arlington for the speed and Spencer for the close, side-by-side racing and slicker surface,” he noted. “I’ve said it before, every national championship is special for its own reasons, and it’s getting tougher to stay on top of your game because everybody is getting faster.”
“We’ll have to get back to the drawing board and find more speed to stay ahead of them,” he continued. “I don’t know what our plans for next year are going to be. I’m getting older and the family is getting busier. My wife has helped out more this year with our crew being busy with their work and families. It’s just getting tough to keep up with all the maintenance and shop work. One thing we pride ourselves on is nothing falls off our car, and we have had a total of 4 DNFs in the last four years. Hopefully we can knock our career 300th win out right away next year. That’s the goal.”
Looft also became a two-car star this season, making 18 of his 20 IMCA Sunoco Stock Car starts at Arlington, winning five features and his career-first track championship in The Class Too Tough To Tame in a B & B Racing Chassis house car.
He was one of a handful of drivers qualifying for the main event in two divisions at the IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s, finishing eighth in the SportMod dance and 18th in the Stock Car show.
“In the SportMod, you can attack the corners a lot harder. In the Stock Car you have to keep traction in the car. You’ve got to keep them straighter but after you run ‘em a few times on the same night, you get a feel for it,” said Looft. “Even when I am on the track for the SportMod feature I am thinking of ways to make the stock car faster, and you can make a couple quick changes because you can tell how the track and groove is changing.”
Another accomplishment this season not overlooked was that that Looft was one of just three IMCA drivers winning four track championships, joining fellow national champion Mike Nichols and John Oliver Jr. in the feat.
“Any time you have your name with the goat Mike Nichols, it’s pretty special,” Looft said. “He’s been a hero of mine for years.”