ALGONA, Iowa — Nobody was more surprised than Colby Fett after he won his first start in an IMCA Sunoco Stock Car.
But no one was surprised that he became the national and EQ Cylinder Heads Northern Region rookie of the year in The Class Too Tough To Tame.
The Friesen Performance IMCA Northern SportMod veteran from Algona, Iowa, made 48 Stock Car starts at nine different tracks in three states, finishing with a flourish and counting seven wins among 22 top-five finishes
“We were going to race the SportMod most of the season and hit specials in the Stock Car. We were never thinking about running for rookie of the year,” said Fett, “but then we went out and won our first race in the Stock Car at Clay County Fair Speedway and figured we’d keep going and see where it took us.”
“The Stock Car seems to be the division everyone is gravitating toward,” continued Fett, a built motor fan and sixth in national point standings for 2024. “It’s one of the best classes around talent-wise in my opinion and we decided to go that way so we could race against guys like Mike Nichols, Kelly Shryock, Jordan Grabouski and the Murty’s.”
He challenged that talent in a 2020 B & B by Skyrocket owned by Mike Hauan of Lake Mills Motorsports and previously driven by Kelly Shryock and Troy Swearingen.
“At one point we were leading points at three tracks before we started having a lot of random mechanical issues, a lot of fluke stuff. That was when we started thinking we might have a chance at winning rookie of the year,” said Fett, who did yeoman’s work in the shop while maintaining both a Stock Car and the Northern SportMod for 73 weekly starts.
“The SportMod is faster but you’ve got to be nicer on the throttle with a Stock Car because they’ve got more power and more weight, but less traction. That was the biggest thing to get used to,” Fett explained, when asked to compare the two. “It’s way more of a finesse class – it’s like a land yacht.
“You don’t have to go to the chiropractor as often when you drive a Stock Car.”
At a loss for words following the big first win at Spencer, Fett honed both his on-track and victory lane interview skills – the former with help from Shryock, with whom he believes he shares a style of driving – before racing his way onto the starting grid for the B & B Racing Chassis All-Star Invitational.
“Qualifying into the All-Star race at Super Nationals had to be our highlight of the season,” said Fett, who finished seventh in that race. “I think I qualified with the third best time against that field and that was exciting, because I did it racing against the guys who usually win the big races.”
Fett became one of “those guys” later in September, topping the $1,000 to win Battle of the Blue Ribbon at Clay County, the $1,000 to win Turkey Town Throwdown at Worthington Speedway and the season-ending $2,500 to win Tiny Lund Memorial at Shelby County Speedway.
“I was spread thin trying to take care of two cars and that showed performance-wise, so I parked the SportMod in August,” he said. “We buckled down in September and those wins really solidified the rookie points for us. This was by far my most trying season but to walk away with the rookie of the year awards made it all worth it.”
Fett will switch gears again in 2025, racing more weekly shows in the Northern SportMod and focusing more on specials for the Stock Cars. He had six wins racing the SportMod part-time this year, upping his career total to 82 in that division.