BOONE, Iowa — Kyren Porter has wanted to race at the IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals presented by Casey’s at Iowa’s Boone Speedway for 10 years.
Next week she’ll finally be able to cross it off her bucket list.
Porter, who competes is in the midst of her first season in the IMCA stock car division, is among the hundreds of drivers expected for the 38th running of the legendary gathering of grassroots racers.
“I started in compacts when I was 14,” said 21-year-old Porter. “Now this is my first year in stock cars. My whole goal this year was to be able to run it (the Super Nationals) just because I’ve never been able to. It’s such a big event.”
The native of Minnesota has been racing since she was 7 years old. Her father, Chad Porter, is also a racer and has been competing at the Super Nationals for several years. That’s how Kyren Porter was introduced to the event and it’s also the reason she so badly wants to compete in it.
“I’ve been going there every year helping him for probably six years now,” she said. “You see the best of the best racing. The best guys go there from all around the world. It’s just a huge event and it’s just fun.”
Father and daughter will both race during the Super Nationals this year, with Chad Porter competing in the headlining modified division.
When she’s not busy working on her own car, she’ll be doubling as a crew member on her father’s car during the weeklong event, which runs from Sept. 7 through Sept. 12 and will be broadcast live via SPEED SPORT TV affiliate IMCA.TV.
The chance to race at the Super Nationals is something Porter has worked for since she started driving race cars. She understands the importance of the event and how meaningful it is, not just to her, but to the hundreds of other racers who will be participating.
“It’s something that you … even if you explain it, it’s not even (close to) what it actually is. You can explain there are literally the best drivers and there are hundreds of cars in each class and there’s so many people,” Porter said. “I think for any normal person it would be like, ‘Well, there are about as many people as there would be at a music festival or something.’”
Perhaps, most importantly, for Kyren Porter, this will likely be her one and only shot at racing at the Super Nationals. She plans to hang up her helmet in the near future, though she doesn’t plan to stop going to races or the Super Nationals.
“I plan on finishing up this year,” Porter said. “It’s been really hard. We’ve had motor problems week after week after week. I’ll probably be done sometime soon and then keep racing with my dad and my boyfriend, who races too. We’re going to travel around a lot more with him and I’ll still be around it, just not in a car.
“Sometimes I’m like, ‘I don’t know if I can be done yet.’ But sometimes I’m like, ‘I can’t afford to keep buying new motors.’”
With that in mind, she says racing at the Super Nationals will be one of the greatest moments of her life.
“It kind of puts a little bit more pressure (on me) because if the weekend’s bad, then it (her career) is just going to end bad,” Porter said. “But if it ends good, then it’s just going to be the highlight of my life, which it already is. It’s a big deal.
“My whole career was just kind of built around going to the Super Nationals.”
All six nights of the IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s on Sept. 7-12 will be broadcast live via SPEED SPORT TV affiliate IMCA.TV.