BREWSTER, Minn. – A couple wins at a track that hasn’t treated Cory Probst too kindly in the past gave him a big boost of confidence.
Four wins racing closer to home to wrap up the season made him a two-time IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stock national champion.
Probst, from Brewster, Minn., matched his career-best total with 29 feature wins, in 46 starts, for the tie-breaking championship edge over Mike Smith and Cody Williams in the national standings. All three had finished the season with the maximum 1,000 points, plus 30 points for two track titles.
“I wasn’t planning on racing for national points this year but it’s always something that’s in the back of your head, especially when you’ve won it before and put together some good seasons. It wasn’t until maybe early August that I saw I could have a shot,” said Probst, who’d previously hoisted the national champion trophy in 2020 and dedicated this campaign to late chassis builder Dale Bittner, who passed away in May.
“We knew it would be tough but there was still an opportunity. We knew if we could put together some wins, that a lot could change in a month,” he’d add. “Winning the Prelude helped with confidence.”
Boone Speedway and the IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s haven’t necessarily been kind to the procrastinator Probst in the past but he won his NAPA Auto Parts Double Down Prelude feature and the Stephenville Starter Race of Champions before finishing third in the Saturday night Big Dance.
“I wasn’t planning all year to go to Boone. I figured if everything was going good and the weather looked good that we’d go. I think I registered like two days before. I raced Friday and Saturday clear up north (winning at Red River Valley Speedway and at Arlington Raceway) and then Sunday at the Prelude,” Probst said. “When you go to Boone, there are so many good drivers and you have to have some luck.
“When I won the race of champions, too, it was really cool.”
Overcoming a slow-for-him start, Probst earned the B & B Racing Chassis Northern Region crown along with track titles at Arlington and at Redwood Speedway.
He had just seven wins through June, then won eight of 10 starts in July and nine of 13 in August. The Prelude checkers flew for the first of five September wins.
“We ran second, or it was close racing where I just didn’t do a good enough job of getting to the front as one of the other guys,” Probst said of the start to his season. “It was one of those things where you were a little bit rusty, then you get back into a routine and get better as the year goes on.
“It was cool to see all the first-time winners at Redwood,” he added. “Granted, I want to win, of course, but I remember what it was like when I got my first win.”
After just a pair of DNFs in 46 starts this season, both times the result of tire issues, Probst is now at 273 wins in his career and has not finished lower than fifth in national standings for since 2014.
“It’s been a fun experience,” he said. “To contend every year and be good, I think that speaks volume into the work we put into this, and we’re not a big team by any means.”