CONCORD, N.C. — The IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s is one of the largest grassroots racing events held annually in the United States.
Taking place every September at IMCA’s home track, Iowa’s Boone Speedway, the event typically draws hundreds of local racers from across the country to compete for championships in six divisions.
In advance of the 2020 edition of the Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s, SPEED SPORT sat down with IMCA President Brett Root to discuss the IMCA Super Nationals and how the event will change amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
This is part two of SPEED SPORT’s conversation with Root. Click here to read part one. Part three will be published Friday.
All six nights of the IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s will be broadcast live via SPEED SPORT TV affiliate IMCA.TV beginning on Sept. 7 and running through Sept. 12.
SPEED SPORT: How does the format work for the IMCA Super Nationals?
Root: Our largest divisions compete the most and they compete starting on Wednesday. So they basically run three days of qualifying and then their feature on Saturday, and those are the stock cars and modifieds.
We start all of our divisions three wide at this race, which is very unique for a dirt race. We qualify the inside row on Wednesday, the middle row on Thursday and the outside row on Friday. Then we have last-chance races on Saturday to fill out the field in those two divisions. We have a similar format for our hobby socks and our SportMods, which race on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to get through their qualifying format to race their final event on Saturday. One of the problems that we have, and it’s a good problem to have, is the volume of race cars. It’s just impossible for us to compete in a timely manner with that many race cars on a daily schedule without having some sort of shifting of the divisions around.
That’s how we arrive at the days they race. The individual format per division is also dependent upon the volume of cars that compete. It fluctuates a little bit. We don’t have any guarantees of what’s going to show up, but it’s a fairly consistent event from a participation standpoint. It’s easy for us to get a pretty good handle on it and anticipate what we’re going to experience by the time we get the event starting.
SPEED SPORT: In addition to the championship features at the IMCA Super Nationals, you also host an All-Star Race. What’s different about that and how do drivers qualify for that race?
Root: We have one All-Star race. It’s just for the modified division. It’s been 17 seasons in the making to get the All-Star race for the modifieds to the status that it’s at. We initially started out with our most decorated feature winners in the modified division. That’s how the All-Star Race somewhat got started. We took the top 10 in career feature wins and invited them to race. That’s how we determine them to be our All Stars initially.
Obviously, if you do that every year there’s going to be a little shifting of the racers as far as the amount of races that they’re winning on a career standpoint, but there’s not going to be a lot of shifting. You’re not going to have 10 different racers the next year. They’re going to be the same 10, maybe one or two of them might switch.
We shifted from career wins after we had initially done the first event that way. We shifted it to way a way to get more competitors essentially qualified for the event. We kind of mirrored some things that we saw in other sports with Major League Baseball and the NBA and some of their All-Star festivities, things they do for their leagues. We thought how can we mirror that? How can we have an All-Star event for IMCA racers? So we came up with a qualification process where they had to win an event that paid a minimum of $1,000 to win. For our competitors that’s a fair amount of money to win. That’s how we classified it.
That opened us up to all kinds of other events, other race tracks, other competitors. It just kind of grew legs from there. In 17 seasons, it’s become one of the most anticipated races of the year that we have in IMCA and the racers know how they can qualify for it. Then to get in the race, we put it through a vote for fans to vote on who they think, of all the guys that are eligible, should be in this race. Then we have two provisionals at the race to round out the 30-car field.
SPEED SPORT: Do you have a favorite part of the IMCA Super Nationals?
Root: To me, it’s hard to be associated with an event of this magnitude and not being proud to be associated with it in about every capacity. I get to the opportunity to meet many of the racers that I can cross paths with. I talk to a lot of them before the race, after the races in victory lane, I get to see the emotional aspects of all of that from them and their family members and their teams and things like that. So it’s very satisfying from an occupational standpoint for me to be a part of that. To see how important the racers feel the event is to them. Then when they win it, how clearly important it is to them as an accomplishment.
It’s always fun to be a part of that. You know, I’m a race fan just like most other people. To be involved in this sport, I think, and to be involved in it effectively and passionately, you have to enjoy it. I’ve always been a very big race fan. I grew up around it. I raced myself. So you have you understand the dynamics at play from the competitor’s side of things, and even from the race track operational side of things. To see it all come together is very, very satisfying.
Check back Friday for part three of our conversation with IMCA President Brett Root.