Dyllan Ricks started racing IMCA sport mods two years ago at Buena Vista Raceway in Alta, Iowa. This past Wednesday, he earned his first feature victory at the same track. The win didn’t come easy.
He spun while passing for the lead early on in the race. Ricks saved it, but fell back to the rear. A caution then bunched up the field, and he then began his march to the front.
“I was able to come back, and with two laps to go I put a slider on Rusty Montagne,” said Ricks, 17, of Boyden, Iowa. “I did all I could do to hang on for the win. He’s a tough competitor.”
Earlier in his life, Ricks seemed destined for the end zone rather than victory lane.
“Football was my sport,” Ricks said. “When I got a torn ACL playing football, I decided to find another sport. My dad races sport mods, so I asked him if I could drive, too.”
His father, Dale Ricks, welcomed his son to join him on the track.
“I got carried away with racing,” said Ricks. “My dad and I work on the cars, and then race together.”
However, the elder Ricks did not see his son win his first race.
“He was out trucking,” Ricks said of his father, who owns a trucking company. “He hated to miss a race, but he was a driver short and had to work. It was tougher because he had just won the feature at Worthington Speedway [in Minnesota] a week earlier.”
Ricks did get to enjoy the milestone victory with his grandfather, Jerry Mulder.
“My grandfather has worked with us since I started racing,” said Ricks. “It was great for him to see us win.”
Dyllan Ricks looks to return to victory lane faster than it took him to achieve his first visit.
“People say the first win is the hardest — and they are right,” Ricks said. “It was a big relief to get that win after trying for two years.”
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
