The IMCA claim rule came into play on May 27 at Shelby County Speedway in Harlan, Iowa. Zach Hemmingsen came in second during the hobby stock feature. After the checkers flew, Joe Copeland, who finished 14th, claimed Hemmingsen’s open engine.
Hemmingsen refused the claim. Doing so resulted in Hemmingsen being disqualified, suspended from IMCA competition for 30 days, and a $1,000 fine.
Why Copeland Did It
“I had nothing against [Hemmingsen],” Copeland, of Omaha, Nebraska, said. “No matter who came to tech with an open motor, I was going to claim it. Why? Because that is what the rule is there for.”
Per IMCA’s “General Rules”: “When claim rule is in effect, top four finishers must report directly to claim area and are subject to claim by any eligible driver finishing fifth on back in feature that is scored on the lead lap.”
Copeland, who has raced hobby stocks for 16 years, never made a claim before. For him, he said the times have changed.
“I’m a low-budget racer,” said Copeland. “I drive a truck 60 hours a week. I bought a new crate engine and it’s on its last leg after just nine races. Prices are out of hand. I brought reality back into the game.”
He added that he has experienced fallout from his decision to claim Hemmingsen’s engine.
“Everyone in tech that night said things,” Copeland said. “[Hemmingsen] called me and we had a discussion. I’m being beaten up on the internet. The solution, in my opinion, is to make crates affordable again. There is a growing problem — everyone is going to open motors.”
Hemmingsen’s Perspective of the IMCA Claim Rule
“Why should someone be able to take my motor for $500?” said Hemmingsen, of Marne, Iowa. “Where is the mutual respect between racers? You don’t claim engines because everyone has a lot of money into their engines. It comes down to respect for that alone. I’ve got $8,100 invested in my motor. A dyno-ed 602 crate motor costs just as much these days.”
A dyno-ed Chevrolet Performance 602 engine for a hobby stock, with an upgraded distributor, spark plugs, and oil-filter adapter, costs “just shy of $7,000,” according to a worker at Friesen Performance that did not wish to be identified. He also said, “An open motor can’t compete with a [dyno-ed] crate. The crate will always be faster.”
Regardless, Hemmingsen doesn’t necessarily disagree with the concept of the IMCA claim rule.
“The issue is $500,” Hemmingsen said. “Today, anyone can come up with $500 to take a chance on getting a really cool engine. Five-hundred dollars was a lot of money back in the ’80s and ’90s. Today, it isn’t. It doesn’t make the driver making the claim think before doing it.”
IMCA could not determine how long they have set the claim price to $500.
Going Forward
For Joe Copeland, he had the $550 he put up to claim Hemmingsen’s engine returned. (The additional $50 is for the $25 to the wrecking company pulling the engine and $25 for the track official.) Copeland cannot claim another engine for the remainder of the 2023 season.
For Zach Hemmingsen, he lost the ability to race at his home track, the only one he competes at. He now will haul more than an hour away to Corning, Iowa’s Adams County Speedway, which runs under NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series banner.
Hemmingsen also pulled his trucking company’s sponsorship from Shelby County Speedway. He had scheduled to sponsor the Father’s Day race on June 17 to honor local soybean and corn farmers.
“I just want to add that I have no problem with the track,” said Hemmingsen. “I just couldn’t go forward with sponsoring a race that I am banned from.”
What probably stings the most for Hemmingsen is that if he did not get disqualified, he’d stand six points behind the track’s points leader.
“My only intention was to race at my local track,” said Hemmingsen. “Now, I’m forced to go to NASCAR, and I don’t know if I will ever come back. I don’t want to pay the $1,000 fine in order to be reinstated. A suspension is bad enough — it will cost me a possible third championship.”
Outside Groove Note of Transparency: This article was updated. Joe Copeland ran a Chevrolet Performance 602 crate engine in 2022, but not in 2023 (Corrected 2023-06-05).
The Outside Groove Director of Photography 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.
