Arizonan Chaz Baca knows the uphill battle he faces after coming out of the winter racing season atop the IMCA points standings, much before the rest of the country starts its year. In 2018, he held onto the lead for most of the season until losing it near the end of the year. In 2023, after years of trying, he finally won the national IMCA title for modifieds.
“We have had the upper hand on the rest of the country initially,” said Baca, of racing in Arizona. “We have to continue to stay up front through the season — that’s the tough part.”
Baca cites three reasons for 2023 being different. First, Deuce of Clubs Thunder Raceway in Show Low, Arizona, reopened. Second, he raced a new car from Harris Auto Racing. Third, the IMCA-sanctioned tracks in the West did not schedule on top of each other.
The reopening of Deuce of Clubs Thunder Raceway was much welcomed by Baca. Before, he had to haul to California, Colorado and New Mexico to garner points during the year.
“It was hard to take in a race every weekend because the distances between our states are so far,” Baca, of Mesa, Arizona, said. “We hauled to California when there was an open weekend, but those long hauls were less than in previous years because of the opening of Deuce of Clubs Thunder Raceway.”
Baca only has two crew members and they work out of a home garage. Likewise, they just have one car, but it worked well in 2023.
“We are getting great tech support from Harris’ Kyle Brown,” said Baca. “[It] helped us get the national championship.”
When Baca needed to travel, most tracks in the West did not schedule on top of each other. This allowed him to rack up more points, but it didn’t come easy.
“Hitting a race every weekend helps with the bonus points, but I’m racing against the same drivers every weekend,” Baca said. “Arizona has produced a lot of top drivers who go national — like Ricky Thornton — but others chose to stay in-state, and they are fast and fierce competitors. It is just different in the Iowa, where tracks run on the same night, and it splits the drivers up.”
At the end of 2023, Chaz Baca not only earned a national championship, but also regional and state titles. In addition, he won end-of-year crowns at three Arizona tracks — Cocopah Speedway in Somerton, Central Arizona Raceway in Casa Grande, and Deuce of Clubs Thunder Raceway.
This year, he comes out of February with a bigger point lead than last. He won six of the 19 features he raced.
“We have to start out fast right out of the gate or we don’t have a chance at the championship when everyone else does in the summer,” said Baca. “We’ve come out swinging this year, and that’s a good feeling.”
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.
