Over the course of his 14-year sport mod career, among his 267 wins, this past Wednesday’s victory was the biggest payday for Matthew Looft. He received $16,667 after winning the sport mod portion of the $250,000 Challenge at Clay County Fair Speedway in Spencer, Iowa.
What will he do with the money? Looft isn’t going to Disney World.
“I run my race team like a business, one checking account, and I keep track of income and expenses,” Looft, of Swea City, Iowa, said. “It will be nice to have this money to lessen the burden on the race team. Not only will it be used for upkeep of the car, but for all the expenses I keep track of in that account — tires, fuel, diesel for the hauler, our camper payment, and pit passes for the crew.”
The conservative approach to his winnings comes based on experience.
“We’ve only had a couple of years — without a wreck or a blown motor — where we more than broke even,” said Looft. “This is a hobby. The money earned is not even close, if you figure the hours you put in. Those hours are a trade-off for pure enjoyment.”
Undoubtedly, winning the $250,000 Challenge, besting 100 other entries, added to the enjoyment. The victory didn’t come easy. Despite being a regular at Clay County Fair Speedway, track prep through him in for a loop.
“All season long we worked on perfecting a dry-slick surface,” Looft said. “Then, the track threw us a curveball. They farmed the surface before the feature. It was a hammer-down track.”
That gave the initial advantage to Jake Sachau, of Manning, Iowa, Looft chased him for more than half of the 30-lap feature.
“Jake is really good on a hammer-down track,” said Looft. “My car was too tight. I had to drive it into the turns way harder than I ever planned to do. So, I studied Jake’s car as I followed him.”
When the two encountered lapped traffic, Matthew Looft made his move based on his observations of Sachau.
“He was getting free through the middle of the track, and then washing up on the exit of turn two,” Looft said. “I watched lap after lap, then backed into the corner in turn one, setting my car early. He slid up in two, and I had a clean line to go wide-open and into the lead.”
That led to Looft’s biggest payday, but it could have been even bigger. The $250,000 Challenge intended to pay the winners of the sport mod and stock car features $25,000 apiece. Instead, the victors received one-third less because Tuesday night’s program rained out.
“It was only fair to the promoters,” Looft said. “They lost the grandstand, concessions, and streaming revenue on Tuesday. It was still the most money I ever won.”
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.
