Just ask Cory Probst, Mike Smith, and Cody Williams how competitive the national IMCA hobby stock championship is. They tied for this year’s title, with 1030 points apiece.
The national points tallies are based on a driver’s best 25 finishes in their declared region, plus bonus points for track championships and the track’s average weekly car counts. Through that combination, the trio scored the same number of points. So, IMCA breaks the tie in the following way, per IMCA’s “2024 General Rules and Procedures”:
“TIE-BREAKER: Should two or more drivers have the same point totals at season end in track, series, state, regional or national standings, number of sanctioned 40-point feature wins will decide tie-breaker, then 39-point finishes, then 38-point finishes, etc.”
Probst had 28 wins at 40 points, Smith had 25 wins at 40 points, and Williams had 25 wins at 40 points. By virtue of that, Probst won the national championship, according to Virginia Lindsey, IMCA Director of Membership and Points.
Smith had 10 wins at 39 points, Williams had nine, giving second to Smith.
For Smith, three track championships — Buena Vista Raceway, Boone Speedway, Kossuth County Speedway — wasn’t enough. This was his second year in a row he lost the championship to a tiebreaker. Last year, Zach Olmstead had one more win than him.
“I have nothing to be ashamed of,” said Smith, of Lake City, Iowa. “Second is not the final result I wanted for this season. Unfortunately, no one remembers the racer who finishes second.”
While Williams won two track titles — Dodge City Raceway Park and Salina Speedway in Kansas — he raced all over the country. Unfortunately, only races in his declared region counted toward the championship battle.
“I raced a lot more features than the other guys did,” Williams, of Minneapolis, Kansas, said. “If Arizona counted, I would have won the national championship hands down. Unfortunately, I had to choose to register in one region. Going through a tiebreaker hurt me the most because I traveled and raced in Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota, Iowa, and Kansas. I had 32 feature wins, and 20 of them paid more than $500 to win. I raced everywhere to accomplish my record, not just 200 miles from home like the first- and second-place drivers did.”
Probst raced primarily close to home, winning track championships at Arlington Raceway, Clay County Fair Speedway, and Redwood Speedway.
“I had the honor of racing against Mike and Cody twice this season at Clay County Fair Speedway,” said Probst. “I was just racing and having fun — I never planned on going for the national championship. My wife, Katelyn, and I are busy raising a family.”
Cory Probst won the national title with the same Big Daddy Race Cars hobby stock he used to score the 2020 national championship. The man behind the chassis, Dale Bittner, passed away in May.
“I looked up to Dale — his memory drove me to be successful,” Probst said. “I was in his car, thinking of him, all season. If I wasn’t driving to his shop for a visit, we were on the phone every day sharing ideas. He pushed me to do better and win that 2020 championship. The championship this year is a lot sweeter, though. It’s not a pandemic year, and it was down to a three-way points tie.”
All three drivers plan to make another run for the hobby stock national championship in 2025. While Cory Probst has another car to race, one of Bittner’s last ones he built, Probst intends to continue to race the car earned him two national titles.
“I never keep cars long, but this one I will,” Probst said. “It’s sentimental.”
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.
