Despite winning the past two IMCA modified national championships, Chaz Baca plans to take a different approach this year. He’s moved from Arizona to Iowa and plans to race as much as possible, with no sights on another national title.
“I learned so much in Arizona, but racing is way bigger than the Southwest,” Baca said. “I’m in Iowa to learn more. I want to be a better driver. My goal is to race for a living.”
Baca believes that racing in the IMCA modified hotbed will also legitimize his status as one of the top drivers in the class. He started off the season with seven feature wins at Central Arizona Raceway before heading east. In Baca’s first race in Iowa, he won at Clay County Fair Speedway. He earned a pair of seventh-place finishes after that, at Marshalltown Speedway and Boone Speedway.
“I don’t want to hear, ‘He’s only winning at his local tracks,’ any longer,” said Baca. “I’m here to beat the top names at their home tracks, in the heart of IMCA country.”
While he has no plans to chase a championship, Baca intends to race as much as possible in the Midwest.
“To win another IMCA national championship, I would have to be committed to racing at two tracks and win their championships,” Baca said. “Instead, I will be purely racing, hitting all the big money shows. The bigger shows get the recognition, and all the big names will be there.”
The next race on his radar is the King of the High Banks at Marshalltown Speedway this weekend. After that, the Spring Fling at Cedar County Raceway. With his girlfriend, Taylor Elliott, as his sole crew member and one modified, Chaz Baca hopes to maybe follow the path of other successful modified racers such as Ricky Thornton Jr. and Ryan Gustin.
“I’m excited to be racing here,” said Baca. “I want to show that I am not just a national points winner — I can travel around and win anywhere. Hopefully, someone will notice that and put me into the seat of a late model.”
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.
