Gabriel Deschamp (20) has won the sport mod championship at Thunder Mountain Speedway in North Dakota for the past three years. He also earned titles at Estevan Motor Speedway and Nodak Speeedway last year. But, how would he fare if he competed in the heart of IMCA country, Iowa? How does two wins, four top-fives and six top-10s in six features sound?
His first win came in a stock car on March 28 at Clay County Fair Speedway.
“I admit I teared up on the white-flag lap at Clay County Fair Speedway,” Deschamp, of Bottineau, North Dakota, said. “I never raced a stock there — I watched IMCA.TV coverage of racers like Kelly Shryock and thought it would be so cool to race against him there. As I saw the checkered flag, I tried not to make any mistakes and ruin it all.”
Deschamp wanted a challenge from Shryock and got it.
“At home, when I started on the pole and won a race, people would comment, ‘That was easy — no one was there,’” said Deschamp. “I was hoping that wasn’t going to be the case at Clay County Fair Speedway. I started on the pole, but Kelly passed me — I had to fight to the finish.”
On April 4, Deschamp scored a feature in his sport mod at Marshalltown Speedway.
“For sure it is tougher racing in Iowa,” Deschamp said. “A top-10 finish is an accomplishment. I found the racers in Iowa drive aggressively, and they don’t make mistakes.”
The victories and the overall performance might have quieted Deschamp’s naysayers. However, it also silenced any doubts Gabriel Deschamp had about his abilities.
“It was an amazing week,” said Deschamp. “It was important for me to work to win. I watched and rewatched these racers on TV and asked myself, ‘Can I beat them?’ I answered that question.”
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.
