This time last year, John Martinez didn’t feel he’d be racing much in 2025. Little did he know that he’d win the IMCA sport compact national title.
“I got married, started a family and thought I had to cut back on racing,” Martinez, of Beatrice, Nebraska, said. “We were about to have another baby. I wanted to make sure I was there for my family — I wondered how much I can race and support a family. I was about to give up, but Dillon and his wife kept me going.”
Enter Dillon Richards and Kaylee Richards. They both operate WEB Chassis and are former IMCA sport compact national champs (Kaylee in 2024, Dillon in 2017). Martinez drove the cars they had built since he was 14 years old, and won two track titles at Beatrice Speedway and CJ Speedway in 2018.
“I had sold my cars last year,” Martinez said. “Dillon and Kaylee saw potential in me that I did not realize. I never thought I could be a national champion.”
The two put Martinez into the WEB Chassis house car — and things clicked from the get-go. People took notice, including his competitors. After winning 10 times, another driver claimed his car in June. Martinez had to give it up for $1,500. He didn’t quit there, though.
The Richards found another Cavalier for $1,000. Its location? Behind Jet Racing’s shop. WEB Chassis cut its roof off, dropped in a cage and Martinez never missed a beat. He won 10 more features with the new car. Martinez credits much of his success to the Richards.
“Dillon and Kaylee helped me in improving my driving style,” Martinez said. “I’m a totally different driver from what I was in 2018. I’m more aggressive and smoother. When Dillon and Kaylee critique me, I listen. After all, they’re the national champions before me.”
Martinez crossed paths with his former car periodically throughout the year.
“That driver won one race with my old car on a night when I wrecked,” Martinez said. “He never beat me with my old car while I was running.”
In total, John Martinez won 23 features in 46 starts. He won track championships at Concordia Raceway and Salina Speedway, and, of course, that IMCA national title. Just to think, Martinez might have never reached that level of success if two previous champions didn’t reach out to him.
“At the end of the season Kaylee said, ‘See what you can accomplish when believe in yourself,’” Martinez said. “I learned to never give up on anything, on any dream in life. We had our share of racing issues in 2024. I thought about the financial responsibility of a family with the cost of racing, and I lost the spark. Dillon and Kaylee reignited that spark.”
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.
