After six years and more than 50 wins in hobby stocks, Blake Luinenburg made a change. He moved into sport mods this season, starting in January at Central Arizona Raceway. Six months later, he’s visited victory lane—twice.
“We are junkies for a challenge,” the Reading, Minnesota, driver said. “And it was time for a new challenge.
“People were getting fed up with us winning all the time,” Blake continued. “We found people aren’t too happy when one driver keeps winning. Suggestions came for us to move on up.”
He had planned on moving into stock cars, but a sponsor wanted him in sport mods. So Blake and his family bought a new GRT by BHE chassis with an open engine from Bruns Racing Products.
His first race at Central Arizona Raceway, he had to qualify through the B-main. Blake made it into the feature, where he finished 22nd.
“I knew I probably would suck the first nights out,” Blake said. “It took a while to figure out and learn how to drive a sport mod. I kept telling myself, ‘Patience. You can’t set the world on fire the first night out.’”
While both a hobby stock and sport mod have four wheels, Blake had to adjust.
“Getting used to rear steer was the biggest hurdle,” Blake said. “It took me quite a few nights to get the rear [of the chassis] set up where I liked it.
“I had to get rid of all the habits of hobby stock driving and learn new habits,” Blake continued. “It was mostly how to enter and exit the turns.”
Blake Luinenburg won his first sport mod race earlier this month at Worthington Speedway. On Sunday, he followed it up with another win at Redwood Speedway.
“The win gave us confidence,” Blake said. “A driver has to be confident in what he is driving. A win sure helps that.”
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.
