Drake eyes IMCA SportMod title at Merced Speedway

No car. No money. No worries.

College student Mike Drake’s laid-back demeanor hides a burning desire to win the International Motor Contest Association (IMCA) SportMod Championship on Saturday at Merced Speedway.

Drake, from Turlock, doesn’t have a job and doesn’t own his own race car. He’s a single, full-time student at Modesto Junior College. Yet, he sits in third place among 45 drivers who compete in the speedway’s SportMod division.

What he does have is a friend in George Medeiros. A perennial car owner who has raced in hobby stocks and SportMods, Medeiros saw the potential in Drake and turned over his steering wheel.

“He’s a great driver, he’s a hard worker and he’s smart,” Medeiros said of Drake at the start of the season.

Medeiros is pretty smart himself. His plain, low-cost SportMod, with Drake behind the wheel, is just four points behind second-place Steve Stone of Winton, who has 307 points. Rick Diaz of Chowchilla sits in first place with 332 points.

Drake has developed a cult following. He and Medeiros are the “little guys” who fans are cheering for. They line up to see him and his car after the races.

Can they top Diaz and Stone?

“All kinds of new people greet me every week in the pits,” Drake says of his new-found popularity. “They all ask, ‘Can you do it?’ I tell them, ‘Of course I can.’ I still believe I have a chance to win the championship.”

An IMCA SportMod championship brings its owner more fame than fortune. To be ranked as a track champion puts the winner in an exclusive category within the history of the organization. That record is preserved for eternity.

Like many of the racers in the Valley, Drake’s interest was passed down from his dad. Dan Drake raced through the 1990s at the speedway. Son Mike took up the sport in 2008, at age 16.

“I watched my dad race as long as I can remember. The day I said I wanted to race, he told me he would retire,” Mike Drake said. “I was sad, but he did that to help me.”

Dan Drake became part of his son’s crew and now joins Medeiros to maintain the car at home and in the pits on race night.

“We need a win and we need to run up front the rest of the season to beat Rick (Diaz),” Mike Drake said. “He’s a really smooth driver and he doesn’t make many mistakes.”

Drake has caught the attention of Diaz and Stone.

“They stop by my pit stall to talk every week,” Drake said. “I must be in their minds.”

Luck plays a major role in racing. Incidents happen on the track, cars break and perfect maintenance and driver’s skills can be negated by unforeseen events.

“I had my steering box blow out. I had my transmission stick in second gear. Thank God I’m in third place,” Drake said. “We’re hoping for good nights when the other guys have bad nights, and not the other way around. That’s the way for us to win the championship.”

This week at Merced Speedway

It paid off for Chowchilla’s Randy Brown to fly home from North Dakota to compete in last Saturday’s IMCA Modified feature event. Brown drove to victory and now leads the championship point standings in that division. Brown (281) has a four-point lead over Atwater’s Bill Egleston. Ramie Stone is third with 266 points.

The IMCA Modifieds and SportMods will headline the program Saturday night at Merced Speedway. It will be the last show prior to a two-week summer break. Mini-Stocks and Junior Box Stock Go Karts will also race in a full program of qualifying races and feature events.

Merced Speedway is located within the Merced County Fairgrounds, 900 Martin Luther King Jr. Way in Merced.

This story was originally published July 22, 2016 at 7:18 PM with the headline "Drake eyes IMCA SportMod title at Merced Speedway."