Boone County Raceway
Nebraskan nabs sixth straight IMCA title
By Bill Martin
IMCA
Cory Dumpert (Twitch Imagery)
While there’s a lot to be said for consistency, Cory Dumpert credited a never give up approach to his latest IMCA Sunoco Late Model national championship season. The Newman Grove, Neb., driver collected 15 feature victories en route to his sixth consecutive national title, a record for IMCA’s modern era that began in 1979.
“That’s pretty cool, surreal, really,” said Dumpert, also the Nebraska State champion for a sixth straight season, as well as track champion at Albion’s Boone County Raceway and Norfolk’s Off Road Speedway. “We started racing a Late Model with IMCA in 2019 and while we’ve had a lot of success since then, this season was definitely the most challenging and our most rewarding championship.”
“Consistency was important — on paper it shows 38 top-fives — but there was a lot of stuff that happened that we had to overcome, too,” he’d add. “It was a terrible year with some of the mechanical stuff that happened but it was still a very rewarding year.
“We just never gave up.”
Son Stetson was born on June 6, right in the middle of a lot of those mechanical issues but Dumpert and his crew kept plugging away.
Aboard a 2016 Swartz Chassis since sold to Alex Banks, Dumpert raced at nine tracks in three states, winning at six of them. Along with five victories at Boone County and four at Off Road, he won twice at U.S. 30 Speedway in Columbus, Neb., and at 34 Raceway in West Burlington, Iowa, and once each at Hawkeye State venues Crawford County Speedway in Denison and Davenport Speedway.
“I had never been to West Burlington before this year. The first night I was there I started 17th and finished fourth, and we won the next two there,” Dumpert said. "I think the night I won at Davenport was the fourth night I had ever been there. I usually make it there once a year; 34 is so long in the straights and it’s pretty tight cornered around the bottom. Davenport takes the same gear as Columbus, Albion and Norfolk but it’s so flat compared to what we’re used to and the dirt is so different.”
Travis Denning of Sterling, Ill., won 14 features and remained in contention for the national crown right up to the final weekend of the season. Rookie of the Year Anthony Roth of Columbus, Neb., was a nine-time winner and ended third in the points race.
“Toward the end of the season I won four in a row (between Aug. 16 and Aug. 23) and that kind of helped get me the buffer window I needed to help maintain the lead and match whatever Travis was doing,” said Dumpert. “I was starting to feel more comfortable about stuff after that.”
The all-time IMCA record for consecutive national championships is seven, set by Late Model legend Ernie Derr over the 1965-71 seasons.
“That’s kind of my goal now,” Dumpert said. “You can’t come this close and stop.”
Another goal for 2025 will be career win No. 100: Dumpert ended the season with 95 career checkers, 11th on the all-time list for the division.
