—Submitted photo Sports Park Raceway co-promoters Jason Vansickel, Marty Pringle and Dave Doughty stand with IMCA’s Jim Standard (third from left) after the announcement of Sports Park Raceway earning an IMCA sanction for next year.

A year into bringing weekly racing back to Fort Dodge, the team in charge of Sports Park Raceway earned a key sanctioning.

Track officials announced on Thursday that they are now IMCA sanctioned beginning this April.

IMCA Modifieds, IMCA Sunoco Stock Cars, IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stocks, Karl Chevrolet Northern SportMods and Mach-1 Sport Compacts will all run Sunday at the dirt track.

The season opener is scheduled for Sunday, April 22.

“We ran the track last year with IMCA rules and goals to establish our car count and grandstand attendance,” said Jason Vansickel, who co-promotes Sports Park Raceway with Marty Pringle and Dave Doughty, in a press release. “We wanted to be IMCA sanctioned this year, so now we’ve accomplished all three of those goals.

“It’s huge that we’re sanctioned with IMCA. This is IMCA country and it’s what the drivers and fans wanted. This track has never been sanctioned before and other sanctioning bodies were not the answer.”

Plans for a test and tune session is scheduled for April 15, with the season championship night set for Aug. 5.

“It was a gamble for us to come in after the track had been closed. We cleaned the place up, reshaped the track — you name it and it had to be fixed or cleaned up,” Vansickel said. “The community really supported us. We put up a new scoreboard and sold 66 sponsor billboards. It’s crazy to have so many billboards that you have to find new places for them.”

Modifieds will be part of IMCA’s Side Biter Chassis North Central Region. Stock car points won by drivers at the track will apply to EQ Cylinder Heads Northern Region and hobby stock points will go towards the Big Daddy Race Cars Northern Region standings.

“Drivers told us how much they liked having a good track surface to race on and fans told us how much they appreciated having racing back in town,” Vansickel said. “It was overwhelming for us to have so many people tell us how much they appreciated what we were doing.

“IMCA is here to stay. They are a reputable sanctioning body with rules that are fair and consistent. There were people who thought this track would never open again and there were people who never thought we’d be sanctioned. I think we’re making history this season at Sports Park Raceway.”

Sports Park Raceway brought in an average of 75 cars during weekly shows and over 600 fans in the stands. The biggest week was kids night, which doubled as the season finale.

Officials are planning to finish work on the concession building and announcer stand this spring.