The Vault
NEARLY 60 NIGHTS OF RACING PAID OFF FOR LAMBERIES IN ’15
Posted on: Friday December 31, 2021
In 2015 Lucas Lamberies, who was just 16 at the time, raced nearly 60 nights but that persistence paid off with multiple feature wins at track titles that year. (photo courtesy of Lucas Lamberies racing FB page)
Lucas Lamberies racing career began wheeling his big wheel in his parents driveway for hundreds of laps at a crack when he was a mere four years old.
A dozen years later, the 16-year-old junior at Clintonville High School can claim to be Wisconsin’s IMCA state northern sportmod champion in 2015. Lamberies is on the tail end of his third year of racing sportmods.
This year, Lamberies also captured the track title at Shawano Speedway. He finished second in points at Luxemburg Speedway and was one point behind Oconto’s Jeremy Cota heading into the final points night at Seymour Speedway when NEW DIRT club officials abruptly decided to cancel there final remaining show, which was scheduled for Sunday, September 20.
“We’ve run 57 nights so far so we’re all pretty tired,” said Lamberies, who won 15 features en route to the IMCA state crown this year. “When August hit we all hit burnout pretty good. The experience and the seat time I’m getting is great but it really wears you and the crew out. It takes a lot out of you to chase something like that.”
Lamberies comes from a racing family. He’s a third generation driver. His Dad, Kevin Lamberies raced hobby stocks, sportsman and IMCA stock cars for several years at Shawano while his Grandpa Cubby Lamberies raced at Shawano in the 1960’s into the early 70’s. “I run the number 0 on my car because that’s what my Dad ran,” Lamberies explained. “My second choice for a number was 98, which was Grandpa’s number. Both of them are in the shop every night helping out. I think the races and titles are won or lost in the shop during the week.”
After his stint as a toddler racing big wheels Lamberies raced the local kart circuit for five years. “When IMCA came out with that rule where you could be 14 years old and drive a sportmod, that’s when we decided to give that a try,” said Lamberies. “A few of us from karts made that jump and we’ve been going full bore in this division ever since.”
Lamberies is hot off a strong performance at the IMCA Supernationals at Boone, Iowa last week. He took fourth in the A main on Saturday night and won the Race of Champions. “Last year we got our butts kicked pretty bad and got it taken to us down there,” said Lamberies. “We learned a lot down there, though. It makes you faster when you run out-of-state against some pretty stiff competition.”
Winning something at the Supernationals at Boone typically has never been a big paying cash deal, as Lamberies found out. “Its really more of a prestige thing than anything,” said Lamberies. “I didn’t win much money but I did get a lot of contingency stuff. I won a tire and a bottle of champagne. We also won a years supply of oil, and a raceceiver unit. Some rims and tires, too.”
Being a junior in high school poses some challenges with Lucas’ racing schedule, mainly early and late in the year. “On Sunday nights at Seymour we get home some nights at 9 o’clock or later and I’ve still got homework to do when I get home,” said Lamberies. “And with Boone I missed pretty much a whole week of classes. I’m still catching up with homework from missing that.”
For the 2015 season, Lamberies and his crew, which also consists of his Uncle and Aunt Jeff and Lisa Schutt, will change things up a little bit. “We plan on running maybe 30 shows tops, and not run weekly for points anywhere withthe sportmod,” explained Lamberies. “We’re gonna cut back next year. We plan on popping in to 141 Speedway a few times on Saturday nights and want to hit the Harris Clash in Knoxville, Iowa next year. We talked to a lot of guys and they say hitting the bigger paying specials and not running anywhere weekly is a lot more fun than running the local stuff every single week.”
BOONE LEFTOVERS – With his 4th place finish in the IMCA northern sportmod main Lamberies was the only Wisconsin driver to make the field in that division. In IMCA stock car action Appleton’s Brandon Czarapata placed 7th, Green Bay’s John Heinz finished 9th and Pulaski’s Devin Snellenberger took 21st. Sobieski’s Matt Brehmer placed third in the IMCA sport compact feature. For the first time in several seasons not one local IMCA modified driver qualified for Saturday nights A main.
OSHKOSH FALL CLASSIC – The three day Oshkosh Speedzone Fall Classic is slated for September 24 through 26. Six divisions of racing are on tap, including IMCA style modifieds, stock cars and sportmods. Grand nationals, street stocks and 4 cylinders will also take part. A practice session free to spectators takes place at 5 p.m. Thursday. Racing gets underway at 7 p.m. Friday and 3 p.m. Saturday. For more information you can check oshkoshspeedzone.net.
MANITOWOC WRAP UP – Mishicot’s Kyle Kudick captured the modified track championship at Manitowoc County Expo Speedway by 20 points over Oostburg’s Joel Seegert. Greenbush’s Tim Buhler won the WDLMA late model crown by 22 points over Jim Schmidt of Cleveland. Sheboygan Falls Rick Kretschmann collected the track’s sportmod track championship by a 6 point margin over Valders Chad Vetting. And Plymouth’s Brian Gilles won the grand national crown by a 59 point margin over Milwaukee’s Charlie Scancinati.
TUNDRA CURTAIN CLOSER – The final race for the TUNDRA super late model series will be Sunday September 20 at Jefferson Speedway in Southeastern Wisconsin. Seymour’s Ty Majeski leads Florida native Dalton Zehr by 24 points heading into the final night of racing. Other area drivers expected to be at Jefferson include Clintonville’s Wyatt Blashe, Reedsville’s Maxwell Schultz and Neenah’s Braison Bennett. Qualifying is at 12:30 p.m. with racing getting underway at 2 p.m.