Already armed with three track championships in the IMCA Modified division, Tyler Hall’s approach to the 2019 racing season is pretty simple.
“We’ve been trying to hit as many tracks as possible,” said the 26-year-old driver from Fertile, Minn. “If you can read dirt you can have some success in this sport. We have a lot of races scheduled this year and hopefully we can have some more success.”
Hall has raced eight different tracks already this summer and already has 21 shows to his credit with two wins.
He is in his fifth year in the A Modified division. He has three track championships to his credit — two at Buffalo River Race Park near Glyndon (2017 and 2018) and one at Norman County Raceway in Ada (2017). The key to winning track titles?
“Consistency. I’ve said it myself, the championship deal is won in the shop,” Hall said. “You can’t have any mechanical failures that are going to take you out of a race. We definitely don’t have the most wins out of anyone, but we’re always finishing races and always trying to learn.”
His plan isn’t necessarily to run for points this year, but because of rainouts, Hall is in the top five at both Red River Valley Speedway in West Fargo and Norman County Raceway in Ada. Norman County Raceway has only raced the IMCA Modifieds two nights, and Hall is tied for third in points, just two behind co-leaders Jesse Skalicky and Dylan Goplen. Hall picked up a win at NCR on June 13. Hall is fifth in points at Red River Valley, just eight points behind leader Matt Aukland. He has a win (June 7) and three top 10s in four nights at the 3/8-mile oval.
Hall started racing young; he originally did some racing in snowmobiles and dirt bikes.
“I had some minor injuries, and it looked like that was going to be too hard on a guy, so I got a go-kart when I was like six,” Hall said.
Hall raced go-karts at Glyndon and Grand Forks before he hopped behind the wheel of a Bomber at Norman County Raceway at the age of 13.
His dad, Scott and his uncle Danny raced Mod 4s at BRRP. Eventually his dad bought a B mod and Tyler raced it at West Fargo in 2010 before taking over the ride in 2011. In 2015 he moved into the A modifieds.
This year, he hasn’t shied away from top competition. He’s run a pair of specials at Dacotah Speedway in Mandan (Iron Man 100 in June and Legendary 50 on July 12) and qualified for the A main at both.
“You’ve got to walk away with your head up,” Hall said. “I’m used to running top 10 and top five most nights around here, and nothing against the guys around here, but some of those guys do it for a living. You try learning as much as you can.”
Hall raced the entire Dakota Classic Modified Tour, and qualified for three of the five features that were held (one night in Williston rained out).
“The entire tour was super intense, everything is at such a fast pace every heat has some of the best guys,” Hall said. “Our goal was to make a show at first then make the show through a heat race by either a win or passing points and we did that one of the nights. I’m super proud of everyone that helped us get this far never thought for a whole week I would line up with Hunter Marriott and Jason Hughes...the entire experience was awesome you have everything in common with every driver on the tour. I met a ton of great people and had a blast we learned a lot and hope to come back home and apply that intensity to the rest of our racing season.”
Driver Profile
Tyler Hall
IMCA Modified #60
Age: 26
Residence: Fertile, Minn.
Sponsors: I-29 Auto and Towing, Sanders Metal Products, PSI, Geray Construction, Christian Motors, Thunder Road, Ripleys, Waubun Steel, Atomic D1, Mid Valley Electric, Traill Painting Company, Nu-Clean, Blue Sky Ranch, Fury Chassis, Casselton Lumber, Corey’s Car Care Center, Jon’s Auto Salvage, The Lean Tu, NorthStar, Wes’s Truck Repair, Kaste Seeds Inc., Sleep Wellness Center, Hall’s Auto Body, Steinmetz Grinding, Petermann Seeds, Hintzen Drywall, Howatt Family Farms, Speedway Shots, Swift Racing Sprints, Sneaky Horse Traction and Augmentation LLC, Sky-Ground Group, Cam-Motion Performance, Z-Max Racing Products
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