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Northeast Iowa native Dylan Clinton wins USRA Nationals race

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Dylan Clinton, a 2012 Central graduate, celebrates winning the USRA Nationals event in Missouri on Oct. 10. (Submitted photos)

After winning the USRA Nationals at Lucas Oil Speedway Dylan Clinton (center) is pictured with Josh Hills, Ashley Clinton, Kevin Johnson and Rich Clinton.

Dylan is pictured with his son Kohen, who was born earlier this year, in victory lane.

By Willis Patenaude, Times-Register

 

“I was just looking for a top 10 finish,” said Dylan Clinton after winning the USRA Nationals Main Event in Wheatland, Mo., on Oct. 10. The win capped three nights of racing at Lucas Oil Stadium and is a highlight of Clinton’s racing career, a career that has its roots in Elkader and in family. 

 

The 2012 Central graduate grew up around racing, watching and learning from his dad. He often helped work on the cars, getting them race ready, and then venturing off to races at the now closed Echo Valley Speedway. 

 

Dylan grew inspired, but that didn’t immediately take him to the race track, but to a different form of driving cars. That was demolition derby, which he did from 2012 until his first full-time racing season in 2016. 

 

During the demolition derby years, Dylan won “a lot of trophies,” as he put it, and spent time around friends and working on cars, but it wasn’t really what he wanted to do. The derby was something that was just filling the void—an expensive place holding hobby that required constantly rebuilding cars. The smash-them-and-then-fix-them realities left something missing. 

 

In 2016, Dylan transitioned to actually racing in the hornet class, which is a fun way to say that any four- or six-cylinder, front- or rear-wheel drive passenger car is eligible with a wheelbase between 92 to 105 inches. It’s a division specifically designed to allow drivers the ability to compete and learn with minimal investment. 

 

Over the course of the next three seasons, Dylan competed and learned quickly, winning over 50 races between the Fayette County Speedway and Upper Iowa Speedway, where he was track champion in 2017.  

 

Then, in 2019, Dylan took some time away from racing to help his cousin Josh, who was interested in racing in the hornet class. Dylan still managed four wins at Upper Iowa, however, while Josh raced mainly in Fayette. 

 

But as 2019 went on, something was missing. Even with the accomplishments, Dylan was incomplete. Another win is just another win if the love is gone, so Dylan made the decision to sell the hornet car and move up to hobby stock, or an eight-cylinder stock car based on stock production cars. 

 

He purchased a Monte Carlo in the fall of 2019, looking to get it ready for the 2020 season, which would be his first in the hobby stock division, but that season was cut short because of COVID-19, and Dylan went winless in 21 races. 

 

Despite this, there were plenty of top five finishes, something Dylan said he was happy with. He was having fun again, meeting new people and gaining valuable experience. The hobby stock community turned out to be friendly, familiar and welcoming to the new guy, although Dylan had a solid reputation before arriving. The other drivers offered advice and they watched out for each other on the track. 

 

“It was kind of like being in high school again,” Dylan said. 

 

The new division meant learning new things, like how to get set going into the corners, tuning the car up and becoming familiar with the track beneath the tires. Then there is the amount of side-by-side racing, which was more prevalent than in the hornet class. The cars, quite literally, rub together, adding truth to the old movie adage that “rubbing is racing.” 

 

While this feeling of being back in school was refreshing, more importantly, according to Dylan’s wife Ashley, it was this transition to hobby stock that saw Dylan “find his love for racing again.” 

 

The 2020 season also saw Dylan involved in his only significant crash: a “light roll over,” but the confidence of youth prevents any sense of fear from emerging. Plus, the allure of doing something you love is without compare. 

 

After the 2020 season, Dylan purchased a new car—well, another frame at least—a Monte Carlo, and got to work with friend Jeremy Swanson on building a racecar. Along with Lucky Duck Fabrication, friend Kevin Johnson and cousin Josh, among others, they crafted a car ready for the 2021 hobby stock racing season, which started in April. 

 

The new season wasn’t the only thing that occupied Dylan’s time, as he and Ashley welcomed their first child, a son named Kohen, in March. While juggling the wonders of life as a new father, Dylan remained confident in the upcoming season because “he had an idea of what to expect.” 

 

By the third race, Dylan was in the winner’s circle and, as of this article, had nine race wins on the year at the Fayette track. 

 

But there were also bigger wins, such as the Stock Car Nationals win on Sept. 18 at the Deer Creek Speedway in Minnesota, where Dylan started 15th in a field of 55 and, over the course of 25 laps, worked his way to the front. 

 

All this was a precursor for the “Daytona of Hobby Stock Racing,” the USRA event in Missouri. 

 

During the qualifying races the previous two nights, Dylan qualified second, and that’s where he started in the field, where cars race three-wide. As the race got underway, Dylan settled into second, behind race leader Dustin Gulbrandson, the defending USRA Nationals champion. 

 

Midway through the race, Dylan fell back to third, as Tracy Halouska moved into second, but as the cars came out of the turn, Halouska, driving the high side of the track, sideswiped into Gulbrandson, resulting in both cars getting flat tires. 

 

Seeing this, Dylan drove toward the inside of the track to avoid a collision, as another car drove inside of him, creating a dangerous four-wide scenario. From that point on, Dylan staved off several challenges and maintained the race lead all the way to the checkered flag. 

 

The win was an emotional one, as the result of years of hard work had paid off. The victory came with a trophy and around $1,700, and it also put him third in USRA Nationals points, just four behind second place with two more races to go. 

 

While the wins are meaningful, in a year that included the birth of his son, getting married to Ashley and even watching his dad get back on the track, the highlight of the racing year and of Dylan’s career was Kohen’s first trip to victory lane.

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