Jake Blackhurst didn’t plan on competing full-time with the Bumper to Bumper IRA Outlaw Sprint Series this season. He was going to run a “True Outlaw” type schedule, hitting various races around the Midwest. That all changed, though, when he found himself near the top of the IRA point standings after the first handful of races of the year. At that point, he and his team made the decision to chase the championship.

Heading into the stretch run of the season, the native of Hanna City, IL, is locked in a tight battle with Scotty Thiel for the title. In fact, the pair is separated by just three points heading into the series traditional “Northern Nationals” in Wisconsin. Each driver is gunning for their first IRA championship.

On the stats sheet, the pair is neck-in-neck. Blackhurst has four wins to Thiel’s three. Blackhurst also has two more top-five finishes and one more top-10 than Thiel, who is the current point leader. A total of 15 races have been completed, with eight full point-paying events remaining on the season, as well a two-night event that offers “show-up points.”

“At the beginning of the year, we just wanted to run with the IRA to have fun,” said Blackhurst. “We were just going to play it how it goes. The way it’s been going lately, has kind of fallen into us. It’s going to be a great battle with Scotty Thiel. He is very consistent and the (No.) 5J of Jeremy Schultz is right there, breathing on our back as well. 

“Right now, it’s getting late in the season and we’ll do our best to close out a championship, but when I go to the race track, I don’t think about it. I don’t want to be comfortable running a top-10 or top-five. I still go to a race to win. You have to qualify good each night, run up front in your heat and be aggressive.”

Racing full-time with the IRA this year, Blackhurst has visited numerous tracks for the first time. Growing up on smaller tracks in Central Illinois, getting acclimated with larger tracks on the IRA schedule has been something he has thrived on. In fact, he scored his first-career IRA win earlier this season at the sprawling Dodge County Fair Speedway, which is a half-mile. He also has a couple of short track wins at Wilmot Raceway.

“With the IRA this year, about 80-percent of the tracks have been new to us,” he shared. “I get excited to see tracks I haven’t been to before and it makes the weekend more fun. We go in with no stress and don’t have to worry about the race track or anything. We go in and have fun. It’s been working pretty well for us this year and we’ve had some good runs. We hadn’t been to many half-mile, as here in Central Illinois, it’s mostly bullrings. I’ve gotten to see a lot of bigger tracks and have had success on them.”

Blackhurst is quick to point out a couple of the nuances of running on bigger tracks and that skillset seems to suit his driving styling pretty well. Along with his win at Dodge County Fair Speedway, the 22-year-old also was victorious at Langlade County Speedway, another sprawling, fairgrounds half-mile.

“We really don’t run anything different on the car on a bigger tracks, it’s just the actual driving style,” explained Blackhurst. “On the bigger tracks, you have to relax a bit, keep the elbows in and be real smooth. It’s something I have had to adapt to and teach myself to do. Around home, at tracks like Jacksonville (Speedway in Illinois) it’s elbows up, beating off the wall. At a place like Dodge County (Fairgrounds in Wisconsin), where it’s big, wide and fast, you have to be smooth. One little mistake on a half-mile like that, can cost you a lot of time and momentum. You just have to learn to be smooth on the bigger tracks.”

Being based in Central Illinois, there are a few longer drivers associated with competing full-time with the IRA, who runs a majority of their schedule in Wisconsin, but for the most part, the travel aspect for Blackhurst and his team has been very manageable.

“It’s actually not that far to most of the race tracks,” stated Blackhurst. “It’s only three and a half or four hours, which is pretty nice. Late in the year, there are some long trips, like going up to Superior (Wisconsin), which is about nine and a half hours. I’ve gotten to visit a lot of neat tracks and have met a lot of great people, racing with IRA. We are just having a lot of fun doing what we are doing.”

Blackhurst is very hands-on at the shop, along with his father, Paul. The young driver credits the vast number of hours in the shop to their success this season. He also points to Joe Devin at DRC Chassis and Foxco Engines for providing the means to make him fast night in and night out.

“My Dad and I are very particular about how we do things in the shop,” he noted. “Our maintenance program is phenomenal. I would put it against anyone. Our cars are great when we get to the track. Basically, I just have to get in the car and drive and do my best. We’ve had really good success so far.”

Blackhurst, who began racing karts at the age of five, was the National Midget Rookie Driver of the Year in 2011 and also garnered POWRi National Midget Series Rookie of the Year honors that same season. After a few seasons in a midget, he began racing winged sprints cars and made his first handful of starts with the IRA in 2015. He earned his first top-10 finish with the series that year at the former Manitowoc County Expo Raceway.

“I ran a couple of years in midgets and my first year in a midget was my first year on dirt in an open wheel car,” he said. “It did take me a little time to adapt to the midget. I got out of the midget just about when I was getting more comfortable in it. The winged sprint car really seems to suit my driving style a lot better. I like to be on the gas. I adapted to the winged car a lot quicker and just feel so comfortable in it. That’s definitely a huge key.”

Looking to the future, Blackhurst envisions the team returning to more of a “True Outlaw” type schedule, but that was the plan this year, before the strong start to the season, locked him in a battle for the IRA title. 

“I think the winged sprint car is where we’ll stay,” said Blackhurst. “I’m not sure what next year holds. I don’t think we would go for another championship. We just want to hit what we can and do what we are comfortable doing. I’d like to go over to Knoxville (Raceway in Iowa) a little more next year to get some practice over there. It will kind of be the same deal for us from here on out.”