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SALINA, Kan. — There was never a question that Cale Lagroon would race a Friesen Performance IMCA Modified.
The 16-year-old from Salina, son of longtime hotshoe Corey Lagroon, needed just a single season to prove his own skills in the sanctioning body’s premier division, motoring to both Rookie of the Year and runner-up honors in the Jet Racing Central Region.
The Kansas State champion was second in the points race at hometown track Salina Speedway, where he made half of his 30 2025 starts.
Lagroon had one win and another 15 top-five finishes to show for those outings.
“I always looked up to dad, watching him race while I was growing up,” he said. “Racing a Modified has pretty much been the plan my whole life.”
“We didn’t plan to run the Modified that much this year, because I also race a micro sprint and we were going to split it up more,” added Lagroon, who turns most of his laps in that class in Oklahoma, Missouri and Nebraska. “We set new goals for the Modified as we went through the season, always trying to get better and learning to make better decisions in the car.”
Those goals began with the national rookie prize and evolved to focus on accomplishments closer to home.
“We looked at national rookie, and I was close, but regional and state were the next things I looked at,” said the 2022 Rage Chassis pilot. “I definitely wanted to get at least one win, which I achieved. I felt like I should have had more but I’m pretty happy with where I am now and with how far we’ve come since the beginning of the season.”
Lagroon started his dirt track career in go karts, moving to winged junior sprints, restricted micro sprints and then to a winged/non-winged micro “A” class before graduating to a Modified.
Salina Speedway is a quick four-minute trip from home and the locale for Lagroon’s first IMCA win, on Aug. 23. He also traveled to seven other tracks around the Sunflower State and to Nebraska’s Beatrice Speedway.
“I was getting anxious,” he admitted, “because I had so many that slipped away that I felt I probably should have won. I’ve gotten passed on the last lap and been in the position of being really close to winning, but the night I won I led every lap and that felt really good.”
Corey has raced 31 years and has been in a Modified since 2003. While focusing on Cale’s program, he won three of 10 starts, all at Salina, this season and owns 63 feature wins, 10 track titles and three state championships over the course of his own career in IMCA.
“I felt like we both got better, and our cars got better racing each other,” Cale said.
The Salina South High School junior is a defensive back now prepping for the Cougars’ upcoming 5A regional game against Andover. When the football season concludes he’ll shift his own focus back to racing.
“I want to get more wins next year, like five maybe, regroup and look at the stuff I could have done better,” he said. “You can’t beat having a track that’s really close to home, so we’ll race Salina again. We’ll race around Kansas, maybe go to Beatrice a few times and then to Boone for Super Nationals.”
“I don’t think Boone likes me,” Lagroon said, thinking back on a challenging 43rd annual Speedway Motors IMCA Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s. “I like Boone, but it doesn’t like me.”
