Killingsworth Relishes IMCA Modified Rookie Title

YREKA, Calif. — Ethan Killingsworth’s first full season in a Friesen Performance IMCA Modified couldn’t have started much stronger.

The Yreka racer, wheeling his Ace’s Affordable Auto Glass/J Cota Forestry/Twysted Motorsports no. 7m Twysted by Evo entry, capped an impressive rookie campaign by earning both the IMCA National Rookie of the Year and Shaw Race Cars Western Region Rookie of the Year titles.

Killingsworth became just the third Californian to win the IMCA Modified National Rookie of the Year award, joining 1993 winner Scott Pounds and Jacob Mallet Jr., who received the honor last year. He’s also the 16th driver from California to claim the Shaw Race Cars Western Region Rookie of the Year title since 1993, and the fourth straight to do so.

Along the way, he collected the Southern Oregon Speedway track championship and finished second in the Western Region standings, building on his success from 2024 when he captured the Karl Chevrolet IMCA Northern SportMod track championship

“We weren’t expecting to come swinging out of the gate like that and win our first few races in the class,” Killingsworth said. “I had a lot of people tell me it’s going to take time. I wasn’t going to settle for that. The first couple of laps were a learning curve, but when we rolled out into the main it was meant to be and we were able to run up front.”

In 32 starts, Killingsworth scored nine wins, 14 podium finishes, 19 top fives and 26 top 10s. Four of those victories came at Southern Oregon, three at the Douglas County Dirtrack, and two at Cottage Grove Speedway.

He opened the season with back-to-back triumphs at Southern Oregon and Cottage Grove, then pulled off another two-night sweep at Medford on May 16–17, quickly establishing himself as one of the toughest drivers to beat in the Pacific Northwest.

By late May, he added another victory at Douglas County, continuing a hot streak that stretched deep into the summer. He collected wins at Cottage Grove on July 26, Southern Oregon on August 22, and again on September 13.

“We were at Medford every other weekend, went all the way up to Skagit and down to Santa Maria and pretty much everything in between,” he said. “Elma and Skagit were good tracks and fun to race — it was great to see a lot of new places for the first time.”

There was even one rare instance early in the season where Killingsworth entered two features in the same night at two different tracks — starting at Cottage Grove Speedway before heading to Willamette Speedway — finishing first and second to cap one of the most memorable nights of his career.

“The biggest thing for me was changing my driving style — using more of my brake pedal, learning how to keep the car on the bars, and not adjusting myself out, which is easy to do,” he said. “Once you make so many changes in one go, what do you really know that helped you? That’s what I learned this season.”

His rookie-year points battle came down to the wire.

“We were kind of keeping track of it and we were nine points away from the top,” he said. “I decided to take two weeks off, but thankfully I had the track championship at Medford. I knew we had to finish good, and the last couple of races we got behind or started deep, so that made things a little stressful.”