IHRA Summit Sportsman National Championship roundup

"We're making some history here," said Ralph Hester, owner of Immokalee Regional Raceway in southwest Florida.

And he was right, times two: First, the 2017 IHRA Summit Sportsman National Championship kicked off here with separate, complete events last Saturday and Sunday at IRR.

And second, eliminations on both days aired live on ESPN3, the first time IHRA racing had appeared live on an ESPN entity since 1999. You won't have to wait long for the next event – that happens this coming weekend, again live on ESPN3 from Palm Beach International Raceway on Florida's east coast.

The Summit Sportsman National Championship is a 30-race series featuring 15 double race weekends. The National Championship will be determined using points claims from the best seven of the first 10 events the racer attends. Champions in seven of the eight classes will get $15,000, while the Junior Dragster champ gets $2,000.

More than 200 cars from 17 states and Canada competed at Immokalee. In two classes, the winners were the same: In Hot Rod, Troy Williams, Jr., of Bradenton, Florida, (pictured above) beat Jason Oteri from Springfield, Tennessee, on Saturday, and Robert Ward of Sanford, Florida, on Sunday.

And in Junior Dragster, Nick Ferraro from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, beat Nathan Lopez of Wellington, Florida on Saturday, and on Sunday, he took out IHRA World Champion Gage Burch of Palmetto, Florida.

In Stock, Merrill Schrimscher from Lake Mary, Florida, beat Jim Marshall of Indian Land, South Carolina on Saturday. Sunday, Schrimscher lost to IHRA World Champion Daniel Young of Palm Harbor, Florida.

In Quick Rod, Chad Duke of Wilmington, North Carolina, beat Otis Henry of Deerfield Beach, Florida on Saturday. On Sunday, Randal Langley of Naples, Florida, beat IHRA World Champion Dave Schmidt of Flintstone, Georgia.

In Top Sportsman, Bill Powell of Stuart, Florida, beat Tom Skubic of Anna Maria, Florida, on Saturday. Sunday, Marlon Goates of Troy, Texas took out Norman Williams of Yulee, Florida.

In Super Rod, Rusty Cook of Cynthiana, Kentucky, defeated Bob Scheefer of Vero Beach, Florida, on Saturday. On Sunday, David Passananti of Naples, Florida, beat David Scott of Jacksonville, Florida.

In Top Dragster, Mark Horton of Callahan, Florida beat Troy Williams, Jr. from Bradenton, Florida on Saturday. Sunday, Jim Shaw of Davie, Florida, beat Williams. But don't feel too sorry for him – Williams, as you may recall, swept the Hot Rod class.

In Super Stock, Mark Nowicki of Holmes Beach, Florida, beat Steve Comella of Webster, New York on Saturday. Sunday, Jerry Hatch of Lubec, Maine beat Jeff Adkinson of Damascus, Georgia.