1/28/2021
IRA Interstate Racing Association
2021 IRA Rookie of the Year Contender: Jack Berger
Though only 18 years old, Lake Elmo, Minnesota’s Jack Berger has proven himself to be fast in anything he has driven. At 4 years old he started racing Motocross and then moved into Quarter Midgets, Legends, Go-Karts, and Micro Sprints in a region spanning 12 states. In Quarter Midget he won both championships and big events, but also very importantly a Sportsmanship Trophy too.
In the Micro Sprint ranks, 2014-15 proved to be extremely good for a young Jack, as he picked up both the track championship at St. Croix Valley Speedway and the UMSS Micro Sprint championships consecutively, winning his first Micro race at just 11 years old. Expanding the number of tracks Jack would race on over the next two years leading to him being crowned as the Minnesota Micro Sprint champ in 2017.
In 2018 the high schooler moved up to the ranks of the UMSS Traditional Sprints where he was one of three rookies to share Rookie of the Year honors. In 2019 Jack visited victory lane twice and very impressively picked up 24 top 5’s in just his second year in a sprinter.
2019 brought some change as Jack jumped up to the winged UMSS Sprint Series ranks, but also continued to run his Traditional sprint as well, plus an occasional Micro show when time would allow. The year was highlighted by being named UMSS Sprint Series Rookie of the Year in the winged car, and overall Jack garnered 2 wins, 24 top 5’s, and 41 top 10’s.
2020 was similar as the teenager ran both UMSS classes and impressively won features in both. The season included 3 wins, 14 top 5’s, and 26 top 10’s. Jack raced A LOT, even running his underpowered UMSS car with the NOSA 410 group at the Governor’s Cup in Mandan, North Dakota.
For 2021, Jack would like to announce his intention of running for the Sage Fruit / HRP Big Apple Rookie of the Year Award with the 410 winged rockets of the Bumper To Bumper IRA Outlaw Sprint Series. The family operation has backing from MD Construction Co, Hi Performance Engineering, DNC Trucking LLC, Raymond Auto Body and TCB Speed North. Going 410 racing is Jack’s dream, and
the team has made connections with past IRA champ Bill Rose, and will run recent Rose WoO cars in IRA competition. The team also plans on hitting some area WoO shows when the schedule allows.
Lots of laps has brought Jack to this time in his young life, he’ll be fulfilling a dream which started when he first pushed the throttle, racing a 410 winged sprint car.
Submitted By: Kim Tennyson