Colton Nelson, an up-and-coming pavement sprint car racer from Meridian, Idaho, is a fourth-generation driver whose family promotes Meridian Speedway and Magic Valley Speedway in Twin Falls, Idaho.
“It’s in my blood pretty deep,” said the 26-year-old driver. “My great-grandfather, my grandfather, and now my dad, have all promoted Meridian Speedway, and have also raced.”
Nelson’s great-grandfather Bill Crowe, the patriarch of the family, drove race cars in the Pacific Northwest for years and was also the first family member to promote Meridian Speedway. Crowe collaborated with legendary car builder Grant King on the first King-built sprint car that competed in the Northwest.
Grandfather LeRoy Nelson and father Adam Nelson tried their hands behind the wheel of stock cars and eventually settled into promotional roles at the speedway.
Most of Colton Nelson’s earliest memories are racing related.
“What I remember most as a small kid was working on the car with my dad and riding in the roll cage when he would fire the car up and drive up and down the road,” remembered Nelson. “I never really decided that I was gonna be a race car driver. I never wanted to or didn’t want to. It was just like, ‘Boom,’ me and my dad started doing it when I turned of age.
“We started running a four-cylinder class at Meridian Speedway called Junior Stingers for ages 11 to 14. I raced those for a couple of years and won the championship.
“My career from there is pretty crazy. Over the years, I’ve raced all 14 classes at Meridian Speedway. I’ve raced mini stocks, super late models, late models, non-winged sprint cars, Legend Cars … I’ve raced everything.”
In 2015, Nelson’s success at Meridian Speedway landed him a ride in the ARCA Menards Series West for three races, including one at his hometown track. The following season he made five additional starts for Hull Motorsports and Shake N’ Bake Racing with modest finishes at the age of 18.
“I ran the K&N West Series 13 times between 2015 and ’18,” Nelson said. “We generally had pretty bad luck. My best finish was at Irwindale, Calif. I started 24th and finished 11th.
“We never had aspirations of me being a famous race car driver,” he continued. “A lot of the reasons why we did stuff was just for the story and fun of it, as well as the experience. We knew a guy locally who had cars. We worked out a deal where we could rent it. I had a pretty good run at Meridian, got excited and took the car to a few other places that first year.
“We went to Phoenix and that was a huge jump for me. I’d never driven on a track that size. I wasn’t ready for it back then, but it was still pretty bad-ass.”
Nelson has enjoyed the most success in the winged sprint car division.
“When I was a little kid, I remember watching the winged NSRA sprint cars at Meridian Speedway. There were a lot of hot dogs that came down from Canada, Oregon, Washington and California,” Nelson said. “They would bring 25 to 30 cars every time they came to Meridian. For some reason my favorite thing to watch was qualifying. I’d sit on the fence and watch guys knock off a qualifying lap and see if the next guy could best it. It was always my dream to run with the guys I grew up watching.
“The first two or three years of my sprint car career was thanks to my dad, Terry Benson, Brent Kuhl and their better halves,” Nelson continued. “They bought me an old dirt car that we converted into an asphalt car. I had a motor sponsor that gave me a pretty good Ford for it. I just went out there the first couple of years and rode around the bottom and stayed out of everybody’s way. I learned everything I could.”
Nelson hit the road for the first time to race in 2016.
“The King of the Wing series had a swing through the Northwest. We had never traveled with the sprint car up until that point,” he explained. “We ran the Thursday at Meridian and stayed home to run my modified at Meridian on Saturday night. We won the modified race on Saturday and we’re drinking a couple beers after the race. My car owner walks over and says, ‘Let’s load up the sprint car and go to Wenatchee, Wash.’ We loaded up the sprint car and threw everything in we could think of. We left at 1 a.m. and drove through the night. I think we finished 10th. My car owners were so pumped they bought me a Beast car. We’ve traveled ever since then.”