Ike Durbin

Isaac Mitch "Ike" Durbin (born October 31st, 1982) is an American race car driver who most recently competed in Dash Cup from 2016-17 for Team Kwik Fit. Durbin is best known for winning the 2014 Independent's Trophy in the TM Master Cup Series, and has also competed in TM Lights, ASCC, and the FARC Lowe Dollar Series. He is also the owner of Durbin Sport Racing, which fields cars in FARC and the NAAC, and previously in the National Racing Championship.

Early life
Ike Durbin was born in Bakersfield, California, a well-known racing town. Soon after, however, his family moved to a small county in Indiana, where he lived for most of his life and grew up. He sites Indianapolis, IRP, Salem, Anderson Speedway and the I-69 Speedway (local dirt track) as his home tracks.

Early career: The "SAFE 17"
Durbin's early career was spent on short tracks in regional series across America. He drove a blue-and-yellow No. 17 that would eventually become dubbed as the infamous "SAFE 17." The reason it was named that? Well, while racing in these short track leagues, he and Chip Stefano, another driver in the series, began fighting for the win almost every week they were on the track. This caused several collisions, however, and started a big rivalry.

The rivalry between Durbin and Stefano began with some simple short track rubbing. However, it would eventually lead to much, much heavier contact and many more totalled cars. Their rivalry would grow so bad that both drivers had to be suspended for three main events, just so they would quit the fighting (Taking them both out of the championship hunt as well). However, this didn't stop the carnage. In fact, it grew worse. The very first race back from their suspension, while fighting for the win at the Anderson Raceway Main Event in Indiana, Durbin gave Stefano a "bump-'n'-run" shot on the final lap, going into turn one. Durbin appeared to have the win sealed up. But Stefano was furious. He swung to the outside of the 17 on the entry of turn three, turned down, and sent the 17 flying into the turn three guard-rail. Durbin's car was sent spinning down the track into on-coming traffic. He was hit by four different cars, one sending him on his roof in a violent barrel-roll, and when the car came to a halt, if you could call it a car at all, most of the roof, along with most of the rest of the car has been scattered across the turns three and four area. A crash that would have normally severely injured or killed drivers, Durbin climbed out of the shrapenel, un-harmed. The car was then dubbed the "SAFE 17" from then on.

2009: A Taste of ARLA
Durbin began his major motorsports career by racing for SuzukaCorp. in the ARLA Thunder Trucks, carrying his famous SAFE 17 paint scheme. His old rival, Chip Stefano, also entered the series, however as an owner. In his first Thunder Trucks start, Durbin nearly pulled off a top-ten, finishing 11th. The rest of his rookie season did not go as well, however. Involved in many wrecks (most due to other drivers' faults), and occasional engine failures, Durbin would go on to finish mid-20's in the points standings.

Also occuring that year, Durbin attempted the RROL round of Jarama as a one-off for SuzukaCorp. He drove a black No. 58 Saar Tyrant. He easily passed the pre-qualifying round, but with little luck in the main qualifier, Durbin spun off twice and took major damage to his car. He still nearly made the show.

Because of this impressive performance, he was given an audition to drive the number 16 Skittles Calton-Morel Nova for four RROL races. In his debut at Richmond, he stayed out of the way, despite spinning twice due to wreck-avoidance, and finished twelfth. He would have less stellar performances in the other three rounds, but ran well enough to earn a full-time ride for the 2010 RROL season.

2010: Trials and Tribulations
Not only did Ike Durbin go into the 2010 season with a full-time RROL gig with Sam Mitchell Racing, he also opened up a part-time RROL team for the 2010 campaign. Despite leaving the ARLA Thunder Trucks, he bought SuzukaCorp.'s ATT team (however not their CRL team), and supplied the ride for Matthias McMair.

Durbin's RROL season started off with a bang in the season opener at Daytona. Posting similar results to his ATT debut, he ran strong in the top-ten most of the race, finishing just shy of a top-ten, in 11th. His season went downward from there. Involved in a wreck in Race 2 at Carbondale, he managed to fall back to 20th in points. But the bad luck continued there. Due to a glitch in the points system, Durbin was posted outside the top 30 cut-off, instead of 20th, his real points position. He was forced to race in the qualifying race for round three, and missed the show. The rest of the season would suffer the same bad luck. He qualified for right around half of the races, and didn't perform particularly well (Though he out-performed his teammate). However, he showed some driving at Indianapolis, despite a result that didn't show, and the following week at Talladega, running top-five most of the race and scoring his first career top-ten. It wasn't until the semi-final race at Decatur where he finally broke through. Durbin qualified his way into the show in an impressive performance. Starting mid-pack, Durbin stayed out of the way and let everyone else wreck themselves. He showed incredible speed and finished a career-best third (Which is still his career-best to date). He ended up 33rd in points.

2011: A Breakthrough
As the 2011 season winds down, Ike Durbin could call this a breakthrough year. Despite failing to qualify for the VSCC season opener in Daytona, Durbin rallied back in round two, leading 32 laps, and showing amazing driving skill. Though he only finished 20th, that finish was enough to secure him a spot in the top-30 in owner's points for the time being. Since then, the season has shown fast cars and considerable driver skill. Some noteworthy runs were the perseverance at Mallory Park, being involved in over half of the cautions and still finishing fifth. Durbin currently sits 25th in points after eight of nine races, taking a noticable freefall in the points as of late.

At the end of 2011, he made his first TM Master Cup Series start in the 2011 Round of Decatur. Durbin's reputation as an underrated driver was sorely tested, was he really an underrated driver, or was he someone teams had overlooked for good reason? Durbin ran an Omecha MA02 at Decatur, the circuit where Omecha cars do most of their road course testing. After racking up enough miles in testing and in first practice to obtain his Master License, Durbin snuck his way through the qualifying races and onto the starting grid for the Round of Decatur. He ran in the lower midfield during the race and stayed out of trouble.

He also made his first career ARLA Elite Series Start, in the famous Rockford 200. Driving for good friend Jim More, Durbin used strategy and speed to sneak into the lead late in the B-Main. He lead ten laps and won the race, making it into the main show. Durbin was involved in two incidents in the main race, most notably a late race incident with current TM Master Cup Series driver Packer Carroll. Durbin finished 12th in his first career start in the ARLA Elite Series.

2012
With 2012 under way, the high hopes Ike Durbin had coming in to the 2012 season have been brought back to reality. With struggles early, he will need to persevere to get through it and succeed.

TM Lights Durbin's TM Lights season has started out dismal to say the least. Round #01 at Las Vegas was a calm race for Durbin, however ended up with a poor finish, 29th (no points scored). At the same time, his teammate Ryan Griffin finished 11th in his season debut.

While Durbin scored a better TM Lights finish in Round #02 than Round #01, the race at Road Atlanta proved to be disasterous in helping Durbin develop his young career. After spinning early, Durbin went a lap down, then mistakenly swerved into Tiffany Matthews, taking her off the track, and earning him a trip to the Steward's Office. He finished 23rd (no points scored). Though no penalties were assessed, he and team owner Jim More agreed to park the #08 and Ike Durbin for Carbondale, with no reserve driver taking place in the 08.

In a last minute decision, Durbin was given the green light to race in the TM Lights round of Carbondale. He stayed under the radar, coming out with his first top ten in the TM Lights, and scored his first points.

In the next race at Piqua, Durbin again flew under the radar, sneaking up into the top five, finishing fifth, his best career TM Lights finish.

Round 5 at Peoria saw Durbin continue his streak of top-ten finishes, scoring, once again, a career-best finish, finishing second to Martin Boltano Jr..

When the TM Lights went to Mosport, Durbin suffered a tire failure coming to the green flag, and was forced to pit. His top-ten streak would come to an end, as he ended up finishing 11th.

With help from Sakura Motoko's point penalty at Carbondale, and Durbin running fourth at Portland, Durbin took the point lead by two over Motoko.

Durbin has since fallen to second in points, a distant 80 behind Troy Adams after a crash at Quincy and an Engine Failure at Ohio.

ARLA
Mac Rhylen sits 30th in points currently, coming off another fifth place finish at Mosport.

Both Ike Durbin and Mac Rhylen failed to qualify for The Mini-Indy 500.

During the Japan races, the #86 will be loaned to Ryo Akuzaru, a Japanese touring car champion.

Career Statistics
2009 ARLA Thunder Trucks Season:

Best Finish: 11th (Chicago)

Top 5's - 0

Top 10's - 0

Final Points Finish: 30th

2010 RROL Season:

Best Finish - 3rd (Decatur)

Top 5's - 1

Top 10's - 2

Final Points Finish - 33rd

2011 VSCC Season:

Best Finish - 5th (Mallory Park)

Top 5's - 1

Top 10's - 1

Final Points Position - 25th

2012 TM Lights Season:

Best Finish - 2nd (Peoria)

Top 5's - 4

Top 10's - 6

Current Points Position - 2nd (-80)

Trivia

 * Ike Durbin is not related to Tony Durbin.
 * He is known to be good friends with his TM Lights team owner Jim More, TM Lights teammate, Ryan Griffin, and ASCC driver Tim Averell.
 * Durbin is known to be called Ryan Griffin's "big brother."