There were some familiar names on top of the final All Iowa Points standings for 2009 as three drivers repeated their 2008 titles and two more drivers returned to the top of their respective divisions after more than ten years. There were some new faces as well at the top though as drivers in the Modifieds, 360 Sprints and 305 Sprints picked up their first-ever “state championship”.
Ray Guss Jr. won the All Iowa Points Late Model championship three years straight in 1989, 1990 and 1991 and he returns the top of the standings in 2009 for his fourth state title. After pairing up with Hershel Roberts part way into the season, Guss went on a tear and moved past early leader Mark Burgtorf in July. “The River City Hustler” racked up fourteen feature wins and had forty-three top-five finishes on his way to the title. Terry Neal finished second to Guss on the strength of thirty-eight top-five finishes and sixteen feature race wins. The early pace-setter for the Late Models, Mark Burgtorf finished the year in the third position after taking the checkers first in seventeen feature races.
Former IMCA National Late Model champ Kevin Blum ranked in the fourth spot with Andy Eckrich being the first non-IMCA regular on the chart in fifth. Jason Frankel, Jeff Aikey, Todd Cooney, Matt Ryan and Leon Zeitner complete the top ten. Cooney (2nd), Guss (3rd), Eckrich (4th), Frankel (5th), Neal (6th) and Burgtorf (9th) are in the top ten for the second year in a row. Blum made a successful return to the Late Model ranks after finishing 110th in the 2008 Modified standings, Aikey was 38th in last year’s Late Model standings, Matt Ryan was 15th and Zeitner was 36th.
After finishing third behind Todd Shute and Ryan Ruter in the 2008 All Iowa Points Modified standings, Jeremy Mills left no doubt who would win the title in 2009 as he dominated the division beating runner-up Jay Noteboom by seventy-three points. Mills captured twenty-five feature wins this season as part of his fifty-nine top five finishes on All Iowa Points tracks. This is the first All Iowa Points title in any division for Mills although he also previously challenged for a Hobby Stock title. Noteboom tallied twenty-two feature wins and thirty-seven top fives as he improved his ranking by four spots after finishing sixth in 2008. Perhaps the surprise driver of the year in any division, Max Corporan ranked 234th in 2008, but after winning thirteen features this season he ended the year tied for third. Scott Hogan made the long trip from Vinton to Burlington every Saturday night to win the track championship at 34 Raceway and that success helped to put him in that tie for third with Corporan. Adam Larson landed in the fifth spot with Reese Coffee in sixth. Two-time AIP Modified champion Mark Schulte settled for seventh, Darin Duffy and Ryan Dolan tied for eighth while Bruce Hanford completed the top ten.
Dustin Smith made it two All Iowa Points titles in a row for the Stock Car division on the strength of twenty-five feature wins and fifty-five top fives. Mike Jergens made a big jump after finishing 26th in 2008 to second in the 2009 final standings with twenty-two feature wins to his credit. Kevin Opheim spent another year lurking near the top of the Stock Car standings finishing third this year after being tied for that same position in 2008. Illinois resident Abe Huls was another big mover coming from 22nd in 2008 to finish fourth in 2009, and Matt Greiner advanced three spots from last year to take fifth. Greg Gill wound up in the same spot that he finished last year in sixth, Andrew Burk, Donavon Smith and Trent Murphy tied for seventh while Damon Murty and Jeffrey Larson wound up deadlocked for tenth.
There was a repeat champion in the Limited Modified ranks as well with Kevin Sather claiming his second straight All Iowa Points championship. Sather will need to build a bigger trophy room as he collected twenty-nine of the feature win mementos this year as part of his forty-five top five finishes. Austin Kaplan moved up one spot on the podium over last year as he finished as the runner-up in 2009 with seventeen feature wins and forty-three top fives. Jesse Sobbing was thirteenth in the 2008 Hobby Stock standings and picked up eight points late in the year in a Limited Modified before racing his way to a third –place finish in his first full season in the division. Scott Davis was 141st last year, but this year he ran a strong fourth while northwest Iowa driver Darrin Korthals completed the top five in his rookie season in the division. The 2008 runner-up Luke Wanninger placed sixth followed by Adam Ackerman, Brett Meyer and Dan Tenold with Matt Jones and Nate Chodur tied for tenth.
The most successful driver in the state this year, at least by the All Iowa Points system, was Hobby Stock champion Shannon Anderson. The second generation driver from Atlantic rolled up forty-three feature wins as part of fifty-six top five finishes and he was never seriously challenged in the points this season taking his second straight AIP title. Chris Hovden used a three-race sweep in November to jump from fourth to second in the final standings. Hovden tallied twenty-three feature wins and thirty-six top fives and that was six “top fives” less than each of the three drivers who were next in line Devin Smith, Dustin Larson and Chad Gentz. Rusty Montagne, Nathan Wood, John Cain and Stac Schroeder rounded out the top ten as four drivers (Anderson, Smith, Gentz and Schroder) were in the top ten for the second year in a row.
A driver who resides in Mankato, Minnesota, is crowned the All Iowa Points Four Cylinder champion for 2009 in the division that saw the tightest battle for the top throughout the season. Nate Coopman won twenty-three feature races on his way to the championship after finishing sixth in the final rundown last year. Jeremy Campbell was one spot behind Coopman last year and that is where he finds himself again as the runner-up for 2009 with sixteen feature wins on his resume’. Gary Peiffer paced the field for the early part of the season and wound up in the third spot with the Chandler brothers, Brad and Nathan rounding out the top five. Justin Wacha was sixth, Tim Doocy seventh, Jay DeVries ranked eighth while Zach Ankrum came in ninth and two drivers, Bill Whalen Jr. and Joe Bunkofske, tied for tenth. Coopman, Campbell, Peiffer and Nathan Chandler were all in the top ten for the second straight year.
Terry McCarl kept Mark Dobmeier from taking his fourth straight 410 Sprint Car All Iowa Points championship in 2009 and for McCarl it was his fifth AIP title adding to the honors he received in 1994, 1996, 1998 and 1999. Dobmeier settled for second this season with 1995 AIP champion Johnny Herrera finishing in third. Brian Brown finished in the fourth position while Gregg Bakker and Scott Winters tied for fifth.
Mike Boston edged out two-time defending champion Jody Rosenboom by just two-points to win his first All Iowa Points championship in the 360 Sprint division even though none of his points were earned on Iowa soil! Boston won the track title at Eagle, Nebraska, a track that is included in the points due to the fact that it is close enough to the Iowa border and Iowa-based drivers race there on a regular basis. Jack Dover ranked third in the final standings while a teenager with a familiar last name, Robby Wolfgang, was fourth. Knoxville Raceway’s 360 Sprint Rookie-of-the-Year Jonathan Cornell finished fifth.
Bobby Mincer won on opening night and never trailed in the 305 Sprint division as he captured his first All Iowa Points championship. Fellow Burlington resident Jayson Ditsworth chased Mincer in for second, Casey Friedrichsen and Kevin Hetrick tied for third while Ryan Voss completed the top five.
For a full rundown of the 2009 All Iowa Points standings in each division click on the “Points” tab at www.PositivelyRacing.com.
1 comment:
WOW. I don't know how you do it Jeff! I thought I kept track of a lot of information, but going through race results from every Iowa track and then some has to be time-consuming.
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