I thought that I would be writing about the opening night of the Arnold Motor Supply Knoxville 360 Nationals this morning, but with the steady light rain that fell on the track for three hours that show will be combined with Friday’s qualifier to make for one very full night of racing this evening. So instead let’s take a look at the All Iowa Points as they stand through the end of July.
With the Webmistress on vacation right now we still have the July 27th update up on the Points page right now, so you can go there to find where your favorite driver ranks a week ago compared to the top drivers that we’ll talk about here as we enter the final month of the “weekly racing” season. If a driver needs to make a move, August is the month to do it not only in the weekly shows, but with the weeknight special events as well.
In the Late Models it appears that Ray Guss Jr. is well on his way to his third straight All Iowa Points title and as his sixth championship overall as he holds a firm 41-point lead over both Terry Neal and Todd Cooney. Ray’s other three championships also came in succession in 1989, 1990 and 1991. Nothing like doing something amazing all over again a full twenty years later!
Ryan Dolan made a big move in August last year to take the 2010 Modified championship and this year he enters the month with a 15-point advantage over Randy Havlik. Two-time champ Mark Schulte (2006 & 2007) is still within striking distance 29 points back in third while J.J. Wise and Steven DeLonjay are some new faces gracing the top five.
Timmy Current enjoys a 30-point lead right now in the Stock Car division as he tries to nail down his first All Iowa Points championship. Drivers are stacked up behind him as Damon Murty, David Smith and Derek Green are all tied for second and two-time Hobby Stock champ Donovan Smith (2004 & 2006) is one point behind them in fifth.
The two most dominant drivers in 2011 reside in the Limited Modified division where both Jesse Sobbing and Cayden Carter are on their way to more than 30 wins this season. Sobbing is already at that plateau and holds a 62-point lead on Carter as both look for their first All Iowa Points championship. Brandon Hare and Doug Smith are both having great seasons as well, but are a distant third and fourth.
Devin Smith is looking like he will defend his 2010 AIP Hobby Stock title as he has a 48-point cushion over 2008 and 2009 champ Shannon Anderson. If Devin wins it will be the eighth time in the last nine years that at least one of the Smith brothers from Lake City have won an All Iowa title. Michael Murphy and John Watson are both enjoying fine seasons and are ranked third and fourth with more than 100 points each.
The Chandler family is in control of the Four Cylinder standings at this point with Nathan leading his father Merv by just two points and his brother Brad by twenty-four. Megan Lappegard, Jacob Ellithorpe and Tyler Whalen are looking to beak up the family though and crack the top three.
The three Sprint Car divisions sometimes see a bit of a shake up near the top during Knoxville Nationals time, especially if any of the “regulars” are able to crack the top five on a qualifying night or in the finale. Going into August five-time champ Danny Lasoski (1986, 1987, 1990, 1992 & 1993) holds a five point lead over four-time titlist Mark Dobmeier (2006, 2007, 2008 & 2010) in the 410 division with Gregg Bakker and ten-time champ Terry McCarl (1994, 1996, 1998-2004 & 2009) tied for third only 11-points out of the lead. Jack Dover shared the 2010 360 Sprint title with Eric Lutz and it looks like he might win it on his own this year as “The Gasman” enjoys an 18-point cushion over 2009 champ Mike Boston. And in the 305’s it is Bill Boles leading 2006 champ in what appears to be a two horse race at this point.
On to another subject……if you are regular here you likely know that I have a “love/hate” relationship with the forum boards associated with our sport. I love to use them to obtain information that I otherwise wouldn’t find, or know to look for, and much to the chagrin of at least two AWPs, I love to use the forums to make sure that people who are looking for more complete coverage of an event know where they can find that coverage provided by myself or other Positively Racing bloggers. On a side note, apparently those people who raise a fuss about this practice must think that we are all getting rich off of this hobby of ours, or something, as I cannot understand why they would be so against people who are actually promoting the sport that they also claim to love.
I hate the forums when posts are made that do nothing but damage the sport either by tearing down a track, a promoter, an event, a driver, an official, etc., etc. And 95% of the time those posts are made by what long-time Sunset Speedway promoter Craig Kelley called Anonymous Weasel Posters or AWPs. They shroud themselves in the “freedom of speech” mantra even though our founding fathers would have never envisioned a medium where one’s speech did not have to be backed up by at least a little bit of fact (Doesn’t matter if what you are posting is true, it just has to be interesting), or to have the speaker’s opinion backed up by the reputation of the individual voicing the opinion (not possible because they are anonymous, so you have no idea of their motive or bias)……but I digress.
I guess I went through all of that above to let you know that even though the forums drive me crazy, I’m still addicted to them, and on one them right now there is a thread that caught my eye titled “what should Supernationals 2012 purse be?” The thread was started by our buddy “fasttrackfan” who I don’t always agree with, but who I completely respect because he goes to a ton of races and obviously loves the sport. The post is based upon the assumption that drivers will stay away “in protest of this years race” and as a result they will have 200 cars less than they had in 2010, so I guess we should first see if this assumption actually turns out to be true or not. The thread is up to four pages now and of course the common theme is that an event that draws so many cars and so many fans each year should be paying a MUCH larger purse and my question is “why”?
The annual Ice Bowl at the Talladega Short Track in Alabama has a similar discussion on the forum boards each year as people say that an event that draws 80 Super Late Models each year should be paying a lot more than $5,000-to-win. “The promoters are making a killing, it’s unfair!” Of course nobody ever seems to take a step back and say, if the current purse structure draws 80 Super Late Models, why mess with it? If 240 IMCA Modified drivers pull in from all over North America for $2,000-to-win plus contingencies, why does someone think that the system is broken? In the thread people try to “make a point” by stating what other events pay to win……but those other high-paying events don’t come close to the same car counts.
Could it be that the comparatively low purse is actually a reason why the car counts are so high? Raise the Ice Bowl purse to $10,000 or $15,000 to win and watch the car count drop to around 40 Super Late Models. Why? Because, those five “big name” drivers that will now grace the event with their presence will now chase away 45 other drivers who no longer feel they are capable of making the show, or even taking the victory. The “big names” of IMCA are already at the SuperNationals but here’s a random thought. Make it $10,000-to-win and perhaps you take a lot of the fun out of it and make it a much more serious affair? Does that result in a decline in car count instead of what most would think would be an increase? We may never know, but I do know this. When a promoter or sanctioning body has built up an event over time that becomes a “signature event”, they deserve to make a nice profit on it.
Speaking of which, times up and I’m headed to Knoxville. Check in here regularly for updates over the next nine days from Sprint Car heaven. And if you have a moment, here is an interesting point of view on the Brickyard 400 by one of my favorite bloggers Mark Titus. Enjoy!
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