Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Familar Names At The Top of Nine All Iowa Points Divisions


Familiar names continued to top the list as all nine of the 2012 All Iowa Points titlists have won AIP championships before. Six of this year’s champs repeated from 2011, two of them collected their first title in another division and one of the 2012 champions returned to the top of the podium for a record eleventh time.
Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame inductee Ray Guss Jr. got off to an uncharacteristically slow start in 2012, but he found his groove as spring turned to summer and for the fourth year in a row Guss is the All Iowa Points Late Model champion. The veteran driver known as “The River City Hustler” won twenty features in 2012 as part of forty-nine top five finishes and easily outdistanced runner-up Todd Cooney by fifty points to earn his seventh overall AIP Late Model title. Guss was also the champion for three straight years back in 1989, 1990 and 1991. It was the second year in a row for Cooney to finish as the runner-up as his sixteen feature wins marked another solid season for the Des Moines driver. Tyler Bruening’s improvement continues as he advanced from seventh in 2011 up to a third-place finish in 2012 posting sixteen wins as well while Andy Eckrich and Darrel DeFrance completed the top five.

The Modified point chase was tight throughout with ten drivers still in contention over the final four weeks of the season. In the end though it was Ryan Dolan prevailing for his third straight All Iowa Points crown by just three points over seven time Modified (1997-98, 2000-04) and 1984 Street Stock champion Ron Barker. Dolan scored eleven feature wins and had forty-two top-five finishes in 2012 compared to Barker’s twelve wins and thirty-nine top-fives. Two-time champion Mark Schulte (2006-07) used a fourth-place finish on the final weekend to take third by just one point over Jimmy Gustin who posted his best AIP Modified ranking by finishing in the fourth spot only eleven points out of first. Southeast Nebraska driver Dylan Smith was fifth while two drivers who were on top of the standings during the heart of the season, Jay Noteboom and Chris Ableson were sixth and seventh respectively.
Jesse Sobbing dominated the Limited Modified standings once again essentially leading from start to finish to post an 84-point advantage over runner-up Tony Dunker. Sobbing’s stats for 2012 were again phenomenal as he won forty-two feature races on All Iowa Points tracks and was in the top-five sixty-one times and that doesn’t include what he did well beyond the borders of Iowa. This is the Glenwood native’s third straight AIP championship in this division and the word is that the Modified division may have a new contender in 2013. This was a breakout season for Dunker as the Quincy, Illinois, driver posted twenty-six feature wins on his way to three track championships in Burlington, Donnellson and Quincy. The same could be said about young Austin Moyer of Dubuque who won twenty-three races on his way to a third-place ranking with central Iowa talent Racer Hulin and Nick Roberts placing fourth and fifth.

The chase for the 2012 All Iowa Points title in the Stock Car division was fun to follow with several drivers still in the hunt as the calendar turned to September. At the end though it was one of the talented racing brothers from Lake City on top of the standings as Donavon Smith won his first career AIP Stock Car championship.  Donavon has also won the All Iowa Points Hobby Stock crown twice in 2004 and 2006 and in this season he used fifteen feature wins and forty-two top five finishes to edge out Luke Sathoff by just nine points. Sathoff pulled off the I-90 triple crown winning the track championships at Fairmont, Jackson and Worthington winning fifteen features along the way and perennial Stock Car contender Damon Murty finished in the third spot. Abe Huls and Jason Cook filled out the top five for 2012.
Donavon’s brother Devin Smith overtook early leaders John Watson and Shannon Anderson to win his third-straight All Iowa Points Hobby Stock Championship. This is the second time that two of the Smith brothers have won AIP titles in the same season as Dustin won the Stock Cars in 2010 joining Devin and overall this makes eleven AIP crowns for the family. Devin had fifty-six top five finishes including thirty-seven feature wins this season to propel him to the top of the list. Scott Pippert of Elberon made a late charge to register his best career ranking in the All Iowa Points as the runner-up with twenty-nine feature wins this season. The 2012 IMCA Hobby Stock National Champion Shannon Anderson had another stellar season as the two-time AIP champ (2008-09) finished in the third position. John Watson got off to a torrid start and paced the division early before finishing in fourth and southeast Iowa’s Dustin Griffiths finished fifth.

Nobody earned more All Iowa Points this season than Merv Chandler did as the veteran driver outdistanced the rest of the Four Cylinder field by 129 points to win his third AIP championship, but his first in this division. Merv’s first two All Iowa titles came way back in 1984 and ‘85 in the Modified division and in 2012 he posted an amazing seventy-two top-five finishes including thirty-three feature wins. Chandler’s buddy Bill Whalen Jr. spent much of the season chasing him, but did win enough of his own races to finish second in the final point standings only two markers ahead of Jacob Ellithorpe.  The 2011 Four Cylinder champ Nathan Chandler ranked fourth this season one position ahead of the young lady from Estherville, Megan Lappegard.
The Sprint car divisions had two repeat winners and one return champion as Terry McCarl earned his record eleventh All Iowa Points championship in the 410 c.i. division. “T-Mac” scored eight feature wins along the way and added 2012 to his list that includes 1994, 1996, 1998 through 2004, and 2009. Five-time champion Mark Dobmeier (2006-08, 2010-11) was a distant second this season with Brian Brown in third. The top four in the 360 division finished within five points, or just one feature win of each other with Jack Dover earning his third straight All Iowa Points crown. The 2009 champion Mike Boston was a close second, Skylar Prochaska burst on to the scene this year taking third while the 2010 co-champion Eric Lutz ranked fourth. And in the 305 Sprints it was Bill Boles of Harris who defended his 2011 AIP title in style overtaking Burlington drivers Daniel Bergquist and Donnie Steward who tied for second.

To see where your favorite drivers ranked in the final 2012 standings you can find the complete rundown on the All Iowa Points page at www.positivelyracing.com

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