Four All Iowa Points Titles To Be Decided In October

One of the things that has always surprised me about compiling the All Iowa Points for the past thirty-four years is just how seldom it is that a championship goes right down to the wire. Usually by mid-August it was pretty clear who would be sitting on top of the standings at the end of the year as drivers like Gary Webb, Ed Sanger, Curt Hansen, Roger Dolan, Ray Guss Jr., Ron Barker, Danny Wallace, Greg Kastli, Jeff Anderson, Dustin Smith, Jesse Sobbing, Bryan Nevins, Joe Zrostlik, Terry McCarl, Randy Smith and many more have essentially ran off and hid when it comes to winning the All Iowa Points. That has always amazed me, just how dominant one driver can be within a division across an entire state as you would figure that at least one or two other drivers might have similar spectacular seasons in a different region.

Once again in 2013 we have several divisions that are “runaways”. After two straight years of dominating the Limited Modified standings Jesse Sobbing has done the same during his rookie year in the Modified class and will earn his fourth straight All Iowa Points crown.  Damon Murty shattered his trend of leading the Stock Car points early and then fading by continuing to dominate throughout the 2013 season and he will win his first Stock Car AIP championship with ease. For the second year in a row Merv Chandler made a mockery of the Four Cylinder point race and in this, the first year of tracking the Mod Lite division in the All Iowa Points, Jimmy May ran away from the pack. Two of the Sprint Car divisions, the 410’s and the 305’s were closer battles, but with no more events on the schedule for each they are now decided with Mark Dobmeier and Mike Boston claiming titles.

So that now leaves us with something that we haven’t seen in awhile, four divisions where the All Iowa Points championships will be determined by the results of the October special events schedule that gets underway this coming weekend in Oskaloosa and West Liberty, and that is currently scheduled to conclude at Lee County Speedway’s “Shiverfest” on October 26^th.

In the Late Model division Justin Kay leads Todd Cooney by a mere three points although the two remaining events for the division at West Liberty and at I-80 Speedway are not likely on Cooney’s schedule. On the other hand look for Kay to run in both the IMCA and the Open Late Model fields at West Liberty this weekend.

There is still plenty of Limited Modified racing to be had in October and, since qualifying night features at two-day shows pay the same point structure as the main events, four drivers are still mathematically in contention. After Doug Smith’s win in Spencer on Thursday night and Carter VanDenBerg’s victory in Webster City over a field of 51 cars on Saturday night, these two drivers are separated by just one-point as they both look for their first AIP championship. Not only does VanDenBerg hold that one-point advantage, but for Smith to prevail he will need to do some traveling as all of the remaining events are at tracks that he does not run at on a regular basis. Both Joel Rust and Tony Dunker can still win it, but they would need to win just about every race night remaining and have VanDenBerg fail to run in the top five even once during the month for that to happen.

In the Hobby Stock division the two drivers who have split the past five championships are again at the top with Devin Smith leading Shannon Anderson by one feature win, five points. The remaining events are all at tracks that neither driver have raced regularly at this year, so this one just might be over although Chris Luloff would still have a mathematical chance of by-passing both if he would hit the road and win often.

The final 360 Sprint Car event of the season will be at I-80 Speedway on October 12^th and Gregg Bakker is now just two points behind Clint Garner. Garner, the Knoxville track champion, seems to have shut down for the season while Bakker has been known to travel to southeast Nebraska in the past. He would need to finish fourth to tie, and third or better in that final race to win his first All Iowa Points title.

The 9/29 update of the All Iowa Points should be posted at Positively Racing soon. And, for your Missouri drivers and fans, I hope to be caught up in the next couple of weeks well before the final race of the Show Me state on November 23^rd in Springfield. Keep checking in here for the updated standings soon.

There are plenty of special events on the schedule for this weekend around the region as well so make sure that you get out and enjoy the action near you. A couple of shows that are coming up and are not yet on our specials schedule is an October 19^th event at the Jackson County Speedway in Maquoketa. Also, the season finale at the Upper Iowa Speedway in Decorah that was rained out this past Saturday will now run on Saturday October 12^th.

With family and social commitments for this coming weekend I had hoped that I could fit in either the Friday night show of the Liberty 100 or the Sunday finale of Oktoberfest in La Crosse. But now it looks like my only chance to go racing this week will be on Thursday night for the Sunflower Showdown featuring the USMTS Modifieds at Lakeside Speedway. Maybe see you there!