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Nine earn 2008 IMCA national championships
VINTON, Iowa (Oct. 4) – IMCA crowns its biggest national championship
class this season, with six more drivers racing to first-ever top
titles in 2008.
P.J. Egbert of Copperas Cove, Texas, topped the IMCA Modified
standings, Rod Snellenberger of Pulaski, Wis., was first in IMCA
Sunoco Stock Car points and Shannon Anderson of Atlantic led the way
in the IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stocks.
Also winning their first national championships were Curt Lund of
Redwood Falls, Minn., in the IMCA KSE Racing Products Sprint Cars,
Dan Rhiley of Bennington, Neb., in the IMCA Sport Compacts and Jerry
Bransom Jr. of Burleson, Texas, in the GM Performance Parts Crate
Models.
Luke Wanninger of Jefferson, last year’s Hobby Stock champion, won
the tie-breaker for this year’s Karl Chevrolet Northern SportMod
title and a record-breaking total of on-track wins gave Keith White
of Academy, Texas, his career third IMCA Southern SportMod crown.
Final point races for all eight divisions were held Sept. 28. Track
officials have until noon on Monday, Oct. 27 to notify the IMCA home
office of any corrections before standings become official.
Jason Frankel of Quincy, Ill., was national champion and Mike Garland
of Morrison, Ill., rookie of the year in the IMCA J & J Steel Late
Model division. The point season for that class ended in August;
Frankel is also a first-time titlist.
Egbert won 29 features along with track championships at Heart O’
Texas Speedway and Texas Thunder Speedway. Chris Alcorn of Lincoln
Neb., repeated as the Modified runner-up, after winning 20 features
and titles at Eagle Raceway and Butler County Motorplex.
Twenty-four feature wins and championships at Seymour Speedway and
Shawano Speedway helped Snellen berger reverse last season’s 1-2
finish behind Mike Nichols of Harlan. Nichols garnered 22 victories
and the hardware from I-35 Speedway in Missouri and Stuart Speedway.
Wanninger and Tim Jorgenson of Seymour, Wis., tied for the top spot
in the Northern SportMod standings. The advantage tilted to Wanninger
on the basis of his 25 feature wins, six more than Jorgenson. The
second IMCA driver to win national crowns in two different divisions,
Wanninger also earned rookie of the year honors. He was track
champion at Marshalltown Speedway, Shelby County Speedway and Buena
Vista Raceway; Jorgenson paced points at Luxemburg Speedway, Shawano
Speedway and Seymour Speedway.
White won a division record 38 features enroute to his latest
national title, edging defending champion Jeff Turner of Kaufman,
Texas, by two points in the race for the 2008 crown. Tops in point
standings at Heart O’ Texas Speedway and Texas Thunder Speedway,
White now owns career totals of 111 feature wins and eight track
titles in the class.
Anderson, son of five-time IMCA national Stock Car champion Jeff
Anderson, journeyed as far as Texas and Kansas in topping the Hobby
Stock standings. He won 27 features and titles at Shelby County
Speedway, the Iowa State Fairgrounds Speedway and Stuart Speedway.
All of 11 of Lund’s winged victories came at Redwood Speedway, where
he won the track title outright for the third time. Lund now leads
all drivers in the modern era (1989-2008) of the IMCA division with
78 career wins.
Rhiley racked up 21 feature wins and was track champion at I-80
Speedway and Butler County Motorplex.
Bransom won nine features along with the points title at Kennedale
Speedway Park.
Modified ButlerBuilt Regional champions are Egbert in the South
Central, Alcorn in the Central, Dan Fitz gerald of Las Vegas, Nev.,
in the Western, Todd Shute of Des Moines in the North Central and
Dale Caswell of Central Square, N.Y., in the Eastern.
The regional prize was the career fourth for Fitzgerald, a 17-time
feature winner and champion at Death Valley Raceway and Mohave Valley
Raceway.
Egbert, Alcorn and Caswell all became two-time kings in their
respective regions. Caswell won 21 features and the track title at
Brewerton Speedway.
Shute’s regional title was his career first. He won 17 features and
track championships at Boone Speed way, the Iowa State Fairgrounds
Speedway and Stuart Speedway.
Snellenberger ruled the Jet Racing Northern Region Stock Car roost.
Jeff Turner, one of the numerous multi-division stars from the Lone
Star State, was first in the Destroyer Chassis Southern Region ranks.
He won 23 times, doubling as the SportMod and Stock champ at
Kennedale Speedway Park.
Anderson reigned in the Jet Racing Northern Region for the Hobbies.
Charles Cosper of Belton, Texas, was first in the Southern Region,
with half a dozen feature wins and the Kennedale title to his credit.
National rookies of the year are Nick Deal of Walnut in the
Modifieds, Adam Balthazor of Stockton, Kan., in the Stocks, Kris Rye
of Corpus Christi, Texas in the Southern SportMods; Blake Anderson of
Elk Mound, Wis., in the Sprints, David Bissonnette of Stephenville,
Texas, in the Hobby Stocks; and Shawn Turner of Sioux City in the
Sport Compacts.
Deal collected 14 checkers in his first sanctioned season.
Bissonnette, the frontrunner in the Southern Hobby region, and
Turner, champion at Buena Vista Raceway, both won seven features. Rye
was a five-time feature winner. Balthazor won once, edging
Jefferson’s Trent Murphy for national and Northern Region ROY awards
by a single point.
Regional Modified rookies of the year were Deal in the North Central,
Randy Brown of Chowchilla, Calif., in the Western, John Huffman of
McCook, Neb., in the Central, Benji Kirkpatrick of Elm Mott, Texas,
in the South Central and Jerry Lobdell Jr. of Freeville, N.Y., in the
Eastern.
Kirkpatrick won nine features, Brown seven, Huffman a pair and
Lobdell one.
Douglas Kennemer of Boyd, Texas, paced rookie Stock drivers in the
Southern Region, winning once dur ing his freshman campaign. Matthew
Crowell of Clearwater, Kan., also a one-time winner, paced the rookie
points for Northern Region Hobby Stocks.
Top 20 national and regional standings, top 10 state standings and
all rookie point totals are posted on the www.imca.com website.
All champions and rookies of the year will he honored during the
national IMCA awards banquet, on Satur day, Nov. 29 in Lincoln, Neb.
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