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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 during 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 Saturday, Nov. 29 in Lincoln, Neb.
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