WEBSTER CITY, Iowa – Officials from the United States Racing Ass’n recently unveiled the final national, regional and track points standings for the Summit USRA Weekly Racing Series, as well as three special USRA-sanctioned touring series.
Among them are eight national, nine regional and 65 track champions. Five racers are first-time USRA national champs, two earned second titles and one driver claimed his record-setting sixth crown.
Returning to the top of the heap in the USRA Modified division, Brandon Davis enjoyed a dominating season en route to his second Summit USRA Weekly Racing Series national title. His first came in 2012.
Davis, who manufactures his own Tri-Built Race Cars in his hometown of Hayfield, Minn., reeled off 15 victories during the 2019 campaign including a streak of six straight to end the season at arguably one of the toughest places to get a win-the Deer Creek Speedway in Spring Valley, Minn.
He snagged a total of seven wins at ‘The Creek’ and another six at the Chateau Speedway in Lansing, Minn. He captured track championships at both. His other two wins were big ones-opening night and the finale of the sixth annual Summit USRA Nationals at the Hamilton County Speedway in Webster City, Iowa.
He is the eighth USRA Modified national champ from the Land of 10,000 Lakes.
Perhaps most impressive was the consistency that the 28-year-old racer showed during the season. In his 36 starts, he finished among the top five 33 times and was outside of the top ten just once.
Dustin Sorensen of Rochester, Minn., was second in the final points while Iowan Dennis Elliott parlayed another I-35 Speedway (Winston, Mo.) track championship into a third-place finish in the national points to place a buffer between two more Minnesota top-five racers Josh Angst and Jason Cummins.
Davis will collect $10,000 for his USRA Modified national championship and up to $3,000 for his two track championships. He’ll also get $320 for his PBM Performance Products Northern Region title in the USRA Modifieds.
For the sixth time in nine years, Decorah, Iowa’s Mitch Hovden will take home a national championship trophy from the USRA awards banquet after snaring his sixth national title in the American Racer USRA Stock Cars presented by Medieval Chassis.
Hovden, who claimed last year’s crown as well as back-to-back titles in 2015-2016 and 2011-2012, won the track championship at the Fayette County Speedway in West Union, Iowa, but finished second this season.
However, he improved from his runner-up finish last year and regained the track championship at his home track Upper Iowa Speedway.
Hovden captured 20 feature wins in his 40 starts but was a top-five finisher in 37 of those races and finished outside of the top ten on just two occasions.
Hovden is the most decorated driver in USRA history with nine titles in all. He captured Arnold Motor Supply Iron Man Challenge points championships in 2013 and 2014. His first USRA points title came in 2007 in the Mensink Racing Products USRA Hobby Stock class.
Fellow Decorah drivers Dillon Anderson and Kyle Falck rounded out the top three in the national standings with New Mexico racer Bryan Bennett finishing fourth ahead of Decorah’s Kevin Donlan.
While his 28 feature race victories were one fewer than last year, it was still more than enough for Kris Jackson to secure his second straight national championship in the Out-Pace USRA B-Mods powered by Pace Performance.
After finishing fifth in 2017 with 17 wins and fourth in 2016 on the strength of 25 wins, the Lebanon, Mo., speedster has 57 triumphs in the last two seasons and 99 of them in a four-year span.
Jackson didn’t stay put. He competed at 11 different racetracks during the 2019 season and won at eight of them. There were no regional or track titles, therefore, but a $2,000 payday awaits the 35-year-old racer.
Dan Hovden kept the pressure on Jackson all season long but had to settle for runner-up honors while 2017 Out-Pace USRA B-Mod national champ Ryan Gillmore wound up third over Jackie Dalton and Deer Creek Speedway dominator Jim Chisholm.
The 2019 Mensink Racing Products USRA Hobby Stocks national championship hardware is heading somewhere other than Sioux Falls, S.D., for the first time since 2013 after 36-year-old Eric Stanton of Carlisle, Iowa, snapped Dustin Gulbrandson’s string of five straight titles.
The two engaged in a fierce battle all year-both on paper and on the racetrack-with Stanton earning his first USRA national championship. He won 18 times while Gulbrandson hauled in 16 wins and came wound up with a 21-point cushion for the 21-year veteran after the dust had settled.
Along with his wins, Stanton recorded 32 top-five and 34 top-ten finishes in his 37 USRA-sanctioned starts.
His crowning achievement came on the biggest stage during the finale of the sixth annual Summit USRA Nationals on Oct. 19. It was his second win in the event as he won the inaugural race in 2014 at the Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City.
Nearly a decade after his USRA Hobby Stock national championship in 2009, Chris Hovden garnered a third-place finish in 2019 behind Stanton and Gulbrandson while Tyler Schlumbohm and Steve Larson finished fourth and fifth.
For a third straight year, a national champion was be crowned in the USRA Late Model division, and for the first time the honor goes to Lucas Peterson of Grand Meadow, Minn., whose 24 starts were five more than his nearest finisher.
Peterson was unable to find the winner’s circle in 2019 but scored 20 top-ten finishes and cracked the top five on six occasions en route to a $700 champion’s check.
Justin Sass wound up second in the final points while two-time defending national champ Lance Hofer’s five wins and third straight track championship at the Mississippi Thunder Speedway in Fountain City, Wis., was good enough for third.
Matt McEathron was fourth and Cedar Lake Speedway track champion Dan Gullikson claimed the fifth spot.