DECORAH, Iowa - Well, another racing season is in the books at Decorah’s Upper Iowa Speedway. The year had a very rough start due to weather, with four of the first six weeks having to be canceled. But once things got rolling, boy oh’ boy, the racing was absolutely fantastic. With some changes to schedules at other area tracks, car counts got a boost around mid-season, and week after week, the racing was top notch. The track itself held up very well throughout, providing a fast, competitive racing surface. As the season wound down, three of the four classes held very tight point battles, with only the Hornet division having a clear cut champion coming in to the final week. A review of the season, including this past weekend’s Season Championships, includes –

USRA Hobby Stocks – The racing in the Hobby Stock division was truly phenomenal all year long. With the decision not to run Outlaw Hobby Stocks this season, the Hobby Stock class was a unique combination of some Hobby veterans, some Outlaw Hobby drivers that moved to Hobby and others that joined in to make it a heck of a year. Last season’s point champ, Chris Hovden, was strong yet again, as he attempted to repeat as champ. Adam Cline, who has been strong in Hobby for the past few years also, would compete and take his share of feature wins, while Scott Spilde, who was Mr. Consistency throughout the year, running up front and winning features as well. But as the season wound down, even coming into the final week, it was uncertain which of the three previously mentioned would wind up on top of the point sheet. The two previous weeks, Hovden and Spilde had battled for the win and the Season Championship race was no different, with those two yet again fighting it out. Unlike the two previous weeks, this time around it was Spilde who outdueled Hovden to take not only the win but also to wrap up the season championship by 45 points.

Final points: Spilde, Chris Hovden, Cline, Larson, Sacquintne, Lewis, Dan Hovden, Hare, Anderson, Stinson.

USRA Karl Chevrolet B-Mods – Coming in to the 2009 season, Matt Jones had won last two B-Mod point championships. Could he make it three in a row? Well, as is always the case, if he was going to do so, he would have to get faster, because the competition certainly did. Drivers such as Junior Boyer, Jimmy Broszeit and Shane Panos were back to contend, along with Eric Verthein, who had a break-out year of his own, winning his first ever B-Mod feature in early July and running up front all season long. Coming in to the final week, Verthein had poised himself in a position to claim his first ever UIS B-Mod Championship, but would have to finish ahead of Jones and hope Jones would have problems. Well, the win went to Tyler Droste, who started outside pole and beat Andy Kelly for the win, but right there in third was Jones who, indeed, proved yet again that he is the man to beat in UIS B-Mod’s as he claimed his third consecutive point championship.

Final points: Jones, Verthein, Boyer, Broszeit, Panos, Mahlstedt, Andy Kelly, Mike Kelly, Erickson, Howard.

USRA Karl Chevrolet Stock Cars – When Dan Jones, had won the past two UIS Stock Car point championships decided to only run a part-time schedule in 2009, it opened the door for someone else to lay claim to the UIS Stock Car “King of the Hill”. There were a lot of worthy candidates, including the familiar names of Kevin Donlan, Jake Ludeking, Kurt Krauskopf and Mitch Hovden, but who would it be? Krauskopf was strong every time they hit the track, but Hovden, who won multiple feature events as well, would not go away and coming in to the final week there was no room for error for Krauskopf to claim his first ever UIS Stock Car Championship. Well, neither could contend with last week’s winner Shay Curtin who once again showed his muscle by claiming the win ahead of Troy Hansmeier, and though Hovden finished fourth, it wouldn’t be quite enough as Krauskopf came home tenth and wound up being the point champ by only 11 points.

Final points: Krauskopf, Hovden, Donlan, Ludeking, Falck, Cole, Solum, Lampert, Christopher, Cook.