Eastern Iowa Driver Rankings: July 30

Welcome to the Inside Track's Eastern Iowa Driver Rankings. Each week of the racing season, the Gazette's Jeremiah Davis will rank the area's top 10 drivers across all divisions.

Think the list should be different? Tweet him at @jeremiahdavis10, or send him an email at jeremiah.davis@sourcemedia.net

New this week: Jenae Gustin

Dropped out: Damon Murty

RANK

+/-

NAME

CLASS

THOUGHTS

1

--

Justin Kay

Late Model

Whoa. What's wrong with this guy? He didn't win a single race all weekend. AND he had his streak snapped at Dubuque Speedway by Luke Merfeld. His two second place finishes at Dubuque and West Liberty and ninth at Cedar County Raceway clearly mean problems ahead. (You all caught the sarcasm, yes?)

2

+1

Troy Cordes

Modified

Seriously, the gap between the top spot and second in these rankings is shrinking, and that's because Troy Cordes keeps winning. He drove from 11th to the win in his first Hawkeye Dirt Tour win at Independence on Thursday, ran fifth at Indee Saturday night, then got his second straight win in Vinton on Sunday. Dude is rolling.

3

-1

Austin Moyer

Sport Mod

Call this a 2a instead of a 3 in these rankings, because Moyer hasn't exactly dropped off in terms of performance. He didn't get to race at Farley, which had a week off, but won at Jackson County Speedway in Maquoketa on Saturday. The Dubuque native followed that up with a second at his home track on Sunday. 

4

--

Benji Irvine

Hobby Stock

The frustrating month of June seems like a year ago these days for the Stanley driver. He had top three runs everywhere he went this weekend, reaffirming his status in the Hobby Stock class. Irvine won the first of two Independence Motor Speedway and finished second in the regular feature. He finished third at Vinton Sunday.

5

+1

Andy Eckrich

Late Model

Last week I wrote about how this guy uses his experience on restarts to get to the front. Well, he restarted his way to a win in an IMCA Late Model Tri-Track Challenge at West Liberty Raceway on Saturday, beating Justin Kay, Brian Harris and other top area drivers. He also ran seventh in Tipton at the special there. 

6

-1

Tony Olson

Sport Mod

A bit of an up-and-down weekend results-wise for the Cedar Rapids driver, but he was fast all weekend. He ran third at the Benton County Fair race, but then finished 12th in Tipton on Friday. He won the makeup feature at Independence, but was 11th in the second feature. He finished off the weekend second in Vinton on Sunday.

7

+3

Ronn Lauritzen

Modified

He may not have won this weekend, but his worst finish was fourth in Vinton on Sunday. He ran second in the Hawkeye Dirt Tour race at Independence after leading the first 22 laps, then was second at Marshalltown on Friday and second again Saturday night at Indee. Giving this guy some motivation could be dangerous for the competition.

8

N/R

Jenae Gustin

Sport Mod

Like Skip Bayless, I'm totally going to take credit for motivating the Marshalltown driver by leaving her off last week's rankings... (Sarcasm again.) She came back from an awful week with a vengeance, winning the fair race in Vinton, at Marshalltown on Friday night, a fourth and fifth at Independence and won again in Vinton on Sunday.

9

-2

Bill Whalen

Sport Compact

The Riverside driver went back to Victory Lane again at Southern Iowa Speedway last Wednesday, but didn't find the top five again until Sunday, finishing second at Benton County Speedway in Vinton. He's also the only Eastern Iowa Sport Compact driver in the IMCA national points race, sitting sixth - 81 points behind the leader.

10

-2

Brian Happel

Hobby Stock

Happel hangs on to the final spot in the Eastern Iowa Driver Rankings with a pair of top fives this weekend. The Vinton driver finished fifth at the Benton County Fair race, fifth in the second main event at Independence Motor Speedway, then ran fourth at Vinton Sunday. He'll take consistent top fives after the beginning of this season.

l Comments: (319) 368-8884; jeremiah.davis@sourcemedia.net