MARYVILLE, Ill. — Jason Feger, the 2009 UMP DIRTcar Racing Super Late Model champion, will be honored Jan. 9 during the annual awards banquet at the Crowne Plaza in Springfield, Ill.
Feger was dominant throughout the year, leading the series in victories with 22 en route to his first national championship, earning himself the $20,000 championship check that will be awarded during the awards banquet.
Veteran driver Dennis Erb, Jr. finished second in the standings, falling 31 points short of Feger. Rusty Schlenk, Randy Korte and Steve Sheppard, Jr. completed the top five.
Despite claiming the national title, Feger fell short of adding a regional title to his resume. Sheppard earned the central region title by just 77 points over Feger.
Other regional champions include Schlenk (East), Michael Kloos (West), Lonnie Parker, Jr. (Southwest) and Nick Bartels (Pacific).
Jon Henry emerged as the series rookie-of-the-year, edging teenage rival Brandon Sheppard by 59 points for the honor. Henry also finished eighth in the national standings while winning eight events.
A total of 184 different drivers recorded a feature win during the 2009 UMP DIRTcar points season.
Drivers using cars built by Rocket Chassis accounted for 167 UMP DIRTcar-sanctioned super-late-model victories in 2009, putting the company atop the circuit's manufacturer victory list.
Rocket bested Bob Pierce Race Cars (54 wins), MasterSbilt (51), Rayburn (40) and GRT (16) during a season in which 22 different chassis makes were reported as feature winners.
But Pierce Race Cars did, however, claim the national championship thanks to Feger's use of the Oakwood, Ill.-based chassis, as well as the UMP DIRTcar modified (Gary Cook, Jr.) and limited-modified (Chad Boone) national titles.
A total of 57 different engine builders were reported as winning UMP DIRTcar super-late-model features in 2009, led by the 38 victories tallied by Bill Schlieper's Pro Power Racing Engines of Sullivan, Wis.
Michigan's Dowker Engines finished second with 24 wins, followed by Indiana's Dargie Racing Engines (22), Kentucky's Cornett Racing Engines (21) and Indiana's Rhyne Competition Engines (21).