By NICK SCHWIEN

nschwien@dailynews.net

Christmas time will be a little sweeter for Cody Graham this year.

The hobby stock driver from Hays isn't expecting a large gift. He already got that Friday night.

Instead, he'll be savoring the bragging rights of being the 2011 hobby stock track champion at RPM Speedway.

And since his father-in-law, Leon Pfannenstiel, and brother-in-law, Luke Pfannenstiel, both compete in the same class, the family gathering will have Graham smiling all the way to the dinner table.

"It's going to be a good Christmas," Graham said.

Graham started 12th Friday night at RPM and finished fifth, a spot shy of earning a trip to tech lane. But G.W. "Cheeseburger" Fuller finished fourth, and all Graham needed to do was not let Fuller beat him by more than two spots.

"It was nerve-racking until I saw the checkered flag," said Graham, who won his first track title at RPM. "I knew the scenarios, and I knew he couldn't get more than two spots ahead of me. He was just one spot ahead of me, so I was happy and not going to push it and screw anything up. As long as I could see orange in front of me, I was happy."

He entered the night with a slim lead over Fuller and finished right where he needed to secure the title.

"Hometown track and been doing it for four years," Graham said. "Kind of been in the hunt a little bit, but finally made it. Beating guys like Cheeseburger and my brother-in-law (Luke Pfannenstiel), it's a good feeling."

Leon Pfannenstiel won Friday night at RPM, with Kent Tammen finishing second and Luke Pfannenstiel third. Luke Pfannenstiel won the track championship Sunday night at WaKeeney, while Graham won the feature race. Cody Ghumm was second in the feature at WaKeeney, while Jeromy Wagner was third and Fuller was fourth.

* Russell's Marty Clark missed out on a track championship at RPM the first year the track was open by one point to Ronnie Hill. On Friday, he secured his first championship with a fifth-place finish.

"I was a nervous wreck all week," Clark said. "I was doing the math of where he had to finish and where I had to finish to get this deal sewed up. Going out there tonight, I only had to beat one car and he had to win and we would have tied. But I'm glad it didn't come down to that. I'm glad I won it outright. All those guys are good, though, and they're all competitive. On any given night, anybody can win out here. I wish we could have got a win, but there's still two races left. Maybe we're saving the win for nationals."

Dylan Sherfick finished second in track points and was runner-up to his older brother, Travis, in the feature. Nate Moore was third in the feature.

"It's been our goal every year to try to come over here and do good,"  Clark said. "The last few years, my daughter was running track, so we had to miss some races. This year, when things started out good, we were trying to run to track meets, then haul butt to Hays to try to get here in time to race. It was pretty stressful then. Towards the end, we wrecked the car at WaKeeney. I'm pretty relieved."

Salina's Corey Lagroon wrapped up the WaKeeney track championship Sunday night.

* Wichita's Bryan LaRiviere has been living a storybook season while racking up feature wins this year. He was seventh at the IMCA Super Nationals a few weeks ago, then came back and wrapped up a pair of track championships at Hays and WaKeeney this weekend. He entered both nights with comfortable leads and tallied eight feature victories each at Hays and WaKeeney.

On Friday night, he started seventh but had to go to the back of the field after a flat tire. He worked his way back up to second, finishing just behind Joe Couse.

"(Blaine) Walt and I got together on the back straightaway, and it flattened both of our tires," LaRiviere said. "Both of us had to go to the back. It was a good race. It was kind of nice to not get that lead right off the bat and actually be able to see how good you are able to race. We had a good car, but unfortunately, we had a flat. We needed another yellow ... but you can't complain about a second. There ain't nothing wrong with running second."

Clayton Wilson was third. Wilson looked to have victory wrapped up Sunday night in WaKeeney, only to have a late caution lead to a green-white-checkered finish. That allowed LaRiviere a golden opportunity, and he eventually passed Wilson coming out of turn four on the final lap for the win. Justin Deitz was third.

On Saturday night, LaRiviere beat Tyler Frye by enough positions to win the track championship at Minneapolis Raceway. That same night, he also secure an IMCA national championship.

* Jason Schoenberger has dominated the stock car class at Hays and WaKeeney, and those solid outings this year led him to a pair of track titles at both places. Schoenberger won Friday night's feature in Hays, beating Iowa's Mike Nichols to the checkered flag. Pat Bedore was third.

On Sunday, Nichols and Schoenberger flip-flopped final spots. Nick Tubbs was third in the feature.

* Dave Juenemann started last in the sport compact feature Friday at RPM and passed every car en route to the win, his sixth of the season in Hays.

That helped him earn the track title. Trevor Schmidt was second, and Dean Herzog was third.

The sport compact class does not compete at WaKeeney.