By NICK SCHWIEN

nschwien@dailynews.net

It was a familiar feeling when Dave Juenemann crawled into his sport compact.

After all, he had driven it to work for a few years before converting it into a race car.

But it wasn't all the drive time to work that made the car special. Instead, it was that he and his father, James, put the car together in the offseason.

His father died Oct. 1, 2010, at age 67. The car was a bit of a memento of sorts.

"I drove the car to work for about two years," Juenemann said. "Dad passed away, and he and I just had finished it up. It was a neat thing to be able to go out and race it and win with it."

The first time out at RPM Speedway in Hays, Juenemann piloted his No. 11x sport compact into victory lane.

"I had his picture in the car, and a memorial on it,"  he said. "It was hard, but I wanted to do it for him.

"We always enjoyed tackling problems together and finding solutions. We'd mix ideas together. Two heads are better than one."

The win the first night in Hays put Juenemann in the running for a track title, and he quickly followed that route to perfection.

The Victoria driver notched a season-high six wins in the sport compact class at RPM. That meant he was victorious in half the races the class ran in Hays.

"It was consistency," Juenemann said. "Using my head and holding back and not going for it all the time. I had to trade off a little at times. I found a happy medium."

Juenemann entered the final points night at RPM on Sept. 16 with a comfortable lead in the class. He put a stranglehold on the track title with a resounding win that night.

"I didn't know," Juenemann said about his chances at winning the title prior to the season. "You never know. It's unpredictable. I didn't know if I could reach it or not. When I started off the season with two wins, I would have been happy with just that."

Now Juenemann is pulling for his brother, Wayne, who will wrap up his points season at Salina Speedway on Friday in the sport mod class. Wayne has a 16-point advantage in track points.

"We've never won both in the same year," Juenemann said. "This would be the first time."

For now, Juenemann is basking in the glory of his RPM title and plans to do a little fine tuning Friday night at the track's final races before the fifth annual Fall Nationals in October.

"It was a pleasant surprise," he said about the title.