'Cappy' Named 16th Most Powerful in Iowa Sports
Saturday, July 2, 2005
Knoxville Raceway director of racing Ralph “Cappy” Capitani was named the 16th most powerful person in all of sports in the state of Iowa, according to this week’s Sports Power Poll published by the Des Moines Register. Voted the most influential person in sprint car racing for the past two years by the North American Sprint Car Poll, Capitani was ranked behind such influential individuals in this poll as Bob Bowlsby of the University of Iowa athletic department (ranked 1st), Michael Gartner of the triple-A Iowa Cubs baseball team (2nd), Iowa football coach Kirk Ferentz (3rd), Iowa State football coach Dan McCarney (7th), Iowa men’s basketball coach Steve Alford (8th), Joe Crookham of Musco Lighting (12th), and former wrestler Dan Gable (14th). Cappy ranked ahead of Drake men’s basketball coach Tom Davis (ranked 18th) and Iowa State University Olympic wrestling champion Cael Sanderson (20th) amongst others.
According to Capitani, “What is more important than my personal presence is the recognition by the Register’s voting panel of the importance of motorsports in the state of Iowa. Auto racing has traditionally been ignored by the stick-and-ball sports press, so it’s exciting to motorsports be recognized along with such traditional Iowa sports as high school and college football, basketball and wrestling.”
The Register’s Sports Power Poll, which was released on June 26 in the newspaper’s Sunday edition with a circulation of 239,000, was selected from suggestions submitted by thirty-four (34) Iowans ranging from athletes to attorneys, from coaches to sponsors, and from owners to promoters to politicians. The rankings are as follows: 1. Bob Bowlsby, 2. Michael Gartner, 3. Kirk Ferentz, 4. (tie) Troy Dannen, Rick Wulkow, 6. Richard Jacobson, 7. Dan McCarney, 8. Steve Alford, 9. Wayne Morgan, 10. Bryce Miller & Tom Witosky, 11. Christine Grant, 12. Joe Crookham, 13. Bruce Van De Velde, 14. Dan Gable, 15. David Blank, 16. Ralph Capitani, 17. Rick Hartzell, 18. Tom Davis, 19. Greg McDermott, 20. Cael Sanderson, 21. Bill Fennelly, 22. Lisa Bluder, 23. Tim McClelland, 24. Bobby Douglas.
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