7/31/04
by Rustin Nelson
KNOXVILLE, Iowa -- Saturday's results and notes from Knoxville Raceway
43 360s
43 410s
410s
Terry McCarl was 11th out and set quick time with a lap of 15.716 running the extreme low groove on a very tacky racetrack. He was followed by Jason Johnson (9th), Tim Kaeding (25th), Skip Jackson (5th), Max Dumnesny (4th), Billy Alley (13th), Wayne Johnson (16th), Blake Feese (7th), Lynton Jeffrey (20th), and Mike Reinke (14th). Feese was piloting the Beaver Tool & Drill 12x, and will drive it for the FRC at Osky as well as the Nationals. Scott Young's motor went sour on his second lap, and he would scratch for the night.
Heat 1) (started) 1. 1s Jamie Moyle (1) 2. 75 Jesse Hockett (2) 3. 10 Lynton Jeffrey (4) 4. 24 Terry McCarl (6) 5. 83 Brook Tatnell (5) / 6. 83M Max Dumnesny (3) 7. 11J Jeff Johnson (7) 8. 70 Calvin Landis (8) 9. 69 Mike Moore (9) 10. 17AU Marty Perovich (10) DNS - 22 Scott Young
The track was still plenty tacky, and a little tough to pass on. Young's scratch from the pole moved the inside rows up a row. Moyle benefited and checked out. McCarl was on the outside looking in until lap 6 (2 to go), when he surged by Tatnell and Dumesney on the low side of turn two to gain 4th. Dumnesny & Tatnell were team cars for Brian Ridge Racing. Tatnell subbed for Droud who is throwing the Klatt midget sideways at Belleville this weekend.
Heat 2) 1. 55 Kerry Madsen (1) 2. 17G Jeff Mitrisin (2) 3. 02 Mike Reinke (4) 4. 22A Billy Alley (5) 5. 40 Clint Garner (7) / 6. 20AU Troy Little (3) 7. 56 Chris Walraven (8) 8. 44G Kaylie Gharst (9) 9. 71 Robert Bell (11) 10. 50D Jason Johnson (6) 11. 1A Larry Pinegar (10)
Madsen jumped to the lead, and wouldn't be headed. Jason Johnson was battling Alley for the transfer on lap 7 when an apparent fuel problem sprayed the cockpit area of the 50D and caught him on fire as he entered turn 4. He slammed to a stop, and allowed the fire crew to go to work. He took a ride in the ambulance to the hospital, and hopefully will check out OK. Alley & Garner moved past Little on the restart to lock themselves in solidly. Pinegar was making his first start in several years, this ride aboard Butch Levitt's machine.
Heat 3) 1. 92 Travis Cram (1) 2. 47 Matt Moro (4) 3. 83JR Tim Kaeding (6) 4. 14AJ Wayne Johnson (5) 5. 0 Dennis Moore Jr. (8) / 6. R19 Jason Solwald (2) 7. 7x Ricky Logan (3) 8. 71R Ryan Anderson (7) 9. 1W Chad Meyer (10) 10. 21s Jay Landolt (9) 11. 50 Tyler Houseman (11)
Cram assumed command with Moro in tow. Kaeding and Johnson battled it out for 3rd when Houseman spun in turn 2 on the 6th lap. DMJ got an awesome restart surging from 6th to 4th, but it was all for not as Landolt spun in turn 2. Johnson got a much better restart, but DMJ would not be denied as he put a last lap slider on Solwald in 1 & 2 to make the show.
Heat 4) 1. 8s Tim St. Arnold (1) 2. 1 Brent Antill (3) 3. 2 Skip Jackson (6) 4. 60 Colin Northway (2) 5. V10 John VanDenBerg (7) / 6. 12x Blake Feese (5) 7. D1 Jesse Giannetto (4) 8. 44M Mark Hurd (8) 9. 35x Greg Jones (9) 10. 15s Jerrel Slinkard (10)
Feese and Giannetto got less than impressive starts, allowing VanDenBerg to sneak into the mix. Feese and him would battle tooth and nail for the final transfer. Feese was comfortable on the high side at times, but would slide out and lose ground from time to time. It took VanDenBerg the full 8 laps to nail down the transfer, while St. Arnold completed the sweep of pole position heat race victors.
B-Main) 1. Feese (1) 2. Solwald (5) 3. Giannetto (4) 4. Landis (7) / 5. Logan (6) 6. Little (3) 7. Dumnesny (2) 8. Walraven (10) 9. Meyer (18) 10. Johnson (12) 11. Pinegar (15) 12. M. Moore (16) 13. Landolt (14) 14. R. Anderson (8) 15. Gharst (11) 16. Jones (13) 17. Bell (17) 18. Houseman (20) 19. Perovich (19) 20. Hurd (9)
Feese grabbed the early lead, while Solwald found some speed and rocketed to the runner-up spot. Houseman spun in turn 2 on lap 2. By lap 9, Landis had worked his way up to a transfer by running the bottom groove. Meyer passed quite a few cars from the tail, but it was all for not.
A-Main) 1. W. Johnson (4) 2. McCarl (8) 3. Moro (1) 4. Madsen (12) 5. Jackson (6) 6. Kaeding (7) 7. Cram (15) 8. Alley (5) 9. VanDenBerg (19) 10. Mitrisin (12) 11. Giannetto (23) 12. Hockett (11) 13. Landis (24) 14. Tatnell (17) 15. St. Arnold (16) 16. Antill (10) 17. Jeffrey (3) 18. Garner (18) 19. Solwald (22) 20. Feese (21) 21. Northway (13) 22. Moore Jr. (20) 23. Reinke (2) 24. Moyle (9)
Reinke had fuel issues before the race started, and went to the work area, relinquishing the outside pole. Everybody in the outside rows gladly moved up. Feese also had oil pressure problems, and went to the work area, putting him to the tail. Tatnell & Garner both changed tires before the feature, putting them to the tail as well. At the start, Hockett spun near the bottom of turn 1, nearly getting collected by several drivers. The restart would see Moro get the jump and take off. Moyle slowed to a stop in turn 3 on lap 5 dropping out, while Alley spun a 360 and kept going. On the restart, Wayne Johnson put a slider on Moro to take the lead. McCarl followed suit and began to stalk Johnson. Meanwhile, Madsen was on the charge, along with Giannetto from a little further back on the very racey surface. The 13th circuit saw McCarl draw near Johnson as the pair sliced through lapped traffic. McCarl briefly got by Johnson around the 16th lap (of 20), but Johnson roared by on the cushion in turn 2. Both leaders were struggling to lap Clint Garner, and Johnson did so with a huge slider in 3 & 4 on the last lap. That opened the door for McCarl to take the bottom and he edged alongside the 14AJ as Doug Clark waved the twin checkers. Wayne held on and won by only a thrilling few feet at the line to get his first win of 2004 -- definitely a barnburner! He had 4 bridesmaids, including the last 3 straight features.... so he was pretty damn pumped to finally get first!! Madsen, Cram, VanDenBerg, Giannetto, Landis, and Hockett (from the tail after his spin) all put on exceptional drives, with Giannetto getting the hard-charger nod.
360s
Heat 1) (started, *qualified for the Main) 1. 7a Johnny Anderson (5*) 2. B29 Eric Mason (1*) 3. 22 Rob Edwards (3*) 4. 14c Mike Trent (7*) 5. 5J Larry Ball Jr. (11*) 6. 23 Eric Jobe (8) 7. 6 Mitchell Alexander (6) 8. 12x Jerry Crabb (4) 9. 5 Mike Houseman (9) 10. Y5 Mike Houseman Jr. (2) 11. 2H Ryan Voss (10)
Anderson quickly moved to the front and began a great battle with Mason. Anderson worked the low groove to pass the rim-riding Mason. Ball Jr. put on a great charge coming from the tail, hooking up to the heavy cushion. Trent had a solid run too.
Heat 2) 1. 04 Frankie Heimbaugh (1*) 2. 83 John Kearney (6*) 3. 24 Eric VanderPloeg (4*) 4. 77 Terry Alexander (3*) 5. 54 Brett Mather (7) 6. 5R Ryan York (5) 7. 56 DJ Heskin (2) 8. 15 Bobby Mincer (10) 9. 16s Donnie Steward (8) 10. 126 Stacy Alexander (9) 11. 41 Gary Moyer
Kearney rode over the cushion to pick up 2nd in the first two turns, but couldn't gain on Heimbaugh. Moyer spun in turn 1 on the 3rd lap and backed into the wall. He would restart with a car shortened by a few inches. Heimbaugh was too much for Kearney and picked up the win.
Heat 3) 1. 10 Josh Higday (1*) 2. 1 David Hesmer (6*) 3. 96 Bronson Maeschen (2*) 4. 53 Joey Beaver (4) 5. 57x Jake Peters (7) 6. 7H John Hall (8) 7. 1Z Dusty Zomer (5) 8. 91x Darren Stewart (11) 9. 51 Dave Hall (3) 10. 86 Doug Wilson (10) 11. 11 Pete Crall (9)
Higday led the distance, although Hesmer was real fast and closed in on him in the late going. Peters & Zomer, both in the thick of the heated points race, packed their bags for the B.
Heat 4) 1. 20 Stevie Walsh (1*) 2. 2s John Schulz (2*) 3. 91 Curtis Thorson (4*) 4. 9 Rager Phillips (5*) 5. 11M Troy Meyer (7) 6. 51J Ryan Jamison (8) 7. 5G Brett Golik (9) 8. 5B Rick Ideus (10) 9. 22N Nate Mosher (3) 10. 3 Nate Van Haaften (6)
Van Haaften spun in turns 3 & 4 on the 3rd lap to slow Stevie Walsh's blistering pace. Schulz looked high on the restarts, but Walsh pulled away using the sticky bottom of turn 2. Mosher spun in turn 2 on the next lap, with Van Haaften doing the same in turn 1. Van Haaften went pitside. Walsh once again held off all charges and took the win.
C-Main) 1. Ideus (1) 2. M. Houseman-SR (3) / 3. Crabb (2) 4. S. Alexander (8) 5. Wilson (9) 6. Crall (13) 7. Hall (5) 8. Steward (4) 9. M. Houseman-JR (7)
10. Voss (11) 11. Van Haaften (10) 12. Moyer (12) 13. Mosher (6)
Moyer still was having problems with turn 1, and spun in the same spot on lap 1. He didn't the wall though and would restart. Mosher exited on lap 4. Ideus led flag to flag.
B-Main) 1. Peters (3) 2. Mather (1) 3. Stewart (10) 4. Beaver (2) / 5. Jobe (5) 6. Golik (9) 7. Jamison (7) 8. Mincer (13) 9. Hall (6) 10. Ideus (15) 11. Houseman SR (16) 12. Meyer (4) 13. Heskin (12) 14. M. Alexander (11) 15. York (8) 16. Zomer (14)
Dusty Zomer's tough night came to a grinding end in turn 2 at the start when York spun in front of him. Several others avoided him, but Zomer tagged him and flipped. Both were unhurt, but done. Mather took the lead, but Peters caught and passed him on the 3rd lap on the low side. Darren Stewart, straying away from the ASCS trail, put on a show weaving his way to the front. He nabbed the transfer (4th) from Jobe on lap 6. M. Alexander spun in turn 2 on lap 7 to bunch the field, but the order remained basically the same.
A-Main) 1. Hesmer (6) 2. Higday (4) 3. Ball Jr. (1) 4. Kearney (7) 5. Peters (17) 6. Heimbaugh (5) 7. Anderson (8) 8. Trent (10) 9. Stewart (19) 10. VanderPloeg (11) 11. Mather (18) 12. Phillips (15) 13. Mason (2) 18. Schulz (9) 19. Walsh (3) 20. Beaver (20)
Higday jumped to the early lead, as the front couple rows were 3-wide racing by the flagstand at the drop of the green. Hesmer quickly tracked him down thoughand put a slider on him to take the lead. Peters, who is perfecting his system of transferring through the B (and oddly enough garnering points for his B-Main finishes!) and charging through the A to the top 10. He got as far as fifth, behind points leader Kearney. Schulz was running a strong 7th when he pulled to a stop in turn 2 on lap 7. Peters, Beaver, and Stewart (all B-Main transfers) had worked their way into the top 10, with fellow Consi runner Mather not far behind. Beaver spun the next lap however, and tagged the tail. Hesmer was way too tough, and notched win #64 for his career. Peters was the hard-charger, though props go to Stewart for spitting on the 8-ball he was behind all night.