6/11/04
Knoxville Raceway
360 Nationals Preliminary Program
by Eric Arnold
89 cars signed in for the evening. Drivers drew for heat race lineups. Passing points were scored to determine feature line up’s. Heat Races were 10 Laps in distance.
Heat One (started): 1. Tony Bruce Jr. 18 (1), 2. Matt Moro 2m (2), 3. Zach Chappell 50z (10), 4. D.J. Heskin 56 (4), 5. Mitchell Alexander 6 (8), 6. Tracy Nichols 19 (6), 7. Dave Becker 7 (5), 8. William Eggiman 77x (9), 9. Ryan Jamison 51j (3), 10. John Vandenberg V10 (7) scratched.
Nichols ran over Heskin’s right rear coming down the front stretch on the start but both continued. Ryan Jamison was running second when something broke in the left rear on lap 8. Bruce led flag to flag as Chappell used the low line to work his way up to third. John Vandenberg was scheduled to start seventh but did not pull his rig into the pits until midway through the heat races as his crew had troubles putting their 360 car together at the last minute.
Heat Two (started): 1. Johnny Anderson 7a (1), 2. Ryan Voss 2h (3), 3. Brent Antill 10x (7), 4. Stevie Walsh 20 (4), 5. Brett Mather 54 (5), 6. Natalie Sather 94s (9), 7. Bronson Maeschen 96 (8), 8. Doran Doty 99x (2), 9. Keith Fridlington 21 (6).
Johnny Anderson led flag to flag as Antill made a nice charge through the field. Fridlington pulled in on lap 8 with motor problems.
Heat Three (started): 1. Rob Edwards R22 (2), 2. A.G. Rains 3 (4), 3. Chuck Swenson x (3), 4. Roger Crockett 57 (9), 5. Chad Meyer 1w (6), 6. Brett Golik 5g (7), 7. John Schulz 2s (5), 8. Sam Hafertempe Jr. (8) 9. Mike Waddell 2 (1).
On lap 3 Mike Waddell made contact with Golik at the flagstand and flipped hard into the catch fence at the entrance to turn 1. He was taken to the hospital and then flown to Des Moines for precautionary tests for head injuries. Meyer’s nose wing collapsed on lap 6 costing him a transfer into the A feature. Crockett moved up nicely after the restart as Edwards went on to win.
Heat Four (started): 1. Garry Lee Maier 11x (1), 2. Jason Johnson 50d (3), 3. Jesse Gianetto D1 (2), 4. Gary Wright 9x (4), 5. Tim St. Arnold 8s (5), 6. Marshall Skinner 26k (7), 7. Matt Harms 53H (6), 8. Brock Dump 12 (9), 9. Rod Richards 5 (8).
In what appeared to be a "stacked" heat it provided little passing other than a duel between Johnson and Gianetto early for second. Maier pulled away from the start and never looked back.
Heat Five (started): 1. Sean McClelland 1z (1), 2. Shane Stewart 4m (8), 3. Terry McCarl 1m (6), 4. Foster Landon 11F (3), 5. David Hesmer 1 (5), 6. David Hall 51 (2), 7. Eric Vanderploeg 24 (4), 8. Rodney Turner 69 (9), 9. Jaymie Moyle F4 (7).
McClelland lead flag to flag as Shane Stewart nearly maxed out his passing points coming up to second. McCarl had a slow start but gained momentum as the race went to move up to third. Hesmer raced Hall hard to the checkered for fifth.
Heat Six (started): 1. Jeff Mitrisin 10J (4), 2. Terry Alexander 77 (1), 3. Wayne Johnson 14AJ (5), 4. Jake Peters 57X (7) 5. Brian Brown 15 (6), 6. Larry Ball Jr. 7X (9), 7. Rager Phillips 9 (8), 8. Chris Morgan 7C (3) 9. Curtis Thorson 91 (2).
Mitrisin jumped out to the early led and checked out. Wayne Johnson had a good start and moved to third. Brian Brown was driving the 15 Bobby Mincer machine.
Heat Seven (started): 1. Randi Miller 2D (6), 2. Ryan York 5R (2), 3. Roger Rager 6R (7), 4. Aaron Berryhill 97 (8), 5. Randy Martin 14 (5) 6. Eric Mason B29 (9), 7. Dusty Zomer 1Z (1), 8. Alan Gilbertson 97X (4), 9. Glenn Styres (3).
Styres and Gilbertson tangled on the opening lap on the back stretch. Rager had a great restart on his way to third. Miller won by a wide margin over York. Zomer had motor problems and limped home in seventh after a promising start.
Heat Eight (started): 1. Stacey Alexander 126 (4), 2. Brett Geldner 1B (2), 3. Frankie Heimbaugh 04 (1), 4. Eric Jobe 23 (7), 5. Doug Wilson 86 (9), 6. Toby Brown 61a (3), 7. Mike Houseman Jr. Y5 (5), 8. Larry Neighbors 29N (8), 9. Travis Rilat 29 (6).
Rilat’s car stumbled on the initial start and brought out the first yellow. Brown and Neighbors had a great battle for third for a few laps until Brown slid into Neighbors in turn four, causing Brown to spin. On the restart Neighbors made it one and half laps until his left rear came off the car in turn two which was apparently caused by the contact with Brown earlier. Alexander quietly went on to win as Geldner made a strong move at the end after a dismal start.
Heat Nine (started): 1. Joe Beaver 53 (1), 2. Travis Cram 92 (5), 3. Troy Meyer 11M (3), 4. Mike Trent 14C (4), 5. John Hall 7H (2), 6. Cody Branchcomb 94 (7), 7. Nate Mosher 22N (8), 8. Sye Anderson 37 (6).
Beaver lead flag to flag. Meyer and Trent staged a good battle for second early allowing Cram to close in and pass both cars.
Heat Ten (started): 1. John Kearney 83 (5), 2. Billy Alley 22 (4), 3. Kerry Madsen 55 (7), 4. Darren Stewart 91x (6), 5. Alan Zoutte 33 (2), 6. Dennis Moore Jr. 48 (8), 7. Pete Crall 11 (1), 8. Jimmy Taylor 23x (3).
Taylor scratched. Crall elected to start at the tail. This allowed Kearney to move up from fifth starting spot to the pole and he took advantage. After ignition or fuel problems in hot laps Alley looked good back in a 360. Zoutte put on a good showing trying to hold off Madsen and Stewart. Defending champ Dennis Moore Jr. had to go the B-Main.
C-Main #1 - 10 Laps: 1. Moyle (8), 2. Eggiman (2), 3. Turner (1), 4. Jamison (5), 5. Vandenberg (9), 6. Doty (6), 7. Hafertepe Jr. (4), 8. Richards (7), 9. Fridlington (4).
Moyle looked impressive going to the front. Fridlington pulled in on lap 3.
C-Main #2: 1. Rilat (3), 2. Taylor (2), 3. Thorson (4), 4. Anderson (1)
Rilat drove away from the small field.
B-Main #1 – 12 Laps – Top 4 transfer: 1. Mather (4), 2. Hesmer (6), 3. Landon (1), 4. St. Arnold (5), 5. Meyer (3), 6. Vanderploeg (15), 7. Moyle (17), 8. D. Hall (10) 9. Nichols (9), 10. Schulz (10), 11. Golik (11), 12. Dump (16), 13. Becker (12), 14. Harms (14), 15. Eggiman (18), 16. Sather (2), 17. Skinner (8), 18. Maeschen (11).
Mather made the move low into the first corner and never looked back. Skinner slowed with engine problems on lap 6 bringing out a caution. Hesmer charged from forth to second on the restart.
B-Main #2: 1. B. Brown (3), 2. Trent (1), 3. Ball Jr. (4), 4. Martin (5), 5. Rilat (17), 6. Branchcomb (8), 7. Zomer (13), 8. J. Hall (6), 9. T. Brown (9), 10. Zoutte (7), 11. Mosher (11), 12. Taylor (18), 13. Moore, Jr. (10), 14. Mason (2), 15. Houseman Jr. (14), 16. Phillips (12), 17. Morgan (16). 18.Crall (15).
Lap one saw Mosher get sideways into turn one as Phillips rolled over in turn 2. Also involved was Moore Jr., and T. Brown. Brian Brown and Trent battled for lead before Brown took over for good at halfway. Travis Rilat nearly had a transfer spot, but lapped traffic off of turn four on the last lap allowed Martin to take the forth spot.
A_Main #1 – 20 Laps: 1. Jason Johnson (12), 2. McCarl (13), 3. Chappell (7), 4. Crockett (11), 5. Wright (20), 6. Moro (14), 7. Hesmer (22), 8. St. Arnold (24), 9. J. Anderson (4), 10. McClelland (9), 11. Mather (21), 12. Bruce, Jr. (5), 13. M. Alexander (17), 14. Giannetto (16), 15. Lee Maier (1), 16. Voss (10), 17. Swenson (15), 18. Rains (2), 19. Landon (23), 20. Antill (3), 21. Edwards (6), 22. Walsh (19), 23. S. Stewart (8), 24. Heskin (18).
As lightning was closing in on the area… Garry Lee Maier took the point early and stretched out a big lead until lap ten when Antill and a surging Shane Stewart made contact coming off of turn four sending Stewart upside down. Maier again pulled away on the restart only to have a caution come out on lap fourteen for something that had fallen off of his car, and sending him to the tail with seven laps remaining. Jason Johnson inherited the lead. Gianetto cut a tire on lap 15 bringing out another caution. Jason Johnson went on to win after starting 12th.
Shortly after the first A-Main was over rain fell and the second A-Main will be run tomorrow night after 410 time trials to complete the preliminary program. Billy Alley and John Kearney will start on the front row.