6-4-04
Knoxville Raceway
Masters Classic Midget Qualifying and King Doodlebug Invitational
23 Masters
42 Midgets
Masters
Jerry Potter (8th car out to time) set quick time over the field at 17.323 seconds. Wayne Reutimann registered the second fastest time, but was DQed at the scales. That gave second quick to Chuck Gurney (17th car out), followed by Roger Rager (16th), Mike Peters (4th), Keith Kauffman (14th), Jimmy Sills (23rd), Roger Fickett (5th), Bobby Thompson (2nd), Jerry Crabb (10th) and Midge Miller (18th).
Heat one (started): 1. Randy Droescher 24 (1) 2. Peters 49 (5) 3. Miller 8 (3) 4. Potter 126 (6) 5. Mackie Heimbaugh 04 (2) 6. Fickett 66 (4) 7. Paul Crusan 7s (7) 8. James Bevan 15 (8)
Droescher led the distance. Bevan slowed, bringing out a lap three caution. Peters challenged for the win on the final lap, only to come up a few feet short.
Heat two (started): 1. Kauffman 4 (5) 2. Gerry Robison F4 (2) 3. Gurney 10 (6) 4. Thompson 48 (4) 5. Wayne Reutimann 00 (8) 6. Rick England 30 (1) 7. Dave Heskin 84 (3) 8. Bill Smith 33 (7)
Robison jumped out to an early advantage, while Kauffman and Gurney quickly moved into second and third. Kauffman made his winning pass on lap four and never looked back.
Heat three (started): 1. Rager 6R (6) 2. Sills 20 (5) 3. Crabb 12x (4) 4. Chris Maurer 8s (3) 5. Earnest Jennings 61 (2) 6. Rick Sorem 97 (1) 7. Chuck McGillivray 101 (7)
Rager roared into the lead on the first lap from row three and held on despite a charge from Sills.
A feature (started): 1. Sills (1) 2. Kauffman (2) 3. Rager (4) 4. Gurney (5) 5. Peters (3) 6. Thompson (8) 7. Crabb (9) 8. Miller (10) 9. Maurer (12) 10. Robison (14) 11. Reutimann (19) 12. England (17) 13. Droescher (16) 14. Fickett (7) 15. Heskin (11) 16. McGillivray (22) 17. Sorem (18) 18. Heimbaugh (13) 19. Smith (21) 20. Jennings (15) 21. Crusan (20) 22. Bevan (23) 23. Potter (6)
Sills got the early jump on Kauffman and held his lead until lap three when Potter lost a bird cage in the rear end. He had moved up to fourth spot. This proved to be the only caution, and Kauffman and Rager were left to chase Sills through lapped traffic to no avail. Sills cashed in $3000. Both Kauffman and Gurney will be inducted into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame on Saturday.
Midgets
Heat one (started): 1. Davey Ray 11 (5) 2. Brandon Waelti 3 (1) 3. Brad Kuhn 99B (6) 4. Josh Wise 20s (7) 5. Craig Carey 30 (8) 6. Derek Rossio 10R (2) 7. Aaron Fiscus 7F (3) 8. Joe Boyles 7B (4) 9. Chad Branson 71 (9)
Branson dropped out early. Waelti took the early advantage and led until a lap four caution for a stopped Boyles. After Boyles went pitside, Waelti led Ray, Rossio, Kuhn and Carey back to the green flag. Ray took the lead in turn one on the restart and never looked back in an impressive run.
Heat two (started): 1. Danny Stratton 2K (5) 2. Chad DeSelle 81 (3) 3. Cody Brewer 96 (1) 4. Cody Weisensel 20 (7) 5. Dave Shirk 2 (8) 6. Steve Buckwalter 5 (6) 7. Greg Leatherberry 10 (9) 8. Don Droud Jr. 4 (4) DNS - Luke Icke 2I (2)
When Icke didn't make the call due to losing a motor in hotlaps, Droud took over his front row starting spot and led early. Lap three saw disaster for Droud, who had his motor expire while leading. DeSelle had gotten by Stratton who passed him and slipped over the cushion, falling back to third. DeSelle now inherited the lead over Stratton, Shirk, Weisensel and Brewer. Two laps later, Stratton would put a slider on DeSelle and hold off the defending race champ for the win (ironically passing him with the car DeSelle won in a year ago).
Heat three (started): 1. Critter Malone 7 (1) 2. Brian Gerster 94 (4) 3. Donnie Lehmann 31 (2) 4. Steve Knepper 55 (8) 5. Michael Kendall 40 (3) 6. Matt Hummel 18 (6) 7. Mallory Armfield 5MA (5) 8. Bruce Donaldson 4D (7)
Malone led throughout in a mostly single file affair. Knepper did do well to move up four spots, and almost got within striking distance of Lehmann at the line over New Zealander, Kendall.
Heat four (started): 1. Scott Hatton 15 (6) 2. Kevin Doty 50 (1) 3. Jerry Coons Jr. 23 (7) 4. Ryan Durst 51 (2) 5. Mike Hess 51H (5) 6. Korey Weyant 99 (8) 7. John Jones 21 (3) 8. Harley Slotten 87 (4)
Doty and Durst exchanged the lead before Doty took control. Hatton was moving up from row three and took the point from Doty on lap five. Coons also had a nice run moving up four spots.
Heat five (started): 1. Damion Gardner 25 (4) 2. Roger Rager 97J (1) 3. Ray Bull 22 (3) 4. Rick England 12 (6) 5. Buddy Leubke 43 (8) 6. Jim Doyle 79 (7) 7. Tim Siner 97 (5) 8. Rik Forbes 95J (2)
Forbes went pitside on the first circuit. An exciting heat materialized with Rager taking the lead and Gardner on his tail. Gardner made several attempts to pass, but could not get around the veteran. On lap six, the two exchanged the lead. Gardner saved his winning move for the final lap, ducking under Rager to complete a nice battle for the lead.
King Doodlebug Invitational (started): 1. Coons (6) 2. Malone (2) 3. Wise (13) 4. Hess (5) 5. Gardner (12) 6. DeSelle (8) 7. Bull (7) 8. Forbes (10) 9. Fiscus (1) 10. Carey (4) 11. Knepper (11) 12. Stratton (14) 13. Hatton (15) 14. Kuhn (9) 15. Ray (3)
Ray dropped out with rear end problems immeditately. Kuhn got over the cushion and came to a rest on lap three. He went pitside as did Hatton. Malone led on the restart, with Coons, Fiscus, Carey and DeSelle in tow. Coons stayed on Malone's tail, both riding the cushion. The final twelve laps went non-stop, and Coons saved his winning pass for the final lap, finding some tacky soil on the bottom of turn four coming to the checkered flag to earn $1000. Carey retired on the white flag lap while riding fifth. Several hard-chargers bode well for Saturday night's feature events, which will be entertaining to say the least.