8/10
Knoxville Raceway
360 Tournament of Champions
63 cars
Heat one (started, *qualified for feature): 1. Billy Alley 22A K-ville (3*) 2. Kevin Welsh 18w URC (1*) 3. Zach Chappell 50z ASCS (11*) 4. Mike Woodring 19 ESS (4) 5. Roger Crockett 11c NST (8) 6. John VanDenBerg V10 K-ville (6) 7. Eric Schrock 86s WOW (7) 8. Eric Jobe 23 WOW (9) 9. Doug Lovegrove 44 ESTS (5) 10. Cody Branchcomb 94c ASCS (2) 11. Alan Gilbertson 97 WISSOTA (10)
Six ten-lap heats by random draw took three drivers each to the main event. Passing points were used. After the initial start was called back, the green fell again. When Crockett checked up behind a slower VanDenBerg, Gilbertson climbed his right rear and slammed hard into the turn two wall. He was uninjured, but done for the night. Branchcomb retired at the same time. Alley took the lead right away and led Welsh the duration. Chappell was the man on the move earning mega-passing points by moving forward eight positions.
Heat two (started, *qualified for feature): 1. Derek Drown 26 ASCS-S (1*) 2. Danny Jennings 61J ASCS-S (3*) 3. Travis Rilat 29 ASCS (10*) 4. Chris Roseland 84 ESTS (2) 5. Randi Miller 00 ASCS-RM (6) 6. Jerry Brey 17J MST (7) 7. Jake Peters 57x WISSOTA (9) 8. Curtis Boyer 72 WOW (4) 9. Darren Long 7 SOD (11) 10. Phil Dietz 72x MST (8) DQ-Darren Stewart 91 ASCS
My educated guess says D. Stewart was DQed as it was never announced. He crossed the line fourth, but was slated to start last in the first B main. Drown led the race wire to wire, but Rilat provided the show with a charge to third from tenth.
Heat three (started, *qualified for feature): 1. Chris Coyle 56c URC (1*) 2. Jesse Giannetto D1 K-ville (6*) 3. Bobby Mincer 15 SIA (2) 4. Mike Chadd 4 ESTS (3) 5. Roger Rager 6R WISSOTA (10*) 6. Greg Nikitenko K9 WISSOTA (5) 7. Tyson Hart 5T SIA (4) 8. Dave Ely 75 URC (11) 9. Jason Danley 82 ESTS (8) 10. John Schulz 2J SIA (7) 11. Bubby Kerrick 61 ESS (9)
A half an hour rain delay preceded the third heat. The result was mostly one lane racing in this one, which Coyle led for the duration. Rager did manage to get by five competitors and earn enough points to make the feature. Giannetto was also impressive.
Heat four (started, *qualified for feature): 1. Jerrod Hull 50 SIA (1*) 2. Kevin Ramey 7m ASCS-S (2*) 3. Josh Higday 24 K-ville (5) 4. Chuck Swenson X WISSOTA (9*) 5. Shane Stewart 4m ASCS (10) 6. Johnny Anderson 7a K-ville (6) 7. Mike Houseman 83 K-ville (8) 8. Matt Moro F4 K-ville (7) 9. Natalie Sather 94N WISSOTA (4) 10. Ken Klabunde 28 ESTS (3)
Another one laner that Hull dominated. Swenson and S. Stewart moved up nicely.
Heat five (started, *qualified for feature): 1. Terry McCarl 86 SIA (10*) 2. Toby Brown 61a ASCS (5*) 3. Ed Ergenbright 11 K-ville (6*) 4. Terry Hinck 21H WOW (8) 5. Rusty Potter 3P WOW (7) 6. Brian Harvill 31B ASCS-S (9) 7. Rob Dietrick 10 ESS (1) 8. Bill Johnson 33 SOD (3) 9. Tony Crank 9c WOW (2) 10. Bobby Hawks 5H WOW (4)
Two WOW contenders crashed on the first lap as Crank got sideways collecting Hawks, who took a nasty ride in turn four. He was uninjured. Dietrick led from the point while McCarl cruised through the pack. While McCarl was making his move to the point on lap seven, he clipped the right front of Dietrick sending him spinning and bringing out a caution. He inherited the lead and led the last three laps.
Heat six (started, *qualified for feature): 1. Ryan Jamison 51J SIA (1*) 2. Dave Hesmer 1 K-ville (3*) 3. Loren Langerud 56 WISSOTA (5*) 4. Erin Crocker 16 ESS (6) 5. Joe Beaver 53 K-ville (7) 6. Lance Yonge 5 ESS (4) 7. Dustin Daggett 85 SOD (9) 8. Matt Sutton 3 SIA (2) 9. Seth Brahmer 13 ESTS (8) 10. Lanny Carpenter 24L WOW (10)
Jamison led the distance. Langerud ran a solid race, working on Sutton for a few laps before gaining third. Yonge, Daggett and Sutton raced hard together the last couple of laps, and once went three-wide into turn one.
B main one (started): 1. Crockett (1) 2. Woodring (2) / 3. Brey (5) 4. Peters (7) 5. Schrock (8) 6. VanDenBerg (6) 7. Miller (4) 8. Roseland (3) 9. Long (11) 10. Boyer (10) 11. Jobe (9) 12. Dietz (12) DNS - Lovegrove, Branchcomb, Gilbertson, D. Stewart
Crockett and Woodring took off from the front row and never looked back in the twelve lapper. Brey was getting faster with every lap and just held off a charging Peters, but neither could come within a half a lap of the leaders.
B main two (started): 1. S. Stewart (1) 2. Mincer (2) / 3. Ely (6) 4. J. Anderson (5) 5. Houseman (7) 6. Schulz (12) 7. Moro (9) 8. Nikitenko (4) 9. Hart (8) 10. Sather (11) 11. Klabunde (13) 12. Kerrick (12) 13. Chadd (3) DNS - Danley
Sather spun after the initial green. Once underway, S. Stewart and Mincer strung the lead out. By the time Ely had worked his way to third, they were out of reach.
B main three (started) (very unofficial finish): 1. Crocker (3) 2. Beaver (5) / 3. Yonge (7) 4. Daggett (9) 5. Sutton (11) 6. Brahmer (13) 7. Hinck (2) 8. Dietrick (8) 9. Carpenter (12) 10. Harvill (6) 11. Potter (4) 12. Johnson (10) (Higday*) DNS - Crank, Hawks
Weird one here. Due to a scoring error, Higday was put on the pole of this B. Because he was in heat four, he should have been in B main two. He proceeded to kick everyone's tail in this race. Even though the error was not his fault, he was forced to take a provisional for the feature, and had to start last. Beaver thought he was passing Crocker on the last lap for the final transfer (second), but a Potter spin negated that pass. He got a reprieve with the Higday ruling.
Tournament of Champions finish (started): 1. McCarl (6) 2. S. Stewart (20) 3. Giannetto (2) 4. Jamison (10) 5. Hull (9) 6. Chappell (5) 7. Hesmer (14) 8. Crockett (19) 9. Ergenbright (13) 10. Higday (30, prov.) 11. Swenson (12) 12. Ramey (16) 13. Jennings (11) 14. Rilat (4) 15. Rager (18) 16. Crocker (21) 17. Mincer (23) 18. Welsh (15) 19. Woodring (22) 20. Langerud (17) 21. Daggett (27, prov.) 22. Schrock (25, prov.) 23. Dietz (28, prov.) 24. Drown (7) 25. Coyle (8) 26. Beaver (24) 27. Alley (3) 28. Brown (1) 29. Miller (29, prov.) 30. Chadd (26, prov.) DNS - Danley
24 starters were joined by six provisionals for the thirty lapper. Alley got a good run and shot around Giannetto and Brown for the early lead. Chadd who replaced Danley as the ESTS provisional, exited on lap five. Rilat was closing in on Alley as the two were approaching lapped traffic on lap seven. A caution brought their chase to a halt as Miller had lost his muffler and went pitside. Rilat had torsion arm problems and surrendered second to Giannetto. He restarted at the rear. Alley led Giannetto, McCarl, Brown and Coyle to the cone. Giannetto slid under Alley to gain the point. Brown surrendered fourth when he went pitside, before Alley did the same with motor woes. For the next 13 laps McCarl would chase Giannetto through traffic. Coyle was running a strong fourth when he stopped on the track and brought out a caution on lap 20. The restart saw Giannetto leading McCarl, S. Stewart (from 20th), Chappell, and Jamison. Giannetto held the point for another lap under heavy pressure until another stoppage for Drown was thrown. McCarl would get by on this restart, and S. Stewart would follow him. They would finish in that order though S. Stewart pulled alongside the Kearney 86 more than once and briefly took the lead at one point. S. Stewart moved up 18 spots, two shy of defending champion Higday's charge from 30th to 10th. The Sprint Invaders organization put three cars in the top five (McCarl, Jamison, Hull). Unofficial team points were as follows:
1. Knoxville 104 2. Sprint Invaders 97 3. ASCS 74 4. WISSOTA 47 5. ASCS-S 44 6. ESS 27 7. NST 23 8. URC 19 9. SOD 10 10. WOW 9 11. MST 8 12. ASCS-RM 2 13. ESTS 1