6/14
Knoxville Raceway 360 Nationals and 410s
360s
D main (started): 1. Curtis Thorson 91 (2) 2. Brett Golik 5G (3) 3. Adam West 00 (4) / 4. Chris Martinez 7m (1) 5. Nate Mosher 45 (10) 6. Alan Zoutte 33 (6) 7. Dave Middleswart 40 (7) 8. Rod Foster 40F (8) 9. Danny Hutchins F4 (9) 10. John Schulz 2s (5) DNS - Jeff Johnson 11J, Ricky Logan 1c, Steve Wares 10T
Thorson led flag to flag. Schulz was running fourth when his muffler fell off on lap four. Middleswart spun on lap seven of eight while running fifth. He restarted at the tail. West grabbed the last transfer from Martinez on the lap four caution for Schulz's muffler.
C main (started): 1. Gary Wright 9 (3) 2. Ryan York 5R (4) 3. Larry Ball Jr. 5J (7) 4. Eric Vanderploeg 57a (5) 5. Stacey Alexander 126 (1) / 6. Derek Drown 26 (14) 7. Ryan Anderson 71R (6) 8. Bobby Mincer 15 (8) 9. Eric Mason B29 (16) 10. Ryan Jamison 51J (9) 11. Troy Meyer 11m (10) 12. Terry Alexander 77 (18) 13. Thorson (20) 14. Michael Jones 12 (11) 15. Brandon Hainline 4J (15) 16. Golik (21) 17. DJ Heskin 56 (12) 18. William Eggimann 77w (17) 19. West (22) 20. Frankie Heimbaugh 6x (19) 21. Mike Woodring 19 (13) DQ - Toby Brown 61a (2) DNS - Mitchell Alexander 6
Wright grabbed the lead from T. Brown on lap two and left the field behind. Woodring exited early. A caution came out on lap eight of the 12 lapper for Heimbaugh who got into the wall. On the restart, Vanderploeg grabbed what looked to be the last transfer from S. Alexander with a pass on the low side. S. Alexander was saved by a DQ of T. Brown who weighed light on the scales after crossing in second place. Ball moved up nicely and came to the stripe inches from York's rear nerf bar.
B main (started): 1. Jesse Giannetto D1 (1) 2. Wayne Johnson 12x (5) 3. Wright (18) 4. Terry McCarl 83x (8) / 5. Doug Wilson 33w (3) 6. Larry Neighbors 36 (13) 7. Brian Brown 20 (17) 8. Rick Ziehl 6L (2) 9. Matt Moro 2 (6) 10. Tim St. Arnold 8s (7) 11. Clint Garner 40x (12) 12. Brett Mather 54 (14) 13. Johnny Anderson 7a (11) 14. Ball (20) 15. Rodney Turner 69 (4) 16. S. Alexander (22) 17. Vanderploeg (21) 18. York (19) 19. Cody Branchcomb 94 (9) 20. John Hall 7H (15) 21. Joey Beaver 53 (16) 22. Ryan Menninga 10 (10)
This may have been the best race of the night. Though Giannetto led the distance, W. Johnson was always close at hand. Wright was an absolute missile from Hooks, TX as he rocketed by 15 cars in 15 laps. The race got off to a messy start as Beaver spun in turn one and collected Ball. Both restarted. Menninga had to replace a left front tire at the same point. He would exit on lap 7, and Beaver would do the same on lap nine. McCarl worked his way up and got around Wilson after a torrid battle with a couple of laps to go. B. Brown worked through ten cars but it wasn't enough to transfer to the big money race.
A main (started): 1. Dennis Moore Jr. 75x (7) 2. Travis Rilat 29 (1) 3. Josh Higday 24 (8) 4. Shane Stewart 4m (3) 5. Darren Stewart 91x (15) 6. Randy Martin 14 (4) 7. Kenny Adams 4A (6) 8. Billy Alley 22 (10) 9. Giannetto (21) 10. John VanDenBerg V10 (11) 11. Wright (23) 12. McCarl (24) 13. Danny Jennings 61J (13) 14. Jake Peters 57x (9) 15. W. Johnson (22) 16. Garry Lee Maier 11x (12) 17. Zach Chappell 50z (19) 18. Randi Miller 2D (17) 19. Erin Crocker 16 (5) 20. Shane Liebig 10L (20) 21. Ed Ergenbright 11 (18) 22. Mike Houseman 83 (14) 23. Dave Hesmer 1 (16) 24. Don Droud Jr. 55 (2)
The top ten in Friday points redrew for their starting spots in the first five rows. Droud shot out to the early lead until a lap eight caution for a spun Chappell. Droud led Rilat, a charging Higday, Martin, and Moore. During a lap 11 caution for a stopped Maier, Droud surrendered his comfortable lead by stopping and exiting with a quick change gear problem. Rilat inherited the lead, followed by Higday, Martin, S. Stewart and Moore. Two more laps passed before Liebig spun in turn two with the leaders staying the same. Hesmer exited on lap 13, while Houseman blew a left rear, but made it to the pits on lap 16. The B main qualifiers put on a heck of a show dicing through the field, but Moore really turned it on about lap 20 of 25. He stuck himself to the low side and moved from fifth to first on lap 21. A blanket could literally be thrown over positions two through seven the last two laps as chaos is the only way to describe the racing action. Hard-charger was shared by B main contestants Giannetto, Wright and McCarl who all passed 12 cars. In all, Wright passed 29 cars in the C, B and A features. The win was Moore's second triumph in this event and was worth $6000.
410s
34 cars
Quick time was thrown down by Calvin Landis (2nd car to time in) with a circuit of 15.254 seconds. Terry McCarl (14th car out) was second quick, followed by Chris Walraven (10th), Justin Henderson (6th), Jeff Mitrisin (23rd), Kerry Madsen (29th), Lynton Jeffrey (15th), Jaymie Moyle (7th), Shane Stewart (17th) and Eric Vanderploeg (18th). John Sernett packed it up before time trials.
Heat one (started): 1. Jesse Giannetto D1 (1) 2. Don Droud Jr. 55 (3) 3. Stewart 4m (4) 4. Moyle 10 (5) / 5. Skip Jackson 21 (8) 6. Landis 70 (6) 7. Brent Antill 1 (7) 8. Adam West 20 (2) 9. Larry Ball Jr. 1s (9)
Ball exited before the race could get going with a suspected fuel pump problem. Antill delayed the start by stopping on the frontstretch. West exited early on. Giannetto led flag to flag, taking advantage of a night when he could run both cars. Jackson missed the invert with a spark plug problem in time trials. He fell just short of the last transfer spot after battling Moyle in the final laps.
Heat two (started): 1. McCarl 24 (6) 2. Brian Brown 6 (3) 3. Jeffrey 4K (5) 4. Mike Moore 69 (1) / 5. Vanderploeg 57a (4) 6. Randy Anderson 47 (7) 7. Robert Bell 71 (8) 8. Tim St. Arnold 7s (2) DNS - Sernett 91
Moore jumped out to an early lead until a lap three caution for St. Arnold who surrendered fourth when stopping with a motor problem in turn two. The restart saw Moore leading Brown, McCarl and Vanderploeg. McCarl and Brown worked around Moore and McCarl finished off Brown with two to go. Jeffrey overtook Vanderploeg to snag a transfer. Anderson is driving the Sonner 47 again.
Heat three (started): 1. Wayne Johnson 12x (3) 2. Derek Beckman 50D (2) 3. Walraven 56 (6) 4. Madsen 82 (5) / 5. Jon Agan 4 (4) 6. Marty Perovich 12 (1) 7. Jeff Johnson 11J (7) 8. Greg Jones 35 (8)
W. Johnson torched the field in the non-stop event.
Heat four (started): 1. Colin Northway 60 (2) 2. Ricky Logan 17G (4) 3. Travis Cram 92 (3) 4. Henderson R19 (6) / 5. Mitrisin 5J (5) 6. Eddie Leavitt Jr. 1A (7) 7. Mark Hurd 44m (1) 8. Tyler Houseman 50 (8)
A mostly single file event where Northway led the duration.
B main (started): 1. Landis (1) 2. Antill (9) 3. Jackson (13) 4. Mitrisin (2) 5. Agan (4) / 6. Vanderploeg (3) 7. Perovich (6) 8. J. Johnson (11) 9. West (5) 10. Bell (10) 11. Hurd (7) 12. Leavitt (8) 13. Houseman (12) 14. Jones (14) DNS - Anderson, St. Arnold, Ball
Landis set sail, but it was fun to watch Antill and especially Jackson work the low side of the track to perfection. He skated under ten cars to grab a transfer to the feature. Houseman dropped out on lap eight. Hurd elected to start at the tail.
A main (started): 1. Cram (2) 2. W. Johnson (1) 3. Stewart (4) 4. Madsen (7) 5. Moyle (5) 6. Henderson (8) 7. Jackson (19) 8. Droud (10) 9. Brown (11) 10. Logan (3) 11. Jeffrey (6) 12. Antill (16) 13. Walraven (9) 14. Northway (12) 15. Landis (17) 16. Mitrisin (18) 17. Beckman (13) 18. Moore (15) 19. Agan (20) 20. Giannetto (14) DNS - McCarl
McCarl stopped with apparent ignition problems on the final pace lap. Officials ruled that he could not restart because the pace truck had completed its laps. Agan was allowed in as the alternate. Cram out slided W. Johnson at the start. The race was slowed when Mitrisin flattened a tire on lap two. Giannetto exited at this time. Cram and W. Johnson continued to exchange slide jobs until Cram finally took control. Madsen moved around Stewart and set his sights on the leaders. Agan exited on lap eleven. Stewart got back around Madsen with three to go. Cram held on for his first win of the year. Jackson was at it again, earning hard charger honors for a 19th to 7th place run.