5/31
Knoxville Raceway
42 410s
40 Midgets
410s
Colin Northway met the turn one wall in hot laps and had to bring out a backup car. He would not make time trials and had to start his heat at the tail. Greg Jones also failed to get a qualifying lap in. Blake Feese (1st car out time) set the pace in qualifications over the stout field with a lap of 15.183 seconds. Lance Dewease (38th car out) was second quick, followed by Justin Henderson (4th), Brooke Tatnell (2nd), Terry McCarl (40th), Jaymie Moyle (16th), Travis Cram (9th), Kevin Frey (5th), Kim Mock (23rd), and Jeff Mitrisin (10th). Josh Higday timed in 12th quick with a lap at the end, despite missing his time spot with motor woes.
Heat one (started): 1. Don Droud Jr. 55 (2) 2. Aaron Berryhill 97 (1) 3. Mock 1m (4) 4. Feese 5 (6) 5. Derek Beckman 50D (3) / 6. Wayne Johnson 12x (8) 7. Clint Garner 47 (10) 8. Brent Antill 1 (7) 9. Jesse Giannetto D1 (9) 10. Frey 2K (5) DNS - Jones 35
Droud blistered the field. Frey exited immediately. Feese was in his maiden voyage in the Forbrook 5. Berryhill was making his first Knoxville start of the year. Mock was in on a night off for the IRA.
Heat two (started): 1. Larry Ball Jr. 1s (1) 2. Skip Jackson 21 (2) 3. Mitrisin 5J (4) 4. Dewease (6) 5. Cram (5) / 6. Northway 60 (10) 7. Eric Vanderploeg 57a (3) 8. Mike Moore 69 (9) 9. Mike Kertscher 80K (7) 10. Robert Bell 71 (8) DNS - Tim St. Arnold 7s
Northway and Moore came together on the frontstretch when the race went green. Ball led on the restart and held off a determined Jackson the last half of the race for the win. A caution came out at the halfway mark when Moore came to a stop. He restarted at the tail. Northway's bid for a transfer from the tail fell one spot short.
Heat three (started): 1. Ricky Logan 17G (1) 2. Chris Walraven 56 (2) 3. Kerry Madsen 82 (3) 4. Calvin Landis 70 (4) 5. Moyle 10 (5) / 6. Henderson R19 (6) 7. Mike Reinke 02 (9) 8. Eddie Leavitt Jr. 1A (7) 9. Adam West 20 (10) 10. Jeff Johnson 11J (8)
J. Johnson went up in smoke on lap five. Logan led the distance in this single file affair.
Heat four (started): 1. Lynton Jeffrey 4K (1) 2. McCarl 24 (5) 3. Tatnell 66 (6) 4. Brian Brown 6 (3) 5. Higday 24x (4) / 6. Jon Agan 4 (2) 7. Joe Beaver 53 (9) 8. Scotty Neitzel 2w (8) 9. Bobby Mincer 15 (7) 10. Tyler Houseman 50 (10)
Jeffrey led the distance but had to hold off McCarl who was getting the low side to work for him on a track that was opening up three grooves. Tatnell and Brown exchanged a series of slide jobs, before Tatnell took third for good with two laps remaining. Higday captured the final transfer spot on the last lap.
B main (started): 1. Henderson (1) 2. W. Johnson (9) 3. Antill (5) 4. Reinke (11) / 5. Kertscher (4) 6. Beaver (12) 7. Vanderploeg (3) 8. Mincer (6) 9. Garner (13) 10. Neitzel (8) 11. Leavitt (7) 12. Bell (14) 13. West (15) 14. Houseman (16) 15. Agan (2) 16. Moore (10) DNS - Frey, St. Arnold, J. Johnson, Giannetto, Northway, Jones
Moore spun and tipped over in the warm up period. He restarted at the tail, but his damaged wing disintegrated and he bowed out on lap six. Agan also retired early. Henderson was on a rail, while W. Johnson and Reinke were really on the charge to get into transfer spots. Reinke benefited from a lap 10 yellow for a spun Houseman.
A main (started): 1. Dewease (11) 2. Madsen (1) 3. McCarl (9) 4. Mitrisin (5) 5. Landis (4) 6. Jackson (15) 7. Cram (7) 8. Feese (12) 9. Brown (2) 10. Henderson (21) 11. Moyle (8) 12. Mock (6) 13. Antill (23) 14. Higday (3) 15. Droud (14) 16. W. Johnson (22) 17. Logan (18) 18. Jeffrey (17) 19. Berryhill (20) 20. Walraven (16) 21. Beckman (13) 22. Ball (19) 23. Reinke (24) 24. Tatnell (10)
Great feature race. McCarl spun out on lap one, sending him to restart on the tail. Madsen jumped out to an early lead, until Tatnell stopped with problems on the backstretch. He was towed in. The restart saw Madsen leading a smoking Brown, Landis, Mitrisin and a charging Dewease. On lap 16, Dewease worked his way around Madsen after trying so for six laps. Meanwhile, McCarl had the fastest car on the speedway and had moved from the tail to third. That is the way they would finish. Technically, Henderson was the hard-charger finishing eleven spots ahead of his starting position.
Midgets
B main 1 (started): 1. Brandon Waelti 3 (2) 2. Kerry Madsen 57 (10) / 3. Nick Lundgreen 40 (9) 4. Kevin Doty 75 (6) 5. Donnie Lehmann 31 (3) 6. Ron Kuhn 10K (1) 7. Randy Fiscus 6 (4) 8. David Gough 82 (5) 9. Todd Beach 15B (7) 10. Andy Mason 47 (8)
Mason flipped on lap two. He was uninjured. Waelti led the distance, but Madsen put on a show, racing from scratch to second and the final transfer. Lundgreen also put on a charge.
B main 2 (started): 1. Aaron Fike 95 (1) 2. Ryan Durst 51x (5) / 3. AJ Felker 37 (2) 4. Rick Mueller 22 (4) 5. Paul Farrell 21x (9) 6. Marc Dailey 2m (6) 7. Jim Doyle 79 (3) 8. Tim Siner 73 (7) 9. Dave Camfield Sr. 78 (8) 10. Brian Terry 4 (10)
Terry took a nasty ride on lap two, flipping four or five times. He was taken in to the hospital, but was conscious and moving. Fike wasted the field, but there was great three-wide action back through the field. Camfield Sr. exited early.
Dash (started): 1. Mike Hess 51 (2) 2. Scott Hatton 15 (3) 3. Davey Ray 51D (5) 4. Aaron Fike 7 (6) 5. Craig Carey 30 (7) 6. AJ Fike 69 (1) 7. Ray Bull 22m (8) 8. Damion Gardner 11G (4) 9. Boyd Calvert 23 (10) 10. Brian Gerster 94 (9)
Hess set his second track record in as many nights and earned the pole for the feature in the process. Gerster went up in smoke on the white flag lap of the six lapper. He would not make the call for the feature.
A main (started): 1. Chad DeSelle 2 (13) 2. A. Fiscus (4) 3. Hess (1) 4. Aaron Fike (20) 5. Gardner (8) 6. Carey (5) 7. Critter Malone 7c (18) 8. Lundgreen (30) 9. Quinn McCabe 20 (15) 10. Waelti (21) 11. Brad Kuhn 99 (11) 12. Durst (22) 13. Doty (28) 14. Dailey (25) 15. Ray (3) 16. AJ Fike (6) 17. Lehmann (27) 18. Dave Camfield Jr. 86 (14) 19. Sarah McCune 8 (10) 20. Beach (26) 21. Gough (24) 22. Calvert (9) 23. Don Droud Jr. (17) 24. Bull (7) 25. Steve Knepper 55 (12) 26. Rik Forbes 95x (19) 27. Madsen (23) 28. Hatton (2) 29. Doyle (29) DNS - Rich Camfield 87 (16), Gerster
Truly the feature of the year so far at Knoxville. Hess jumped out to the early lead riding the cushion. Lap nine saw A. Fiscus get under Hess using the low side. The 25 lapper slowed with a lap 11 caution for a stopped Doyle, who was done. The restart saw A. Fiscus leading Hess, Bull, Hatton and DeSelle. Droud proceeded to make a charge from his lap nine starting spot at this time using the cushion, while most were hugging the low side. Droud picked the leaders off one at a time and took command on lap 20. A. Fiscus came back under Droud to lead a lap later. Droud would bring out the second caution when his charge was ended for good with a halt on the front straightaway. The last caution came after the restart when Ray took out Bull's front end trying to get by. Ray would also suffer problems and fade late. DeSelle took the high side to get by Hess and then took the lead around A. Fiscus as the white flag was unfurled earning $4000. Nine drivers finished at least ten spots ahead of where they started. Lundgreen advanced 22 positions.