Knoxville Raceway
By Rustin Nelson
7/13/02
39 360s
41 410s
410s
Don Droud Jr. showed a puff of smoke in hotlaps, and that was just the
beginning of a frustrating night for the 55 team. John Sernett changed an
engine after his hotlap session, and was forced to take one lap at the end
of time trials. Brad Martin scratched for the night after the practice
session.
Jeff Mitrisin came out 2nd in time trials, and set the pace for the field
with a blistering lap of 15.147. He was followed by Lynton Jeffrey, Chris
Walraven, Calvin Landis, Skip Jackson, Justin Henderson, Ricky Logan, John
Agan, Colin Northway, and Dennis Moore. Jr rounded out the top ten.
Derek Beckman had a right front tire go down as he took the checkered, and
did a fine job of saving his car from certain disaster. Clyde "Power Glide"
Nagel made his first appearance of the year with a different paint scheme
(yellow), and different number (#6), but his night was doomed after his
attempt to qualify. He jumped the berm in turns 1 & 2, got sideways and
airborn, flipping a couple times. He tore his car up pretty significantly,
and scratched for the night. Matt Moro quite possibly may have run over
some debris from Nagel's mess (he timed right after Nagel's incident), and
cut a left rear tire down as he was entering turn three. He did a great job
of avoiding disaster. Droud got a lap in, but cooked his engine, forcing an
engine change. Kerry Madsen didn't make weight after he timed, and was
forced to start shotgun in every event the rest of the night. All in all,
this was the most eventful time trials session that I've witnessed in quite
some time -- who ever said that time trials are boring!!??!!
Heat 1) (started) -- 8 laps -- 1. 2M Matt Moro (1) 2. 5J Jeff Mitrisin (6)
3. 12 Colin Northway (4) 4. 17 Mike Reinke (2) 5. 1 Brent Antill (3) / 6. 4
Jon Agan (5) 7. V10 Jon Vandenberg (9) 8. 8s Shane Hunter (7) 9. 71x Robert
Bell (10) 10. 12L John Lambertz (8)
This race got off to an ugly start with an incident involving Agan and
Lambertz. Agan got hit from behind and spun around, while Lambertz rode
over someone's right rear wheel straight into the fence, and took a couple
hard flips -- all of this was coming out of turn four at the start.
Lambertz was unhurt, and Agan put a new top wing on and continued. Moro
jumped to the lead and never looked back. Mitrisin did a fine job moving
into the runner-up position.
Heat 2) 1. 11L Larry Pinegar (2) 2. 71 Dennis Moore Jr. (4) 3. 3s Ricky
Logan (5) 4. 10 Jamie Moyle (3) 5. 1s Larry Ball Jr. (8) / 6. 4K Lynton
Jeffrey (6) 7. 45 John Schulz (7) 8. 69 Mike Moore (9) 9. 35 Greg Jones (10)
10. 47 Tony Norem (1)
Larry Pinegar must be made of steel, and was back in action after suffering
injuries from an ATV spill several weeks back. He jumped to the lead, and
put it in cruise control. Logan stuck religiously to the bottom, and made
it work for him. Larry Ball Jr. was cutting his own groove WAY high in
turns 1 & 2, and made it pay off nicely. Norem was running 4th, but coasted
into the pits with two laps remaining with a smoking powerplant.
Heat 3) 1. 92 Travis Cram (2) 2. 24 Terry McCarl (3) 3. 14 Randy Martin (1)
4. 66 Brooke Tatnell (4) 5. R19 Justin Henderson (5) / 6. 56 Chris Walraven
(6) 7. 91 John Sernett (7) 8. 50D Derek Beckman (8) 9. 55 Don Droud Jr. (9)
10. 50 Tyler Houseman (10)
Cram jumped out and led the distance. McCarl had Brodix's spec head
strapped into his Wesmar bullet for the night. Emmett Hahn's new series for
2003 will utilize the spec head. Glen Freeland was notably absent from
McCarl's pit this evening, and it appears that may be something we'll all
have to get used to. Henderson did a fine job holding off Walraven for the
final transfer.
Heat 4) 1. 20 David Murcott (1) 2. 70 Calvin Landis (6) 3. 21 Skip Jackson
(5) 4. 11J Jeff Johnson (2) 5. 82 Kerry Madsen (9) / 6. 16L Leonard Lee (4)
7. 02 Manny Rockhold (3) 8. 15x Jerrel Slinkard (8) 9. 15 Bobby Mincer (7)
Murcott became the 4th guy to dominate his heat from the front row starting
position. Landis was the one to watch, as he was on the move in a hurry.
He was up to 3rd by the second circuit, and nabbed 2nd place on the sixth
curcuit. Madsen was also did an awesome job of garnering a transfer spot,
as he passed Lee on the last lap.
B-Main) -- 12 laps -- 1. Lee (4) 2. Norem (6) / 3. Walraven (2) 4. Agan (3)
5. Jeffrey (1) 6. Sernett (9) 7. Rockhold (5) 8. Droud (16) 9. Vandenberg
(14) 10. Hunter (7) 11. Schulz (8) 12. Beckman (12) 13. Mincer (10) 14. M.
Moore (13) 15. Bell (18) 16. T. Houseman (17) 17. G. Jones (15) 18. Slinkard
(11)
Lee surged to the front, and quickly gained control. Slinkard stopped on
lap three, bringing out the caution. He was finished. Tony Norem was
hooked up and hauling, putting his ultra-exciting patented 'slide-for-life'
sliders on several guys on his way to the front. He picked off Walraven on
the 7th circuit, to gain the valuable final transfer.
A-Main) -- 20 laps -- 1. Logan (2) 2. Jackson (4) 3. Landis (5) 4. Mitrisin
(6) 5. McCarl (9) 6. Henderson (3) 7. Tatnell (8) 8. Cram (14) 9. Moore Jr.
(7) 10. Madsen (20) 11. Antill (11) 12. Moyle (10) 13. Pinegar (13) 14. Lee
(21) 15. R. Martin (17) 16. Ball Jr. (19) 17. Northway (1) 18. Moro (18) 19.
Murcott (16) 20. Johnson (15) 21. Reinke (12) 22. Norem (22)
Before a lap was in the books, Murcott spun to a stop in turn two. This was
a good break for Northway, as he pulled the front end of his machine and had
drifted dangerously close to the wall in turn two, losing several positions.
Logan sprinted to the early lead and put a sizeable margin on the rest of
the field, while Jackson and Landis were trying desperately to catch up. On
lap eight, Norem slowed to a stop in turn four with a collapsed top wing.
He was finished. Logan controlled the restart with Skip right behind and
closing. McCarl was methodically working his way to the front, and had a
great battle going with Tatnell. With a mere five laps remaining Jackson
pulled even with Logan down the front chute, but Logan slammed the door
going into turn one. Logan maneuvered flawlessly around lapped cars the
final circuits, and the pumped up Arkansas native picked up his first win of
2002. Kudos to Kerry Madsen for racing his tail off after weighing in light
-- he ended up being the hard charger. Travis Cram also did a fine job
working his way into a top ten run.
360s
Heat 1) (started, *transferred) -- 7 laps -- 1. 91 Curtis Thorson (1*) 2. 77
Terry Alexander (2*) 3. 3 Brian Brown (3*) 4. 7 Jamie Farrell (5*) 5. 33W
Doug Wilson (6) 6. 2VK Virgil Brandt (9) 7. 126 Stacy Alexander (8) 8. 7H
John Hall (10) 9. 54 Brett Mather (7) 10. B29 Eric Mason (4)
Thorson led the distance in mostly a mostly single file affair, as the track
was a bit heavy and narrow. Mather was running solidly in 4th when he
burned a piston with two laps to go, scratching him for the evening.
Heat 2) 1. 34 Tim Deaver (1*) 2. 71R Ryan Anderson (4*) 3. 40 Dave
Middleswart (2*) 4. 99x Doran Doty (5*) 5. 8L Tom Lenz (3) 6. 10 Ryan
Menninga (7) 7. 6 Mitchell Alexander (6) 8. 66 Steve Breazeale (10) 9. 12D
Mark Detrick (9) 10. 11 Ed Ergenbright (8)
Deaver led early on, while Anderson looked impressive moving into the
runner-up spot. Ergenbright stopped with a lap remaining with a sour motor,
bringing out the yellow. Deaver wasn't to be headed, and cruised to the
win. It was nice to see Breazeale back in action for the first time after
his scary wreck & fire a few weeks back.
Heat 3) 1. 5G Bret Golik (2*) 2. 7a Johnny Anderson (4*) 3. 40x Clint Garner
(5*) 4. 7s Tim St. Arnold (10*) 5. 24 Josh Higday (8) 6. 7M Chris Martinez
(1) 7. 22 Rob Edwards (7) 8. 51 Dave Hall (9) 9. 92 Billy Ray Olson (6) 10.
2 Mike Waddell (3)
Waddell pulled into the pits with problems about as soon as the green
dropped. Golik led the distance, but St. Arnold was the one to keep your
eyes on. The man destroyed his car the night before in Nebraska after
flipping out of the park, but put the parts & pieces back together to put on
a show for us. Racers like St. Arnold are a dime a dozen, and make being a
sprint car fan worth it's weight in gold. Higday charged from the tail of
the field as well, but was just short in earning enough points for a one-way
ticket to the A-Main. Olson torched an engine as he was coming down for the
checkered flag. He dumped oil ALL the way down the front chute, and
scratched for the night.
Heat 4) 1. 9 Terry Thorson (4*) 2. 6x Frankie Heimbaugh (2*) 3. Y5 Mike
Houseman (3*) 4. 1 David Hesmer (7*) 5. 53 Joey Beaver (8) 6. 5 Rod Richards
(5) 7. 12 Michael Jones (1) 8. TV29 David Pyatt (9) 9. 12x Jerry Crabb (6)
Thorson overtook Heimbaugh on lap four, and never looked back. Hesmer was
on a mission, and flew around everybody running clear out in the marbles.
Beaver had a solid run, but fell just short of transferring to the main.
C-Main) -- 8 laps -- 1. Pyatt (2) 2. D. Hall (1) / 3. Crabb (6) 4. Detrick
(4) 5. Mason (3) 6. Waddell (7) 7. Ergenbright (5) -- DNS- Olson & Mather
Pyatt led the entire distance.
B-Main) -- 10 lap -- 1. Higday (1) 2. Beaver (2) 3. Wilson (3) 4. Brandt (4)
/ 5. Menninga (6) 6. Lenz (5) 7. Richards (8) 8. S. Alexander (9) 9.
Brezeale (12) 10. Pyatt (15) 11. M. Alexander (11) 12. Martinez (7) 13.
Edwards (13) 14. D. Hall (16) 15. Jones (14) 16. J. Hall (10)
Higday put the smack down on the field, winning by a large margin. Beaver,
Wilson, and Brandt held their positions and transferred into the big show.
A-Main) -- 15 laps -- 1. R. Anderson (2) 2. Hesmer (11) 3. St. Arnold (7) 4.
Brown (12) 5. Garner (9) 6. T. Thorson (6) 7. J. Anderson (1) 8. Higday (17)
9. Houseman (14) 10. Wilson (19) 11. Beaver (18) 12. C. Thorson (4) 13.
Golik (5) 14. Farrell (15) 15. Heimbaugh (10) 16. T. Alexander (8) 17.
Deaver (3) 18. Middleswart (13) 19. Doty (16) 20. Brandt (20)
This was an awesome race, with passing going on all over the place!! Brandt
and Doty were involved in an incident in turn two after a lap was completed,
and both retired to the pits. Hesmer was driving like there was no
tomorrow, and made some balls-to-the-wall moves high above the status-quo
racing line. Johnny "Lightning" Anderson controlled the race for the first
several circuits, but heavy & relentless lapped traffic was his nemesis.
Ryan Anderson snuck around him on lap ten, and set sail to try to claim his
2nd career victory. Hesmer was closing fast on Anderson during the
remaining couple of laps, and just fell short at the checkered by a mere
couple of car lengths. If Hesmer had started near the front, the rest of
the field may have never seen him -- God bless inverted starts!! Hesmer,
Higday, and Wilson each passed nine cars a piece, but hard-charger honors
officially went to Wilson due to starting the furthest back.
Next week I'll be venturing out to Western Ohio for the 19th running of the
Kings Royal. I kinda wish I wouldn't be missing twin features night (it's
being made up next week after Mother Nature spoiled it a week ago), because
it's always a good show - but Eldora will be a blast. I think Bill W will
still be on vacation, so this column may have to take a week hiatus. Bill
will be back however to cover the 1,200 LB Nationals, and it looks to be a
great show again.