8/1/08
Knoxville Raceway
18th Annual 360 Nationals Night #2
61 cars
Gary Wright (45th car out to time) bucked the odds and laid down the quick time of the night coming out late on a quickly changing track at 16.656 seconds. Brooke Tatnell (8th car out) was second quick, followed by Gregg Bakker (3rd), Lee Jacobs (29th), Jesse Hockett (2nd), Wayne Johnson (19th), Jesse Giannetto (1st), Roger Crockett (34th), Jack Dover (16th) and Ryan Roberts (13th). The top 50 qualifiers qualified for the five heats, with the remaining 11 assigned to the C.
Heat one (started): 1. W. Johnson 94 (5) 2. Ron Blair 35 (1) 3. Wright 9w (6) 4. Don Droud Jr. 27 (2) / 5. Brad Bowden 15B (4) 6. Dave Hall 51 (3) 7. Eric Lutz 5L (9) 8. JD Johnson 98 (7) / 9. Chad Corken 11 (8) 10. Luke Hall 34H (10)
Heats had an invert of six, were 8 laps in distance and took the top four to the A, the next four to the B, and the final two to the C. Blair grabbed the early lead, but W. Johnson used a strong run on the bottom to surge to the point at the halfway point. Wright worked by a stubborn Bowden and then grabbed third late from Droud Jr.
Heat two (started): 1. Tim Crawley 88 (2) 2. Tatnell 91s (6) 3. Giannetto D1 (5) 4. Garry Lee Maier 11xx (4) / 5. Nate Van Haaften 3 (8) 6. Ryan Anderson 71R (3) 7. Trey Robb 1s (7) 8. Chad Meyer 7m (1) / 9. Samantha Taylor 17 (10) 10. Rod Richards 12 (9)
Crawley led the duration. Tatnell was the mover, using the low side to grab second from Maier around the halfway point. The track was racey from start to finish.
Heat three (started): 1. Jared Ridge 12J (1) 2. Matt Moro 2m (4) 3. Crockett 7N (5) 4. Bakker 11x (6) / 5. Nick Smith 15s (2) 6. Justin Henderson 5 (7) 7. Brett Mather 54 (10) 8. Steven Lines 23 (3) / 9. Jack Potter 15 (9) 10. Josh Padellford 34 (8)
Ridge dominated this one in his first Knoxville visit. The best race was for the final transfer. Crockett went from fifth to third in one move, and Bakker outdueled N. Smith for fourth.
Heat four (started): 1. Matt Covington 95 (1) 2. Kenny Adams 4A (4) 3. Dover 53D (5) 4. Dustin Daggett 2MX (8) / 5. Jacobs 86 (6) 6. Josh Higday 24 (7) 7. Joe Wood Jr. 03 (3) 8. AJ Selenke 43 (2) / 9. RJ Johnson 71 (10) 10. Butch Hanssen 8K (9)
Covington led falg to flag. Adams ran strong in second. Daggett was the only car outside of the six car inversion to transfer to the A through the heats, and did so by running the cushion to perfection around Selenke, Wood Jr. and finally Jacobs.
Heat five (started): 1. Brian Brown 21 (3) 2. Clint Garner 40 (4) 3. Pete Crall 1 (1) 4. Hockett 75J (6) / 5. Roberts 18 (5) 6. Ben Gregg 22B (2) 7. Eric Baldaccini B4 (8) 8. Natalie Sather 94s (10) / 9. Darren Long 7L (9) 10. Shawn Van Wyhe 99 (7)
Brown had the lead by the time a lap was complete. Long suffered a flat right rear on lap two. At the time, Brown was leading Crall, Gregg, Garner and Hockett. Brown finished off the last seven laps.
C main (started): 1. Corken (2) 2. Van Wyhe (1) / 3. RJ Johnson (10) 4. Padellford (3) 5. L. Hall (8) 6. Dave Glennon 5x (17) 7. Troy Little 20AU (11) 8. Butch Hanssen 8K (6) 9. Taylor (9) 10. Tyler Thompson 48 (12) 11. Potter (5) 12. Curtis Evans 1P (16) 13. Alan Zoutte 33 (15) 14. Richards (4) 15. Bryn Gohn 4B (13) 16. Brian Parker 9* (21) 17. Travis Porter 31P (20) 18. Kathryne Minter 13 (18) 19. Kenneth Walker 2w (19) 20. Luke Dollansky 2 (14) 21. Long (7)
Dollansky was black-flagged on the first try at green and sent to the tail. Padellford wrestled the lead from Corken early in the 10-lapper. Corken stayed in contention and rod the rim to the point on lap four. He checked out from that point, leaving the final transfer to the B to a battle between Van Wyhe and Padellford. Dollansky had a flat left rear on lap eight slowing the action and eliminating Corken's big advantage. The two lap dash saw Corken restarting ahead of Padellford, Van Wyhe, L. Hall and Potter. Van Wyhe won the battle for second in the end, while RJ Johnson's valiant charge fell just short of a transfer.
B main (started): 1. N. Smith (8) 2. Henderson (14) 3. Meyer (11) 4. Bowden (3) / 5. Wood Jr. (7) 6. Baldaccini (17) 7. Robb (13) 8. Mather (19) 9. Sather (20) 10. Selenke (9) 11. Lutz (18) 12. JD Johnson (12) 13. Roberts (2) 14. D. Hall (4) 15. Van Wyhe (22) 16. Jacobs (1) 17. Ry. Anderson (5) 18. Lines (6) 19. Corken (21) 20. Higday (15) 21. Van Haaften (16) 22. Gregg (10)
It took four tries to start the 12-lap B. On the first try, Roberts jumped and was sent to the back. The next saw a number of cars slow in front of Van Haaften, who got upside down and tangle with Lutz. Both were unhurt, Van Haaften was done. The third attempt was not a charm, as Ry. Anderson tangled with Lines, and both flipped wildly. Also getting upside down hard was Corken, who was joined by Higday. Sather was also involved, but continued. Only one lap was in the books before the next caution for the leader, Jacobs, who came to a stop in a cloud of smoke in turn four ending a tough night. D. Hall inherited the lead and took off. He found it wasn't good to be in the lead on the white flag lap, when he blew his left rear tire. N. Smith led Henderson (from 14th), Bowden and Wood Jr. who had been battling for the final transfer, and Meyer. Meyer shot around Wood Jr. and Bowden into third on the next lap before Roberts stopped bringing the last slowdown. The white/checker finish saw plenty of action, but no change in the top four.
A main (started): 1. W. Johnson (4) 2. Wright (8) 3. Giannetto (3) 4. Tatnell (7) 5. Hockett (5) 6. Crockett (2) 7. Adams (11) 8. Bakker (6) 9. Brown (13) 10. Garner (12) 11. Crawley (15) 12. Maier (9) 13. Droud Jr. (14) 14. Dover (1) 15. Henderson (22) 16. Moro (10) 17. N. Smith (21) 18. Daggett (20) 19. Ridge (17) 20. Crall (19) 21. Meyer (23) 22. Covington (18) 23. Blair (16) 24. Bowden (24)
Bowden stopped and retired before a lap could be completed. It would be the only slowdown in a non-stop 20-lap slugfest. The top four were battling back and forth all the way on a great track for racing. Giannetto stormed under Dover and Crockett at the outset to take the early lead. The 2006 360 Nationals Champ had 2000 champ W. Johnson in tow early on. Wright quickly entered the fray and took second from W. Johnson. Two laps later, W. Johnson found his way back around in heavy traffic and hit the high side in pursuit of Giannetto. On lap 12, W. Johnson grabbed the point for good and began putting lapped cars between himself and second. Wright eventually worked by Giannetto, and both were under pressure from Tatnell. The win was W. Johnson's 7th career 360 tally at Knoxville and paid him $2000. Henderson repeated his hard-charger performance in the B in the A as well.