Knoxville 360 Nationals Results and Stories

Saturday, August 4, 2007
8/4/07

Knoxville Raceway

17th Annual 360 Nationals + 410s

79 360s
37 410s

360s

E main (started): 1. Jonathan Cornell 28x (2) 2. Eric Lutz 5L (1) 3. Kathryne Minter 13m (4) 4. Travis Porter 31P (3) 5. Jordan St. Arnold 7s (6) 6. Gary Moyer 46 (7) 7. Dave Glennon 5x (8) 8. Lauren Densley 00 (9) / 9. Ben Gregg 22B (5) DNS - Brian Thomas 67, Ryan Roberts 18R, Casey Heser 75c, Kevin Ingle 2, Jon Corbin 4c, Chris Morgan 7c, Jesse Giannetto 86x, Mitch Runge 28, Jordan Martens 13, Tim Norman 3G, Doc Sloan D12, Tim Allison 11, Stu Snyder 57

Gregg was tagged from behind on lap one, pitched sideways, bicycled in turn three, but despite getting two wheels off the ground, saved it.  He pulled in shortly after.  Cornell led flag to flag, with everyone running transferring to the back of the D.

D main (started): 1. Eric Baldaccini B4 (3) 2. Forrest Sutherland 85s (2) 3. Cornell (16) 4. AJ Selenke 43 (5) 5. Frankie Heimbaugh 04 (12) 6. Foster Landon 11F (14) / 7. Alan Zoutte 33 (1) 8. Lutz (17) 9. Robby Vaughn 4R (11) 10. St. Arnold (20) 11. Glennon (22) 12. Matt Harms 53H (7) 13. Josh Fisher 86J (8) 14. Chris Schmelzle 57c (4) 15. Tyler Thompson 48 (10) 16. Minter (18) 17. Porter (19) 18. Moyer (21) 19. Toby Chapman 84 (6) 20. Matt Linder 1x (15) 21. Derek Hagar 9JR (9) 22. Nick Smith 15s (13) DNS - Dave Hall 51, Nate Mosher 22N, John Hall 7H, Nick Mulheim 38m, Danny Jennings 61J

Sutherland jumped out to a nice lead early in the 10 lapper.  Thompson used the high side to jump into third behind Zoutte early on.  Baldaccini made a move by Thompson and Zoutte for second at teh midway point.  Hagar came to a stop on lap nine.  After smacking the wall his nerf bar dislodged and rattled around his legs.  He was taken in for treatment.  Sutherland led the pack ahead of Baldacinni, a charging Fisher, Zoutte, Thompson and Cornell, up out of the C.  Thompson shot from fifth to second in one lap, before Moyer and Porter spun in turn two.  On the restart, Thompson made a move for the lead but slowed dramatically, bringing out a final caution.  Sutherland could not hold of Baldaccini in the one lap left.  Fisher also dropped off the pace, losing his transfer after a fine run.  Cornell ran a smooth race to transfer from the E to the C.

C main (started): 1. JD Johnson 98 (4) 2. Lee Sowell 51s (6) 3. Tayler Malsam 26 (1) 4. Jack Potter 15 (2) / 5. Bryan Dobesh 2D (5) 6. Larry Pinegar II 44 (8) 7. Seth Bergman 23A (3) 8. Brad Sweet 35A (9) 9. Pete Crall 1 (7) 10. Joe Ramaker 98R (14) 11. Don Droud Jr. 27 (12) 12. Nate Van Haaften 3 (16) 13. Cornell (19) 14. Baldaccini (17) 15. Derek Ingalls 91x (15) 16. Landon (22) 17. Mike Houseman Jr. Y2 (13) 18. Sutherland (18) 19. Heimbaugh (21) 20. TJ Winegardner Jr. 11T (11) 21. Selenke (20) 22. Mike Chadd 4 (10) DNS - George White 1s, Jeff Mitrisin 10, Fred Cade 12c, Ricky Logan 7I

Chadd dropped out early.  Potter led the first lap, but JD Johnson had the low side working and grabbed the point on lap two of the 12 lapper.  Cornell's charge from the E ended in 13th.

B main (started): 1. Justin Barger 32 (1) 2. Larry Neighbors 29N (4) 3. Garry Lee Maier 11xx (8) 4. Jonathan Allard 0 (6) / 5. Jan Howard 4x (14) 6. Joe Beaver 53 (13) 7. Russ Hall 29 (5) 8. Chad Meyer 7m (3) 9. Rick Ideus 5 (15) 10. Natalie Sather 94s (10) 11. Ron Blair 35R (2) 12. Luke Hall 34 (9) 13. Lee Grosz 4J (17) 14. Potter (22) 15. Sowell (20) 16. Dustin Selvage 7 (18) 17. Malsam (21) 18. JD Johnson (19) 19. Chuck Swenson X (16) 20. Jarod Smith 24 (9) 21. John Kearney 86 (7) 22. Brett Golik 5G (12) DNS - Billy Alley 55, Randy Martin 14

Barger was clearly the best car in this one throughout the 15 lapper.  Golik dropped out on lap two.  Kearney slowed early and exited.  Maier battled with Meyer for the fourth a final transfer.  Soon Swenson had charged through the pack and moved into the top four.  On lap 12, J. Smith slowed, bringing a caution.  The restart saw Barger leading Neighbors, Allard, Swenson, Maier and Meyer.  Swenson slowed shortly thereafter, surrendering hsi transfer spot and brought another yellow.  Allard was able to hold off Howard who made a late charge from row seven.

A main (started): 1. Shane Stewart 1HD (2) 2. Wayne Johnson 94 (9) 3. Gary Wright 9 (4) 4. Jason Johnson 41 (3) 5. Kaley Gharst 3 (5) 6. Josh Higday 2x (1) 7. Travis Rilat 29T (7) 8. Scott Winters R19 (18) 9. Matt Moro 2m (6) 10. Allard (22) 11. Dale Blaney 6B (8) 12. Brett Mather 54 (13) 13. Neighbors (20) 14. Darren Long 7L (19) 15. Gregg Bakker 11x (17) 16. Maier (23) 17. Don Young 75 (15) 18. Brian Brown 21 (16) 19. Chuck Hebing 45 (14) 20. Barger (21) 21. Skip Jackson 1m (10) 22. Johnny Anderson 7a (12) 23. Bryan Howland 51H (11) DNS - Darren Stewart 91

Before a lap could be completed, Howland tagged the turn three wall and flipped violently.  He was unhurt.  J. Anderson also suffered problems and exited.  Stewart beat Higday to an early lead in the 25 lapper.  Wright was quickly in second utilizing the low side for the most part.  The lead pair put on some good racing on a perfect track for it, pulling side by side until lap 8 when lapped traffic was encountered.  On lap 10, Barger came to a stop bringing caution.  S. Stewart led Wright, Higday, Moro, W. Johnson and J. Johnson back to green flag racing on the restart.  One lap later, Wright shot under S. Stewart for a lead that lasted four laps.  On lap 15, S. Stewart grabbed the lead again, and it was one he would not relinquish, despite a white flag caution for Brown, who went up in smoke after having charged into the top five.  W. Johnson had moved into third by then, and used a last corner pass to grab second.  Allard was the hard charger, moving up 12 spots from row 11.

410s

A water truck incident dumped 900 gallons of water in one spot in turns one and two, but by racetime the track was ready to go, though a bit heavy.  Travis Cram (26th car out to time) set quick time at 15.140 seconds.  Billy Alley (25th car out) was second quick, followed by Bronson Maeschen (23rd), Ryan Farrell (11th), Dion Hindi (5th), Don Droud Jr. (6th), Ricky Logan (12th), Kaley Gharst (28th), Davey Heskin (9th) and Skip Jackson (19th). 

Heat one (started): 1. Lynton Jeffrey 12 (2) 2. Brian Brown 21 (1) 3. Heskin 56 (4) 4. Tim Kaeding 10K (3) 5. Cram 17G (6) / 6. Hindi 11D (5) 7. Josh Higday 2x (8) 8. Mark Dobmeier 13L (7) DNS - Danny Smith 4

For eight laps, Jeffrey held off the advances of Brown as the two dueled side by side the first half of the race in a stout heat from front to back.  Kaeding emanated smoke from what appeared to be an oil leak.

Heat two (started): 1. Jack Dover 53 (2) 2. Ben Gregg 22B (1) 3. Alley 55 (6) 4. Droud 81 (5) 5. Brian Paulus 28 (3) / 6. Rager Phillips 9 (7) 7. Tony Shilling 47T (8) 8. Jackson 2 (4) DNS - Bob Weuve 19

Dover led throughout.  On lap three, Jackson had moved into second with a strong move on the bottom.  When his left rear tire assembly dislodged, he slammed hard into the turn two fence.  He was uninjured, but done for the night.  Alley looked strong, and Droud shot under Paulus for fourth on the restart.

Heat three (started): 1. Wayne Johnson 14AJ (1) 2. Calvin Landis 70 (2) 3. Logan 10 (5) 4. Seth Brahmer 13 (4) 5. Clint Garner 40 (7) / 6. Mike Deavers 72 (3) 7. Maeschen 96 (6) 8. Matt Wasmund 4w (9) 9. Brent Antill 1 (8)

Johnson held off Landis throughout, despite a good battle.  The only slowdown came when Antill slowed on lap three.  Garner was able to shoot by Deavers on the restart for the final transfer spot.

Heat four (started): 1. Jonathan Allard 0 (1) 2. Jeff Mitrisin 47 (4) 3. Gharst 3 (5) 4. Dusty Zomer 1z (3) 5. Farrell 3s (6) / 6. Mike Moore 69 (8) 7. Ray Allen Kulhanek 41 (9) 8. Gary Isom 12J (7) 9. Garrett Ishii 71G (10) 10. Toni Lutar 4x (2)

Allard wired the field with a strong showing.  Lutar left a transfer spot on lap six when he retired.

B main (started): 1. Maeschen (1) 2. Dobmeier (6) 3. Hindi (2) 4. Phillips (5) / 5. Antill (9) 6. Deavers (4) 7. Isom (8) 8. Higday (9) 9. Moore (12) 10. Kulhanek (14) 11. Lutar (3) 12. Weuve (10) 13. Ishii (13) 14. Wasmund (11) DNS - Jackson, D. Smith, Shilling

Maeschen led flag to flag in teh 12 lapper.  Dobmeier and Hindi waged a battle of sliders for second with Dobmeier pulling away after several laps of good racing.  Lutar elected to start on the tail.

A main (started): 1. Gharst (5) 2. Droud (7) 3. Alley (9) 4. Heskin (4) 5. Logan (6) 6. W. Johnson (18) 7. Landis (15) 8. Dobmeier (22) 9. Zomer (12) 10. Allard (19) 11. Brown (16) 12. Hindi (23) 13. Paulus (11) 14. Farrell (8) 15. Cram (10) 16. Garner (20) 17. Jeffrey (13) 18. Maeschen (21) 19. Phillips (24) 20. Gregg (17) 21. Brahmer (3) 22. Dover (14) 23. Mitrisin (2) 24. Kaeding (1)

Mitrisin made the most of his first opportunity in the Sonner 47, leading early in the 20 lapper with Kaeding in tow.  On lap two, Cram flattened a left rear tire, while Allard spun.  Mitirsin pulled away from Kaeding again on the restart.  Gharst moved into third in front of a surging Droud.  On the 13th go-around.  Mitrisin got sideways in lapped traffic going into turn one.  Kaeding who was following close behind couldn't hit the binders in time and slammed into Mitrisin, sending both ass over tea kettle.  Both were unhurt.  For the second time in three nights, Gharst inherited a lead and held on for the win.  Droud had a nice restart, and Alley looked as strong as he has in awhile.  Dobmeier earned hard-charger honors, and an extra $300, but good charges were also put on by W. Johnson and Allard, who recovered from a last place restart to gain a top ten.