4/21/07
Knoxville Raceway
30 410s
40 360s
410s
Randy Anderson (3rd car out to time) set quick time over the field at 15.027. Lynton Jeffrey (6th car out) was second quick, followed by Bronson Maeschen (1st), Billy Alley (11th), Toni Lutar (12th), Skip Jackson (16th), Calvin Landis (7th), Mark Dobmeier (2nd), Ryan Anderson (9th) and Dusty Zomer (24th). Having an early pill was beneficial with a quickly drying track that was yielding to high winds. Robert Bell failed to get a time in. The hard and dry surface with no bottom groove to speak of, made for heat races devoid of much action.
Heat one (started): 1. Brent Antill 1 (2) 2. Dustin Lindquist 5 (1) 3. Zomer 1z (3) 4. Landis 70 (4) 5. Kaley Gharst 3 (7) 6. Ra. Anderson 81 (6) / 7. Alley 55 (5) 8. Mike Moore 69 (9) 9. Bob Weuve (8) DNS - Rager Phillips 9
Antill shot by Lindquist on the cushion in turn two with inches to spare and coasted to victory in the 8 lapper. Gharst was able to shoot by Alley for the final transfer on the first lap and the single-file dry-slick event shut the door on the defending champ.
Heat two (started): 1. Jon Corbin 15 (1) 2. Seth Brahmer 13 (2) 3. Dobmeier 13L (4) 4. Brian Brown 21 (7) 5. Jeffrey 12 (6) 6. Lutar 4x (5) / 7. Greg Jones 3J (8) 8. Jack Potter 47 (9) 9. Tony Shilling 47T (3) DNS - Dave Saffell 03
410 rookie Corbin led the distance. Shilling dropped out on lap two. Potter spun on lap seven bringing the only caution. Brown was able to grab fourth from Jeffrey after the restart and overcame a time trial slot that put him out of the invert. Unfortunately, invert six, take six is still the format when there are three heats.
Heat three (started): 1. Dennis Moore Jr. 17G (1) 2. Ry. Anderson 71R (4) 3. Jackson 2 (5) 4. Ricky Logan 10 (3) 5. Clint Garner 40 (8) 6. Maeschen 96 (6) / 7. Jack Dover 53 (7) 8. Mike Deavers 72 (9) 9. Robert Bell 71 (10) 10. Scott Winters R19 (2)
Moore Jr. led flag to flag. Winters stopped and retired while in the runner-up position on lap five. Ry. Anderson assumed second and held off a late charge from Jackson. Winters misfortune gave Maeschen the final transfer spot after Garner had passed him for it earlier.
B main (started): 1. Winters (3) 2. M. Moore (5) 3. Dover (4) 4. Jones (6) 5. Potter (8) 6. Bell (10) / 7. Deavers (7) 8. Weuve (9) 9. Shilling (2) 10. Alley (1) DNS - Phillips, Saffell
Alley led early but came to a stop and exited on lap three with mechanical ills. A rough start to the season for the defending champ. 410 rookie Winters smoked the field, besting M. Moore by 11.3 second at the finish and lapping up to fourth place. Shilling spun out of a transfer on lap three and exited on lap eight.
A main (started): 1. Brown (17) 2. Logan (10) 3. Winters (19) 4. Gharst (16) 5. D. Moore (15) 6. Lindquist (13) 7. Ra. Anderson (6) 8. Zomer (9) 9. Dobmeier (7) 10. Antill (11) 11. Lutar (3) 12. M. Moore (20) 13. Dover (21) 14. Potter (23) 15. Jackson (2) 16. Ry. Anderson (8) 17. Maeschen (4) 18. Garner (18) 19. Brahmer (12) 20. Jones (22) 21. Jeffrey (5) 22. Bell (24) 23. Corbin (14) 24. Landis (1)
On the initial start, Jeffrey didn't take off, bunching the field behind him, namely Zomer and Moore Jr. who ended up sideways. Garner also visited the work area. All restarted at the rear. The inside rows moved up six spots, includiing Brown who moved up to row six for the start. The race looked like Jackson's as he shot out to a 3.5 second lead over the second place machine of Landis and Logan before a lap seven stoppage for the seventh place car of Corbin who would exit with mechanical ills. Landis had dropped out on lap five while running second. The restart saw Jackson ahead of Logan, Ra. Anderson, a surging Brown and Maeschen. After the green flag dropped a three-way battle for the lead ensued. On lap 14, the trio of Logan (trying to grip anything available on the bottom), Brown (middle) and Jackson (high) entered turn one three-wide for the lead. Logan exited turn two with the advantage, but gave way to Brown in three and four to complete the lap. One circuit later, Brown looked to be vulnerable to a Logan pass, as he was trapped behind a lapped car. It was all for naught as Jeffrey came to a stop for his second caution, sending him to the pits. Now Brown led Logan, Jackson, Gharst and a charging Winters back to Green. Five laps later, Jackson was running third when he spun with two to go. That restart saw 6th starting Maeschen slow with three cars getting upside down in a melee. Brahmer, Garner and Jones all got upside down and all four cars were retired. The second caution in the last two laps set up a green/checker finish, with Brown holding on for $3,000 and win number seven at Knoxville. Winters snagged third from Gharst on the last go-around, completing a great run. Moore Jr. charged from the tail for a top five run, as the top six cars came from row five back.
360s
Heat one (started, *qualified for feature): 1. John Kearney 86 (4*) 2. Mike Houseman Jr. Y2 (1*) 3. Dustin Selvage 7 (10*) 4. Frankie Heimbaugh 04 (2*) 5. Nate Mosher 22N (6) 6. Joe Beaver 53 (9) 7. Gregg Bakker 11x (3) 8. Russ Hall 29 (7) 9. Josh Schneiderman 49 (8) DNS - Troy Meyer 11m (5)
Schneiderman flipped hard in turn three on the first try at green. He was uninjured, but done for the night. Heimbaugh led lap one of the seven lapper, but gave way to Kearney going into turn one on lap two. Houseman Jr. and Heimbaugh battled several laps for second, before Selvage grabbed third from Heimbaugh on the last lap to complete a run from the tail. A burnt piston in hot laps kept Meyer out of action for the night.
Heat two (started, *qualified for feature): 1. Rick Ideus 5 (1*) 2. Terry Alexander 77 (4*) 3. Mitch Runge 28 (2*) 4. John Anderson 7a (7*) 5. Ryan Roberts 18R (5) 6. Jake Peters 57x (8) 7. John Schulz 2 (9) 8. Dave Hall 51 (10) 9. Jonathan Cornell 2TX (3) 10. Danny Heskin 65 (6)
Peters got a great jump on the first try at green, taking the lead down the backstretch. Justin Clark thought it was a little too good a start and brought it back. Ideus proceeded to lead the distance. Peters got up to fourth, jumped the turn four inside berm on lap two, lost two spots to Anderson and Roberts, and never recovered.
Heat three (started, *qualified for feature): 1. Jeff Mitrisin 10 (2*) 2. Josh Higday 2x (7*) 3. Natalie Sather 94s (4*) 4. John Hall 7H (1*) 5. Matt Moro 2m (3) 6. Alan Zoutte 33 (6) 7. Larry Pinegar II 00 (8) 8. Tyler Thompson 48 (9) 9. Nate Van Haaften 3 (5) 10. Don Dawson II 6D (10)
Van Haaften spun in staging and started at the tail. Mitrisin led flag to flag in a single-file event, save Higday's charge to second in turns one and two on the first lap.
Heat four (started, *qualified for feature): 1. Chuck Swenson X (3*) 2. Bryan Dobesh 2D (8*) 3. Tim Newman 18 (1*) 4. Brett Mather 54 (9*) 5. Tyler Houseman 50 (7) 6. Pete Crall 1 (2) 7. David Langford 32L (4) 8. Tom Lenz 8L (5) 9. CJ Houseman Y5 (10) 10. Glen Hunt G74 (6)
Newman led the first circuit before Swenson took over on lap two. Dobesh followed suit from row four as the preferred line was the cushion. Crall visited the work area before the green, and started at the tail.
C main (started): 1. Thompson (2) 2. Cornell (4) / 3. Van Haaften (5) 4. R. Hall (3) 5. Heskin (7) 6. CJ Houseman (6) 7. Hunt (9) 8. Dawson (8) 9. Langford (1) DNS - Lenz, Schneiderman
Thompson and Cornell separated themselves from the rest in the 8 lapper to transfer to the back of the B. Heskin brought out a caution with a lap two spin. Langford headed pitside on lap two, Dawson did the same on lap three.
B main (started): 1. Peters (4) 2. Mosher (2) 3. Beaver (7) 4. Roberts (3) / 5. Schulz (8) 6. D. Hall (12) 7. T. Houseman (6) 8. Cornell (14) 9. Bakker (11) 10. Thompson (13) 11. Zoutte (9) 12. Pinegar (10) 13. Crall (1) 14. Moro (5)
Mosher led Crall early. On lap four, Crall exited out of the runner-up spot. At the same time, Moro took a ride over Pinegar's right rear down the frontstretch, and flipped wildly into turn one. He was uninjured, but the car was done. Pinegar also suffered enough damage to retire. The restart saw Mosher lead Peters, Beaver, Roberts and Schulz. That would be teh way they would finish the last six laps, except for Peters who quickly shot to a lead and never looked back.
A main (started): 1. Higday (1) 2. Mitrisin (2) 3. Swenson (4) 4. Dobesh (3) 5. Kearney (6) 6. Selvage (5) 7. Peters (17) 8. Ideus (7) 9. Mather (12) 10. Houseman Jr. (9) 11. J. Anderson (10) 12. Heimbaugh (15) 13. Alexander (8) 14. Sather (11) 15. Roberts (20) 16. Beaver (19) 17. Newman (14) 18. Mosher (18) 19. Runge (13) 20. J. Hall (16)
Higday dusted everyone in the 15 lapper. His whooping of the competition was his 13th career triumph (5th all-time). His ease of negotiating traffic was impressive in his first Knoxville outing for former 360 track champ Dwight Snodgrass. The only other real story was Peters charge from 17th to 7th in teh non-stop event.