8/3/06
Knoxville Raceway
360 Nationals Night #1
67 cars
Pete Crall (10th car out to time) set a new 360 one lap record in time trials with a lap of 16.136 seconds. Larry Ball Jr. (15th car out) was second quick, followed by Bryan Howland (18th), Scott Winters (2nd), Eric Jobe (9th), Roger Crockett (27th), Larry Pinegar II (19th), Johnny Anderson (3rd), Tony Bruce Jr. (47th) and Lance Yonge (21st). The track dried off quickly, so an early pill draw was preferred. Only the top 50 qualifiers raced in heat events, sending drivers like Joe Beaver, Jan Howard, Sam Hafertepe Jr. and Darren Stewart to the Last Chance Heat. A fuel line problem sidelined Bronson Maeschen without a time for the night.
Last Chance Heat (started): 1. Jan Howard 46 (4) 2. Ryan Jamison 51J (2) 3. Ken Mackey 25m (6) 4. Joe Beaver 53 (3) 5. Darren Stewart 91 (10) 6. AJ Selenke 43 (5) 7. Sam Hafertepe Jr. 15H (7) 8. Davey Heskin 56 (8) 9. Jimmy Martin III 17 (1) 10. Nick Mulheim 38m (11) / 11. Ryan Grubaugh 00x (13) 12. Matthew Fox 23F (12) 13. Louie Carufel 47x (13) 14. Bubba Clem 20BG (9) 15. Garry Chippindall (15) DNS - Tim Newman 18, Bronson Maeschen 96
The 8 lapper transferred the top ten finishers to the back of the C main. Jamison took the early advantage before a lap four Chippindall spin brought out the caution. Jamison led Howard, Martin III, Beaver and D. Stewart back to green flag racing. Mackey, who restarted sixth was a man on a mission in the last half of the event storming up to third. Howard made his winning pass on lap five and pulled away.
Heat one (started): 1. Danny Jennings 61J (7) 2. Nate Mosher 22N (2) 3. Jon Carney II 8 (1) 4. Ian Madsen 55 (4) / 5. Curt Michael 99 (9) 6. Toby Brown 61a (3) 7. Luke Cranston 20 (8) 8. Crockett 11c (5) / 9. Foster Landon 11F (10) 10. Crall 11 (6)
Mosher jumped out to a comfortable lead in the 8 lapper, which took the top four to the A, the next four to the B, and the final two to the C. With an invert of six, Jennings found himself on the outside looking in, but not for long. He quickly shot from 7th to third past Crockett and Crall. On the white flag lap, disaster struck for Crall in a hard backstretch flip. When Landon spun on the restart, Crockett, who was running poorly received a break by finishing eighth in the final B main transfer. Mosher's lead over Jennings on the last white, checker, restart was eliminated as Jennings cruised by. Michael made a valiant charge from the back row, but came up one spot short of the A.
Heat two (started): 1. Pinegar 7w (5) 2. Jonathan Allard 0 (3) 3. Ball 5J (6) 4. Ryan Anderson 71R (8) / 5. Chad Meinholdt 69m (10) 6. Chris Morgan 7c (9) 7. Cory Seeling 97 (1) 8. Brian Thomas 67 (7) / 9. Randy Martin 14 (2) 10. Ron Blair 35 (4)
Martin shot out quickly on the initial try at green but Blair flipped hard after contact with Allard in turn three. He was uninjured, but done for the night. Martin jumped out again but slowed with a broken rear end before a lap could be completed. The third try was a charm as Ball led the eight remaining competitors until the white flag lap. Pinegar, who moved up nicely, battled for the lead. When Ball started to spin in turn two, Pinegar tagged him, but kept it going. Ball performed a 360 under green and salvaged a third place run and a transfer in an exciting moment. Thomas exited on lap five.
Heat three (started): 1. Jake Peters 57x (2) 2. Gary Wright 9x (4) 3. Jesse Hockett 75 (1) 4. Johnny Anderson 7a (5) / 5. Matt Moro 2m (3) 6. Chad Hillier 5c (9) 7. Howland 51H (6) 8. Frankie Heimbaugh 04 (8) / 9. Cameron McGahan 33x (7) 10. Danny Heskin 65 (10)
Peters led flag to flag. Danny Heskin hit the wall hard on lap two, ending his night. Peters win was a convincing one over 1998 360 Nationals champ Wright. Moro and Johnny Anderson put on a furious battle for the final A transfer, with the 7a taking command with three laps to go.
Heat four (started): 1. Wade Nygaard 9N (1) 2. Jeff Mitrisin 10 (2) 3. Tyler Thompson 48 (4) 4. Winters R19 (6) / 5. Bruce 18x (5) 6. Ray Allen Kulhanek 41K (3) 7. Jerrod Hull 94 (8) 8. Doc Sloan D12 (9) / 9. Eric Baldacinni B4 (7) 10. Alan Zoutte 33 (10)
Nygaard led the duration. The only stoppage came on lap four when Baldacinni spun. The yellow negated a Bruce pass of Kulhanek for the final transfer. Winters was the beneficiary as he stormed from sixth to pass them both and lock himself in the A.
Heat five (started): 1. Clint Garner 27 (3) 2. John Kearney 83 (4) 3. Jobe 23 (6) 4. Yonge 17J (5) / 5. JD Johnson 98 (2) 6. Brett Golik 5G (10) 7. Brandon Harkness 29x (7) 8. Lee Grosz 4L (9) / 9. Mark Pace 31 (1) 10. John Anderson 4G (8)
JD Johnson held the point until a lap three stoppage for Pace, who exited. The restart saw JD lead Garner, Kearney, Jobe and Yonge back to green. Garner took the lead as he made brief contact with JD on the restart. The contact seemed to affect Johnson's handling as he slipped back to fifth in the final five laps. Jobe and Yonge jumped on transfers to add to their points tally.
C main (started): 1. R. Martin (1) 2. Howard (7) / 3. Landon (6) 4. Jamison (10) 5. Davey Heskin (16) 6. Pace (2) 7. Baldacinni (4) 8. Martin III (13) 9. Zoutte (8) 10. John Anderson (5) 11. McGahan (3) 12. Beaver (12) 13. Selenke (14) 14. D. Stewart (9) 15. Hafertepe (11) 16. Mulheim (15) DNS - Crall, Blair, Danny Heskin, Mackey
On the first try at green, someone looked like they made contact with Hafertepe, sending him into Stewart, as the two spun across traffic collecting Selenke who overturned hard, Mulheim and Beaver, who also tipped. Stewart also got upside down with significant damage as all five retired uninjured. Another try at the 10 lapper saw it go green to checker with R. Martin winning convincingly while smoking, perhaps losing a piston on the way. Howard moved by Landon sharply in grabbing the final transfer to the B.
B main (started): 1. Howland (1) 2. Crockett (2) 3. Cranston (11) 4. Hull (13) / 5. Michael (14) 6. Meinholdt (19) 7. JD Johnson (7) 8. Howard (22) 9. Morgan (15) 10. Hillier (16) 11. Heimbaugh (12) 12. Kulhanek (6) 13. Bruce (3) 14. Grosz (18) 15. Harkness (10) 16. Golik (20) 17. Seeling (8) 18. Sloan (17) 19. Thomas (9) 20. T. Brown (4) 21. R. Martin (21) 22. Moro (5)
Both Moro and Bruce came to a stop on the initial try at green. Moro retired. Howland led all 12 laps once underway. Cranston, Hull and Michael used the bottom in shooting through the field. All but Michael, who gave Hull all he wanted, earned A transfers. Howard completed a run out of the Last Chance Heat to charge to 8th in the B. R. Martin pulled his smoking machine in on lap four, while T. Brown called it quits on lap 10.
A main (started): 1. Johnny Anderson (4) 2. Wright (1) 3. Pinegar (5) 4. Garner (12) 5. Ball (8) 6. Allard (11) 7. I. Madsen (2) 8. Hockett (17) 9. Mitrisin (15) 10. Winters (7) 11. Jennings (19) 12. Yonge (3) 13. Mosher (13) 14. Peters (14) 15. Jobe (6) 16. Howland (21) 17. Crockett (22) 18. Hull (24) 19. Nygaard (18) 20. Cranston (23) 21. Ry. Anderson (20) 22. Carney (16) 23. Kearney (10) 24. Thompson 48 (9)
Wright jumped out early in the 20 lapper. A lap two caution for Thompson who slammed the turn one wall, slowed things on the second go-around. Wright led Johnny Anderson, I. Madsen, Yonge and Ball back to green. Wright was shooting around the low side and led the next 12 laps. On lap 14, he appeared caught behind the lapped machine of Hull. Johnny Anderson made a move high to get around the lapped machine and pinned the Texan low to take the lead for good. The win was Anderson's fourth of the year and sixth career tally. Ball passed Allard in the final corner in a battle for fifth, while Hockett was the hard-charger coming from row nine to eighth.