Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

Read much? I said little threat of rain, not none. There was a 30% chance throughout the evening hours.

Hopefully next year, it goes back to a 2 day Outlaw show. 1 night at Knoxville is a shame 

The 360 race was great. Henderson was by far the class of the field and he spanked them good.

I didn't watch Brown much but did watch Pittman - he did pass quite a few cars but most were in the early laps. 

Another thing that hurt both races was that they ran green to checkered. Would've been interesting had a caution flew in the 410 race - definitely think McCarl was faster than Sweet at times.

BTW, was the race always scheduled at 25 laps or was that a late change due to track conditions? For taking rubber, tire wear didn't seem too bad at all - almost every tire I saw in the pits afterwards had good tread left.

The real Bill W would not post idiocy like that.  Unfortunately, I have a hacker.  More unfortunately, they have less than a fingernail of knowledge about the Knoxville Raceway....

If this post isn't results, stories or something c
constructive, it isn't me! 
@BillWMedia
www.OpenWheel101.com

Medium Well Please!

I was surprised he ran so well, but track conditions have to be taken into account for how everyone ran.  Those that pulled early #'s qualified well and those that pulled late #'s qualified poorly (a few:  Heskin, Schatz), came from 8th in their heat races to transfer to the feature.

McCarl timed fairly early, was on the front of a heat race and still nearly got beat by a car that started 8th in the heat (Brown) for the dash spot.

The Outlaw format benefitted McCarl, good for him, it bit many others since they only invert 4 for the heats and don't make anyone pass a car to transfer as long as they don't get passed.  No one wasted their opportunity more than Kerry Madsen IMO,  2nd quick and didn't finish top 5 in his heat and ran the B and then got to start 9th because of a stupid Outlaw rule that gives timespots back (I'm ok with the rule if they inverted more cars in the heats than transfer to the main, but he started 4th and finished 6th, so he got beat plain and simple, yet started in front of every car that beat him but 1).

Hopefully the regulars fair better @ Nationals, but it's not like they ran terrible, Knoxville regulars finished 2nd, 8th, 9th, 10th, 12th, 13th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 20th, 23rd, 24th and 26th and made up 1/2 of the feature line-up and a couple non-tour and non-Knoxville regulars (Shane Stewart, Danny Lasoski finished top 6) and a few Outlaw Regulars and travelers didn't make the show (Sides, Meyers, Crockett, Kaeding, Schugart, Allen, Gravel (used a provisional), and many good cars were in the trailer before the feature ended.

My biggest complaint for the entire night is how the Outlaws have to Hot lap right before their timetrials.  they could have hotlaped first, let the 360's do group hotlaps/timetrails (instead of seperate hot laps and time trials) and then went straight into qualifying.  Instead we had a break between hotlaps and timetrials and another after the heats, and another after the C since none of the dash cars were ready to be pushed off and another after the dash since the B-main cars weren't ready to be pushed off and another after the B for "track maintenance" and yet another after the 360 feature so Johnny could read off the line-up instead of pushing the cars off and getting the race going.  By my watch, we wasted well over 60 minutes in downtime for no reason other than dragging the show out so it got over at midnight instead of 11:00 and would have been over by 10:15 without the track maintenance (360's ran more laps in hotlaps and time trails than they do any other week of the year).

I for one am glad the Outlaws only come to Knoxville once per year, the regular shows offer much better racing and is a far more effeciently ran show for the fans.

Why were 360s even on with Outlaws? Track would have held up fine otherwise 

There is alway a support class @ every track the Outlaws run at (and if there isn't, there is a lot of downtime between races or the sun is still up when the checker flies (haven't ever seen one of the latter happen though except maybe Charlotte when they start @ 5:00 PM with 24 cars.

I'm not sure I would consider Knoxville a must-see for WoO if 360s weren't running. It's by far the best support class you're going to find anywhere.

I remember going back when it was a two-day June show and WoO ran standalone on Saturday night. Those were some short, expensive nights for the driving involved. 

I'm no track preparation expert - Saturday may have had too many variables to control. However, from the little I do know, I'd be willing to wager the track would have been substantially better if it weren't used by a completely different type of class Friday night that requires a completely different surface to run on. JMO.

No support class @ Williams Grove when the WoO are in town and the A never or seldom begins before sundown.

so, lots of downtime then I take it....

Most support classes merely fill in the "dead time" where there would be nothing on the track anyway as we "must" have time to work on the cars and talk on the PA between hotlaps and time trials (not sure why, the guys that hotlapped first go out first), time trials and heats (this one is at least usally filled with the National Anthem and invocation), heats and C (if they need one), C and Dash (again, this one I don't understand), Dash and B (don't understand this one either, and yet another between the B and A (the only understandable one besides between heats and C or Dash IMO).

FIREWORKS....

I for one would not complain about the 360s. They are a fantastic support class to limit down time. Their race was very exciting and probably more so than the 410s on Saturday. However I will say I think Knoxville missed a huge opportunity for the fans. Right after working up the track the 410 A should have pushed off. Most people came to see the 410s and the racing surface was going to be best right it was worked up. Half the fans may have left after that race but true fans who enjoy open wheel racing would have stayed for the 360s even if the track was shot.

All I know is last year Knoxville took rubber on the 2nd Saturday in August...

I don't understand the comments that they must not put much water on the track due to threat of rain.  The reality is that if it rains almost more than a light sprinkle after the track has been run in anyway, the are going to lose it and have to cancel. So the thought that they put less water on it cause a rainout might happen is crazy.  Prep the track the same regardless of whether rain is pending.  I believe the issue was the motorcycles.

That being said, the heats were great, mostly due to the cars that timed crappy like Brown, Schatz, Heskin having to race their way in.  Brown and McCarl for 6 laps was worth the price of admission alone.

The feature was great up until the last 8 laps but Stewart had checked out anyway.

I will say that had Brown beat McCarl in that heat race and ended up in the dash, he wins the feature easy.  

Personally I don't look at the 360's as a support class, I look at them as another Class, These guys are just as entertaining as the 410's in my eyes.

Probably had more to do about the high winds we had all day and just a wrong guess on how much water the track needed throughout the day.  Not a track expert, but it's just a guess

Stewart won?

Need to tell Sweet to bring the money back

And if the dog didn't stop to poop he would have?

Yo' Chilly, when you watch on TV you get to see only what they show you and as a result missed most of what you are talking about, lol.  The bikes have so many different ones in each shot you get to see a lot of the action, especially when it is only 2 laps, once they get spread out it would be a hot lap session like most of what I saw on Saturday.....

You and Kim stopping by for a sip of wine in August?  Damn Rangers.  Talk about a two period team.  If they played the games just for two periods they would have swept.  ha ha.  Oh, well. Looking forward to seeing you kids at the Beer Garden! 

My wife told me if I went to one more Sprint Car race 
she would leave me.................I'm sure gonna miss 
that ol' gal. 

Yes Dave, we will be stopping by, likely a little more than last year, most of the time bringing refreshments as well, lol.  Looking forward to meeting a few more Aussies like last year and maybe some from my past....