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6/23/07

Knoxville Raceway

Midget Nationals + 410s

60 Midgets

31 410s

Midgets

Heat one (started, *qualified for King Doodlebug Classic): 1. Jerry Coons Jr. 11 (1*) 2. Don Droud Jr. 4x (5*) 3. Brandon Waelti 3 (2*) 4. Danny Stratton 21A (10*) 5. Cody Brewer 96 (3) 6. Brad Kuhn 43 (8) 7. Matt Sherrell 135 (7) 8. Joe Liguori 28 (9) 9. Chase Barber 90 (6) 10. Brad Sweet 1J (4)

Coons ran and hid in the 8 lapper. Sweet exited on lap two. Stratton was the big mover on the heavy track. The top 24 in passing points comprised the King Doodlebug Classic, and were joined by six provisionals.

Heat two (started, *qualified for King Doodlebug Classic): 1. Darren Hagen 32 (1*) 2. Brad Mosen 71 (2*) 3. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 21 (6*) 4. Casey Shuman 67 (4) 5. Nathan High 21AZ (3) 6. Dave Darland 9 (7) 7. Doug Schenck 19x (9) 8. Tim Noble 9x (5) 9. Chase Scott 14 (10) 10. Brandon Wagner 92 (8)

Hagen led the distance. Stenhouse battled Shuman for third, taking the spot at the halfway point. Darland couldn't get going.

Heat three (started, *qualified for King Doodlebug Classic): 1. Davey Ray 91 (1*) 2. Dustin Morgan 111 (5*) 3. Donnie Ray Crawford 199 (3*) 4. Chris Windom 17 (7*) 5. Brad Loyet o5 (10*) 6. Joe Wipperfurth 4 (6) 7. Tracy Readinger 2T (4) 8. Doug DeWitt 11D (2) 9. Dan Mecum 8 (9) 10. Chad McDaniel 1c (8)

Ray held off the challengeds of Crawford early to lead the duration. Morgan impressed and battled by Crawford late for second. "Mr. Excitement" Loyet lived up to his name in the non-stop affair. McDaniel exited on lap six.

Heat four (started, *qualified for King Doodlebug Classic): 1. Kevin Swindell 79 (4*) 2. Russ Harper 09 (6*) 3. Tony Roney 1T (1*) 4. Aaron Fiscus 7x (5) 5. Buddy Luebke 43x (10*) 6. Scott Hatton 15 (7) 7. Kevin Battles 61a (3) 8. Trish Dover 4m (2) 9. Will Pierce 10P (8) 10. AJ Fike 69 (9)

Swindell grabbed the lead from Roney on the first circuit. He pulled away from there. Harper was impressive moving forward, as well. Fike roared from row five to fourth before slowing to a stop on the final lap.

Heat five (started, *qualified for King Doodlebug Classic): 1. Steve Sussex 34 (1*) 2. Ryan Durst 191 (2*) 3. Brett Anderson 11x (4*) 4. Chuck Gurney Jr. 51 (6*) 5. Kenny Biro 22 (3) 6. Bradley Galedrige 29 (9) 7. Matt Smith 14x (8) 8. Chett Gehrke 6c (7) 9. Jonathan Beason 36 (5) DNS - Jerry Nadeau 151 (10)

Sussex led from start ot finish in a heat with little passing after the first lap.

Heat six (started, *qualified for King Doodlebug Classic): 1. Levi Jones 20 (3*) 2. Brady Bacon 99 (8*) 3. Alfred Galedrige Jr. 26 (4*) 4. Gary Taylor 999 (9*) 5. Mike Hess 44 (1) 6. Chad DeSelle 6x (10) 7. Stephanie Mockler 6 (7) 8. Nick Lundgreen 41 (5) 9. Garett Hood 11H (6) DNS - Cole Carter 7 (2)

Hess jumped out to an early lead with Jones in tow. Jones took the point on lap five, but Bacon followed him on the high side of Hess, and pressured for the win the rest of the way. Taylor grabbed fourth late to secure a King Doodlebug start.

King Doodlebug Classic (started): 1. Hagen (9) 2. Droud (2) 3. Morgan (1) 4. Jones (3) 5. Stenhouse (12) 6. Sussex (11) 7. Ray (10) 8. Kuhn (26, pr.) 9. Mosen (14) 10. Taylor (13) 11. Hess (28, pr.) 12. Windom (16) 13. Gurney (24) 14. Shuman (25, pr.) 15. Waelti (21) 16. Durst (15) 17. Anderson (19) 18. Crawford (22) 19. Luebke (18) 20. Fiscus (27, pr.) 21. Bacon (6) 22. Stratton (8) 23. Harper (4) 24. Readinger (29, pr.) 25. Roney (23) 26. A. Galedrige (20) 27. Beason (30, pr.) 28. Swindell (5) 29. Coons (7) 30. Loyet (17)

The top six finishers locked themselves into the Midget Nationals event. Loyet snap-rolled into turn one at the outset of the 20-lapper, destroying his mount. He was taken to the hospital for observation. On the next attempt at green, Harper got sideways in turn four. Swindell and Coons had nowhere to go and both got upside down in teh process. Once underway, Droud took command. On lap three, Beason shelled his driveline and exited. The incident left debris and brought a caution. Droud led Morgan, Hagen, Jones and Sussex back to green flag racing. Three more laps were in the books when Hagen took second from Morgan and A. Galedrige turned over in turn one. He was uninjured. Bacon was on the move and had surged into the top five. Droud seemed without peer on his familiar home track for the next twelve laps. On lap 18, Bacon was running in fifth when his right rear tire exploded, sending him into the fence and setting up a two lap dash to be King. Hagen hit the low side of turns one and two on the restart and slid in front of Droud for first and the win. Stenhouse came on late to secure himself a spot in the main event. Kuhn was the hard-charger, moving forward 18 spots.

Qualifier #1 (started): 1. Coons (2) 2. Bacon (1) 3. Windom (4) 4. Carter (16) 5. Shuman (5) 6. Hatton (10) / 7. Brewer (8) 8. Smith (9) 9. Gehrke (14) 10. Biro (7) 11. Barber (13) 12. Noble (11) 13. Wagner (15) 14. Taylor (3) 15. Battles (12) 16. Roney (6) DNS - A. Galedrige, Beason

The 12-lap qualifiers sent the top six to the Midget Nationals main event. Carter was the story in this one, setting an insane pace from the tail to fourth. His lap times were faster than the leader Coons who left everyone behind until a lap 11 stoppage for Taylor who was running fifth at the time. Hatton outlasted a persistent Brewer for the final transfer.

Qualifier #2 (started): 1. Mosen (3) 2. Gurney (6) 3. Stratton (2) 4. Kuhn (8) 5. Swindell (1) 6. DeSelle (7) / 7. Hess (9) 8. Schenck (10) 9. Waelti (5) 10. Lundgreen (14) 11. Sherrell (11) 12. Mecum (15) 13. Hood (16) 14. DeWitt (13) 15. Mockler (12) 16. Luebke (4) DNS - McDaniel, Nadeau

Swindell jumped out to a nice lead early, before a lap three red. Mockler had slowed going into turn one, and Luebke jumped her right rear at a good rate of speed, flipping violenty into turn one. Mockler also tumbled, but neither were injured. Mosen who restarted in fourth, passed Stratton, Gurney and Swindell in one lap to claim the lead. He held it until the checkers. Swindell overcame a loose condition to limp home fifth. Kuhn moved up nicely, and DeSelle outdueled Hess for the final transfer.

Qualifier #3 (started): 1. Ray (2) 2. Anderson (4) 3. Harper (1) 4. Crawford (7) 5. Darland (9) 6. B. Galedrige (7) / 7. Durst (3) 8. Sweet (16) 9. High (8) 10. Wipperfurth (10) 11. Fiscus (6) 12. Readinger (11) 13. Scott (14) 14. Dover (13) 15. Pierce (15) 16. Liguori (12) DNS - Fike, Loyet

Ray led the distance. Darland moved up early into a transfer spot. Sweet surged eight spots, but fell two short. B. Galedrige got by Durst with a few laps to go, but Durst surged back to challenge. At the finish the pair finished in a dead heat to the thousandth of a second. The transfer spot went to B. Galedrige who had led the previous lap.

Midget Nationals A main (started): 1. Stenhouse (1) 2. Coons (7) 3. Ray (9) 4. Jones (2) 5. Swindell (20) 6. Bacon (10) 7. Kuhn (17) 8. Stratton (14) 9. Hess (26, pr.) 10. Droud (4) 11. Carter (16) 12. Gurney (11) 13. Hatton (22) 14. Morgan (5) 15. Darland (21) 16. Windom (13) 17. Anderson (12) 18. Shuman (19) 19. DeSelle (23) 20. Sherrell (27, pr.) 21. Crawford (18) 22. Mosen (8) 23. Waelti (25, pr.) 24. Sussex (3) 25. Hagen (6) 26. Harper (15) 27. B. Galedrige (24) 28. Readinger (28, pr.) DNS - Scott (29, pr.)

No one had an answer for Stenhouse in the 25 lapper. He led his teammate Jones, until a lap nine caution for a stopped B. Galedrige. The pair led Hagen, Bacon, Coons and Mosen back to green flag racing. Hagen and Coons worked by Jones to move into second and third. On lap 15, Harper slowed to a stop in turn two bringing another yellow. Three more laps were in the books when Hagen, who was running second, blew his right rear and retired for the night. Now Stenhouse led Coons, Jones, Bacon and a charging Ray. Not even a white flag slowdown for Mosen, who was running tenth, could slow down the 19 year old Mississippi sensation. Swindell turned in the drive of the race from row ten to fifth, while Hess collected hard-charger honors, moving forward 17 spots.

410s

Dusty Zomer (6th car out to time) nailed down quick time of the night with a lap of 14.974 seconds on the heavy surface. Bronson Maeschen (17th car out) was second quick, followed by Brian Brown (19th), Randy Anderson (26th), Brent Antill (28th), Dennis Moore Jr. (27th), Jack Potter (15th), Jon Corbin (13th), Jack Dover (11th) and Skip Jackson (14th). Billy Alley took a vicous ride in hot laps after contact with Mike Moore, totaling the #55 machine. Moore was done for the night. Robert Bell joined the pair in not getting a time trial lap in.

Heat one (started): 1. Calvin Landis 70 (2) 2. Davey Heskin 56 (1) 3. Jackson 2 (3) 4. Zomer 1z (6) 5. Potter 47 (4) 6. Clint Garner 40 (8) / 7. Ra. Anderson 81 (5) 8. Mike Deavers 72 (7) 9. Bryan Dobesh 2D (9) 10. Dave Saffell 03 (10) DNS - M. Moore 69

Landis led throughout. Saffell took a hard tumble down the frontstretch on lap three. He was unhurt. Garner worked on Ra. Anderson for the final transfer before finally flying by on the last go-around.

Heat two (started): 1. Ryan Anderson 71R (1) 2. Rager Phillips 9 (2) 3. Corbin 15 (4) 4. Mark Dobmeier 13 (3) 5. Maeschen 96 (6) 6. Antill 1 (5) / 7. Kaley Gharst 3 (9) 8. Tony Shilling 47T (7) 9. Bob Weuve 19 (8) 10. Robert Bell 71 (10)

Ry. Anderson led flag to flag. Gharst provided the only real excitement, as he briefly grabbed the final transfer from Antill on the first lap. Antill grabbed it back on the low side and held on to it.

Heat three (started): 1. Brown 21 (6) 2. Ricky Logan 10 (2) 3. Moore Jr. 17G (5) 4. Mike Reinke 02 (1) 5. Dover 53 (4) 6. Scott Winters R19 (7) / 7. Natalie Sather 94s (8) 8. Seth Brahmer 13s (3) 9. Billy Alley 55 (9) DNS - Jeff Mitrisin 53x

Logan grabbed the early advantage. Moore Jr. looked fast when flying under Reinke for third. The 55 crew put another car together, but contact between Alley and Brahmer resulted in the former getting upside down for the second time on the night. Brahmer also retired with damage. During the red, Sather was forced to change a flat left rear, surrendering fifth place. Brown grabbed the point from Logan on the restart and never looked back, turning 15.2 second laps.

B main (started): 1. Ra. Anderson (1) 2. Shilling (2) / 3. Gharst (6) 4. Sather (4) 5. Deavers (3) 6. Dobesh (7) 7. Weuve (5) 8. Alley (8) DNS - Brahmer, Bell, Mitrisin, Saffell, M. Moore

Ra. Anderson led the 8 lapper flag to flag. When Gharst tried to move Shilling high out of turn four and down the frontstretch in a battle for second, Shilling cut down entering turn one, resulting in contact between the two. Gharst was none to happy after the checkers found him in third, but cooler heads prevailed pitside with the help of Marion County's finest.

A main (started): 1. Brown (8) 2. Jackson (2) 3. Zomer (10) 4. Dobmeier (1) 5. Corbin (4) 6. Phillips (12) 7. Landis (11) 8. Moore Jr. (6) 9. Dover (3) 10. Logan (13) 11. Winters (17) 12. Garner (18) 13. Ra. Anderson (19) 14. Ry. Anderson (15) 15. Antill (7) 16. Shilling (20) 17. Heskin (14) 18. Potter (5) 19. Reinke (16) 20. Maeschen (9)

Jackson led the first lap before Maeschen came to a stop, couldn't get his car refired, and retired. Jackson led Dobmeier, Corbin, Dover and a surging Brown back to green flag racing. The rest of the feature looked to go non-stop with Jackson maneuvering nicely through lapped traffic and holding off a fast Brown late. Zomer moved up nicely into the top five, getting by Corbin who ran a nice race, and keeping the pressure on Dobmeier in third. Jackson had the checkered flags in sight when they were replaced with a yellow. Shilling had slid sideways, but kept it going. Before Shilling had straightened himself, the yellow had fallen, setting up a green, white, checker, finish. Jackson held the lead through one lap, but Brown asserted himself on the final go-around, zipping by on the low side of turns one and two to grab victory. Brown and Zomer shared hard-charger honors, moving up seven spots in the event.

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All the laps and the best track of the year. Big improvement from last week. I commend the track prep. A pretty well run show for all they had to get in.

Gharst was not happy with Antill after the heat either. Bumped him after the checkers. Both looked like "just racin" to me.

Thank mother nature for the track. Amazing what a little moisture will do. Good show.

I like Kaley, he's a heck of a racer. That said, did he not use a similar move on Joey Saldana at last year's Nationals? I applaud Shilling for hanging in there and racing hard for a trip to the A Main. Just a racing deal.

Pretty good crowd early last night, although it thinned quite a bit by features time. I think there were many who came for the IRL weekend looking for something to do last night. Most of them didn't hang around for the whole show. An interesting mix of young and old last night in the stands. Seemed like more youth than normal and a lot of older fans who probably came for the midgets.

The track was tacky and very fast throughout the night, maybe almost too fast and narrow. But still pretty good. I thought both features were good, although the last yellow may have flown too quickly in the sprint feature. Really tough night for Alley. Tough night for Gharst as he seemed under-powered all night on the fast track.

Midgets had a good show for the B's and Feature. Plenty of passing back in the field and good racing for the transfer spots. Stenhouse was outstanding, as was Kevin Swindell. Tough break for Hagen and I think he and Coons would have given Ricky all he could handle if there had been all green racing the last 10 laps.

From what we can see the Shilling team is on a pretty limited budget and the Racing Farmers (Antill) are just there trying to have some fun. Gharst has the big buck sponsorship 2's and 3's of everything  plus a back up car and seems to want to crash anyone that beats him after the checkers. I seem to remember this immature fit thrower got a little "law enforcement" escort out of Little Rock last fall for the same actions. Maybe Knoxville Raceway needs to give him the same treatment before he destroys a couple of low buck teams that the track really needs weekly for a full field. I also seem to remember Gharst crashing the  Lucas Oil 10 car twice last year with his out of control moves and maybe a little visit from the Melcher "Mauler" sometime to adjust his attitude could prove beneficial to all.

R.A.

S.H.S.