Sixty-four cars blew into Knoxville, literally, Thursday for the opening night of the 8th Annual Lucas Oil Late Model Nationals at the fabled half-mile oval. With the passing of a cold front earlier in the day, sustained winds out of the northwest howled between thirty and forty miles per hour early in the evening before “calming" to fifteen to twenty after the sun went down. The winds were so strong that at least two vehicles suffered minor damage in the parking lot behind the grandstand when a tree limb was blown down. Thankfully the temperatures were still in the sixties and despite the windy conditions the racetrack held its moisture and the action was intense until the final ten laps of the main event as Jimmy Owens pulled away for the opening night victory.
As the second car out for qualifying Scott Bloomquist established the quick time and then shocked this scribe when he was the first car to report to staging for the first heat race. If you have watched “Black Sunshine” over the years you will know how unusual this is! He obviously knew that he had the setup dialed in as he steadily picked his way to the front after starting tenth and passed Chris Simpson with two laps remaining to take an impressive win. Chad Simpson followed his brother in for third while Brad Neat transferred to the A-main in fourth.
The second heat got off to rough start when Bub McCool and John Duty made contact in turn two sending McCool sideways in the middle of the track in front of the entire field. Matt Furman drilled McCool in the right-side door and nearly rolled him over while four other cars made contact as well bringing out the red flag. None of the drivers were injured with McCool, Furman and Mike Marlar unable to restart. As the second fastest qualifier for the evening Brian Birkhofer originally started tenth, but found himself outside of row two when the green flag waved again and by the time the field exited turn two Birky was in the lead. There was no catching Birkhofer as he cruised to the win while Will Vaught chased down and passed Shannon Babb for second late in the twelve-lap distance. Eric Wells qualified in fourth.
Late Model fans here in the Midwest have perhaps heard a lot about nineteen-year-old Austin Hubbard, and he introduced himself in fine fashion here in the third heat race when the youngster from Delaware passed Billy Moyer on the final lap to take the win. Hubbard was the third fastest qualifier and was slated to start tenth, but slid up a row when Billy Moyer Jr. did not make the call. The driver who swept all three nights here last year, Moyer finished second followed by Scott James and Jimmy Owens.
The fourth heat race saw the quickest qualifier on the grid Steve Francis drive from his fifth row start to go past John Blankenship late to take the win. Former Nationals winner Brian Shirley qualified in third with Dan Schlieper taking fourth.
The trend of the fastest qualifier in each heat racing his way to victory came to a screeching halt early in the fifth heat when Don O’Neal suffered front-end damage during an accordion effect incident in turn two ending his evening. The battle for the lead was a good one between Jason Utter and Jimmy Mars, but when Mars passed Utter down the front stretch, Jason went into turn one too hard and drilled the outside guardrail. The red flag waved as Utter’s #31 required a rollback to be returned to the pit area and despite a sore arm the driver was uninjured. Once back to green Mars drove away for the win followed by Dale McDowell, Darrell Lanigan and Jason Rauen. Lanigan was behind the wheel of the #1 car normally wheeled by Josh Richards as the young phenom is competing in a NASCAR Truck Series race this weekend.
The scheduled lineup for the C-Main was stacked, but several drivers either couldn’t make repairs in time, or just decided to wait until Friday to take another shot at posting a good point total as a big shuffle had to be made before turning the field loose. With four cars poised to transfer to the back of the B-Main, this was a good one with a great battle up front including some lapped traffic for extra excitement. Ray Cook looked as though he would run away with this one only to have Jack Sullivan close in on him late. Then, with laps winding down, Chris Spieker came out of nowhere to make it a three-car battle for the lead. Spieker was leading the first heat earlier in the night before he slapped the turn four guardrail and he found his speed once again here making a great pass of Cook and Sullivan in traffic to take the lead and the eventual win. Sullivan would put the GRT house car in second with Cook finishing third, and it was Dave Eckrich edging out Mike Fryer at the line to take fourth.
The B-Main saw plenty of action as well as the final four starters in tonight’s main event would be determined here. In his first-ever appearance at Knoxville, Kent Robinson looked strong early before yielding to Jason Feger and Tim McCreadie and Iowa driver Rob Moss was running a strong fourth before the caution waved with four laps remaining. It was a tough break for Moss as before that he looked to be a lock for that final transfer spot, but on the restart both Jared Landers and Tyler Reddick went charging by. Feger would go on for the win ahead of McCreadie while the 15-year-old “California Kid” Reddick would take third. Landers was all over the track in the final two laps, but managed to hold off Robinson for fourth.
During the break it seemed like the consensus pick to win the 25-lap A-main was Darrell Lanigan who would start from the outside of row one and it was no surprise when he launched the Rocket house car to the early lead. Second row starter Jimmy Owens kept pace and following a caution for a slowing Steve Francis on lap seven, Owens drove past Lanigan for the lead. Lanigan fought back and moved to the front two laps later and on lap twelve Owens again made the move to the front. Jason Rauen spun in turn four on the following lap and as the field was set for the restart the top five were Owens, Lanigan, Austin Hubbard, Brian Birkhofer and Shannon Babb. Once back to green, and with Owens now pulling away, the field settled into the low groove for the final ten laps and that top five remained the same to the checkers with Owens taking his first career victory at Knoxville. Scott James finished in the sixth spot, Billy Moyer made a nice run up from sixteenth to seventh, Will Vaught finished eighth, Scott Bloomquist faded early and then came back to take ninth while Dale McDowell completed the top ten.
It was an entertaining opening night for the three-day event and Late Model fans headed for Knoxville should see plenty more action tonight and Saturday!
Before the show I was thrilled to have the opportunity to shake the hand of long-time Knoxville Race Director/Promoter Ralph Capitani and wish him well in his retirement. In all my years of being around racing I have never seen a promoter command the attention and respect that “Cappy” did when he entered a room, he is truly an icon in this sport who will be missed.
No comments:
Post a Comment