Friday, July 18, 2014

Ableson and Lowry Top Large Fields At The Harris Clash

The 23rd edition of the annual Harris Clash at the Knoxville Raceway proved once again that it is the premier one-night show for Modified drivers and fans. Eighty IMCA Modifieds and sixty IMCA Northern Sport Mods somehow crammed into the infield and a solid crowd gathered on a near perfect Thursday evening in July for central Iowa and what followed was over four hours of non-stop racing action, well.....outside of a few on-track incidents.

A field of twenty-seven Modifieds lined up for the twenty-five lap finale of the evening and 2011 Harris Clash winner Eric Dailey was a part of much of the early story lines. Dailey drew the pole position and as the green flag waved his fellow front row starter Aaron Turnbull and he quickly separated themselves from the rest of the field. Turnbull and Dailey already had a half straightaway advantage on the pack as they raced into turn three on lap two, but that was when the first caution waved as Cory Wray nosed hard into the turn two guardrail.

Withe the Delaware-style double file restarts being used, Dailey chose the inside position of the first row behind the leader and when the green flag waved his #7 was slow to come up to speed and he dropped back to fifth before getting to turn one. Now back up to speed Dailey pedaled hard down the back stretch trying to make up the ground that he had just lost, but when Ryan Ruter had to check up for just a second in turn three, Dailey drove into the back of him and flattened a tire causing Ruter to stop and pull the caution.

As Ruter's crew scrambled to change the tire and repair the body damage before rejoining the back of the field, Dailey again lined up on the low side of the first double row and once again his car faltered briefly as the green flag waved. This time Richie Gustin made contact with Dailey as he tried to dodge him on the front stretch. Despite the damage Gustin was now up to second and chased the leader Turnbull down the back stretch only to have a tire go down just as he entered turn three. With Gustin slowing on the high side the green light stayed on and as Dailey raced off of turn four, again his car lost speed for moment and that sent the rest of the pack scrambling to get around him. Mayhem ensued as two-time defending champion Kyle Strickler and early hard chargers Colt Mather, Todd Shute and Jesse Sobbing collided with Strickler nearly going upside down. Strickler's car ended up near the guardrail at the entrance to turn one while Mather and Sobbing had their cars locked together up against the railing midway down the front stretch. Sobbing who had already advanced six spots from his ninth row starting position gingerly climbed from his car and limped back to the pits as the Hewitt's wrecker crew went to work on trying to figure out how to separate the two tangled Modifieds.

During the lengthy red Dailey went to the pits with obvious mechanical issues and Strickler, with the assistance of crew members of several other drivers, somehow made enough repairs on his damaged car to allow him to again join the field as they thundered back to green. The caution immediately waved again though when Kevin Stoa spun in turn two and both Strickler and Ruter returned to the work area for one last chance at repairs. Once back to green the Canadian Turnbull had a new set of challengers headed up by Kurt Kile who is no stranger to fast half-miles as he races every Saturday night at the West Liberty Raceway. Kile would keep Turnbull honest, but could never mount a full challenge while some of the fastest laps during this green flag segment were being posted by the crippled cars of Strickler and Ruter.

The caution waved again with nine laps remaining when Jacob Murray stopped in turn three and as the field lined up for the restart there was a new contender to be considered. Chris Ableson had started next to Jesse Sobbing in row nine and the Sioux City driver who last year saw his Harris Clash bid come to an early ending when he flipped in hot laps was now sitting in the fifth position. Ableson quickly moved to third on the restart and then two laps later he powered past Kile for the second spot. "Sioux City Excitement" was not done yet though as he drove past Turnbull on lap twenty and then pulled away over the final five laps to score his first Harris Clash title in impressive fashion.

Turnbull crossed the line in second, but then came up too light at the scales so he was disqualified giving the official runner-up honors to current Hawkeye Dirt Tour point leader Mike Van Genderen. Kile would collect third-place money, Luke Wanninger was fourth after starting sixteenth and somehow Strickler brought his #8 home in fifth. Making up the rest of the top ten were Jeff Stephens, Andrew Schroeder, Levi Nielsen, Jeff Joldersma and Ryan Ruter. Provisional starter Jay Noteboom came from 27th to finish eleventh.

Twenty-four of the best Sport Mod drivers anywhere took the green for twenty-laps and $1,000-to-win with Dustin Crist of St. Joseph, Missouri, pulling out to the early advantage. Things got wild just after the first lap was scored though when Dylan Book turned hard to the right and made contact with the front stretch railing just before the flagstand. Book's car ended up sideways just entering turn one and when some of the drivers atthe back were still racing hard toward the cushion Mike Stark made heavy contact with Book and then collected Matt Lettow.

Accident cleanup took several minutes and during that time something must have happened with the leader's car as Crist could not re-fire and had to be pushed back into the infield. This would now put Brett Lowry on the point for the restart and he took full advantage of the opportunity. While the field shuffled for position behind him, Lowry eased away from them lap by lap and when the checkered flag waved he enjoyed a full straightaway advantage. Cody Olsen methodically worked his way from fifth to second over the final six laps with Ty Luellen finishing in third. Matthew Looft would finish in the fourth spot, Minnesota driver Jerry Boumeester was fifth, Bob Sutherland finished where he started in sixth and seventh went to Taylor Musselman. Jim Gillenwater drew the very back of his heat and raced his way forward all night to take eighth in the feature, Clint Luellen was ninth and Ryan Fullenkamp completed the top ten.

You can click here for a full run down of results on the Knoxville Raceway website that was being manned last night by our Positively Racing colleague Eric Arnold.

With the huge car count, the two red-flag incidents, the extra division with the Dirt Trucks and surprisingly not using the "one-spin and you're in" rule during qualifying races, the show ran late with the final checkers waving around 11:40. But as usual the quality of racing made up for the extra time that needed to be invested to see it and we will once again look forward to the 2015 Harris Clash!

With forty-two nights of racing already in the book for 2014 and having been at the track on six of the past seven nights I am now going to take a break with my next "scheduled" event being the opening night of the Arnold Motor Supply 360 Knoxville Nationals on Thursday July 31st. That is unless Morgan is successful in convincing his mother that the three of us should return to Knoxville again this Saturday night. :)

Keep checking in on the Back Stretch though for news and notes on what is going on in racing around the area and I do hope that you will be at the track enjoying the races again soon!

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