Hey, Jonathan Davenport won the feature on the opening night of the Lucas Oil Knoxville Late Model Nationals Thursday. And yes, he started from the front row of the 25-lap main event so no real surprise here. But what if I told you that he had to makes a pass for the lead with just over a lap remaining in the race to win it? Yes, this was a fantastic night of racing topped off by a thrilling finish where nearly every body's pick to win it all this weekend did nothing to change any body's mind.
Sixty-three Late Models signed in on opening night and that number will now dwindle into the fifties as one driver will head back into the world of Sprint Cars and at least two others have race cars that are no longer able to be driven without major repairs, but more on that later.
With the field divided into two qualifying groups it was a bit of a surprise when California's Jason Papich ran the best lap in group one. Soon after it looked like Chad Simpson would do the state of Iowa proud by not only having the best lap in group two, but also the fastest lap of the night. However, the last driver out to time and, on his second lap nonetheless, Jared Landers wowed the crowd with a lap of 17.280 to steal both of those honors away from Simpson.
With eight cars inverted in each of the six heat races I will challenge you to show me any other event in big-time Dirt Late Model racing that provides the excitement that this one does as drivers must make their way into the top three in just twelve laps to make the transfer into A-Main. These races themselves provide more action than you will see in a feature race at most places and following were some highlights from each.
Canadian Ricky Weiss who has 22 feature wins to his credit this season, mostly in WISSOTA sanctioned events, introduced himself to the Knoxville crowd with an amazing three-wide move that vaulted him to the second spot behind winner Earl Pearson Jr. Don O' Neal finally worked his way around A.J. Diemel coming to the white flag to take the third and final transfer while Papich struggled to a seventh-place finish landing him in the C-Main.
Holy cow, what got into Joel Callahan?? The Dubuque, Iowa, driver who runs in the IMCA Late Model division with spec heads had a bullet under the hood tonight and walked away with the win in heat two by a full straightaway. North central Illinois regional racer Rich Bell and part-timer Kent Robinson held off a pair of heavyweights in Darrell Lanigan and Shannon Babb to finish second and third.
Two of the best in the business right now, Scott Bloomquist and Mike Marlar were in heat race number three, but neither of them would find their way into the top three. Wisconsin's Mitch McGrath got sideways on the cushion in turn one on the opening lap and Bloomquist had to stand on the brakes to keep from making contact setting "Black Sunshine" well behind as the field raced down the Back Stretch. Marlar had moved into fourth and was ready to challenge for third late in the race when a puff of smoke came from his #157 entering turn one. His pace slowed as he continued on for two laps before finally pulling to the infield. Jimmy Owens was bad fast though as he came all the way from seventh to take the win ahead of Morgan Bagley and Chris Simpson. Dale McDowell was running second early when he went too low at the exit of turn four and the inside berm caused the left front of his car to rise high in the air. He lost two spots right away and then later retired to the pits, perhaps with some steering issues from the incident.
Chad Simpson had the fifth heat race well in hand until the caution waved for the fourth-place car of Tim McCreadie who slowed to a stop with just two laps remaining. On the restart Texas driver Chris Brown, who has made the jump from Modifieds to Late Models nicely, charged past Simpson to take the win while Steve Francis also used the late restart to get around Tim Lance who is racing as a teammate to Jason Feger this weekend for the final transfer.
The sixth and final heat saw Josh Richards charge out to a big lead only to have the seventh starting Jonathan Davenport reel him in over the closing laps. Davenport would throw a slider at the leader in turns three and four on the final lap, but Richards did not flinch and held on to take the win while just behind them Billy Moyer Jr. used the cushion to drive around Brandon Sheppard off of turn four the final time to steal third.
Race series and promoters who run special events that draw big car counts, please note the following. Up next was the progression of the D-Main, C-Main and B-Main, there will be no "three B-Mains" here at Knoxville where you stand the risk of having unbalanced fields from either a quality standpoint, a car count (due to attrition) standpoint, or both (are you listening Deery Brothers, HDT, MVG, etc.?) but instead the drivers who finished tenth on back in the heats ran the D-Main where the top four would advance to the C. From the C-Main, where drivers who finished seventh, eighth and ninth in the heats were qualified, four more drivers would advance to the B, and from that B-Main the top six finishers, or the most deserving of the bunch, would fill out the twenty-four car starting field for the main event.
I have said it before and I am saying it again: One B-Main, period.
The D-Main saw the scariest incident of the night when Paul Glendenning slid sideways in turn one and stalled in the high groove. Iowa's Greg Cox who was running his first open motor Late Model event ever must not have seen the disabled car as he charged into turn one at full song, came up the track a bit and clipped the nose of Glendenning's car with his right rear. The contact vaulted Cox's car into the air and he went for a couple of hard rollovers before stopping upside down entering turn two. Thankfully Greg was okay and it brought back some scary memories of when we saw him sheer a Modified car in half hitting the track entrance gate on the front stretch at the Iowa State Fairgrounds several years ago.
Once back to racing you had to be impressed with Denny Eckrich who drove around the national star Dale McDowell to take the lead and the eventual win.
R.C. Whitwell who qualified well, but struggled in heat would lead the C-Main early only to drop out soon after he was passed by Mike Marlar. Jason Papich would redeem himself by finishing second to Marlar while Dave Eckrich was third and Sprint Car star Donny Schatz held on for the fourth and final transfer in his one night here as he will now join the World of Outlaws for their two-day show at Eldora Speedway.
Although the names that will be included might make you think otherwise, this next paragraph is about that one B-Main where you had to be in the top six to make the night's qualifying feature. Former World of Outlaws Late Model champion Darrell Lanigan would score the win ahead of multi-time UMP Summer Nationals king Shannon Babb. The night's fastest qualifier, Jared Landers would hold down third while Scott Bloomquist would finish fourth. The final two transfer spots would be determined after a caution was needed for Eddie Carrier Jr. who found the guardrail on the Back Stretch with five laps to go. Before that caution Iowa's Jason Rauen had fifth well in hand while Jimmy Mars and former non-wing Sprint Car driver Matt Westfall were racing for sixth.
On the restart Westfall slapped the guardrail exiting turn two allowing Mars to drive by and as Mars battled with Rauen a couple of laps later Jason would jump the cushion and spin in turn four taking contact from Justin Kay. On the restart it looked as though Mason Ziegler would hold down the final transfer spot, but having lost out on a transfer in a similar fashion during his heat race, Brandon Sheppard charged off the high side of turn four to nip Ziegler at the stripe.
With the top eight in points inverted for the feature line-up, that landed Ricky Weiss and Jonathan Davenport on the front row for the 25-lap headliner. There was no surprise that Davenport would race out to a sizable advantage and, following the only caution of the race on lap six when Mars could not get to the infield with mechanical issues, it was also no surprise when Weiss would fall victim to a Don O'Neal slide job with contact dropping him back several positions. Following the restart the sixth-starter Jimmy Owens was now able to maintain the fast pace of Davenport. As the race wore on both drivers were entering the turns in the middle and then driving up to the cushion for some extra bite at the exit of both turns two and four. And, when a lapped car running that cushion slowed up Davenport just enough in turn four, Owens stayed in the middle and drove under "Superman" to take the lead on lap nineteen.
Owens looked like he might pull away over the final six laps, especially when he was able to place another lapped car between himself and Davenport as Jonathan was forced to enter turn one on the cushion rather than his favored line in order to dispose of the traffic. What he found though was that the top line suited his car better and within two laps he was right back in contention. As starter Doug Clark prepared to wave the white flag for the leaders, Davenport grabbed the cushion with all that he had in turn three and then rode it around Owens before the leader could get to the top himself in turn four to regain the advantage and, one lap later, the win. Owens would take second with O'Neal a straightaway back in third, Earl Pearson Jr. would finish in the fourth spot ahead of Chris Brown in fifth. Sixth would go to Dennis Erb Jr., Scott Bloomquist would rally from 22nd to seventh, the Simpsons, Chad and Chris would run eighth and ninth respectively while Jared Landers came from deep in the field to finish tenth.
Despite the swap in the final laps it is Owens who scored the most points on Thursday ahead of Davenport, O'Neal, Brown and Chad Simpson.
If you are a Late Model fan then there is absolutely no doubt where you need the be this weekend as they will run this format once again on Friday night with drivers using their best point total from one of the two qualifying nights to set the field for the grand finale on Saturday.
While I regret not being able to be in Knoxville the next two nights, I do look forward to handling the announcing duties at the Scotland County Speedway's Bottom Heavy Nationals the next two nights filling in for Tony Paris. And you can bet that I will later be checking in with Ron Meyer's "The Rest of the Dirt" blog to get his insights on his weekend at Knoxville with his son Matt. Visiting with the two of them was the perfect way to start off a great night of racing action Thursday night!
There is a lot going on this weekend, even beyond Knoxville and Memphis, and the weather looks fantastic for the final weekend in September, so get out and enjoy a race of your choice!
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