Thursday night's opener of the Lucas Oil Knoxville Late Model Nationals provided perhaps the best racing that I have seen in 2015 and it was no surprise when good friend Barry Johnson gave me the report on both Friday and Saturday that the racing action continued to be top notch in what should now be considered one of the top five events in Dirt Late Model racing. I had to get reports from Barry though because I had agreed to fill in on the microphone for Tony Paris at the Midwest Bottom Heavy Nationals at the Scotland County Speedway in Memphis, Missouri, and if you are going to miss Knoxville, it might as well be at one of the widest race tracks that you will find in the Midwest.
Friday night's action was very good with the Hobby Stocks setting the bar high as the first of five features to hit the speedway. Five drivers raced for the lead throughout the 16-lap distance with seldom more than three car-lengths spanning from first to fifth. In the end it was August Bach putting the car normally driven by Bill Bonnett in victory lane for his first win of the season. Tony Dunker would hold off Logan Anderson to win the sport Mod feature while Mike Hughes fought off David Brandies to win in the Stock Cars. Shaun Slaughter topped a field of 21 Sport Compacts and Kyle Brown led Tommy Elston to the checkers in the Modifieds.
A few from Friday's roster did not return, but there were enough extra entries on Saturday to take the car count up from 112 to 116 and the track was even racier on the second night. Bach was fast again before he pulled to the infield with mechanical issues and Mike Hughes recovered from a last lap spin the night before to put his Hobby Stock in victory lane after taking the lead away from Dane Blozovich. The Sport Mod feature was a thriller with Logan Anderson edging out Tony Dunker by inches at the checkers to reverse the finish from the night before. Brandon Lennox finished third while John Oliver Jr. edged out Tony Olson in a another photo finish for fourth. Shaun Slaughter dominated for his third Sport Compact win in four nights as he also won on Wednesday night in Oskaloosa and the Stock Cars and Modifieds closed out the night in grand fashion with a pair of thrillers.
Four different drivers held the lead in the first four laps of the Stock Car main event before David Brandies came from seventh to the lead on lap five. Brandies would hug the bottom line and lap four leader Jeff Mueller would pull even with him with three laps remaining, but he could not compete the pass as Brandies took the win. Steve Stewart looked like he had the Modified finale well in hand until Ronn Lauritzen applied the pressure just past the mid-race mark. Lauritzen would take the lead, and soon Kyle Brown would join the fray and those three would wage an entertaining battle until the checkers waved over Brown for the second night in a row. Those of you who use Facebook can watch this video of the Modified main from Kyle Brown's page.
In that video you will see a car #28 that you might not recognize and that is the car that Jim Redman from Lockridge traded for his Stock Car during the Super Nationals. Redman said that it was his first time driving a Modified in about eight years and he was impressive winning his heat and running third on Friday night and then trailing the lead trio on Saturday night. Another "new" Modified to the area is the red #45 of Tommy Elston. The veteran driver from Keokuk started his career in the old Pro Stock division at 34 Raceway before making his way into the Late Model ranks running both the open cars and the IMCA rules package over the years. With the nearest IMCA sanctioned Late Model track now over 100 miles from home he has settled into the Modified and look for him to be an immediate contender if he continues to run the Fall specials.
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| Tommy Elston at Osakloosa's season championship - Photo courtesy of Troy Powers 20/20 Racing Page |
And that next Fall special with promoter Mike Van Genderen at the helm will be the annual Musco Fall Challenge this Friday and Saturday October 2nd and 3rd at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa. I am hoping that I can be there for the Friday night program.
Besides the great racing at Knoxville there were two interesting news items coming out of the Late Model Nationals. First was Thursday's announcement by Billy Moyer that he would not run a "full-time" schedule in 2016. At age fifty-eight and with over 800 career feature wins to his credit the native Iowan will stay active in the sport as a car builder and you can bet that there will be some R&D appearances from time to time. Just how many, or how few remains to be seen.
The other big announcement was the date change for next year's Knoxville Late Model Nationals being a week earlier on September 15th, 16th and 17th. According to Ritchie Lewis with the Lucas Oil Late Model series the change will grant Knoxville's wish of moving up earlier on the calendar, plus it will provide more separation from the World 100 for the annual Jackson 100 in Brownstown, Indiana, that will now follow Knoxville rather than precede it on the Lucas Oil Late Model series schedule. This of course now presents a dilemma for two of our area's big annual events as the World Championships at Marshalltown and the Yankee Dirt Classic in Farley will have to decide if they want to run up against Knoxville in 2016 or move to the weekend that the event now vacates. We all know which weekend had the better weather this year......
Of course if they do change dates then they will be on top of the Fall Jamboree at Deer Creek and the Bottom Heavy Nationals in Memphis, etc., etc., and there will always be people who will say what they should or shouldn't do. The bottom line is that we have a bunch of race tracks in our region and many of them have Fall specials. There is always going to be a "conflicting" race on the schedule and each promoter should go with the date that they feel gives them the best chance for success. And, there is nothing wrong with changing your date once you see what everybody else comes out with.
Keep an eye out on Positively Racing as we are very excited to be adding another new blogger very soon, a Super writer who will offer up his point of view as a Fan who travels to many different tracks across the country spanning nearly all twelve months of the calendar. Hopefully we will have him linked up to the home page soon!
Take a jacket and visit a special event of your choice this weekend!
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