I have always felt that the two qualifying nights at the Knoxville Nationals are the most dramatic nights in dirt track racing and this year definitely supported that theory as Thursday’s show was again full of storylines.
First of all, how about this for irony? The 50th edition of the Knoxville Nationals had fifty cars sign in on Wednesday night, and fifty cars again for Thursday night.
Steve Kinser posted the fastest time in qualifying and then wasted no time moving into a qualifying position in the first heat where he wound up third behind Ricky Logan and Stevie Smith. With the most points going into the A-Main, Kinser lined up eighth but was never a factor as he finished the race in 11th putting him fifth overall on the final points list.
Kinser’s Tony Stewart Racing teammate, Donny Schatz, qualified seventh and then got an incredible jump on the start of the second heat to go from row four to third through the first two corners. Schatz was then able to slip by Dean Jacobs on a late restart to take second and it looked like his drive for five straight championships was well on its way. We’ll tell you more about how things went for Donny in the feature further down the line.
Danny Lasoski was the second fastest qualifier on the evening, but pulled up lame with a blown motor early in the second heat race. “The Dude” came back to win the C-Main and he then raced from 21st to 12th in the B-Main. On a night that started out so well, Lasoski’s 399 points ranked 42nd overall landing him in Saturday’s C-Main.
In heat race number three Lance Dewease and Rager Phillips wanted to make sure that everybody felt like they were getting their money’s worth as the two drivers swapped the lead back and forth at least six times before Dewease shut the door on Phillips to take the win. Greg Hodnett moved past Phillips with a lap to go for second.
The fourth heat got off to a tough start when Sam Hafertepe Jr. and Greg Wilson collided off of turn two sending both cars to the pits. The red flag appeared again on lap four when the right rear tire on Paul McMahan’s #91 shredded in turn three and he crashed hard. Once back to green “The Wild Child” fans celebrated as Jac Haudenschild ran away with the victory.
Sammy Swindell and Brian Brown started from row four in the fifth heat and while Brown moved quickly toward the front on the opening lap, Swindell faded to ninth. Two laps later it looked like Sammy was not going anywhere, but then something clicked and the Big Game Tree Stands #1 hooked up and started passing a car a lap. It has been a long time since I have seen a driver fade at the start only to come back and race his way to the front and with a caution on lap eight that was all the Swindell needed to pass Luke Hall on the restart for the win.
Tim Kaeding, who dropped out of the first heat with a sick motor, and Hafertepe waged a thrilling battle behind Lasoski in the C-Main with Kaeding taking the second transfer ticket to the B-Main. “TK” then made a strong run from row eleven to finish sixth garnering enough points to make him the 50th and final automatic “transfer” to Saturday’s show.
McMahan recovered nicely from his wreck to finish second in the B-Main behind Ian Madsen who appeared to smoke a motor at the checkers. Dusty Zomer was third while the battle for the fourth and final transfer position gave the crowd a thrill. Josh Schneiderman was running the cushion in fourth when Tyler Walker threw a slider at him with two laps remaining. Schneiderman maintained his composure and when Walker went to the bottom in three and four on the final lap, Josh rode the cushion off of turn four and then held his foot to the floor as Walker drifted up the track down the front stretch. The two made contact just before the finish line with Schneiderman taking the position by a car-length.
On the first attempt to start the A-Main Mark Shirshekan spun and on the second try Ohio driver Luke Hall took a tumble in turn one. The third attempt stuck as Swindell passed pole-sitter Skip Jackson coming off of turn four to take the lead on lap one. Donny Schatz soon moved to second and picked up the chase on Sammy with the two pulling even through heavy lapped traffic. Swindell made a nice move to pin Schatz behind a slower car in turn one and then pulled away apparently headed for a convincing victory. On the final lap though, as Sammy was racing down the backstretch the right rear tire went flat on Mike Moore’s car in turn three and the caution waved setting up a green-white-checkered restart. Swindell had a great jump on Schatz on the restart and the crowd was cheering on Skip Jackson who was making a run at Schatz for second on the final lap before the caution waved again for Moore who had spun in turn three. While under caution it became obvious why Swindell got such a jump on Schatz as the right rear tire on the four-time defending Nationals champion was losing air and he was doing everything he could during the caution laps to try to keep some air pressure in it.
This time it would be just a one-lap run and as Sammy pulled away for the win, Schatz was a sitting duck for Skip Jackson and Brian Brown. Both drivers worked around Schatz down the back straightaway and then when Jackson’s car ran out of fuel off of turn four Brown pulled ahead to take second and tabulate more qualifying points than anybody else. Skip held on for third while Stevie Smith nipped Schatz at the line for fourth. While it was a disappointing finish for Schatz he was lucky that he did not need another lap as the tire exploded in turn one. The crowd went crazy with Sammy’s win and Donny’s misfortune, an exact opposite reaction that you would have heard here not that long ago.
Six drivers, Brown, Swindell, Greg Hodnett, Schatz, Kinser and Daryn Pittman tallied more points tonight than Wednesday’s top point man Tim Shaffer. Shane Stewart is eighth, Jason Johnson ninth and Dale Blaney tenth while the remaining ten drivers who are locked into Saturday’s A-Main are Kerry Madsen, Skip Jackson, Lynton Jeffrey, Jason Sides, Dusty Zomer, Davey Heskin, Chad Kemenah, Joey Saldana, Erin Crocker and Brandon Wimmer. Interesting to note that of the twenty A-Main qualifiers five are Knoxville track regulars while five are World of Outlaw regulars.
Fans were also treated tonight to a feature race by the flat track motorcycles and the Legend Cars. The motorcycles will be in action here at Knoxville on September 17th and 18th so tonight served as a bit of a teaser for that event. I believe that the Legend Car race had something to do with raising money for peace officers who have been injured on duty, however the organizers of this event did not provide a single bit of information to the trio of announcers. So, by default, nobody in the stands knew what the heck was going on either. Hopefully they raised some money for their cause though!
Outlaw drivers Jason Meyers, Lucas Wolfe, Kraig Kinser and Sam Hafertepe are all on the list to compete in Friday’s Non-Qualifer program, plus the three Scrambles and the World Challenge should make for another interesting night of action at Knoxville.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Knoxville Nationals Night One Notes and Observations
Opening night of the 50th Goodyear Knoxville Nationals may have been one of the most topsy-turvy qualifying nights in the history of Sprint Car racing’s premier event. Tim Shaffer has been on a hot streak over the past two weeks here in the Midwest and he continued that tonight when he set quick time out of the fifty contenders on Wednesday night. Shaffer failed to transfer out of the first heat race though when young David Gravel threw a nasty block on him into turn three on the final lap to hold on to the fourth and final transfer spot. Shaffer would later come back to win the B-Main and he then moved from 21st to tenth in the feature, good enough to sit at the top of the points list after night number one with 470 markers. Even though he was the best on this night, Shaffer could still end up third or fourth after Thursday qualifiers are locked in if that show goes a little more “normal” than tonight.
The drama started as the green flag flew on the first heat race when Kraig Kinser drove up over the left rear of Johnny Herrerra down the front stretch. Kinser somehow kept the car on all fours, but his crew could not make complete repairs prior to the end of the pace car’s courtesy laps and Kraig would end up falling to the C-Main finishing ninth. Kinser had to battle Justin Henderson for the win in the “C” and he could only move up to 14th in the B-Main to complete a disappointing night ranked 32nd in points.
While only one driver who started in the quick qualifier row, row four, was able to get into the top four to transfer out of the A-Main from the five heats (we’ll talk more about her later), Mike Reinke sure proved that you could pass tonight driving by Trevor Green and Lee Sowell to take the win in heat number one.
Bob Weuve was running away with the second heat race before something broke on his #19 and he slammed hard into the turn three guardrail. After rolling a few times down the track, to add insult to injury Weuve was clipped by the right rear tire of Lucas Wolfe. Weuve crawled out of the wreckage and then rode back to his pit with infield announcer Mike Roberts. Roberts later reported that he had asked Weuve if he was okay and Bob’s response was a classic. “Was I okay before I got into the car?” Once back to green Aussies Max Dumesney and Lynton Jeffrey did battle for the win with Dumesney prevailing although most of the crowd was probably watching Outlaw regulars Craig Dollansky and Kerry Madsen race for fourth. Dollansky did a nice job of taking Madsen’s line away over the final laps to get the final transfer.
Pole-sitter Justin Henderson failed to come up to speed as the field took the green for heat race number three, but everybody kept their cool and the race stayed green. Chad Kemenah dominated for the win while the veteran Gary Wright held off Jason Johnson for the last transfer.
Heat four was halted for a three-car pileup that brought out the red when Don Droud Jr. ran into the back of a slower Domain Ramsey heading into turn one. Droud slid up the track and collected both Jack Dover and Cale Conley with Dover getting upside down. That would be the end of the night for Jack, while Conley made repairs and nearly caught Erin Crocker for the final transfer. By finishing fourth “The First Lady” became the only driver who qualified in the top ten to transfer directly out of a heat race and, by virtue of being the high point driver, Crocker would later start eighth in the A-Main. She finished 16th in that race and ended the night in tenth on the point sheet waiting to see how things shake out on Thursday night as in essence Erin is “on the bubble” right now as far as qualifying for Saturday’s Championship feature. By the way, it was Brad Sweet from the pole who won that fourth heat race.
Heat five saw Knoxville weekly star Mark Dobmeier run away with the win from the pole after posting a disappointing qualifying effort in 40th. Mark would later finish 15th in the A-Main, but with the low ranking on the qualifying chart his point total is only 26th on the list which could force him to race in Friday’s Non-Qualifiers show. Tony Bruce Jr. held off Jason Meyers to qualify in fourth.
The B-Main saw Joey Saldana come to life as he raced from sixth up to finish third behind Shaffer and Jason Johnson. Keep in mind that ten of the top eleven in qualifying were in this race and only four cars would advance on to the feature race, and let me tell you that race for fourth had everybody on the edge of their seats. Outlaw regulars Jason Meyers and Kerry Madsen were going at it over the final five laps and on the last trip down the back straightaway Madsen used the low groove to pull even with Meyers. With the last transfer position, and much needed additional points from the feature race on the line, Meyers pinched Madsen down the track forcing “The Madman” to make a decision. Kerry stomped the brakes and backed out of the tight situation saving both racecars, but lost the right to run the A-Main as well and he made sure that Meyers knew of his displeasure during the cool down lap. Meyers did a little gesturing of his own, then drove into the infield on the backstretch and went straight to his pits. One problem though is that you must report directly to the scales if you finish in a transfer position so Meyers was disqualified and was officially scored as the 20th-place finisher. Madsen would then move on to the feature where he raced his way up from 24th to seventh to end the night fourth on the points list with 464. It was a bitter pill to swallow for Meyers who, after coming close the past couple of years, had to be considered one of the pre-event favorites as he now sits 27th in the point standings and will likely be racing the Friday night show.
The A-Main was a good one with just one caution interrupting twenty-five laps of racing. Brandon Winner was out front early before Chad Kemenah stormed by on lap five. Shane Stewart who won here both Friday and Saturday during the 360 Nationals was on the move up from sixth and he caught Kemenah in lapped traffic with four laps remaining. Stewart made the pass and pulled away over the final two miles to take the $12,000 win. Craig Dollansky who qualified poorly in 27th and then had to hold on for dear life just to transfer out of his heat drove a solid race getting by Kemenah late for second. Weekly competitor Davey Heskin was impressive in fourth and Jason Sides took home fifth completing a very entertaining opening night at Knoxville.
Some new things at the 50th Nationals…..Porkchop, Legend Cars, Toby and The Clydesdales…..Porkchop is a clown who provided some entertainment during the breaks including the launching of a couple of stealth water balloons into the stands. After shooting a t-shirt just before it, fans tried to make the catch and the splash of water probably felt pretty good on this hot, sultry night……Several Legend Cars hot lapped during intermission and while everything seems to be hush, hush right now, I am thinking that we are going to see some celebrities and Cup drivers wheeling these cars in an exhibition race on Thursday night……Toby Kruse joined the booth announcing duo of Tony Bokhoven and Blake Anderson on the mic tonight. With T-Bok likely working the TV taping doing infield interviews on Saturday night for Speed, Toby and Blake will probably provide the call to the fans…..The Budweiser Clydesdales made a trip around the half-mile during intermission and the Knoxville Raceway Fire and Safety Crew was quick to “extinguish” a steamer on the front stretch.
Top Ten from Wednesday:
1. Tim Shaffer 470
2. Shane Stewart 470
3. Jason Johnson 468
4. Kerry Madsen 464
5. Lynton Jeffrey 461
6. Jason Sides 461
7. Davey Heskin 452
8. Chad Kemenah 452
9. Joey Saldana 447
10. Erin Crocker 445
The drama started as the green flag flew on the first heat race when Kraig Kinser drove up over the left rear of Johnny Herrerra down the front stretch. Kinser somehow kept the car on all fours, but his crew could not make complete repairs prior to the end of the pace car’s courtesy laps and Kraig would end up falling to the C-Main finishing ninth. Kinser had to battle Justin Henderson for the win in the “C” and he could only move up to 14th in the B-Main to complete a disappointing night ranked 32nd in points.
While only one driver who started in the quick qualifier row, row four, was able to get into the top four to transfer out of the A-Main from the five heats (we’ll talk more about her later), Mike Reinke sure proved that you could pass tonight driving by Trevor Green and Lee Sowell to take the win in heat number one.
Bob Weuve was running away with the second heat race before something broke on his #19 and he slammed hard into the turn three guardrail. After rolling a few times down the track, to add insult to injury Weuve was clipped by the right rear tire of Lucas Wolfe. Weuve crawled out of the wreckage and then rode back to his pit with infield announcer Mike Roberts. Roberts later reported that he had asked Weuve if he was okay and Bob’s response was a classic. “Was I okay before I got into the car?” Once back to green Aussies Max Dumesney and Lynton Jeffrey did battle for the win with Dumesney prevailing although most of the crowd was probably watching Outlaw regulars Craig Dollansky and Kerry Madsen race for fourth. Dollansky did a nice job of taking Madsen’s line away over the final laps to get the final transfer.
Pole-sitter Justin Henderson failed to come up to speed as the field took the green for heat race number three, but everybody kept their cool and the race stayed green. Chad Kemenah dominated for the win while the veteran Gary Wright held off Jason Johnson for the last transfer.
Heat four was halted for a three-car pileup that brought out the red when Don Droud Jr. ran into the back of a slower Domain Ramsey heading into turn one. Droud slid up the track and collected both Jack Dover and Cale Conley with Dover getting upside down. That would be the end of the night for Jack, while Conley made repairs and nearly caught Erin Crocker for the final transfer. By finishing fourth “The First Lady” became the only driver who qualified in the top ten to transfer directly out of a heat race and, by virtue of being the high point driver, Crocker would later start eighth in the A-Main. She finished 16th in that race and ended the night in tenth on the point sheet waiting to see how things shake out on Thursday night as in essence Erin is “on the bubble” right now as far as qualifying for Saturday’s Championship feature. By the way, it was Brad Sweet from the pole who won that fourth heat race.
Heat five saw Knoxville weekly star Mark Dobmeier run away with the win from the pole after posting a disappointing qualifying effort in 40th. Mark would later finish 15th in the A-Main, but with the low ranking on the qualifying chart his point total is only 26th on the list which could force him to race in Friday’s Non-Qualifiers show. Tony Bruce Jr. held off Jason Meyers to qualify in fourth.
The B-Main saw Joey Saldana come to life as he raced from sixth up to finish third behind Shaffer and Jason Johnson. Keep in mind that ten of the top eleven in qualifying were in this race and only four cars would advance on to the feature race, and let me tell you that race for fourth had everybody on the edge of their seats. Outlaw regulars Jason Meyers and Kerry Madsen were going at it over the final five laps and on the last trip down the back straightaway Madsen used the low groove to pull even with Meyers. With the last transfer position, and much needed additional points from the feature race on the line, Meyers pinched Madsen down the track forcing “The Madman” to make a decision. Kerry stomped the brakes and backed out of the tight situation saving both racecars, but lost the right to run the A-Main as well and he made sure that Meyers knew of his displeasure during the cool down lap. Meyers did a little gesturing of his own, then drove into the infield on the backstretch and went straight to his pits. One problem though is that you must report directly to the scales if you finish in a transfer position so Meyers was disqualified and was officially scored as the 20th-place finisher. Madsen would then move on to the feature where he raced his way up from 24th to seventh to end the night fourth on the points list with 464. It was a bitter pill to swallow for Meyers who, after coming close the past couple of years, had to be considered one of the pre-event favorites as he now sits 27th in the point standings and will likely be racing the Friday night show.
The A-Main was a good one with just one caution interrupting twenty-five laps of racing. Brandon Winner was out front early before Chad Kemenah stormed by on lap five. Shane Stewart who won here both Friday and Saturday during the 360 Nationals was on the move up from sixth and he caught Kemenah in lapped traffic with four laps remaining. Stewart made the pass and pulled away over the final two miles to take the $12,000 win. Craig Dollansky who qualified poorly in 27th and then had to hold on for dear life just to transfer out of his heat drove a solid race getting by Kemenah late for second. Weekly competitor Davey Heskin was impressive in fourth and Jason Sides took home fifth completing a very entertaining opening night at Knoxville.
Some new things at the 50th Nationals…..Porkchop, Legend Cars, Toby and The Clydesdales…..Porkchop is a clown who provided some entertainment during the breaks including the launching of a couple of stealth water balloons into the stands. After shooting a t-shirt just before it, fans tried to make the catch and the splash of water probably felt pretty good on this hot, sultry night……Several Legend Cars hot lapped during intermission and while everything seems to be hush, hush right now, I am thinking that we are going to see some celebrities and Cup drivers wheeling these cars in an exhibition race on Thursday night……Toby Kruse joined the booth announcing duo of Tony Bokhoven and Blake Anderson on the mic tonight. With T-Bok likely working the TV taping doing infield interviews on Saturday night for Speed, Toby and Blake will probably provide the call to the fans…..The Budweiser Clydesdales made a trip around the half-mile during intermission and the Knoxville Raceway Fire and Safety Crew was quick to “extinguish” a steamer on the front stretch.
Top Ten from Wednesday:
1. Tim Shaffer 470
2. Shane Stewart 470
3. Jason Johnson 468
4. Kerry Madsen 464
5. Lynton Jeffrey 461
6. Jason Sides 461
7. Davey Heskin 452
8. Chad Kemenah 452
9. Joey Saldana 447
10. Erin Crocker 445
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Kaeding Goes Two For Two Without The Wing In Iowa
“The One Night Stand For Fifteen Grand”, featuring the USAC non-wing sprint cars outran the nightly monsoon by a matter of minutes as Bud Kaeding took the checkered flag first in front of a large crowd. The fact that this event was even able to be run Tuesday night at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa is amazing given the torrential rains that fell here overnight both Sunday and Monday. But, with the hard work of all involved and headed up by promoter Terry McCarl, both Monday’s Front Row Challenge and Tuesday’s Ultimate Challenge were once again huge successes.
Twenty-seven cars were on hand tonight racing on a track that had no choice but to be heavy and it took its toll on drivers who pushed it beyond the limit. There were eight flips tonight involving seven cars and the majority of them came in turn one where a ridge developed on the approach to the cushion, so if a driver would set his right rear in this one wrong spot, he was either going to have to make a spectacular save or hang on for the ride. Fortunately in all eight flips the driver emerged unscathed.
The start of the thirty-lap feature saw both Bryan Clauson and Damion Gardner stumble on the entrance into turn one and, since they were starting on the first and second row respectively, their wheel hopping forced the rest of the field to scramble. Bill Rose and Chris Windom both went for the same piece of real estate and the two of them went for a tumble with Windom’s car shucking its tail tank in the process. As the safety crew took all proper precautions to remove the full tank of methanol from the racing surface, the crowd grew impatient as they could now see the air-to-ground lightning strokes to the north, the same direction that a now cooling wind had also increased from. On the restart it was Clauson who would move to the lead while Bud Kaeding, Sunday night’s winner at Knoxville, would move quickly from fourth to second. Kaeding was on a rail again tonight and applied the pressure on Clauson for several laps before completing the pass for the lead on lap eleven.
Clauson tried to keep pace in second, but he now had sixteen-year-old Kyle Larson closing in on him in third. At the mid-race point Larson looked like he was the fastest car on the track, but he hit the cushion in one and two too hard, bicycled and then went end-over-end a couple of times ending his night. Up until that point Larson had been undefeated as he won his heat race, his qualifying race and even the hula hoop contest during intermission edging out “The People’s Champ” Dave Darland. On the restart Clauson made a run on Kaeding and dove underneath him into turn one, but as the field went down the backstretch Robert Ballou went for a ride that thankfully involved more twirling than rolling. For Ballou it was his second rollover on the night as he also tipped over after running into a slowed Scotty Weir during his heat race.
On the next green flag Clauson again tried to mount a slider on Kaeding into turn one with no success as Bud opened up a big advantage heading down the backstretch. As the laps ticked away both Clauson and a now third running Levi Jones were able to make up ground on the leader, but there would be no catching Kaeding before the checkers waved. As the crowd started to scramble for their cars before the storm arrived, Kaeding did a couple of victory spins on the frontstretch and then climbed atop his car with the victory belt raised high in jubilation. Clauson and Jones would join Kaeding on the podium, Damion Gardner finished in the fourth spot while Darland passed Jerry Coons Jr. on the final lap to take fifth.
Osky UC Notes…..The night started with a tribute to the 2009 winner of this event Jesse Hockett. “The Rocket’s” father Jack brought his #77 car to the front stretch and several members of his family joined him as central Missouri based announcer Scotty Cook did a spectacular job of describing the life and the attitude of the fallen hero. It would have been tough to find a dry eye in the place….With Kaeding’s victory the Ultimate Challenge still does not have a two-time champion…..Besides Larson, another teenager from California caught our attention tonight as Keith Bloom Jr. was running strong before getting upside down in turn one during the third qualifying race. On the restart following Bloom’s mishap, one of the night’s favorites Jon Stanbrough was also bitten by the ridge in turn one…….Chris Morgan took perhaps the hardest ride of the night during the first qualifier, once again in turn one…..Henry Clarke will not look back fondly on his August trip to Iowa as mechanical problems once again ended his night before feature time just as they did at Knoxville on Sunday.
It all starts tonight! The 50th edition of the Knoxville Nationals sponsored this year by Goodyear. Check in here each day for random observations and news that we pick up as we once again have our block of tickets purchased in Section “I” and I will leave my notebook in the car so as not to have any adult beverages spilled upon it! You can always catch the full results as they happen on the Knoxville Raceway website and if you cannot attend in person, you can always listen live to our friends on Hoseheads Radio. Stay away rain, we’ve had enough!!!!
Twenty-seven cars were on hand tonight racing on a track that had no choice but to be heavy and it took its toll on drivers who pushed it beyond the limit. There were eight flips tonight involving seven cars and the majority of them came in turn one where a ridge developed on the approach to the cushion, so if a driver would set his right rear in this one wrong spot, he was either going to have to make a spectacular save or hang on for the ride. Fortunately in all eight flips the driver emerged unscathed.
The start of the thirty-lap feature saw both Bryan Clauson and Damion Gardner stumble on the entrance into turn one and, since they were starting on the first and second row respectively, their wheel hopping forced the rest of the field to scramble. Bill Rose and Chris Windom both went for the same piece of real estate and the two of them went for a tumble with Windom’s car shucking its tail tank in the process. As the safety crew took all proper precautions to remove the full tank of methanol from the racing surface, the crowd grew impatient as they could now see the air-to-ground lightning strokes to the north, the same direction that a now cooling wind had also increased from. On the restart it was Clauson who would move to the lead while Bud Kaeding, Sunday night’s winner at Knoxville, would move quickly from fourth to second. Kaeding was on a rail again tonight and applied the pressure on Clauson for several laps before completing the pass for the lead on lap eleven.
Clauson tried to keep pace in second, but he now had sixteen-year-old Kyle Larson closing in on him in third. At the mid-race point Larson looked like he was the fastest car on the track, but he hit the cushion in one and two too hard, bicycled and then went end-over-end a couple of times ending his night. Up until that point Larson had been undefeated as he won his heat race, his qualifying race and even the hula hoop contest during intermission edging out “The People’s Champ” Dave Darland. On the restart Clauson made a run on Kaeding and dove underneath him into turn one, but as the field went down the backstretch Robert Ballou went for a ride that thankfully involved more twirling than rolling. For Ballou it was his second rollover on the night as he also tipped over after running into a slowed Scotty Weir during his heat race.
On the next green flag Clauson again tried to mount a slider on Kaeding into turn one with no success as Bud opened up a big advantage heading down the backstretch. As the laps ticked away both Clauson and a now third running Levi Jones were able to make up ground on the leader, but there would be no catching Kaeding before the checkers waved. As the crowd started to scramble for their cars before the storm arrived, Kaeding did a couple of victory spins on the frontstretch and then climbed atop his car with the victory belt raised high in jubilation. Clauson and Jones would join Kaeding on the podium, Damion Gardner finished in the fourth spot while Darland passed Jerry Coons Jr. on the final lap to take fifth.
Osky UC Notes…..The night started with a tribute to the 2009 winner of this event Jesse Hockett. “The Rocket’s” father Jack brought his #77 car to the front stretch and several members of his family joined him as central Missouri based announcer Scotty Cook did a spectacular job of describing the life and the attitude of the fallen hero. It would have been tough to find a dry eye in the place….With Kaeding’s victory the Ultimate Challenge still does not have a two-time champion…..Besides Larson, another teenager from California caught our attention tonight as Keith Bloom Jr. was running strong before getting upside down in turn one during the third qualifying race. On the restart following Bloom’s mishap, one of the night’s favorites Jon Stanbrough was also bitten by the ridge in turn one…….Chris Morgan took perhaps the hardest ride of the night during the first qualifier, once again in turn one…..Henry Clarke will not look back fondly on his August trip to Iowa as mechanical problems once again ended his night before feature time just as they did at Knoxville on Sunday.
It all starts tonight! The 50th edition of the Knoxville Nationals sponsored this year by Goodyear. Check in here each day for random observations and news that we pick up as we once again have our block of tickets purchased in Section “I” and I will leave my notebook in the car so as not to have any adult beverages spilled upon it! You can always catch the full results as they happen on the Knoxville Raceway website and if you cannot attend in person, you can always listen live to our friends on Hoseheads Radio. Stay away rain, we’ve had enough!!!!
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Things Are Heating Up In the All Iowa Points Chase
Just like the weather, the battles for the top of the All Iowa Points standings has heated up here in August in several divisions. And, with only three or four weeks of “weekly” racing remaining, it looks like some of the 2010 titles will be decided during the special events season in September and October.
Disregard the lead paragraph above when it comes to the Late Model division as Ray Guss Jr. continues to dominate and has essentially clinched his second straight and fifth overall title. Terry Neal is having a pretty darn good season with ten feature wins, but he is still a distant second to Guss while Jeff Aikey sits in third.
The Modified chase is up for grabs as only twenty-six points separate the top ten drivers and when the updated points are posted this week at Positively Racing you will find a new leader in Ryan Dolan. Richie Gustin who has been on top of the ladder for most of the season is just one-point back in second while Doug Crampton is only eight markers back in third. Jimmy Cole and Michael Long round out the top five eleven and twelve points respectively behind Dolan.
Austin Kaplan looked like he might run away with the Limited Modified championship, but Jesse Sobbing has made up some ground recently and is now only sixteen points behind in second. Brett Meyer and Cayden Carter are tied for third while Jeremy Embrey is only one point behind those two in fifth.
He’s still pretty comfortable, but Dustin Smith’s lead in the Stock Car points is down to thirty-three over Nathan Wood with Jason Ward and Chad Palmer both eclipsing the century mark this week in third and fourth.
What looked like a two-horse race between Devin Smith and two-time defending champion Shannon Anderson in the Hobby Stocks has grown to three now with the addition of Dustin Larson. The southern Minnesota based driver has been on a roll lately and has closed to within six points of Devin Smith for the lead while Anderson is twenty-nine points out of first. Chad Gentz and Michael Murphy are currently tied for fourth.
Nate Coopman has dominated the tracks that he races at and with eighteen feature wins he enjoys a twenty-one point lead as he looks for his second straight Four Cylinder championship. Nathan Chandler is second, Amanda Kaltveld who spends most of her race nights chasing Coopman is in third while Sioux City drivers David Miller and Cody Thompson round out the top five.
It’s Nationals time so the Sprint Car standings can shake up quickly over the next two weeks. In the 410’s three-time champion Mark Dobmeier has moved past Lynton Jeffrey for the lead in the standings. Jack Dover’s advantage is down to just five points over Eric Lutz in the 360’s and Ryan Voss now has a comfortable twelve-point cushion over Casey Friedrichsen in the 305 division.
As of right now “Shiverfest” will be the final points-paying event for five divisions of the All Iowa Points on Saturday October 23rd at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson.
Disregard the lead paragraph above when it comes to the Late Model division as Ray Guss Jr. continues to dominate and has essentially clinched his second straight and fifth overall title. Terry Neal is having a pretty darn good season with ten feature wins, but he is still a distant second to Guss while Jeff Aikey sits in third.
The Modified chase is up for grabs as only twenty-six points separate the top ten drivers and when the updated points are posted this week at Positively Racing you will find a new leader in Ryan Dolan. Richie Gustin who has been on top of the ladder for most of the season is just one-point back in second while Doug Crampton is only eight markers back in third. Jimmy Cole and Michael Long round out the top five eleven and twelve points respectively behind Dolan.
Austin Kaplan looked like he might run away with the Limited Modified championship, but Jesse Sobbing has made up some ground recently and is now only sixteen points behind in second. Brett Meyer and Cayden Carter are tied for third while Jeremy Embrey is only one point behind those two in fifth.
He’s still pretty comfortable, but Dustin Smith’s lead in the Stock Car points is down to thirty-three over Nathan Wood with Jason Ward and Chad Palmer both eclipsing the century mark this week in third and fourth.
What looked like a two-horse race between Devin Smith and two-time defending champion Shannon Anderson in the Hobby Stocks has grown to three now with the addition of Dustin Larson. The southern Minnesota based driver has been on a roll lately and has closed to within six points of Devin Smith for the lead while Anderson is twenty-nine points out of first. Chad Gentz and Michael Murphy are currently tied for fourth.
Nate Coopman has dominated the tracks that he races at and with eighteen feature wins he enjoys a twenty-one point lead as he looks for his second straight Four Cylinder championship. Nathan Chandler is second, Amanda Kaltveld who spends most of her race nights chasing Coopman is in third while Sioux City drivers David Miller and Cody Thompson round out the top five.
It’s Nationals time so the Sprint Car standings can shake up quickly over the next two weeks. In the 410’s three-time champion Mark Dobmeier has moved past Lynton Jeffrey for the lead in the standings. Jack Dover’s advantage is down to just five points over Eric Lutz in the 360’s and Ryan Voss now has a comfortable twelve-point cushion over Casey Friedrichsen in the 305 division.
As of right now “Shiverfest” will be the final points-paying event for five divisions of the All Iowa Points on Saturday October 23rd at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Bud Kaeding Is Knoxville's Non-Wing Nationals Champion
It was a hot, sultry evening at the Knoxville Raceway Sunday as thirty-three USAC non-wing Sprints and twenty-nine 305’s prepared to do battle and I was very fortunate to get a late call from Bill Wright asking me to join him for the live webcast on Hosehead’s Radio. Being asked to describe the racing action to internet listeners worldwide is always an honor, but on this night I think that I was even more excited about the fact that Morgan and I were now going to be in an air conditioned booth rather than in the sun drenched grandstand! While doing the webcast I was unable to take my usual notes so following are some general thoughts from the evening.
The four heat races for the USAC cars were very entertaining featuring three and four-wide racing around the big half-mile. Former track announcer and current editor of Flat Out magazine Justin Zoch joined us in the booth following the heats and he reported that the big crowd was buzzing with excitement following the four qualifiers and that he had heard several people say “let’s take the wings off of ‘em this week as well” in reference to the 50th running of the Knoxville Nationals. The twenty-five-lap feature saw plenty of action early as Scotty Weir and Brady Bacon set the pace, but it didn’t take long for the fifth-starting Bud Kaeding to charge into the lead. The race went non-stop and with the high-line becoming dominant after the first few laps, the field started to string out just a bit. Bacon was able to keep Kaeding within striking distance throughout, but whenever he tried the lower line through the turns he would lose several car-lengths and then need a few laps just to catch back up. Lapped traffic behaved well and Kaeding cruised in for the win with Bacon about ten car-lengths back in second. Daron Clayton passed Weir late to finish third while Damion Gardner came from 11th to finish fifth. Bryan Clauson, Robert Ballou, Chris Windom, Casey Shuman and Dave Darland completed the top ten while Levi Jones had a fifth-place finish fade away when his right rear tire went flat on the final lap. Jones limped his STP colored #20 in for 11th.
The USAC Sprints will be back in action on Tuesday night for the $15,000-to-win Ultimate Challenge at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa.
Two drivers who have done their fair share of 410 racing here at Knoxville, Rager Phillips and Travis Cram started from the front row in the 305 main event and that is how they ran the entire race with Phillips winning and Cram taking second. Behind them though there was some interesting racing going on as Marty Stephenson finished third and Chad Huston took fourth. Matt Stephenson started 11th and finished fifth while central Missouri visitor J Kinder came from row nine to finish sixth. Nick Ross, Casey Friedrichsen and Matthew Stelzer finished seventh, eighth and ninth while Mark Widmar, who only made the field as an alternate when Dustin Clark did not report to staging, came from 20th to finish tenth.
NASCAR’s Ray Evernham started the race on the inside of turn two and did a great job of saving his car, and likely many others, when contact put him sideways in turn one at the start. Evernham collected himself nicely and went on to finish the race in the 11th position.
A big thanks to Bill Wright for the invite! Remember race fans for those of you who cannot make it out to Knoxville this week for the Nationals, and keeping in mind that the event will not be televised live this year, you can always catch the live webcast on Hosehead’s Radio with “Hot Rod” Pattison, Bill W. and a long list of drivers and celebrities who will join them in the booth this week.
The four heat races for the USAC cars were very entertaining featuring three and four-wide racing around the big half-mile. Former track announcer and current editor of Flat Out magazine Justin Zoch joined us in the booth following the heats and he reported that the big crowd was buzzing with excitement following the four qualifiers and that he had heard several people say “let’s take the wings off of ‘em this week as well” in reference to the 50th running of the Knoxville Nationals. The twenty-five-lap feature saw plenty of action early as Scotty Weir and Brady Bacon set the pace, but it didn’t take long for the fifth-starting Bud Kaeding to charge into the lead. The race went non-stop and with the high-line becoming dominant after the first few laps, the field started to string out just a bit. Bacon was able to keep Kaeding within striking distance throughout, but whenever he tried the lower line through the turns he would lose several car-lengths and then need a few laps just to catch back up. Lapped traffic behaved well and Kaeding cruised in for the win with Bacon about ten car-lengths back in second. Daron Clayton passed Weir late to finish third while Damion Gardner came from 11th to finish fifth. Bryan Clauson, Robert Ballou, Chris Windom, Casey Shuman and Dave Darland completed the top ten while Levi Jones had a fifth-place finish fade away when his right rear tire went flat on the final lap. Jones limped his STP colored #20 in for 11th.
The USAC Sprints will be back in action on Tuesday night for the $15,000-to-win Ultimate Challenge at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa.
Two drivers who have done their fair share of 410 racing here at Knoxville, Rager Phillips and Travis Cram started from the front row in the 305 main event and that is how they ran the entire race with Phillips winning and Cram taking second. Behind them though there was some interesting racing going on as Marty Stephenson finished third and Chad Huston took fourth. Matt Stephenson started 11th and finished fifth while central Missouri visitor J Kinder came from row nine to finish sixth. Nick Ross, Casey Friedrichsen and Matthew Stelzer finished seventh, eighth and ninth while Mark Widmar, who only made the field as an alternate when Dustin Clark did not report to staging, came from 20th to finish tenth.
NASCAR’s Ray Evernham started the race on the inside of turn two and did a great job of saving his car, and likely many others, when contact put him sideways in turn one at the start. Evernham collected himself nicely and went on to finish the race in the 11th position.
A big thanks to Bill Wright for the invite! Remember race fans for those of you who cannot make it out to Knoxville this week for the Nationals, and keeping in mind that the event will not be televised live this year, you can always catch the live webcast on Hosehead’s Radio with “Hot Rod” Pattison, Bill W. and a long list of drivers and celebrities who will join them in the booth this week.
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