360 Nationals Opener Goes To Ryan Giles

The My Place Hotels Knoxville 360 Nationals opened its three day run on Thursday night under near perfect weather conditions as forty-two drivers tried to roll up as many qualifying points as possible in order to make Saturday night's Championship main event. The standard Knoxville points system where drivers can earn up to 200 points in both qualifying and the A-Main along with 100 points to win a heat race is used with six cars inverted in each of the five heats where four cars transfer to the qualifying night A-Main.

Drawing an early qualifying spot is usually important and tonight was no different as the ninth car out, Dusty Zomer in the Guy Forbrook prepared #5 set quick time in Zomer's first night back at Knoxville after a two year absence. The first car out Lee Grosz was second quick while hometown driver Calvin Landis was third fastest as the seventh car out. The biggest surprise had to be Spencer Bayston who brought the A.G. Raines owned #3B to the track as the second car out, but could only muster the 35th best lap missing the invert for the heat races.

The track is now using a two cone starting box for the original starts where the drivers pick up the pace at the first cone and then get the green at the second cone. I mention this because it seemed like one driver would have a full car length on the other front row starter once they got to the starting stripe and that used to be a no no here.

As the green flag waved on the first heat Devon Dobie had two car lengths on Dominic Scelzi when they hit the stripe, but the race stayed green and Dobie ran away with the win. Dusty Zomer had to work hard to crack the top four after starting sixth and he would finally get by John Carney II with two laps remaining for the final transfer.

Jeff Swindell had the point in the second heat until Kevin Ingle spun and following the restart Thomas Kennedy would put the slider on Swindell to take the lead and the win. Aaron Reutzel was slow coming up to speed on that lap two restart, but he recovered nicely to reel in and then pass Sawyer Phillips for the final transfer.

Local favorite Joe Beaver scratched from the third heat leaving just seven cars to take the green and this would be a good battle between Brady Bacon and young California native Mason Daniel. Coached by Danny Lasoski, Daniel showed that he is a good student as he passed Bacon mid-race to take the win and as Calvin Landis and Sammy Swindell battled for fifth that allowed Chris Martin to hold on for fourth at the checkers.

Disappointed with his 29th best qualifying time Jack Dover walked away with the win in the fourth heat after starting from the pole. The winner was trailing a bit of smoke though and while that poor qualifying lap put him on the front of his heat, Dover would start nineteenth in the feature.

Justin Henderson started third and went to the front quickly to win the fifth and final heat race ahead of Wayne Johnson, Brad Comegys and Trey Starks.

With their quick qualifying laps Grosz and Landis would start from the front row of the twelve lap B-Main, but Parker Price-Miller would blow by them both in the opening laps. Sammy Swindell in Scott Brown's #11x and Jamie Ball were battling for the fourth and final transfer spot when Swindell slammed the door on Ball entering turn one. Hard to tell from the stands whether Ball hit the inside berm or the rear bumper of Swindell, but he turned hard right slamming into the turn one guardrail. On the restart Sawyer Phillips swept around the outside of Swindell only to have Sammy come right back exiting turn four to retain the fourth and final transfer position. Swindell had moved to third and appeared to be headed to the feature when the lapped car of Casey Greubel spun right in front of the veteran in turn four with two laps remaining.

Swindell took evasive action and lined up third for the restart and when the green flag flew the action was right behind him where Phillips and the fifteenth starter Spencer Bayston had both passed Landis in turn two. Entering turn three though the left front tire blew on Swindell's car sending him sliding up the track where amazingly both Phillips and Bayston were able to avoid him. Sammy's misfortune was a huge break for Landis though as he would restart in third ahead of both Phillips and Bayston and the Arizona native would not let it slip away again as he would take the checkers in third behind Price-Miller and Grosz while Phillips would hold back the hard charging Bayston for the final transfer.

With the top eight in points inverted for the twenty lap A-Main lineup track regulars Ryan Giles and Rob Kubli would go from the front row with Giles getting a nice jump as the green flag waved. The caution would wave on lap eight for a pair of issues as while Dominic Scelzi slowed with a blown right rear, Lee Gosz had spun at the exit of turn two. Kubli was having a career night in third, but on the restart he and Wayne Johnson would make contact and the scramble was on with drivers entering turn three four wide. Kubli looked like he would recover until contact from Aaron Reutzel turned him into the turn four guardrail.

Ryan Giles had the bottom locked in - Barry Johnson photo

On this restart Thomas Kennedy spun his tires in second and when Wayne Johnson checked up behind him that allowed Reutzel to vault from fourth to second only to have that all wiped out when Landis spun in turn one before the lap could be scored. Kennedy would have a much better restart this time although he could not keep pace with Giles. First Johnson and then Reutzel would drop the Canadian Kennedy back to fourth and with a handful of laps remaining Reutzel would take second. Giles had a full straightaway on them though and was just a few feet from taking the checkers when instead the caution waved for another spin by Grosz on the back stretch.

It would have been a shame if this very late caution had cost the leader this race on a green-white-checkers restart, but Giles kept his cool and again walked away from his challengers to take the win. Reutzel and Johnson would maintain second third as Cory Eliason picked off fourth from Kennedy. Justin Henderson came from twelfth to finish sixth, Dusty Zomer dropped to seventh after cracking the top five early in the race, current tack point leader Carson McCarl was steady in eighth as B-Main winner Parker Price-Miller came from the eleventh row to finish ninth. Two-time defending ASCS National Tour champion Sam Hafertepe Jr. filled out the top ten.

Race winner Ryan Giles is joined by Aaron Reutzel on the left and Wayne Johnson on the right - Barry Johnson photo

As it all shakes out though it would be Zomer with the most points at the end of the night with Reutzel, Johnson, Hafertepe and Kennedy next in line. Feature winner Giles is sixth on the list.

Fifty-nine drivers are slated for action on Friday night (how did that happen?) as night number two of the My Place Hotels 360 Nationals takes place at the world famous Knoxville Raceway. Hope to see you there!