Drawing an early qualifying spot was not as important here on night two as it would be the fourteenth car to hit the track, the #12N of Joey Saldana setting quick time with the only lap of the week under sixteen seconds at 15.993. James McFadden was second quick as he went out fourth to time while another Aussie, Scott Bogucki showed that there was still plenty of speed in the track when he went out as the twenty-sixth of fifty-five entries and posted the third best time. Nationals rookie Ayrton Gennetten had to take evasive action on his first lap when Dan Henning was slow to exit the track, but the white flag still waved for him and he was still able to put up the fourth fastest lap at the time on his second time around. Then just a couple of qualifiers later, Michael Bookout was still in the primary groove in turn four when Kyle Bellm was running his first lap, but this time he was given the green again so that he could run two straight laps without being impeded. A third generation driver, the grandson of Gene and the son of Steve, Gennetten was pushed back into the staging lane but apparently after being told that his only unimpeded lap was currently fourth on the board he chose to just head for the scales. That lap would end up eighth on the final rundown.
Five heats with six cars inverted and only four transferring to the A-Main were up next and after several of the quick qualifiers had work hard to get into the top four on Thursday night, Saldana made a nifty move to go from sixth to second on the opening lap of the first heat race. He was not able to track down Blake Hahn though who ran away with the win.
Young Gio Scelzi and McFadden were the third row starters in the second heat and while McFadden charged up to second behind winner Josh Baughman, Scelzi had to pass Delaware's Curt Michael coming to the white flag to take fourth.
Pole-sitter Clint Garner appeared to bury the throttle while still in turn three and he had nearly four car lengths on everybody else at the starting stripe, but the green flag stayed out and Garner ran away with heat race number three ahead of Austin and Terry McCarl with Jon Agan taking fourth. Third row starters Scott Bogucki and Ayrton Gennetten were relegated to the B-Main.
As the fourth heat race came to green the sixth starting Paul McMahan flared out wide and was even with the second row as the green waved. For the first time this week though, the caution came out as the field raced down the back stretch and they would try it again. Driving Tony Stewart's #14 McMahan would again flare out wide coming to the start and this time he had fully passed the second row coming to the chalk line and again the start was called off. However, despite the two jumps, no penalty was given to McMahan and while he stayed in his spot on the third try he quickly advanced through the field to finish a close second to Kyle Bellm. It took several laps, but Davey Heskin was finally able to slip past the young lady from Canada Alex Hill for the fourth and final transfer.
The first attempt to start the fifth heat race was a mess as outside front row starter Lance Moss moved way out to the cushion while pole-sitter Roger Crockett hugged the bottom. It would actually be the fourth starting McKenna Hasse that would go through the door left open by Moss to take the lead exiting turn two, but the caution waved as the start was called back. The second start was an even bigger mess as again Moss flared out and it looked like there were four cars on the front row as they hit the chalk line, but the race stayed green with Crockett and the sixth starting Brian Brown driving away from the field. This would be a good one for the lead in the closing laps as Brown threw a slider at the leader with two to go only to have Crockett cross him over and maintain the point for the win. Fifth starting Harli White was impressive driving past Christian Bowman for third to put her on the pole for the twenty lap main event while Hasse could only think "what might have been" as she headed to the B-Main in fifth.
With thirteen more cars tonight than were here on Thursday, a C-Main was needed Randy Hannagan driving one of Devon Dobie's #23 cars taking the win. Rob Weuve had to ward off a late charge from both Bryan Grimes and ASCS National Series Rookie Tucker Doughty for the fourth and final transfer to the B-Main.
It would be a full field of twenty-four starters going twelve laps in the B with the top four moving on and on lap six the first red flag of the week would be needed when Aussie Brodie Tulloch nailed the guardrail in turn three and rolled over. On the restart Bogucki, Matt Juhl and Gennetten maintained their positions to advance while Matt Moro went to work on Shane Golobic for fourth. The two drivers crossed the stripe wheel to wheel as the white flag waved with Moro finding enough bite on the bottom on the final lap to put his My Place Hotels sponsored #2M into the show.
White and Heskin would bring the field to green for the A-Main and they would check out with Davey leading around the bottom and Harli chasing around the cushion. Crowd favorite Brian Brown would move from fifth to third, but even he was not making up much ground on White as the laps clicked away. Lapped traffic would start to present a challenge mid-race and when White stumbled on the cushion in turn two on lap nine that allowed both Brown and Gio Scelzi to make the move around her exiting turn four.
Those two would now set their sights on Heskin and as they closed the gap on the leader, seemingly from out of nowhere the seventh starting James McFadden had now joined the chase. You could throw a blanket over the top four as they completed lap sixteen with Brown diving under Heskin to take the lead in turn one. Racing down the back straightaway contact between Scelzi and McFadden caused Gio's car to do a wheel stand and when the front end returned to the surface he was unable to turn the car entering three sliding up the track and into the guardrail ending his night.
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| James McFadden - Barry Johnson photo |
This one was a classic Knoxville feature race that built up to a big crescendo at the finish and the stage is now set for Championship Saturday night with the A-Main to lineup like this:
James McFadden - Joey Saldana
Brian Brown - Paul McMahan
Dusty Zomer - Aaron Reutzel
Wayne Johnson - Sam Hafertepe Jr.
Thomas Kennedy - Ryan Giles
Davey Heskin - Colby Copeland
Cory Eliason - Parker Price-Miller
Harli White - Justin Henderson
Terry McCarl - Carson McCarl
Matt Juhl - Lee Grosz
Plus four qualifiers from the B-Main
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| Brian Brown left and Joey Saldana right join winner James McFadden on the podium - Barry Johnson photo |
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