The weather was less than ideal for the 2005 season opener
at the Knoxville Raceway, but a huge field of cars and a hearty bunch of fans
showed up nonetheless for a great night of racing at the famed half-mile on
Pizza Hut night. Thirty-six 410’s and fifty-two 360’s, including cars that
would normally be competing at Jackson, Eagle and Lake Ozark put on quite a
show and kept the crowd, that was facing a cold twenty mile per hour north
wind, warm with the excitement of the return of sprint car racing.
With Terry McCarl on the road with the Outlaws, the 2005
point chase in the 410’s is wide open and Wayne Johnson established himself as
the front-runner after opening night. Front row starters Skip Jackson and Brian
Brown swapped the lead back and forth during the first six laps of the
twenty-lap finale before Jackson settled into the top spot. Johnson, who
started fourth, kept the leader in sight and as Jackson began to work lapped
traffic Johnson made a thrilling move to the high side coming off turn two to
take the lead and then quickly jumped to the low side down the backstretch to
avoid a slower car and to shut the door on Jackson. Skip tried to mount a
comeback, but there was no stopping Johnson from taking the popular victory.
Jackson and Brown were next in line at the stripe with Kerry Madsen and Chad
Meyer completing the top five.
 |
| Brian Brown from the 2011 Opener at Knoxville - Barry Johnson photo |
Meyer, who was the surprise story of the 2004 Knoxville
Nationals, had struggled all evening and, in fact, would not have even started
the feature race if not for the bad luck of another driver to watch in 2005.
Tim St. Arnold was running solidly in one of the top four transfer spots from
the B-Main before mechanical problems put him in the pits late in the race.
This allowed Meyer, who was running a distant fifth at the time, to inherit the
fourth position and the resulting twenty-fourth starting spot in the A-Main.
Whatever was changed on the #1w car between the “B” and the “A” is likely a
secret that will never be told as Chad was definitely the fastest car on the
track in the closing laps and just might have had something for the leaders if
the race had been a longer distance.
Mike Chadd paced the first two laps of the 360 A-Feature,
but there would be no denying John Kearney on this night. The veteran driver
out of Kansas started fifth and charged to the front enroute to the feature
victory. It was an emotional win for John who had followed his father “Bub”
into this sport, a father that he had recently lost. It was a classy move by
the Knoxville staff to allow Kearney to push off once again, after clearing the
scales, to take a victory lap in tribute to his father. Chadd would finish in
the runner-up spot with Joey Beaver, Dave Hall and Johnny Anderson completing
the top five.
Knoxville Notes…..Randy Hannagan was a surprise entrant in
the 410’s making the trip west after the All Stars were rained out in Ohio.
“The Hurricane” was running fourth early before motor problems put him in the
pits….This year’s new dirt that Knoxville put on the track seems to have worked
out much better than last year. In fact, when the first two cars out for
qualifying were at 15.2 seconds or better, it looked like someone might get
down into that magical fourteen-second bracket. A lap of 15.081 by Calvin
Landis was the fastest of the night…..The 360 car count benefited from weather
cancellations at Eagle and Jackson as well as the fact that the Lake Ozark
track has yet to open up in 2005. Still, it looks as though a field of forty
plus will be the norm for 2005…..Gregg Bakker, the 2004 track champion at
Jackson, was one of those visitors and walked away with a seventh-place run in
his first-ever Knoxville visit….Josh Higday is driving Mike Trent’s #4T this
year and was running a strong third before dropping out with three laps to
go….Jake Peters ended his night on a sour note upside down in turn four after a
heated battle with Joey Beaver for a top five running position….Pole-sitter and
Rookie-of-the-Year contender Pete Crall got upside down on lap three and
collected perennial contender David Hesmer….Curtis Boyer returned to Knoxville
after recovering from serious injuries that he suffered in a brutal crash
during the 2004 Nationals, but frankly I never did see the car as he scratched
from the evening’s events. He has already collected a top ten finish down in
Missouri so it is great to have the youngster back in action…..Kudos to Cappy
and crew for running an efficient show that had us back in the car with the
heater on high by 10:40 p.m. The World of Outlaws return to Knoxville this
Friday and Saturday night. Don’t be surprised to see that track record fall by
the wayside! We hope to be there on Saturday night.
Zach VanderBeek doubled up with feature wins in both his
Modified and Stock Car as the regular season got underway at the Southern Iowa
Speedway in Oskaloosa April 20th. The Stock Car win came during the
annual running of the Aaron Brown Classic as he outdistanced Matt Greiner, T.J.
Criss and Aaron’s father Jim Brown. The runner-up finish for Greiner was
impressive for the driver out of Washington. Rick VanDusseldorp, who tried his
hand at the Modified class in 2004, looked very comfortable in his new Stock
Car finishing fifth.
 |
| Brad Pinkerton in a Stock Car 2015 - Barry Johnson photo |
Robert Rupprecht looked like he would take the opening night
Hobby Stock win, but a late caution allowed Al Bunnell Jr. and Bobby Greene to
slip by with Greene edging out Bunnell on the final lap for the victory.
Rupprecht was third with Randy Veldhuizen and Jacob Murray completing the top
five. Steve Stewart was impressive leading the Modified feature early before
yielding to VanderBeek. Stewart would drop to fourth at the finish behind the
winner, Brad Pinkerton and John VanDenBerg. Brian Edel, driving with a cast on
his left foot from injuries suffered here during the USMTS doubleheader,
finished fifth. Those of us in this area need to realize what a benefit that it
is to have a couple of weekly options on Wednesday night. Especially when they
are as well run as Osky was on Wednesday with the final checkered flag falling
just after 9:30 p.m.
I have spent my last two Sunday nights at tracks in Illinois
(NOT Quincy or East Moline for the sake of clarification) that should both take
a serious look at using the “one spin and your in” rule. In both cases the
first division on the track, Modifieds two weeks ago and Street Stocks this
past Sunday, had drivers who just could not keep themselves from spinning out
and sitting there waiting for a caution. The result was a very monotonous and
frustrating set of heat races that took nearly an hour to complete each night
and just set a negative tone for the entire evening. It is amazing what kind of
effect that the “one spin” rule has on the driving ability of certain drivers.
Knowing that, if they create a caution, they will be heading for the pits seems
to pull that foot off the throttle just a bit sooner and, if they should still
spin out, it’s incredible how fast that car re-fires and keeps moving! At the
very least let me propose the following for any racetrack. If the last place car
in the heat race, or the B-Main for that matter, spins and sits for a yellow,
rather than “rewarding” that driver by bunching the field up for a restart and
putting him/her on the tail much closer to the rest of the competitors than
they were before they spun out, why not just make a real penalty out of it and
send that driver to the pits. Can you tell that I saw a lot of this the last
two Sunday nights? Both nights I decided to leave early, before the features,
just to return home at a reasonable hour.
No comments:
Post a Comment