For the second night in a row a veteran 410 driver drawing an early qualifying spot set quick time as Joey Saldana went out fourth in Ed Neumeister's #12N and posted a lap of 16.736. Brock Zearfoss would be second quick followed by the current Knoxville Raceway 360 point leader Carson McCarl and Alex Hill was fourth on the final chart. The young lady from Canada was impressive circling the track in 16.833 despite being the twentieth driver out to qualify.
Five heat races, each eight laps the distance with the top six inverted would be up next with the top four finishers moving on to the A-Main. And of course those valuable points were on the line as well with 100 going to the winner of each with three point increments on down the field.
Saldana wasted no time in the opening heat race charging from sixth to third heading down the back stretch on lap one. Then on lap two Colby Copeland spun at the bottom of turn two and when Jordon Mallett moved up the track to avoid Copeland, Florida's Shawn Murray jumped his right rear and tumbled hard down the start of the back stretch. Murray scrambled from the car uninjured as fuel dumped out of his damaged car and the event was delayed for several minutes as the track crew cleaned up the mess. It had already been a bad night for Murray in what I believe to be his first visit to Knoxville as his qualifying lap was disallowed when he did not report to the scales.
Once back to green Davey Heskin would drive away for the win as Matthew Howard, who had restarted second, faded to eighth. Saldana would finish second, Sawyer Phillips third and Brooke Tatnell would transfer in fourth.
The first attempt to start the second heat was called back and perhaps the second try should have been as well as Scott Bogucki came through the middle to make it three wide at the stripe. Pole sitter Josh Baughman would power to the lead though and this one would stay pretty much single file up front until the final lap when Baughman slowed suddenly in turn four. Bogucki would overtake him coming down the front stretch to take the win while Baughman was able to smoke across the line in second and then head to the pits for his second motor change of the night, Skyler Prochaska and Jeff Swindell would be the other two transfers.
The third heat would see Trey Starks go flag to flag for the win from the pole position with Lynton Jeffrey putting a slider on Kelby Watt early to take second. The crowd was then treated to a great battle between father and soon for the fourth and final transfer position as Terry McCarl used his experience to draft off of Carson and dive to the bottom in turn one to take the position mid-race. Motivated by the need to make the transfer, and perhaps more by the fact that it was his mentor who had just taken it away from him, Carson came charging back and the two raced side by side and back and forth until Carson slammed the door on Terry entering turn three coming to the white flag. I would have loved to have seen the smiles on both of their faces when they got back to the pit area because let's face it, that is something that most fathers and sons never get to experience.
Front row starters Christian Bowman and Blake Hahn banged wheels exiting turn two on the opening lap and while that jumbled up the pack behind them momentarily, nothing much happened from there as third row starters Matt Juhl and Alex Hill were unable to crack the top four with Bowman winning over Jack Dover, Hahn and Clint Garner.
While we have seen some sloppy, jumbled up starts this week due to the front row creeping to the white line, pole-sitter Chris Martin hit the gas early and gave us a look at a different strategy. When fellow front row starter Casey Friedrichsen did not keep pace the first start was waved off, but on the second try it went green and Martin would lead the distance to take the win. Dylan Westbrook moved from fourth to second and Brian Brown came from fifth to third with Josh Higday holding down the fourth spot.
The first try at a start of the B-Main was called back when one of the crowd favorites popped out and passed a couple of rows before the stripe. She was penalized a row for the second try which saw Friedrichsen hop a wheel and go for a nasty tumble in turn two. Thankfully Casey emerged uninjured from his mangled ride. On the third try to get this one going Scottie McDonald spun in turn one. Alex Hill would bring the field back to green and finally we were racing with Ryan Roberts taking the early lead. Hill would come fighting back though to take the lead and once into traffic she would be challenged by Terry McCarl. They would race even on a couple of occasions, but Hill would hold on to take an impressive victory over the Hall of Famer McCarl. Well behind them Matt Juhl was making a big run as he went from fifth to third on the final lap to finish ahead of Roberts and to leave Jeff Swindell one position shy of a transfer.
The stage was now set for the twenty lap qualifying night feature with a pair of Aussies, Lynton Jeffrey and Scott Bogucki, going from the front row. Sawyer Phillips and Brian Brown lined up behind them in row two and while there was little position changes throughout most of this one, it was still a fantastic race. Jeffrey would put his newly sponsored Pizza Ranch #83 to the front at the drop of the green as Bogucki found himself trying to fight off a hard charging Phillips who was digging around the bottom. After going down to block off Phillips, Bogucki found a better line and then quickly reeled in Jeffery to mount his own challenge on the bottom.
Lynton must have seen him out of the corner of his eye as the wily veteran then started to drive in a more defensive matter entering the turns low before expertly drifting to the cushion to get a kick down the straightaways. Bogucki was right there waiting for one instance of lost momentum and just behind him you had Phillips and Brown there as well making it a four car race entering traffic. The caution waved with just two laps to go when Kelby Watt slowed with both of his right side tires flat and we were now set for a restart looking to see if anybody could make a move.
Jeffery came off the cushion in four to take then green and again went from low to high in turns one and two. Bogucki was fast on the bottom in one, but when he couldn't stick it there in turn two he drifted up allowing both Phillips and Brown to get past him down the back stretch. This also allowed Jeffery to get away and he would go on to win for the second time in six nights here in the Ridge and Sons Racing #83. Brown was able to glide around Phillips on the final lap to finish second while the young speedster from nearby Pleasantville was impressive in third. Bogucki would have to settle for the fourth spot and Saldana would complete the top five to give him the highest point total of the night.
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| Kerry Madsen - Barry Johnson photo |
Not enough to beat Kerry Madsen though as "The Madman" will start from the pole of tonight's Championship feature. The top twenty on the list below are locked into the A-Main, the next twenty in the B-Main and so on, so if you are looking for some exciting Sprint Car racing action tonight, Knoxville is the place to be!
A Main
1 2 Kerry Madsen 492
2 12N Joey Saldana 489
3 17WX Shane Golobic 486
4 14 Tim Shaffer 486
5 27 Carson McCarl 477
6 17A Austin McCarl 475
7 21 Brian Brown 474
8 83J Lynton Jeffrey 473
9 3Z Brock Zearfoss 473
10 28 Scott Bogucki 472
11 3P Sawyer Phillips 470
12 41S Dominic Scelzi 467
13 14T Brooke Tatnell 467
14 70 Calvin Landis 460
15 26 Cory Eliason 458
16 47X Dylan Westbrook 457
17 83M Justin Henderson 456
18 3 Ayrton Gennetten 453
19 35M Tim Kaeding 450
20 87 Aaron Reutzel 449
B main
21 09 Matt Juhl 448
22 4 Terry McCarl 448
23 11 Roger Crockett 445
24 40 Clint Garner 445
25 63 JJ Hickle 443
26 77X Alex Hill 441
27 53 Joe Beaver 440
28 18 Ryan Roberts 440
29 44S Trey Starks 428
30 56N Davey Heskin 428
31 66 Ricky Montgomery 426
32 35P Skylar Prochaska 424
33 22K Kaleb Johnson 421
34 35 Josh Higday 421
35 15 Christian Bowman 418
36 94 Jeff Swindell 418
37 15H Sam Hafertepe Jr. 418
38 17 Josh Baughman 415
39 53D Jack Dover 415
40 22 Ryan Leavitt 414
C Main
41 88 Kyle Offill 413
42 17W Harli White 410
43 2M Matt Moro 409
44 44 Chris Martin 408
45 1K Kelby Watt 408
46 24 Garret Williamson 405
47 24N Nathan Mills 402
48 23 Devon Dobie 401
49 52 Blake Hahn 394
50 33H Colton Heath 392
51 5C Colby Copeland 392
52 24D Danny Sams III 391
53 83 Rob Kubli 389
54 69 Brady Bacon 384
55 55M McKenna Haase 382
56 95 Matt Covington 374
57 37H Matthew Howard 367
58 5H Michael Faccinto 363
59 9 James McFadden 357
60 81E Eric Bridger 353
D Main
61 5J Jamie Ball 352
62 28F Davie Franek 352
63 115 Nick Parker 346
64 7TAZ Tasker Phillips 345
65 20F Casey Friedrichsen 343
66 66D Chase Dunham 342
67 35S Jason Shultz 340
68 81A Chris Morgan 339
69 4J Lee Grosz 338
70 22P Jonathan Preston 336
71 22X Riley Goodno 332
72 6R Ryan Bunton 329
73 20 AJ Moeller 329
74 88X Scottie McDonald 325
75 4H Cody Hansen 324
76 17B Ryan Bickett 324
77 14B Bailey Sucich 324
78 50Z Zach Chappell 323
79 51A Elliot Amdahl 323
80 13MJ Brandon Halverson 318
E Main
81 90 Lance Norick 317
82 88R Rowdy Reber 315
83 14M Jordon Mallett 312
84 23M Lance Moss 312
85 75X JT Imperial 311
86 21R Shane Hopkins 308
87 1B Chelsea Blevins 307
88 1A John Anderson 305
89 6 Jett Carney 299
90 22B Jesse Baker 298
91 33 Alan Zoutte 284
92 6X Frank Rodgers III 276
93 22M Shawn Murray 273
94 35MM Ian Madsen 269
95 4S Adam Speckman 265
96 39M Anthony Macri 265
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