Yes, I just did that and I came darn close to being able to use the word "Sizzles" in the headline for the second night in a row! Brady Bacon looked unstoppable through the first eight laps of Friday night's main even at the Knoxville Raceway until he caught the back of the field. Struggling to get around Tyler Lee who was also running the leader's preferred line around the bottom of the historic half-mile, fellow front row starter Tyler Courtney closed fast and after they both disposed of Lee, Courtney made the pass on lap eleven of the twenty lap event.
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| Tyler Courtney closes in on Brady Bacon - Barry Johnson photo |
He too would then open up a seemingly insurmountable advantage only to have lapped traffic give him fits allowing Bacon to come roaring back and as they split the slower car of Evan Semerad, Bacon almost beat Courtney to the bottom in turn one. Once "Sunshine" closed the door though, this one was over as Courtney would score the win over the "Macho Man" in the non-stop event. Ryan Timms was the star of the night from a points standpoint as his third place run, up from the seventh starting spot, will put the young star on the pole for Saturday night's finale. Anthony Macri finished where he started in fourth and Brian Brown closed out the top five.
Tasker Phillips was the Hard Charger coming from eighteenth to finish sixth, young Austin Wood slipped from third to seventh, five-time 360 Nationals champion Terry McCarl is still getting it done in eighth, J.J. Hickle was ninth while Levi Hillier was tenth. The night's quick qualifier Sam Hafertepe Jr. slipped from eighth to eleventh while the defending 360 Nationals champion and crowd favorite Rico Abreu won the B-Main and then finished thirteenth.
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| Tyler Courtney - Barry Johnson photo |
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| Barry Johnson photo |
Friday Notes......Tonight's top five qualifiers Hafertepe, Timms, Brown, Kerry Madsen and Josh Schneiderman came out 2nd, 30th, 5th, 12th and 1st respectively. Madsen would come out of the B-Main while Schneiderman was one spot shy of a transfer out of the B......Courtney gave a preview of things to come going from fourth to first in the first set of turns in the first heat, a race that he would then win going away.......Timms would be the only driver on either night to start sixth and take a heat race win taking the lead on lap five of eight in heat two.....The third heat race was stacked with the defending 360 track champion Phillips, Whit Gastineau, Parker Price-Miller, Bacon, Abreu and Brown starting in the first three rows with only four to advance. PPM would join Abreu in the B-Main where he passed Schneiderman late and then raced from 24th to 12th in the feature.....A three car battle for the final transfer position in heat four was a good one where Sean McClelland tried to hold off Anthony Macri and Kerry Madsen through some tight quarters racing. Macri would prevail leading to his top five run in the main event......The first two starts of the fifth heat were very ragged and called back, but once underway there would be no catching sixteen-year-old Evan Semerad who would score the win......With a threat of weather possibly popping up in the area, track officials kept things moving with the final checkers waving at 9:44 p.m.......Ryan Timms and Aaron Reutzel will bring the field to green from row one in Saturday's finale. Other notable A-Main qualifiers include sixteen-year-old Austin Wood as the Californian comes back to his Iowa roots, along with sixty-one-year-old National Sprint Car Hall of Fame member Terry McCarl. A tip of the hat as well to hometown hero Ryan Leavitt and ASCS regular Kyler Johnson who made it in as the twentieth driver on the points list.....That leaves defending champion Rico Abreu in the B-Main where you can bet he will look to put on a show as it will be Knoxville Night In America on Saturday!
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| Ryan Timms - Barry Johnson photo |
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