8/28/04
Knoxville Raceway
Season Championship
34 410s
42 360s
410s
Terry McCarl (7th car out to time), who had clinched his sixth consecutive Knoxville championship entering the night set quick time at a season best 15.178 seconds on a very heavy surface resulting from heavy rainfall the last few days. Jesse Hockett (13th car out) was second quick, followed by John VanDenBerg (18th), Wayne Johnson (11th), Matt Moro (29th), Blake Feese (9th), Billy Alley (27th), Brian Brown (10th), Brent Antill (15th) and Clint Garner (3rd). Despite registering the third best time, VanDenBerg scratched from the night's events after time trials. Jerrel Slinkard scratched before qualifications.
Heat one (started): 1. Brooke Tatnell 66 (1) 2. Calvin Landis 70 (2) 3. Moro 47 (5) 4. Mike Reinke 02 (3) 5. Antill 1 (4) / 6. McCarl 24 (6) 7. Mike Moore 69 (8) 8. Chris Walraven 56 (7) 9. Tyler Houseman 50 (9)
Tatnell led a very stout field flag to flag. McCarl couldn't run down Antill in the end for the final transfer spot. Moro looked strong in moving by Antill and Reinke.
Heat two (started): 1. Skip Jackson 2 (1) 2. Randy Martin 14 (2) 3. Hockett 75 (6) 4. Kerry Madsen 55 (3) 5. Garner 40 (4) / 6. Chad Meyer 1w (7) 7. Feese 12x (5) DNS - Jesse Giannetto D1, Jerrel Slinkard 15s
Feese made contact with Garner and then Hockett in turn one and ended up upside down. Repairs were made before the B. Jackson led the distance and won by a straightaway. Hockett, $10,000 richer for his win without a wing at Lakeside a week ago, was the charger in this one, getting under Garner and Madsen for third.
Heat three (started): 1. Travis Cram 92 (2) 2. Ryan Anderson 71R (4) 3. Jaymie Moyle 1s (3) 4. Alley 22 (5) 5. Jeff Mitrisin 17G (1) / 6. Jeff Johnson (7) 7. Mark Hurd 44m (6) DNS - VanDenBerg v10
Cram led the distance. Ry. Anderson had a solid run behind Mitrisin who was running well until going up in smoke on the white flag lap. He would coast across for the final transfer, but would scratch for the night.
Heat four (started): 1. Jason Johnson 50D (1) 2. Tim St. Arnold 8s (3) 3. Ricky Logan 7x (1) 4. Brown R19 (5) 5. W. Johnson 14AJ (6) / 6. Lynton Jeffrey 10 (4) 7. Greg Jones 35 (7) 8. Robert Bell 71 (8)
Jason Johnson led the duration. W. Johnson languished behind Jeffrey in sixth until answering the call with two laps to go to grab the final transfer.
B main (started): 1. McCarl (1) 2. Feese (2) 3. Jeffrey (3) 4. Meyer (5) 5. Walraven (4) / 6. Je. Johnson (6) 7. Moore (8) 8. Giannetto (12) 9. Jones (7) 10. Bell (10) 11. Hurd (9) 12. Houseman (11) DNS - VanDenBerg, Slinkard
McCarl led a mostly single-file affair flag to flag. Meyer moved under Walraven at the halfway point for fourth.
A main (started): 1. Antill (1) 2. Moro (4) 3. Feese (22) 4. Alley (3) 5. Landis (13) 6. Brown (2) 7. Reinke (9) 8. Garner (7) 9. Tatnell (15) 10. McCarl (19) 11. Jeffrey (21) 12. Meyer (24) 13. St. Arnold (12) 14. Jackson (18) 15. Moyle (11) 16. Madsen (10) 17. Cram (15) 18. Hockett (6) 19. Logan (20) 20. Ry. Anderson (8) 21. Walraven (23) 22. Martin (14) 23. W. Johnson (5) 24. Ja. Johnson (16)
The 25 lapper got off to a rocky start. As W. Johnson was moving up the track in turn two, he made contact with Hockett, sending the 14AJ in a series of wicked snap rolls. Ja. Johnson flipped as drivers were slowing to avoid W. Johnson. Cram, Jackson and Martin were also involved in the fray. Cram would make repairs and restart with Jackson at the tail. No one was injured. Antill shot out to an early lead before a lap three flip by Ry. Anderson in turn three. He was uninjured, but done. Antill led front row mate Brown, Moro, Hockett and Alley back to green. Moro got under Brown on the restart and set his sights on Antill. Antill pulled away to a healthy margin before a lap ten caution for a stopped Cram, who suffered front wing problems. He continued without his nose wing. Hockett, who was running a strong fifth, retired at this time. Now Antill led Moro, Brown, Alley and a surging Feese back to speed. Antill was not challenged the rest of the race, and never really entered lapped traffic on the fast, heavy surface. It was his eighth career visit to Knoxville's victory lane and second of the year. Feese's charge to third earned hard-charger honors.
360s
Heat one (started, *qualified for feature): 1. Ryan Jamison 51J (2*) 2. Dusty Zomer 1z (4*) 3. Mike Houseman 5 (1*) 4. Eric Jobe 23 (3*) 5. Eric Mason B29 (8*) 6. DJ Heskin 56 (7) 7. Jarod Smith 77J (11) 8. Rod Richards 5x (5) 9. Jeremy Lowe 11L (10) 10. Joe Beaver 53 (9) DNS - Rager Phillips 9 (6)
Jamison led early before Beaver stopped while in the midst of a strong run on lap four. He went pitside. Jobe survived an early big-time wheelie in turn two which moved him from second to fifth, to capture fourth. Twenty cars were taken out of the heats using passing points, instead of the usual sixteen.
Heat two (started, *qualified for feature): 1. Josh Higday 10 (2*) 2. Dave Hesmer 1 (4*) 3. Stacey Alexander 126 (1*) 4. Curtis Thorson 91 (5*) 5. Jake Peters 57x (7*) 6. John Kearney 83 (9*) 7. Ryan York 5R (6) 8. Rick Ideus 5B (8) 9. Rob Edwards 22 (3) 10. Rodney Turner 69 (10) 11. Nate Van Haaften 3 (11)
Higday led a strong field for the duration of the seven lapper. Hesmer trailed him on the fast, relatively narrow surface. Peters and Kearney, separated by one point in the points race coming in, were buried deep in the field. Both would have been relegated to the B on a regular night. Coming out of this heat, Peters held a one point advantage.
Heat three (started, *qualified for feature): 1. Frankie Heimbaugh 04 (2*) 2. Doug Wilson 86 (1*) 3. Bronson Maeschen 96 (7*) 4. Stevie Walsh 20 (8*) 5. Troy Meyer 11m (9*) 6. Johnny Anderson 7a (5) 7. Nate Mosher 22N (4) 8. Mike Houseman Jr. Y5 (3) 9. Eddie Leavitt Jr. F4 (10) 10. Jerry Crabb 12x (6)
Crabb exited on the first lap after contact with another car. Wilson grabbed the early advantage before Heimbaugh took control on lap two. Maeschen was the man on the move, using the bottom side to slide forward four spots as Walsh followed on the cushion.
Heat four (started, *qualified for feature): 1. Eric Vanderploeg 24 (1*) 2. Dave Hall 51 (4*) 3. John Schulz 2s (8*) 4. Larry Ball Jr. 5J (5*) 5. Brett Mather 54 (6) 6. Brett Golik 5G (9) 7. Mike Trent 14c (7) 8. Josh Schneiderman 49 (10) 9. John Hall 7H (3) 10. Mitchell Alexander 77 (2)
Vanderploeg led throughout. M. Alexander stopped and exited on lap two. Schulz's move from eighth to third was the best action.
B main (started): 1. Mather (1) 2. Golik (2) 3. Trent (8) 4. York (6) 5. Beaver (17) / 6. Smith (4) 7. J. Anderson (5) 8. Heskin (3) 9. Schneiderman (9) 10. Ideus (11) 11. Houseman Jr. (12) 12. M. Alexander (18) 13. Leavitt (13) 14. Mosher (7) 15. Edwards (15) 16. Lowe (14) 17. Van Haaften (19) 18. Richards (10) 19. Turner (16) DNS - J. Hall, Crabb, Phillips
Mather led this one from the get-go and Trent did a nice job to move into a transfer spot on lap one. Beaver was charging from row nine, and appeared to have come up one spot short of a transfer. When Mason gave up his A main spot, Beaver gladly grabbed it.
A main (started): 1. Hesmer (1) 2. Zomer (2) 3. Schulz (3) 4. Heimbaugh (4) 5. Higday (5) 6. Jamison (6) 7. Vanderploeg (8) 8. Peters (18) 9. Beaver (23) 10. Maeschen (7) 11. Ball (16) 12. Trent (21) 13. Houseman (12) 14. D. Hall (9) 15. Wilson (10) 16. Walsh (11) 17. Thorson (15) 18. Jobe (17) 19. Mather (19) 20. Kearney (20) 21. Golik (22) 22. Meyer (14) 23. York (24) 24. S. Alexander (13) DNS - Mason
Hesmer shot out to the early advantage with Zomer hot on his tail. On lap two S. Alexander went up in smoke and stopped on the track, and York flipped in turn three on the third go-around. He was unhurt. The top five remained the same throughout the 20 lapper, but Kearney and Peters were putting on a show. Whoever finished in front of the other would win the championship. Kearney was the one leading Peters up through the pack, and when they cracked the top ten, the race was at the halfway point. Disaster struck Kearney, who suffered mechanical ills on lap 13 and dropped out, giving the point title to Peters. Mather brought out the final caution of the event on lap 15. Zomer challenged for the lead but couldn't get by the veteran and settled for second. Peters was the third newcomer in a row to win the Knoxville 360 points title following Billy Alley and Brian Brown. Beaver was the hard-charger in the event moving up 14 spots.