Knoxville Nationals Night #2 Results and Stories

Thursday, August 14, 2003
8/14

Knoxville Raceway Nationals

Thursday night qualifying

64 cars

A power outage caused officials to use scoring methods other than electronic. Johnny Anderson failed to get a time in when first his car had motor problems, then while attempting one lap at the end, his left rear peeled off. Roger Crockett (motor) and Tony Menard (hood) both took one lap at the end after difficulties. Steve Kinser managed one lap before his motor let go. He changed it before the heats. Qualifications looked like this:

1. Kerry Madsen 82 15.290 (8th time spot out) 2. Stevie Smith 19 15.374 (33rd) 3. Tyler Walker 35 15.454 (2nd) 4. Kenny Jacobs 70J 15.488 (42nd) 5. Jesse Giannetto D1 15.515 (21st) 6. Daryn Pittman 21 15.557 (52nd) 7. Jeff Mitrisin 5J 15.568 (6th) 8. Steve Kinser 11 15.570 (49th) 9. Jason Johnson 22 15.592 (13th) 10. Travis Cram 92c 15.598 (22nd) 11. Terry McCarl 24 15.606 (24th) 12. Ryan Coniam 6c 15.625 (7th) 13. Brian Paulus 28 15.634 (1st) 14. Ricky Logan 17G 15.649 (16th) 15. Tim Shaffer 83 15.676 (32nd) 16. John VanDenBerg V10 15.686 (18th) 17. Roger Crockett 11c 15.689 (14th) 18. Tim Kaeding 7T 15.718 (48th) 19. Don Droud Jr. 7x 15.720 (26th) 20. Todd Hepfner 28T 15.730 (4th) 21. Byron Reed 5R 15.760 (3rd) 22. Josh Higday 24H 15.773 (39th) 23. Bob Bennett 3B 15.776 (11th) 24. Jonathan Allard 35w 15.776 (25th) 25. Wayne Johnson 12x 15.780 (15th) 26. Randy Anderson 1s 15.785 (17th) 27. Kelly Kinser 4KK 15.789 (53rd) 28. Brian Brown 6 15.803 (63rd) 29. Dennis Moore Jr. 0 15.813 (23rd) 30. Travis Rilat 29 15.825 (5th) 31. Jerrod Hull 50 15.849 (43rd) 32. Colin Northway 60 15.878 (64th) 33. Dean Jacobs 29J 15.879 (51st) 34. Jim Moughan Jr. 1mx 15.883 (55th) 35. Fred Rahmer 88H 15.893 (61st) 36. Chris Walraven 56 15.895 (54th) 37. Lynton Jeffrey 4K 15.936 (35th) 38. Jeff Shepard 92 15.981 (20th) 39. Danny Smith 4D 15.970 (45th) 40. Jac Haudenschild 4H 16.004 (50th) 41. Mike Reinke 02x 16.037 (59th) 42. Manny Rockhold 02 16.043 (29th) 43. Max Dumesny 1J 16.059 (47th) 44. Clint Garner 55 16.064 (36th) 45. Marty Perovich 17P 16.066 (30th) 46. Marty Wilcox 3 16.073 (27th) 47. John Lambertz 12L 16.081 (19th) 48. Randy Hannagan 1x 16.102 (62nd) 49. Kim Mock 1m 16.118 (37th) 50. Aaron Berryhill 97 16.135 (40th) 51. Mark Toews 16.267 (12th) 52. Mark Hurd 44m 16.295 (28th) 53. Travis Whitney 9 16.400 (56th) 54. Scott Young F22 16.447 (41st) 55. Seth Brahmer 13 16.451 (34th) 56. Kurt Davis 6K 16.469 (60th) 57. Troy Little 20AU 16.518 (44th) 58. Kurt Winker 48H 16.545 (46th) 59. Rob Tvedte 1w 16.655 (57th) 60. Tony Menard 12 16.715 (58th) 61. Robert Bell 71 17.211 (9th) 62. Steve Cushman 1c 17.421 (10th) 63. Stevie Walsh 19w 18.831 (38th) NT - Johnny Anderson 7a

Last Chance Heat (started): 1. Winker (7) 2. Little (6) 3. Toews (1) 4. Brahmer (4) 5. Tvedte (8) 6. Young (3) 7. Davis (5) 8. Menard (9) / 9. Bell (10) 10. Walsh (12) 11. Cushman (11) 12. Hurd (2) DNS - Whitney

Top eight finishers transferred to the back of the C. Whitney decided to cut his losses. The first try at a start saw Davis spin collecting Winker who did a 360 and kept it going. Davis rejoined at the tail. Toews jumped out early and led until Hurd flipped wildly in turn one on lap three. The restart saw Toews leading Winker, Little, Brahmer and Tvedte. Winker used the low side to get by Toews and Little followed suit. That's the way they would finish.

Heat one (started): 1. Reinke (2) 2. Walraven (3) 3. Pittman (9) 4. McCarl (8) / 5. Reed (6) 6. Madsen (10) 7. Ra. Anderson (5) 8. VanDenBerg (7) / 9. Wilcox (1) 10. Hull (4)

Reinke dusted the field from row one. Pittman inched his way forward in impressive fashion. McCarl gained fourth and the final transfer by mere inches at the stripe after working to try and get by Reed the final three laps.

Heat two (started): 1. Jeffrey (3) 2. Rockhold (2) 3. S. Smith (10) 4. Higday (6) / 5. Crockett (7) 6. Northway (4) 7. Mitrisin (9) 8. Coniam (8) / 9. Ke. Kinser (5) 10. Lambertz (1)

Lambertz and Rockhold battled side by side. Rockhold gained the lead on lap two and was passed by Jeffrey at the halfway point. He would lead the rest of the way. S. Smith was on the move and gained fourth behind Lambertz with three to go. Lambertz would come to a stop in turn four while in a transfer spot on the white flag lap. Higday snatched up the transfer when Lambertz was sidelined.

Heat three (started): 1. Hannagan (1) 2. Shepard (3) 3. S. Kinser (9) 4. Dumesny (2) / 5. Kaeding (7) 6. Brown (5) 7. Paulus (8) 8. D. Jacobs (4) / 9. Bennett (6) 10. Walker (10)

Walker was slicing and dicing through until he hit the wall on lap five after something broke relegating him to the C. The restart saw racelong leader Hannagan ahead of Shepard, Dumesny, D. Jacobs and S. Kinser. A good battle between Hannagan and Shepard ensued after the restart. Hannagan held on by a slim margin. Kaeding was just short of getting by Dumesny for the final transfer.

Heat four (started): 1. Garner (2) 2. K. Jacobs (10) 3. D. Moore (5) 4. D. Smith (3) / 5. Allard (6) 6. Logan (8) 7. Mock (1) 8. Droud (7) / 9. Ja. Johnson (9) 10. Moughan (4)

Garner led the duration, while K. Jacobs was charging through the pack. A last lap bonzai slide job past Allard got D. Moore into the A. D. Smith also made a last lap pass of Allard who was slowed by a deflating tire.

Heat five (started): 1. W. Johnson (6) 2. Haudenschild (3) 3. Shaffer (8) 4. Berryhill (1) / 5. Cram (9) 6. Rahmer (4) 7. Hepfner (7) 8. Rilat (5) / 9. Giannetto (10) 10. Perovich (2)

Haudenschild darted around Berryhill and Perovich for the early lead. W. Johnson was on the move, and took the point on lap seven. Shaffer used the low groove to gain his spots. Giannetto, using a Lonny Parsons motor, was the surprise of qualifications when he timed fifth quick. His success in the heat was not as good and he was relegated to the C.

C main (started): 1. Walker (1) 2. Ja. Johnson (3) / 3. Hull (6) 4. Moughan (7) 5. Giannetto (2) 6. Ke. Kinser (5) 7. Wilcox (9) 8. Bennett (4) 9. Little (10) 10. Brahmer (12) 11. Tvedte (15) 12. Toews (13) 13. Winker (11) 14. Perovich (8) 15. Davis (17) 16. Menard (16) 17. Young (14) 22. DNS - Lambertz

Walker and Ja. Johnson quickly led the pack and left them a half lap behind at the end. Young stopped before the checkers with motor problems.

B main (started): 1. Madsen (1) 2. Mitrisin (2) 3. Droud (10) 4. Cram (3) / 5. Kaeding (9) 6. Logan (6) 7. Paulus (5) 8. Coniam (4) 9. Ja. Johnson (22) 10. Brown (15) 11. Walker (21) 12. VanDenBerg (7) 13. Rahmer (19) 14. Rilat (16) 15. Reed (12) 16. Ra. Anderson (14) 17. Mock (20) 18. Hepfner (11) 19. Allard (13) 20. D. Jacobs (18) 21. Crockett (8) 22. Northway (17)

Madsen led early until Crockett spun on the second circuit, collecting Northway who had nowhere to go. Both cars were heavily damaged and couldn't continue. D. Jacobs exited shortly after. The restart saw Madsen leading Mitrisin, Cram, Coniam and Paulus. The race was again slowed on lap eight of twelve when Allard stopped on lap eight. Madsen led Mitrisin, Cram, Coniam and a surging Droud back to the cone. Droud made the pass of Coniam that gave him an A main transfer. He would also get by Cram in the final stages.

A main (started): 1. S. Kinser (5) 2. Shaffer (3) 3. W. Johnson (1) 4. Shepard (10) 5. Pittman (6) 6. K. Jacobs (7) 7. Madsen (21) 8. Haudenschild (12) 9. D. Smith (13) 10. McCarl (4) 11. Hannagan (19) 12. Dumesny (17) 13. Jeffrey (11) 14. Garner (16) 15. Reinke (15) 16. Berryhill (18) 17. Droud (23) 18. S. Smith (8) 19. Higday (2) 20. Cram (22) 21. D. Moore (9) 22. Mitrisin (20) 23. Rockhold (14) 24. DNS - Walraven

W. Johnson shot out to the early lead from his pole position with Shaffer and Higday in tow. On lap three, Madsen was moving through traffic when he swerved high and nailed Mitrisin, who suffered extensive damage. The race resumed after a brief visit to the 82 from Mitrisin. Lap five saw another stoppage when D. Moore suffered rear end problems. W. Johnson led Shaffer, Higday, S. Kinser and Pittman to the cone. Just two laps later, Cram who had surged from the tail to 11th, broke his birdcage and retired. Lap nine saw Jeffrey tip over gently in turn one. After a very questionable open red, W. Johnson had an open track ahead of him and led over S. Kinser, Shaffer, K. Jacobs and Pittman. S. Kinser slid in front of W. Johnson twice in turn one, only to be passed back both times in turn two. W. Johnson pulled away and started working traffic when yet another stoppage resulted from a Droud spin (blown left rear) on lap 22. A lap later, Higday who had been running strong stopped on the track and went pitside. Fifth running S. Smith ran out of fuel and was scored 18th. W. Johnson led S. Kinser, Shaffer, Pittman and now a resurgent Shepard back to the green. The restart was controversial to the majority of the capacity crowd as S. Kinser was not nose to tail coming back to the cone and looked to have a wheel beside W. Johnson as they went by it. The pass was made and was held up by officials much to the amazement of the crowd. Shaffer got by W. Johnson on the last lap for second. Madsen recharged after the last restart and ended up 7th.

Top 50 in points:

A Scramblers
1. Schatz 493 2. Lasoski 492 3. McMahan 487 4. Swindell 484 5. Hodnett 482 6. K. Jacobs 481 7. S. Kinser 480 8. Pittman 476 9. Madsen 473 10. Stewart 472

A main - Rows 6 - 10
11. Saldana 469 12. Shaffer 464 13. M. Kinser 463 14. S. Smith 458 15. Crocker 458 16. McCarl 453 17. Meyers 452 18. Lynch 449 19. W. Johnson 448 20. Tatnell

B Scramblers
21. Kr. Kinser 441 22. Kemenah 436 23. Cram 432 24. Landis 430 25. Mitrisin 428 26. Moyle 427 27. Sides 420 28. Shepard 417 29. Dewease 416 30. Vanderploeg 415

B main - Rows 6 - 10
31. Kahne 414 32. Frey 413 33. Higday 413 34. Jackson 412 35. Droud 411 36. Campbell 405 37. Haudenschild 405 38. Jeffrey 404 39. Hockett 401 40. Walker 399

C Scramblers
41. Logan 399 42. D. Smith 399 43. Kertscher 398 44. D. Moore 398 45. Paulus 396 46. Kaeding 396 47. Ja. Johnson 394 48. Coniam 393 49. Reinke 392 50. Garner 388