6/28
Knoxville Raceway
32 410s
36 360s
410s
Chris Walraven (2nd car out to time) set the qualifying mark at 15.311 seconds on a track that gave away quickly towards the end of time trials. Terry McCarl (11th car out) was second quick, followed by Calvin Landis (4th), Lynton Jeffrey (3rd), John Sernett (14th), Brian Brown (5th), Wayne Johnson (7th), Jon Agan (1st), Travis Cram (15th) and Kerry Madsen (21st). Don Droud Jr. was driving the Lenard McCarl/John Kearney 7x and was suffering mechanical ills. He managed to get one slow lap in.
Heat one (started): 1. Clint Garner 55 (2) 2. W. Johnson 12x (6) 3. Madsen 82 (5) 4. Derek Beckman 50D (3) 5. Jeffrey 4K (7) 6. Eddie Leavitt Jr. 1A (1) / 7. Walraven 56 (8) 8. Adam West 20 (4) 9. Scott Young 47 (9) 10. Greg Jones 35 (11) 11. Mike Moore 69 (10)
Moore exited on lap two. Garner led flag to flag in his first outing in his new ride, the Vermeer 55 powered by his Ott engine. W. Johnson was coming on strong and just fell short at the end of the eight lap heat. Leavitt held on to the last transfer for dear life before Walraven stumbled on the last lap.
Heat two (started): 1. Ricky Logan 17G (2) 2. McCarl 24 (8) 3. Brent Antill 1 (1) 4. Randy Anderson 1s (4) 5. Justin Henderson R19 (5) 6. Randy Martin 14 (3) / 7. Agan 4 (6) 8. Jeff Johnson 11J (9) 9. Sernett 91 (7) 10. Robert Bell 71 (10) 11. Tyler Houseman 50 (11)
Logan dusted the field, while McCarl diced through the rest of the competition. He waited until the last corner to move under Antill for second. Agan battled on Martin's nerf bar, but fell short of the final transfer.
Heat three (started): 1. Mike Reinke 02 (2) 2. Jaymie Moyle 10 (4) 3. Cram 92 (6) 4. Brown 6 (7) 5. Eric Vanderploeg 57a (1) 6. Landis 70 (8) / 7. Jeff Mitrisin 5J (3) 8. Droud 7x (10) 9. Skip Jackson 21 (5) 10. Mark Hurd 44m (9)
Reinke led the distance and was gone. Positions six through nine were mayhem as Landis, Mitrisin, Droud and Jackson diced for the final transfer on the racy surface. Landis ended up pulling away from the rest after averting disaster, getting sideways in turn one. Both Brown and Jackson underwent motor changes after the heat.
B main (started): 1. Jackson (4) 2. Sernett (2) 3. Walraven (1) 4. Droud (12) / 5. Mitrisin (6) 6. Agan (3) 7. J. Johnson (8) ......... (finish not given by announcers)
Great racing. Jackson took the lead from racelong leader Sernett on the white flag lap. All eyes were on Droud who had blasted through all but the top four spots on the first two laps. A bonzai move on the low side of turn four on the final circuit snatched the last transfer spot from Mitrisin, and had the crowd on its feet.
A main (started): 1. McCarl (12) 2. Henderson (5) 3. Jackson (19) 4. Logan (13) 5. Droud (22) 6. Moyle (3) 7. W. Johnson (8) 8. Antill (17) 9. Martin (1) 10. Jeffrey (10) 11. Walraven (21) 12. Landis (11) 13. Garner (14) 14. Sernett (20) 15. Brown (9) 16. Vanderploeg (18) 17. Leavitt (16) 18. Cram (7) 19. Beckman (2) 20. Reinke (15) 21. R. Anderson (4) 22. Madsen (6)
Martin broke out to an early lead before a Madsen slider made contact with Anderson, sending the 1s upside down. Madsen suffered front axle damage and retired as well. Martin assumed command again and had half a straightaway lead on Moyle when Reinke stopped with rear end damage on lap seven. The restart saw Martin leading Moyle, a surging McCarl, Brown and Henderson. Brown and Henderson were exchanging slide jobs and heading towards the front. Lap ten saw McCarl take the lead from Martin for good. He pulled away until Beckman tested the turn two wall. A broken jacobs ladder sent him to the trailer. The lap 13 restart saw McCarl leading Martin, Moyle, Brown, Henderson and Logan from 13th. The rest of the 25 lapper went green, as McCarl pulled away to earn $3500. Brown faded late as he ran out of fuel. Eyes were on Jackson and Droud who were missiles from the back passing 16 and 17 cars, respectively. Droud earned hard-charger honors with his run in the Good Year shod Twister.
360s
Heat one (started, *qualified for feature): 1. Ed Ergenbright 11 (4*) 2. Jerry Crabb 12x (1*) 3. Tom Lenz 8L (3*) 4. Mike Houseman 83 (9*) 5. Rob Edwards 22 (2) 6. Terry Alexander 77 (5) 7. Bruce Williams 8s (7) 8. Brandon Hainline 4J (6) 9. Alan Zoutte 33 (8)
Crabb led the first four laps before Ergenbright took over in impressive fashion. Houseman worked his way up five spots to earn enough points to transfer.
Heat two (started, *qualified for feature): 1. Eric Mason B29 (2*) 2. Brett Mather (3*) 3. Brett Golik 5G (5*) 4. Dave Hesmer 1 (8*) 5. Bobby Mincer 15 (7*) 6. Ryan Anderson 71R (6) 7. Dave Hall 51 (1) 8. Mitchell Alexander 6 (9) 9. Danny Hutchins F4 (4)
Mason led the distance, and has been hot as of late. Mincer charged through three positions with Hesmer in tow. Hesmer dived under him in the last corner to take fourth, and what would turn out to be the pole position in the A main.
Heat three (started, *qualified for feature): 1. Josh Higday 24 (4*) 2. Billy Alley 22A (6*) 3. Stacey Alexander 126 (2*) 4. Johnny Anderson 7a (3) 5. Jesse Giannetto D1 (1) 6. John Hall 7H (9) 7. Frankie Heimbaugh 6x (7) 8. Nate Mosher 45 (8) DNS - Chris Martinez 7m (5)
Mosher had his steering break on the initial start, sending him hard into the wall. He was unable to continue. Under yellow, Heimbaugh ran into Alley and suffered enough damage that he had to retire. The ensuing green saw Giannetto get black flagged for jumping the start from his pole position. S. Alexander and Higday went to war for the lead. On lap four, Higday took the lead for good. Alley slipped by for second on the last lap.
Heat four (started, *qualified for feature): 1. Matt Moro 2 (5*) 2. Larry Ball Jr. 5J (4*) 3. Michael Jones 12 (6*) 4. Steve Breazeale (8*) 5. Curtis Thorson 91 (7) 6. John VanDenBerg V10 (9) 7. Rod Foster 40F (2) 8. Dave Middleswart 40 (3) 9. Joe Beaver 53 (1)
Beaver led early until his motor gave way on lap two. He would change it before running the B. Ball assumed the lead and led until a lap five tip over by Foster. Foster restarted, but Middleswart was black flagged under caution. Ball lost some power on the final circuit, surrendering the win to Moro.
B main (started): 1. Thorson (2) 2. VanDenBerg (3) 3. Giannetto (5) 4. J. Anderson (1) / 5. T. Alexander (7) 6. Williams (9) 7. Beaver (15) 8. R. Anderson (8) 9. Edwards (4) 10. J. Hall (6) 11. D. Hall (10) 12. Hainline (14) 13. M. Alexander (13) 14. Foster (12) 15. Middleswart (16) 16. Heimbaugh (11) 17. Hutchins (17) DNS - Mosher, Zoutte, Martinez
J. Anderson grabbed the early lead in the non-stop event. On lap five, Thorson took over the point in heavy traffic. VanDenBerg and Giannetto would also get by J. Anderson, as the top four separated themselves from the rest. This was bad news for Beaver who entered the weekend second in points. A 15th to 7th run was all for naught. Heimbaugh exited on lap eight.
A main (started): 1. Hesmer (1) 2. Alley (9) 3. Golik (2) 4. Mason (8) 5. Houseman (6) 6. Higday (10) 7. Ergenbright (11) 8. Moro (12) 9. Giannetto (19) .......... 20. Mincer (16) (finish not given by announcers)
An opening lap spin by Jones saw Ball collected. In addition, Mincer jumped the right rear of Breazeale and got some serious airtime in a series of flips. He was unhurt. Breazeale suffered top wing damage, but continued along with Jones and Ball. Hesmer led all 18 nonstop laps. Alley put on another impressive charge, getting by seven cars. Houseman was knocking on the door of Mason throughout, but he couldn't get by. Giannetto was the hard-charger, getting by 10 cars.