5/30
Knoxville Raceway
Masters Classic Midget Qualifying/King Doodlebug Feature
24 Masters
44 Midgets
Masters
A giant kudos to the Duncan family for having the surface racey, even with the gale-force wind that was wreaking havoc for fans and flagmen alike.
Jimmy Sills set quick time (11th out) with a time of 16.845. He was followed by Smokey Snellbaker (15th), George Prosser (3rd), Dan Oswalt (6th), and Bobby Thompson (20th).
Heat 1) 1. 6R Roger Rager (5) 2. 20 Jimmy Sills (8) 3. 49 Mike Peters (6) 4. 24x Randy Droescher (4) 5. 11 Keith Hutton (7) 6. 126 Ernest Jennings (3) 7. 6 Steve Johnson (1) DNS - 38 Miles Grein
Rager, Sills, and Peters clawed their way to the front in an entertaining heat. Grein didn't make the call in time, and sat out.
Heat 2) 1. 66 Roger Fickett (3) 2. 4s Tommy Scott (2) 3. 8s Chris Mauer (6) 4. 24 Bobby Thompson (7) 5. 4 Oscar Smith (2) 6. 12x Jerry Crabb (4) 7. 2k Smokey Snellbaker (8) DNS - 33 Bill Smith
Crabb spun in turn three before a lap was completed, and as Snellbaker was trying to go between him and the wall, he caught the wall with his right rear sending him flipping hard. The mount was destroyed, but he was unhurt. Crabb would restart. On the ensueing restart, Crabb got too high in turn one, smacked the wall with his right rear, and took a series of endos. He too was unhurt. Mauer and Thompson took advantage of those their misfortune and worked into the top five.
Heat 3) 1. 5t George Prosser (8) 2. 6K Rick Sorem (3) 3. 56 Dave Heskin (5) 4. R134a Jim Payne (4) 5. 00 Larry Weeks (6) 6. 6x Mackie Heimbaugh (1) 7. 79 Dick Mahoney (2) 8. D1 Dan Oswalt (7)
The "Mack Attack" Mackie Heimbaugh jumped to the lead, but before he put lap one in the books, he spun down the front chute. He kept it off the wall and out of harms way, but restarted at the tail. Sorem would assume the point on the restart and keep it until Oswalt spun (while running 3rd) in turns 3 & 4, bringing out the yellow. Prosser had charged from the tail into 2nd, and nipped Sorem as the white flag flew to complete his fine run.
Masters Classic Feature (started): 1. Sills (8) 2. Rager (11) 3. Hutton (4) 4. Prosser (7) 5. Mowrer (2) 6. Grein (22) 7. Thompson (5) 8. Weeks (1) 9. Scott (10) 10. Heskin (9) 11. Droescher (12) 12. Fickett (15) 13. Heimbaugh (19) 14. Mahoney (18) 15. B. Smith (21) 16. Sorem (14) 17. O. Smith (19) 18. Payne (13) 19. Johnson (20) 20. Jennings (16) 21. Peters (3) 22. Oswalt (6)
The invert was eight. Weeks took the early lead around the low side, until Hutton took the point from him on lap two. Heimbaugh brought out the caution with a spin on lap five. Hutton led Peters, Sills, Rager and Mowrer on the restart. One lap after taking the green, Sills grabbed the lead for good and headed through heavy lapped traffic. Oswalt went pitside on lap six. Rager appeared to be reeling in Sills through lapped machines until third running Peters slowed on lap 18 when a bolt came out of his throttle pedal. He retired with Sills leading Rager, Hutton, Mowrer and Prosser to the green flag. He would hold on for the popular win. Grein charged forward sixteen spots from the back row to claim hard-charger honors.
Midgets
Chris Deshon and Kerry Madsen were both victims of separate nasty flips in midget hotlaps. Both were done for the night. AJ Fike was quickest in the hotlap sessions with a lap of 19.527.
Heat 1) 1. 22 Ray Bull (2) 2. 7 Aaron Fiscus (5) 3. 8 Sarah McCune (3) 4. 87 Dave Camfield Jr. (7) 5. 10k Ron Kuhn (9) 6. 79 Jim Doyle (8) 7. 75 Kevin Doty (1) 8. 78 Dave Camfield Sr. (4) DNS 33 Wally McDuffy
Bull took the lead and never looked back in this one. The high side of the speedway was fast, although you never would've known it by watching this heat race. Everybody was using the bottom side and most were content to follow each other. The youngest of the racing Camfields finally ventured to the high side and was rewarded hansomely.
Heat 2) 51D Davey Ray (4) 2. 15 Scott Hatton (5) 3. 2 Chad DeSelle (1) 4. 4x Don Droud Jr. (6) 5. 3 Brandon Waelti (2) 6. 22 Rick Mueller (7) 7. 2M Marc Dailey (8) DNS - 21x Paul Farrell
Droud attempted to show the midget boys how to run the cushion at Knoxville, and for the most part was successful. Ray rocketed to the lead at the start with Hatton in tow. Hatton got within striking distance a couple times, but Ray was too much.
Heat 3) 1. 51 Mike Hess (1) 2. 69 AJ Fike (6) 3. 37 AJ Felker (3) 4. 55 Steve Knepper (2) 5. 87 Rich Camfield (4) 6. 15 Todd Beach (5) 7. 82 David Gough (7)
Hess simply checked out here. He won by over a straightaway and set a new 8-lap record for the midgets at Knoxville in the process. The elder Fike had a very fast racecar as well, and had a fine run to the front.
Heat 4) 1. 94 Brian Gerster (2) 2. 11c Damien Gardner (3) 3. 99 Brad Kuhn (5) 4. 95x Rik Forbes (1) 5. 31 Donnie Lehmann (4) 6. 6 Randy Fiscus (7) 7. 73 Tim Siner (6)
Gerster led this one flag to flag, but not without pressure from Gardner in the later stages of the race. Gardner, who is on a roll out on the left coast in Harlan Willis' sprinter showed that he can muscle the mighty midgets around as well.
Heat 5) 1. 30 Craig Carey (2) 2. 23 Boyd Calvert (5) 3. 20 Quin McCabe (6) 4. 7n Critter Malone (3) 5. 95 Aaron Fike (8) 6. 51x Ryan Durst (4) 7. 47 Adam Mason (7) 8. 40 Nick Lundgreen (9) DNS - 20 Cody Weisensel
Carey ran away from this one. Critter looked as if he was about to make a run to the front, then faded back a bit. Lundgreen exited on lap 6.
King Doodlebug Feature (started): 1. Carey (1) 2. Hatton (7) 3. Droud (5) 4. Aaron Fike (9) 5. Durst (8) 6. DeSelle (11) 7. AJ Fike (10) 8. Hess (14) 9. Dailey (3) 10. Bull (6) 11. Waelti (15) 12. Lehmann (13) 13. Forbes (2) 14. Ray (4) 15. Gerster (12)
Carey led the distance despite puking smoke from an oil line from lap five on in the fifteen lap event. It paid him $1000. Gerster exited early on lap two, and Ray followed him in the next circuit. Forbes would bow out on lap ten while running a strong third. Hatton was persistent and was still gaining on the leader at the checkered flag. Hess moved up six spots despite not having brakes.
Thanks to Rustin Nelson for his mighty contributions on this report.