5/31/02
Knoxville Raceway
10th Annual Goodyear Master's Classic
24 cars
Paul Veen, who lost an engine while practicing Thursday night, lost another
in hotlaps and loaded his car on the trailer. Bill Smith also grenaded an
engine in hotlaps and was done as well for the evening. It was a tough
break for these two guys.
Forty-two mighty midgets were also in action shaking down their cars with
some hotlaps in preparation of tomorrow night's Pepsi/Mt. Dew Midget
Championship. AJ Fike was quickest amongst those that had transponders,
cutting a fast lap at 19.914 seconds.
The John Bankston Memorial fast time was set by Terry Pletch, who clocked a
lap at 16.970. Pletch was the only driver to crack the 16-second barrier in
qualifications on a track that was slicking off. Smokey Snellbaker, Ken
Lange, Mike Peters, and Midge Miller rounded out the top 5.
Heat 1) 7 laps - 1. 6 Roger Rager (2) 2. 49 Mike Peters (5) 3. 12x Jerry
Crabb (4) 4. 00 Larry Weeks (3) 5. 126 Ernest Jennings (1) 6. 1 Don Dawson
(7) 7. 2t Lou Holland (8) 8. 29 Terry Pletch (6)
Rager jumped out to the quick lead. On lap two, Pletch made hard contact
with the guardrail on the inside of the front stretch, sending him into a
couple hard endos destroying his mount. He was able to walk away. Rager
was challenged at the finish by a hard charging Peters, but held on for the
win.
Heat 2) 1. D1 Dan Oswalt (4) 2. 24 Randy Droescher (2) 3. 6s Shelby Steenson
(1) 4. 8 Midge Miller (5) 5. 2k Smokey Snellbaker (6) 6. 56 Dave Heskin (3)
7. 51 Oscar Smith (7)
Oswalt nipped Droescher on the final lap to take the green to checkered
affair.
Heat 3) 1. 4s Tommy Scott (5) 2. 8$ Chris Mauer (2) 3. 7777 Edd French (3)
4. 20 Ken Lange (4) 5. R134a Jim Payne (1) 6. 44 Tom Davies (7) DNS - 57
George Prosser (scheduled to start 2nd)
Tommy Scott was running the low line to perfection, and took over the lead
from his 3rd row starting spot on lap four. Davies went pitside on lap
five.
A Main) 22 laps - 1. Peters (2) 2. Crabb (6) 3. Oswalt (7) 4. Rager (12) 5.
Scott (5) 6. Snellbaker (4) 7. Miller (1) 8. Mauer (8) 9. Steenson (15) 10.
Lange (3) 11. Droescher (13) 12. Heskin (10) 13. Payne (16) 14. Jennings
(14) 15. O. Smith (18) 16. Davies (20) 17. French (11) 18. Prosser (21) 19.
Weeks (9) 20. Dawson (17) 21. Holland (19)
Peters jumped out to the early lead. Larry Weeks spun on lap 1 and then
followed up by spinning on lap 2, victimizing him of the '2-spins you go to
the pits' rule. On the restart Dawson spun, and Holland clipped his front
end trying to avoid the incident. Both were finished. Roger Rager had gone
from 12th to 7th in those first couple laps. Peters again led while Crabb,
Oswalt, Scott, Snellbaker, and Rager waged a torid battle for 2nd through
6th places. Crabb was flying around on the high side, while the others
stuck to the berm. Prosser went pitside with an engine that was puking oil.
Edd French was also fighting a sour engine. Mike Peters led the entire
distance to claim his first Master's Classic victory.