Knoxville Results and Stories

Saturday, August 24, 2002
8/24/02
 
Knoxville Raceway
 
37 410s
39 360s
 
410s
 
Blake Feese (24th car to time) set quick time in the Vielhauer 12x with a lap of 15.240 seconds on the lightning quick surface.  Jeff Mitrisin (23rd) was second quick followed by Calvin Landis (25th), Lynton Jeffrey (27th), Jaymie Moyle (28th), Terry McCarl (8th), Larry Pinegar II (21st), Ricky Logan (10th), Larry Ball Jr. (26th) and Kerry Madsen (12th).  John VanDenBerg stalled and scratched for the night.  David Murcott blew a motor and also scratched.  Rich Bubak scored the slowest time when he fell off the throttle during qualifying.  Bob Hildreth lost a left rear and flipped in turn one after completing his qualifications.  He was also done for the night.
 
Heat one (started): 1. Dennis Moore Jr. 71 (2) 2. John Lambertz 12L (1) 3. Ball 1s (4) 4. Brent Antill 1 (3) 5. Feese (6) / 6. Logan 3s (5) 7. Shane Hunter 8s (8) 8. Tony Norem 47 (7) DNS - Hildreth 55KC, VanDenBerg V10
 
D. Moore was gone on the extremely heavy and narrow surface.  Lambertz, Ball and Antill raced close for a number of laps, but there wasn't much change in position.
 
Heat two (started): 1. Don Droud Jr. 55 (2) 2. Madsen 82 (4) 3. Colin Northway 12 (1) 4. Mitrisin 5J (6) 5. Justin Henderson R19 (3) / 6. Pinegar 11L (5) 7. Mike Moore 69 (8) 8. Tyler Houseman 50 (9) 9. Jon Agan 4 (7)
 
Droud led the distance in the heat that was stopped once for an Agan flip during the third circuit.  After losing his right rear, Agan went end over end.  Hard work resulted in a return for the B. The restart saw close racing for fourth between Pinegar and Mitrisin, but Henderson was also in the hunt and snatched the last transfer from Pinegar with three laps to go.
 
Heat three (started): 1. Chris Walraven 56 (2) 2. Skip Jackson 21 (3) 3. Randy Martin 14 (1) 4. Landis 70 (6) 5. Manny Rockhold 02 (4) / 6. McCarl 24 (5) 7. Bobby Mincer 15 (7) 8. Bubak 9x (9) 9. Robert Bell 71x (8)
 
Walraven led flag to flag, while the battle was for the final transfer spot between Landis and McCarl.  They swapped positions, before Landis made the pass on the low side for good.  He went on to pass Rockhold who barely held off McCarl at the stripe for the last transfer position.
 
Heat four (started): 1. Travis Cram 92 (2) 2. Jeff Johnson 11J (1) 3. Mike Reinke 17 (3) 4. Moyle 10 (5) 5. Derek Beckman 50D (4) / 6. Jeffrey 4K (6) 7. Leonard Lee 16L (7) DNS - Greg Jones 35, Murcott 20
 
Cram checked out on the rest of the field from his front row spot.  Passing was tough as the track was heavy and equalized the cars, resulting in a mostly single file event.
 
B main (started): 1. McCarl (2) 2. Logan (4) / 3. Jeffrey (1) 4. Lee (6) 5. Pinegar (3) 6. Norem (5) 7. Mincer (7) 8. Bubak (12) 9. Agan (13) 10. M. Moore (8) 11. Bell (11) 12. T. Houseman (12) 13. Hunter (9) DNS - Jones, Hildreth, Murcott, VanDenBerg
 
A three-way duel took place at the front between McCarl, Jeffrey and Logan.  Just when Jeffrey looked like he had enough steam to get by McCarl on the bottom, a lapped car came into effect and broke his momentum, relegating him to third when Logan got by.  He was never able to recover and catch the two leaders in the points race.  Hunter flipped on the final lap before he could finish.  He was uninjured.
 
A main (started): 1. Jackson (3) 2. Feese (12) 3. Landis (10) 4. Cram (16) 5. Moyle (9) 6. McCarl (21) 7. Droud (14) 8. Logan (22) 9. Rockhold (6) 10. Mitrisin (11) 11. Beckman (5) 12. D. Moore (13) 13. Northway (19) 14. Martin (18) 15. Walraven (15) 16. Lambertz (20) 17. Reinke (4) 18. Antill (1) 19. Henderson (2) 20. J. Johnson (17) 21. Ball (8) 22. Madsen (7)
 
When the green fell, McCarl and Northway made contact, leaving the latter to change a blown left rear.  Both would restart.  Antill took the early lead over Henderson and Reinke.  Madsen brought out a lap seven caution, when he stopped with a radiator problem while running eighth.  It would become the first of a number of incidents involving those in contention.  Lap nine, saw seventh place runner Ball make contact with someone and get hard into the wall.  His night was over.  J. Johnson went pitside on lap thirteen.  Antill who appeared to be cruising toward victory saw that notion blow up with his right rear with three laps to go.  The same lap saw third placer Reinke suffer a flat as well.  Ignition box problems sidelined Henderson on the same lap.  He was running second to Jackson when that occured.  Jackson, who inherited the lead from Antill, went on to hold off Feese in the three lap dash.  Though many drivers charged through the field, McCarl earned hard-charger honors by mving forward 15 spots.
 
360s
 
Heat one (started, *qualified for feature): 1. Stacey Alexander 126 (2*) 2. Jerry Crabb 12x (1*) 3. Joe Beaver 53 (4*) 4. Brian Brown 3 (7*) 5. Eric Mason B29 (3) 6. Brett Golik 5G (5) 7. Clint Garner 40x (9) 8. Matt Moro 2m (10) 9. Doran Doty 99x (6) 10. Dave Hesmer 1 (8*)
 
What a lineup for a heat race!  The top three in 360 points: Brown, Hesmer and Garner.  Also Moro who has been tough in a 360 lately, and Beaver in the second row.  Unfortunately, the track did not lend to a whole lot of passing in this one.  Brown did a nice job of moving up through the field about as well as he could.  Hesmer exited early with mechanical problems.
 
Heat two (started, *qualified for feature): 1. Frankie Heimbaugh 6x (2*) 2. Dave Hall 51 (1*) 3. Virgil Brandt 2VK (4*) 4. Ed Ergenbright 11 (6*) 5. Terry Alexander 77 (8*) 6. Mark Detrick 12D (3) 7. Terry Hinck 21H (10) 8. Rob Edwards 22 (7) 9. Rod Richards 5 (9) 10. Tim Deaver 34 (5)
 
While Heimbaugh led the duration, T. Alexander was the man on the move as he got around on the high side of Detrick to finish in a position good enough to earn a spot in the A.  Brandt's bid to pass Hall for second came up just short.
 
Heat three (started, *qualified for feature): 1. Steve Breazeale 66 (4*) 2. Mitchell Alexander 6 (1*) 3. Mike Houseman Y5 (3*) 4. Johnny Anderson 7a (2*) 5. Brett Mather 54 (5) 6. Doug Wilson 33w (7) 7. Tom Lenz 8L (8) 8. Allan Zoutte 33 (9) 9. Jim Alexander Jr. 14A (10) 10. Mike Waddell 2 (6)
 
Breazeale snatched the lead early and dusted his competitors.  Waddell took a terrible tumble on the initial green when he hooked a wheel and slammed hard into the fence.  He was talking to rescue personnel before they took him to the hospital. 
 
Heat four (started, *qualified for feature): 1. Ryan Menninga 10 (1*) 2. Jamie Ferrell 7 (2*) 3. Josh Higday 24 (6*) 4. Tim St. Arnold 7s (4) 5. Ryan Anderson 71R (7) 6. Curtis Thorson 91 (5) 7. Dave Middleswart 40 (3) 8. John Hall 7H (9) 9. Chris Martinez 7m (8)
 
The drop of the green saw Martinez test the boards above the turn one fence.  Martinez and crew were able to scramble and get that car back for the B.  While Menninga paced the field throughout, Higday did a nice job of moving up a few spots.
 
B main (started): 1. St. Arnold (1) 2. R. Anderson (2) 3. Wilson (6) 4. Garner (8) / 5. Golik (5) 6. C. Thorson (10) 7. Moro (12) 8. Mason (3) 9. Doty (18) 10. Lenz (11) 11. Middleswart (13) 12. Deaver (21) 13. Detrick (9) 14. J. Hall (15) 15. Edwards (16) 16. Richards (19) 17. Martinez (20) 18. Zoutte (14) 19. Hinck (7) 20. Mather (4) 21. J. Alexander (17) DNS - Hesmer, Waddell
 
St. Arnold and R. Anderson led a torrid pace.  J. Alexander and Mather dropped out on lap five, the latter was running in the fourth and final transfer spot at the time.  Hinck went pitside on lap eight.  It's good to see Zoutte back racing after a bad accident he encountered a couple of months ago.  Wilson was passed by Garner, but got him back on the final circuit capping a good run for both.
 
A main (started): 1. Brown (2) 2. Higday (8) 3. Beaver (3) 4. Ferrell (4) 5. Houseman (14) 6. Garner (20) 7. Menninga (9) 8. S. Alexander (11) 9. St. Arnold (17) 10. D. Hall (6) 11. T. Alexander (15) 12. J. Anderson (16) 13. Heimbaugh (10) 14. Brandt (1) 15. M. Alexander (5) 16. Wilson (19) 17. Ergenbright (13) 18. R. Anderson (18) 19. Breazeale (12) 20. Crabb (7)
 
Initial green saw J. Anderson black flagged for jumping, and a tire change by Menninga in the work area.  Brandt stormed to the early lead over Brown before a lap five caution for a stopped Crabb.  He went pitside.  St. Arnold spun under the caution, and Breazeale sent himself to the rear by hitting the cone.  By this time Garner had moved into the top ten from dead last.  Six laps passed with Brandt still holding off Brown, when Wilson lost a motor and dumped fluids sending him spinning.  He collected Ergenbright and R. Anderson in the mess and all were finished for the night.  Brandt appeared to have a noticeable vibration in pace laps and that would be his downfall when the green came out again.  Brown assumed the lead and held on to essentially grab the points championship.  Garner was the hard-charger, moving forward 14 spots.