7/31/08
Knoxville Raceway
18th Annual 360 Nationals
Prelim Night #1
50 cars
Bronson Maeschen (46th car out to time) impressed by setting quick time after coming out late in the field on a slowing track at 16.320 seconds. Tyler Walker (4th car out) was second quick, followed by Jonathan Allard (29th), Travis Rilat (8th), Jason Johnson (18th), Gary Taylor (7th), Ricky Montgomery (3rd), Larry Neighbors (13th), George White (47th) and Terry McCarl (19th). Jared Peterson, who towed all the way from Washington lost a side panel on the top wing at speed going into turn three and flipped hard after hitting the wall. He was unhurt, but the car destroyed. Steve Dyer was DQed in time trials because of an illegal tire, as were Kyle McCutcheon and Jason Eckard. All were pitted close together.
Heat one (started): 1. Maeschen 96 (4) 2. Billy Alley 22 (2) 3. Dustin Selvage 7 (1) 4. Randy Martin 14 (3) / 5. Taylor 5* (5) 6. Brock Lemley 4L (9) 7. Derek Ingalls 91 (6) 8. Danny Heskin 6 (7) / 9. Mallory Armfield 5MA (8) DNS - Mike Houseman Jr. Y2
Heats were eight laps, with the top four going to the A, the next four to the B, and the rest to the C. Lemley received a bad break when he had a mechanical issue and needed to pushes to start. A front row starting spot became a start on the tail. Alley took the early lead after inheriting the front row starting position, but Maeschen made a nice move to the point after a lap six restart after a caution for debris.
Heat two (started): 1. Jonathan Cornell 28 (4) 2. Jake Peters 57x (1) 3. Walker 24T (6) 4. Glenn Borden 72 (2) / 5. Scott Winters 23w (3) 6. Joe Ramaker 98R (7) 7. Montgomery 9m (5) 8. Scott Lehman 9s (8) / DNS - DJ Brink 21B, Jared Peterson 9P
Peters took the early lead. Cornell was impressive on the high side however, and quickly dogged the leader. On lap six, he made his winning move. Walker moved into a transfer early, and then grabbed third from Borden at the halfway point.
Heat three (started): 1. Lee Sowell 51s (2) 2. Joe Beaver 53 (4) 3. JJ Hickle 7A (1) 4. Allard 0 (6) / 5. Jon Agan 4 (3) 6. Jeff Mitrisin 10 (8) 7. Nate Mosher 22N (7) 8. Neighbors 29N (5) / 9. Jerry Bell 85 (9) 10. Steve Dyer 9A (10)
Sowell led flag to flag. Allard and Agan waged battle for the final transfer. Allard grabbed it early before Agan held it for most of the event. Allard came back late to snatch it for good in an entertaining heat.
Heat four (started): 1. Rilat 29T (6) 2. Zach Chappell 50z (3) 3. Russ Hall 29 (2) 4. Gordy Vogelaar 99v (8) / 5. White 10x (5) 6. Jason Solwold 39c (4) 7. Tim Sernett K9 (1) 8. Jason Eckard 2H (10) / 9. Kevin Ingle 2K (9) 10. Cody Petersen 16P (7)
Solwold was sent to the tail for getting out of line on the first start. Sernett led the first lap, but Rilat exploded to the front and won going away. Vogelaar, who got to move up a row with Solwold's penalty, made the most of it and held off White for the final tranasfer.
Heat five (started): 1. J. Johnson 41 (6) 2. Lee Grosz 4J (3) 3. McCarl 1m (5) 4. Matt Tiffany 19T (1) / 5. Jon Corbin 26J (7) 6. Larry Pinegar II 11L (2) 7. Danny Martin Jr. 00m (4) 8. Don Young 75 (8) / 9. Justin Carver 24J (9) 10. Kyle McCutcheon 5K (10)
Grosz shot around the cushion early to grab the lead from row two. By lap four, J. Johnson was all over him and turned laps as fast as 16.4 on his way to the 100 point win. Corbin came late but it wasn't enough to reel in Tiffany.
C main (started): 1. Petersen (2) 2. Ingle (3) / 3. Bell (4) 4. Carver (6) 5. McCutcheon (8) 6. Dyer (7) 7. Armfield (5) 8. Brink (1) DNS - Houseman Jr., Peterson
Petersen was the class of the field, winning by almost a 1/2 lap in the 10-lapper. Ingle came on late to pass Bell for the final transfer to the B. Armfield and Brink retired early.
B main (started): 1. Taylor (1) 2. Solwold (5) 3. Montgomery (2) 4. Winters (7) / 5. Neighbors (3) 6. Martin Jr. (6) 7. Agan (8) 8. Lemley (9) 9. Mitrisin (17) 10. Young (18) 11. Corbin (14) 12. Pinegar II (10) 13. Ingalls (15) 14. Ramaker (12) 15. Heskin (19) 16. Mosher (13) 17. Sernett (11) 18. Lehman (16) 19. Eckard (20) 20. Ingle (22) 21. Petersen (21) 22. White (4)
A fierce battle for the lead over teh first 9 laps in the 12-lapper saw Taylor and Montgomery exchange the point four times. White was keeping pace on lap nine while running third when he smacked the frontstretch wall hard in an attempt to slingshot around Montgomery for second. The result was a damaged racecar as he went off on the hook. The restart saw Taylor leading Montgomery, Solwold, Neighbors and Winters. Solwold nabbed third in the last three laps, while Winters was impressive on the low side of one and two in cruising by Neighbors for the final transfer.
A main (started): 1. J. Johnson (4) 2. Alley (2) 3. Rilat (5) 4. Walker (7) 5. Chappell (11) 6. McCarl (3) 7. Cornell (1) 8. Allard (6) 9. Winters (24) 10. Peters (17) 11. Solwold (22) 12. Martin (10) 13. Taylor (21) 14. Hickle (18) 15. Grosz (12) 16. R. Hall (15) 17. Tiffany (19) 18. Selvage (16) 19. Vogelaar (20) 20. Borden (13) 21. Montgomery (23) 22. Sowell (14) 23. Beaver (9) 24. Maeschen (8)
Alley got the jump on Cornell in row one, but by the time one lap was completed, J. Johnson was in the lead for good. The first 18 of 20 laps went non-stop. Soon Rilat was by Alley into second and in pursuit of the leader through traffic. Cornell was a strong fourth ahead of a battle for fifth with McCarl, Chappell and Walker involved. Maeschen's bid for a perfect score on the night ended when hit right rear wheel broke off while running ninth on lap 18. Beaver was 12th at the same time and retired. The three lap shootout saw J. Johnson leading Rilat, Allley, Cornell and McCarl back to green flag racing. Plenty of dicing occured late but the leader remained the same, and captured his third career 360 win, and second of 2008. Alley passed Rilat in turn four on the last lap for second. Walker shot from sixth to fourth late, and Chappell from seventh to the top five. Winters earned hard-charger honors for his run from 24th to 9th.