8/10/07
Knoxville Raceway
Knoxville Nationals Night Two
55 cars
Tim Shaffer (1st car out to time) set quick time at 15.000 seconds. Jason Martin (2nd car out) was second quick, followed by Mark Smith (9th), Toni Lutar (5th), Donny Schatz (54th), Randy Hannagan (15th), Lance Dewease (8th), Brian Paulus (11th), Brandon Wimmer (6th) and Craig Dollansky (19th). The track went away quickly, with early timers having a much larger advantage than night one, with the exception of Schatz. Fred Rahmer got upside down in hot laps, ending his night early. Robert Bell failed to get a time in.
Heat one (started): 1. Chad Blonde 5B (2) 2. Dusty Zomer 1z (3) 3. Greg Hodnett 22 (4) 4. Lucas Wolfe 5w (7) / 5. Shaffer 6 (10) 6. Jan Howard 4xx (1) 7. Billy Alley 55 (6) 8. Randy Hannagan 1x (9) / 9. Dean Jacobs 7K (8) 10. Rager Phillips 9 (5)
Blonde led flag to flag in the 10 lapper. The top three pulled away, as Howard held the final transfer to the A down ealry. Wolfe eventually dove under him as a part of a four-car battle with Shaffer and Alley. The four were within five car lengths for much of the heat. The top four finishers went to the A, next four to the B, and last two to the C.
Heat two (started): 1. Jonathan Allard 0 (3) 2. Daryn Pittman 21x (2) 3. Jason Solwold R19 (6) 4. Bob Felmlee 6F (4) / 5. Dewease 25 (9) 6. Sean Michael 6N (8) 7. J. Martin 36 (10) 8. Matt Wasmund 4w (1) / 9. Brent Antill 1 (5) 10. Davey Heskin 56 (7)
Allard circumvented the front row for an immediate lead he would never relinquish ahead of Pittman, who had an extremely disappointing qualifying run. Solwold was the man on the move, charging into third. Dewease and Michael did well to move into fifth and sixth.
Heat three (started): 1. Bob Weuve 19 (1) 2. Jeremy Campbell 10c (4) 3. Danny Smith 4 (5) 4. Chad Kemenah 8K (6) / 5. Skip Jackson 2 (7) 6. M. Smith 55s (10) 7. Paulus 28 (9) 8. John Lambertz 12L (8) / 9. Larry Pinegar II 44 (3) 10. TJ Winegardner Jr. 11T (2)
Weuve led flag to flag. Campbell and a persistent D. Smith swapped second several times in the waning laps in a good battle. Winegardner exited on lap four.
Heat four (started): 1. Danny Lasoski 83 (6) 2. Jason Sides 7s (7) 3. Travis Rilat 29T (2) 4. Shane Stewart 1HD (8) / 5. Tony Shilling 47T (1) 6. Scott Winters R9 (3) 7. Lutar 4x (10) 8. Wimmer 7TW (9) / 9. Bob Bennett 3 (5) 10. Brian Carlson 18 (4)
Rilat took the point early. Lasoski was in second on lap one and took the lead on lap three. Carlson went up in smoke on lap nine while running eighth. That alllowed Lutar and Wimmer a shot to make the B main. Sides used the restart to pass Rilat for second.
Heat five (started): 1. Schatz 15 (10) 2. Jack Potter 15P (4) 3. Dollansky 7 (9) 4. Garry Lee Maier 11x (6) / 5. Mark Dobmeier 13L (7) 6. Jeff Mitrisin 47 (3) 7. Ryan Farrell 3s (5) 8. Chris Schmelzle 57c (1) / 9. Mike Deavers 72 (8) 10. TJ Stutts 39 (2)
The initial start was a jumbled mess and the result was contact in turn one, between Stutts, who started in row one, and Dollansky, who was trying to make a run from the tail. Dollansky's crew made a number of repairs to return to action, while Stutts waited on the wrecker for what seemed an eternity before help arrived for him in the work area. Both made it out to restart. Potter rode the rim to lead early after inheriting the front row starting spot. Schatz was in second by lap two, but didn't pass the smooth racelong leader until white flag lap. Schatz and Dollansky became the only fifth row starters to finish in the top four of a heat on Friday.
C main (started): 1. D. Jacobs (1) 2. Deavers (2) / 3. Pinegar (8) 4. Antill (5) 5. Heskin (3) 6. Rob Eyler 81c (10) 7. Ty Bartz 75 (7) 8. Bruce White 96au (9) 9. Phillips (4) 10. Bennett (6) DNS - Carlson, Winegardner, Stutts, Robert Bell 71, Fred Rahmer 51
D. Jacobs dominated the 10 lapper. Phillips trailed him most of the way, but spun on lap eight and took an easy tipover. That handed the second transfer to the B to Deavers.
B main (started): 1. Shaffer (1) 2. Hannagan (5) 3. Wimmer (8) 4. J. Martin (2) / 5. Jackson (11) 6. Dobmeier (12) 7. Winters (15) 8. D. Jacobs (21) 9. Mitrisin (16) 10. Paulus (7) 11. M. Smith (3) 12. Alley (13) 13. Shilling (19) 14. Lutar (4) 15. Howard (17) 16. Farrell (14) 17. Lambertz (10) 18. Schmelzle (20) 19. Michael (9) 20. Wasmund (18) 21. Dewease (6) 22. Deavers (22)
A 10 car melee greeted the start of the B main. A four-wide try at turn one wasn't going to work. Among the cars involved were Dewease, Deavers, Alley, Dobmeier, Schmelzle, D. Jacobs, Lambertz, and Jackson, who got upside down hard. Dewease also suffered some significant damage and didn't return. Deavers also went pitside, but Jackson was able to make it back out after significant repairs. Wimmer was black flagged under protest for jumping the start. M. Smith was cruising along on the next try at green, when he spun and tipped over in turn four. After repairing the top wing, he restarted at the tail. Shaffer shot out to an early lead, and one lap was in the books when Farrell slowed and Wasmund could not avoid hitting him and getting upside down. He was unhurt, but done. The restart saw Shaffer leading J. Martin, Hannagan, Paulus and Michael. Three more laps were in when Michael had a good run on Paulus on the backstretch, but was squeezed to the wall enough that contact between the two cars, flattened Michael's left rear tire. After a couple more green flag laps, Michael retired. Wimmer came back from his early black flag and was able to sail by Paulus for a transfer, and also passed J. Martin for third. Jackson made a late run for the final transfer, but fell just short after his first lap flip.
A main (started): 1. Lasoski (1) 2. Schatz (8) 3. Solwold (3) 4. Kemenah (2) 5. Sides (4) 6. Dollansky (7) 7. Pittman (18) 8. Wolfe (5) 9. Hodnett (11) 10. D. Smith (10) 11. Campbell (13) 12. Zomer (15) 13. Shaffer (21) 14. Wimmer (23) 15. Maier (9) 16. Rilat (19) 17. Hannagan (22) 18. Felmlee (12) 19. J. Martin (24) 20. Weuve (20) 21. Potter (14) 22. Blonde (17) 23. Stewart (6) 24. Allard (16)
Lasoski shot out early in the 25 lapper and never looked back in the non-stop event, lapping all but the top seven. Allard dropped out on the first lap. Meanwhile, there was some good racing behind him, as Solwold and Kemenah battled for second, and Stewart entered the battle for third with Kemenah, and later Schatz, who was moving forward. Stewart was in fourth on lap 21, when his powerplant went up in smoke. Sides dropped out of a top ten run on lap 19. Hannagan went up in smoke on lap 23 while running 12th. Pittman was the hard-charger, passing 12 cars. The win was Lasoski's 89th at Knoxville.
World Challenge (started): 1. D. Jacobs (1) 2. Ricky Logan 10 (3) 3. Pittman (5) 4. Kerry Madsen 11H (4) 5. Schatz (11) 6. Brooke Tatnell 2w (6) 7. Dollansky (9) 8. Paul McMahan 20 (8) 9. Brian Brown 21 (7) 10. Lynton Jeffrey 12 (12) 11. Jackson (13) 12. Lutar (10) 13. Schmelzle (2) 14. White (14) 15. Farrell (15) 16. Stewart 11x (16)
D. Jacobs ran a steady race to take home a cool $10,000. The track finally succombed to the ninety degree temperatures and wind as rubber formed about halfway through the 16 lapper. Logan found it early, but was unable to make much ground despite a lap 10 caution for Farrell who did a complete 360 under the flagstand. At the time, D. Jacobs led Logan, Madsen, Pittman and Tatnell. Pittman was able to duck under Madsen, while the restart allowed Schatz to outduel Tatnell for fifth.