Knoxville 360 Nationals Results and Stories

Saturday, August 5, 2006
8/5/06

Knoxville Raceway

360 Nationals Finals + 410s

84 360s
43 410s

360s

E main (started): 1. Troy Meyer 11m (1) 2. Toby Chapman 84 (8) 3. Danny Martin Jr. 00m (10) 4. Mark Pace 31 (3) 5. Joe Beaver 53 (13) 6. Danny Horner 75H (7) 7. Lee Sowell 51s (6) / 8. Alan Zoutte 33 (9) 9. Tim Gee 4x (11) 10. Cameron McGahan 33x (5) 11. Doc Sloan D12 (2) 12. Mike Brecht m20 (4) 13. Ryan Jamison 51J (12) DNS - Eric Baldacinni B4, Brett Golik 5G, Foster Landon 11F, Jan Howard 46, John Anderson 4G, Pete Crall 11, Dusty Zomer 1z, Ron Blair 35, Ben Rutan 23x, Brook Weibley 56x, Ricky Logan A12

Meyer led flag to flag in the 8 lapper.  Brecht exited on lap three.  Jamison got upside down on the frontstretch on lap four, stopping the event.  He was uninjured.  Meyer led Sloan, Pace, Chapman and Sowell back to green flag racing.  On lap five, Sloan retired while in a transfer spot.  Sowell slowed on the final lap while smoking, giving sixth to Horner.  Chapman and Martin Jr. moved up nicely.

D main (started): 1. Randy Martin 14 (3) 2. Garry Lee Maier 11x (5) 3. Chad Meinholdt 69m (8) 4. Chris Morgan 7c (6) 5. Cory Seeling 97 (1) / 6. Kevin Ramey 7m (11) 7. Martin Jr. (19) 8. Frankie Heimbaugh 04 (9) 9. Beaver (21) 10. Chapman (18) 11. Brandon Harkness 29x (7) 12. Horner (20) 13. Matt Tiffany 19T (4) 14. Meyer (17) 15. Matt Harms 53H (2) 16. Josh Riggins 14J (14) 17. Jake Martens 1x (13) 18. Sowell (22) 19. Brian Thomas 67 (12) 20. Lee Grosz 4L (16) 21. Mike Houseman Jr. Y5 (15) 22. Joe Wood Jr. 03 (10) DNS - Pace, Gene Lasker 02, TJ Winegardner 11T, Seth Brahmer 13

R. Martin shot by the front row on the start and never looked back in the 10 lapper.  The lone stoppage came when Wood stopped on lap seven.  R. Martin led Maier, Meinholdt, Seeling and Morgan back to green flag racing.  Those five held down the transfers despite late pressure from Ramey and Martin Jr. who had the tacky bottom figured out in a charge forward.  R. Martin and Maier have been a part of 22 360 Nationals A mains combined.  Neither is accustomed to the D.

C main (started): 1. Dustin Daggett 85 (1) 2. Justin Zimmerman K9 (2) 3. Tony Bruce Jr. 18x (7) 4. Bryan Dobesh 2x (5) 5. Wade Nygaard 9N (3) / 6. Larry Neighbors 29N (4) 7. Jerrod Hull 94 (10) 8. Ray Allen Kulhanek 41K (8) 9. John Carney II 8 (6) 10. Curt Michael 99 (16) 11. Kevin Welsh 2w (9) 12. Maier (18) 13. JD Johnson 98 (11) 14. Preston Peebles II 11P (12) 15. Luke Cranston 20 (13) 16. R. Martin (19) 17. Morgan (20) 18. Dustin Selvage 7 (17) 19. Meinholdt (21) 20. Seeling (22) 21. Toby Brown 61a (15) 22. Josh Schneiderman 49 (14) DNS - Mike Chadd 4, Ryan Anderson 71R, Matt Moro 2m

Daggett led the non-stop 12 lapper flag to flag.  Bruce was fast on the bottom snaking Neighbors, Nygaard and Dobesh for a third place run.

B main (started): 1. Chuck Swenson X (3) 2. Don Droud Jr. 2J (4) 3. Travis Rilat 29 (9) 4. Jake Peters 57x (11) / 5. Jeff Mitrisin 10 (7) 6. Jesse Hockett 75 (14) 7. Rager Phillips 9 (2) 8. Luke Hall 34 (1) 9. Steve King 88 (10) 10. Jon Corbin 15 (13) 11. Roger Crockett 11c (5) 12. Daggett (18) 13. Bruce (20) 14. Sean McClelland 1 (6) 15. Stacey Alexander 00 (17) 16. Dobesh (21) 17. Dave Glennon 5x (12) 18. Tyler Thompson 48 (15) 19. Danny Jennings 61J (16) 20. Nate Mosher 22N (8) 21. Zimmerman (19) 22. Nygaard (22) DNS - Skip Jackson 2, Brett Mather 54, John Kearney 83

Phillips jumped out to a first lap lead, before Droud took over on the second go-around in the 15 lapper.  Three laps later, Mosher spun and Zimmerman could not avoid, and got upside down.  He was not injured.  Droud led Phillips, Swenson, a charging Rilat and L. Hall back to green flag racing.  Swenson used the low side to shoot under Phillips and then took the lead from Droud for good on lap eight.  The battle was on for the final transfer as Mitrisin and Peters worked their way past Phillips to challenge.  Mitrisin cut off Peters on lap nine for the spot, and it took Peters two more laps to grab the position and nail down a trip to the A from row six.

A main (started): 1. Jesse Giannetto D1 (4) 2. Josh Higday 24 (3) 3. Brian Brown 21 (8) 4. Dustin Lindquist 55L (6) 5. Larry Ball Jr. 5J (1) 6. Johnny Anderson 7a (5) 7. Billy Alley 1m (9) 8. Jason Johnson 41 (14) 9. Clint Garner 27 (15) 10. Rilat (23) 11. Jonathan Allard 0 (17) 12. Gary Wright 9x (7) 13. Scott Winters R19 (10) 14. Rick Ideus 5B (11) 15. Peters (24) 16. Droud (22) 17. Dave Hall 51 (19) 18. Dale Howard 47 (16) 19. Swenson (21) 20. Lance Yonge 17J (18) 21. Ian Madsen 55 (12) 22. Bryan Howland 51H (20) 23. Eric Jobe 23 (13) 24. Larry Pinegar II 7w (2)

Pinegar took the early advantage, hitting the cushion ahead of Giannetto who immediately fell into second.  The non-stop 25 lap affair saw the leaders hit heavy lapped traffic around lap ten.  On lap 12, Giannetto seized an opportunity and drove under Pinegar in turns one and two to take the lead.  He then pulled away from the rest of the field and cruised to the biggest win of his young career.  He credited his laps in the 410 feature for spurring him to tighten the car up a bit as he won by over 5 seconds.  Rilat easily won hard-charger honors passing 13 cars on his way to the top ten.  The win paid Giannetto $10,000.  Pinegar retired from a fine run on lap 20.

410s

Ricky Logan set quick time with a lap of 15.987 seconds.  Group qualifying was used as six cars took to the track at a time.  Ryan Anderson was second quick, followed by Lynton Jeffrey, Randy Anderson, Tyler Walker, Bronson Maeschen, Calvin Landis, Billy Alley, Dusty Zomer and Chris Walraven.  Brian Brown popped a motor and went outside the raceway to retrieve another before the heats started.

Heat one (started): 1. Clint Garner 40 (2) 2. Matt Moro 47 (1) 3. Zomer 1z (4) 4. Logan 55 (6) 5. Walker 5 (5) / 6. Eric Vanderploeg 86 (3) 7. Nick Smith 15s (8) 8. Chris Schmelzle 57c (10) 9. Robert Bell 71 (11) 10. Matt Wasmund 4w (9) 11. Brent Antill 1 (7)

Moro shot out to the lead, while Antill and Logan shot by Walker to grab fifth and sixth.  Antill was up to fourth by lap four when he tipped over by himself in turn two.  The stoppage worked to the advantage of both Garner, who grabbed the restart lead from Moro, and Walker who was able to pass Vanderploeg for the final transfer.

Heat two (started): 1. Kaley Gharst 44G (2) 2. Jeff Mitrisin 10J (3) 3. Jon Agan 4 (1) 4. Maeschen 96 (5) 5. Ry. Anderson 71R (6) / 6. Walraven 56 (4) 7. Ken Mackey 25m (9) 8. Jonathan Allard 0 (7) 9. Toni Lutar 4x (8) 10. Dave Saffell 03 (10) DNS - Tony Shilling 47T

Gharst rode the rim in front for the duration of the 8 lapper.  Both Ry. Anderson and Allard challenged Walraven for the final transfer.  Ry. Anderson was able to grab it late from Walraven.  Mackey also issued a brief challenge, but faded with Allard in the end.  Maeschen looked fast throughout, while Mitrisin and Agan put up a good fight for second.

Heat three (started): 1. Jesse Giannetto D1 (2) 2. Landis 70 (5) 3. Jon Corbin 33c (4) 4. Chad Hillier 5c (1) 5. Lynton Jeffrey 12 (6) / 6. Rager Phillips 10 (8) 7. Brian Brown 21 (11) 8. Mike Moore 69 (7) 9. Tim St. Arnold 7w (3) 10. Seth Brahmer 13 (9) 11. Greg Jones 3J (10)

Giannetto led the duration.  Brown fell two spots short of a transfer.  Corbin in his first 410 start at Knoxville, looked good in earning his transfer.

Heat four (started): 1. Skip Jackson 2 (2) 2. Alley 17G (5) 3. Trevor Green 11AU (4) 4. Robert Ballou 12x (1) 5. Chad Meyer 1w (3) / 6. Ra. Anderson 81 (6) 7. Jamie McDonald NZ3 (8) 8. Kyle Hirst 99 (7) 9. Tyler Houseman 50 (10) 10. Natalie Sather 94s (9)

Jackson led the duration.  Alley rode the cushion in a battle with Green low to grab second.  17 year old Ballou was steady in his first Knoxville action.  Meyer used a nose chopping slidejob on Ra. Anderson to grab the final transfer.

B main (started): 1. Antill (5) 2. St. Arnold (4) 3. Phillips (11) 4. Lutar (10) 5. Brahmer (15) / 6. Sather (16) 7. Schmelzle (17) 8. Wasmund (13) 9. Houseman (20) 10. Bell (21) 11. Ra. Anderson (1) 12. Allard (6) 13. Moore (7) 14. Hirst (8) 15. Jones (19) 16. Saffell (18) 17. Brown (22) 18. Smith (9) 19. McDonald (12) 20. Mackey (14) 21. Vanderploeg (3) 22. Walraven (DQ - Light, crossed 1st) (2)

Ra. Anderson led early before a lap two caution for debris in the 12 lapper.  He led Walraven, St. Arnold, Vanderploeg and Allard back to green flag racing.  Two more laps were in the books before McDonald flipped in turn two.  He was unhurt.  Allard had moved into the final transfer at that point with Antill in tow.  Brown had moved his way up to 7th by lap seven when his second motor of the night failed, relegating him to the pits.  Now Ra. Anderson led Walraven, Allard, Antill and St. Arnold back to green.  Ra. Anderson appeared to be home free before tangling with the lapped machine of Jones coming for the checkers.  The result put him out of contention, while handing the lead to Walraven ahead of Allard, Antill, St. Arnold and Phillips.  Hirst flipped hard on top of the infield guardrail on the frontstretch after a retry at green ending his night uninjured.  Vanderploeg also retired while running fourth.  Another attempt saw Allard retire while running second, and Moore go pitside as well.  Walraven was DQed after crossing 1st for being light at the scales in the wacky event.

A main (started): 1. Gharst (12) 2. Meyer (1) 3. Alley (4) 4. Walker (9) 5. Zomer (5) 6. Garner (13) 7. Logan (10) 8. Giannetto (15) 9. Green (3) 10. Moro (17) 11. Landis (7) 12. Agan (16) 13. Maeschen (6) 14. Ry. Anderson (11) 15. Phillips (20) 16. Brown 33c (22) 17. Lutar (21) 18. Hillier (19) 19. Brahmer (23) 20. Jackson (14) 21. Ballou (24) 22. Jeffrey (8) 23. Antill (18) 24. Mitrisin (DQ, Wing, crossed 1st) (2)

A weird race just got weirder.  On the first try at green, Jeffrey contacted Maeschen's right rear and did a series of spins a flips after clipping the wall.  The girations collected Agan and Antill, who retired.  Brown who jumped in his cousin's 33c for points sake also came to a stop, but continued on with Agan.  Ballou shelled a driveline at the same time.  Meyer wrestled the lead from Mitrisin when the green flew again and held it until a lap four Jackson stop slowed the 20 lapper for the last time.  Meyer led Mitrisin, Alley, Green and Logan back to green flag racing.  The two leaders went at it for several laps before Mitrisin took the 10J into the lead for good on lap 12.  Meanwhile, Gharst was on a tear, streaking by Walker and then Zomer to move into the top four.  On the white flag lap, Meyer and Alley were caught behind lapped traffic when Gharst shot around the turn three and four cushion to move into what he thought was second.  He was awarded victory when Mitrisin was DQed for an illegal top wing.  The win was Gharst's second of the year and his career at Knoxville.