7/8/06
Knoxville Raceway
Twin Features Night
29 410s
33 360s
410s
Brian Brown (17th car out to time) set quick time at 14.827 seconds on the heavy surface. Bronson Maeschen (7th car out) was second quick, followed by Billy Alley (28th), Chris Walraven (11th), Calvin Landis (21st), Ricky Logan (6th), Dusty Zomer (27th), Skip Jackson (1st), Rager Phillips (19th) and Tim St. Arnold (12th). Chad Meyer failed to get a time in. Larry Neighbors was disqualified after weighing in light at the scales.
Heat one (started): 1. Matt Moro 47 (2) 2. Zomer 1z (4) 3. Brown 21 (6) 4. St. Arnold 7w (3) 5. Chad Meyer 1w (10) 6. Walraven 56 (5) / 7. Larry Ball Jr. 5J (1) 8. Jerrel Slinkard 15s (7) 9. Tony Shilling 47T (8) 10. Dave Saffell 03 (9)
Moro led the 8 lapper the distance. The best race developed for second between Zomer on the high side and Brown on the bottom. Meyer did well to move into a transfer on the first lap and got by Ball and Walraven to move into fifth.
Heat two (started): 1. Jackson 2 (4) 2. Jesse Giannetto D1 (2) 3. Brent Antill 1 (1) 4. Maeschen 96 (6) 5. Landis 70 (5) 6. Ryan Anderson 71R (3) / 7. Mike Moore 69 (8) 8. Larry Neighbors 83s (10) 9. Robert Bell 71 (9) 10. Trevor Green 11AU (7)
Giannetto took the lead with Jackson on his nerf bar early. Persistence paid off for Jackson as he got under Giannetto on lap four after a good battle. Green exited for the night on lap seven.
Heat three (started): 1. Clint Garner 40 (2) 2. Kaley Gharst 44G (1) 3. Alley 17G (6) 4. Phillips 10 (4) 5. Lynton Jeffrey 12 (3) 6. Logan 55 (5) / 7. Greg Jones 3J (7) 8. Michael Strader 7m (9) 9. Tyler Houseman 50 (8)
Garner led throughout with the only stoppage coming for a lap six caution for Houseman. After the restart, Alley and Phillips, who was driving the VanderEcken machine for the first time, battled for second with Alley winning the spot. Logan cruised in the final transfer in the 55.
B main (started): 1. Ball (1) 2. Slinkard (2) / 3. Jones (4) 4. Shilling (3) 5. Bell (5) 6. Strader (7) 7. Moore (6) 8. Saffell (8) DNS - Green, Houseman, Neighbors
Ball led early before a lap three caution for nose wing debris from the Slinkard machine. The top four stayed the same over the last five laps in single-file fashion.
A main #1 (started): 1. Brown (1) 2. Alley (3) 3. Logan (6) 4. Maeschen (2) 5. Jackson (8) 6. Landis (5) 7. Gharst (17) 8. Giannetto (14) 9. Garner (15) 10. Zomer (7) 11. St. Arnold (10) 12. Meyer (18) 13. Anderson (11) 14. Phillips (9) 15. Ball (19) 16. Walraven (4) 17. Antill (16) 18. Jeffrey (12) 19. Moro (13) 20. Slinkard (20)
Brown led the distance and was never seriously challenged in the 20 lapper. No invert put the quick-timer on the pole. The only challenge happened when Logan threatened in lapped traffic before a lap nine flip by Moro in turn one. He was uninjured. The restart saw Brown leading Logan, Alley, Maeschen and Jackson. With the exception of Alley besting Logan in a great duel the lead pack remained the same through the last 11 circuits. The win was Brown's fifth at Knoxville in a 410 and was worth $2200. Gharst was the hard-charger, moving forward 10 spots. Jeffrey exited on lap 10.
A main #2 (started): 1. Antill (1) 2. Alley (16) 3. Garner (9) 4. Giannetto (10) 5. Brown (17) 6. Jackson (13) 7. Gharst (11) 8. Anderson (5) 9. Jeffrey (18) 10. Landis (12) 11. Meyer (6) 12. St. Arnold (7) 13. Maeschen (14) 14. Jones (20, alt.) 15. Logan (15) 16. Walraven (2) 17. Zomer (8) 18. Ball (3) 19. Phillips (4) 20. Slinkard (19) DNS - Moro
Meyer visited the work area before the green fell and had to start at the rear instead of 6th. Antill led early, guiding the Jordan Brothers machine on the cushion. Alley was in ninth by the end of lap one and began picking off competitors. Zomer gained ground on the leader in lapped traffic and shot around him on lap 17. The duo was joined by Alley, Garner and Giannetto as you could have thrown a blanket over the quintet. One lap later, the free-for-all was broken up by ninth place runner Phillips' spin after suffering a flat left front tire. The restart saw Zomer leading Antill, Alley, Garner and Giannetto with two to go. Alley passed both Antill and Zomer on the restart, but it was negated when Ball suffered a flat right rear and slowed in turn two. Zomer still in command, pitted with a flat as well, exiting and handing the lead to Antill, ahead of Alley, Garner, Giannetto, Jackson and Brown. Alley attempted a slide job in turns one and two, briefly taking the lead, but it was Antill who shot between the wall and Alley in turn four coming for the white flag, who would hold on for career 410 win #9. Alley was the hard-charger, moving up 14 spots and gaining some ground on point leader, Brown, who shot by Jackson after the last restart to finish in the top five.
360s
Heat one (started, *qualified for feature): 1. Johnny Anderson 7a (1*) 2. Josh Higday 24 (2*) 3. Jon Corbin 15 (3*) 4. Brett Mather 54 (6*) 5. Joe Beaver 53 (7) 6. Stacey Alexander 00 (5) 7. Frankie Heimbaugh 04 (6) 8. Josh Schneiderman 49 (4) DNS - Rod Richards 5 (9)
Richards suffered a flat left rear in hot laps and wouldn't return. Johnny Anderson led the 7 lap heat the distance. Top to bottom this could have been the most stacked 360 heat of the season. The lone caution came when Schneiderman stopped on lap two after contact with S. Alexander.
Heat two (started, *qualified for feature): 1. Dustin Lindquist 55L (2*) 2. Nate Mosher 22N (1*) 3. Eric Mason B29 (4*) 4. John Kearney 83 (6*) 5. Jeff Mitrisin 10 (8*) 6. Pete Crall 11 (7) 7. Mike Houseman Jr. Y5 (3) 8. Nate Van Haaften 3 (5)
As the green fell, Lindquist led and Mitrisin seemed to get around Kearney in the row in front of him before the field hit the chalk line. When Mitrisin stumbled behind Mike Houseman Jr., Kearney shot back around him to gain valuable points. Lindquist led flag to flag.
Heat three (started, *qualified for feature): 1. Mike Houseman Y2 (1*) 2. Troy Meyer 11m (3*) 3. Jake Peters 57x (8*) 4. Brett Golik 5G (6*) 5. Mitchell Alexander 6 (2) 6. Alan Zoutte 33 (4) 7. Tyler Thompson 2T (7) DNS - Dustin Selvage 7 (5)
Selvage retired after hot lap problems. On the initial try at green, Zoutte and Thompson came together. The result was Thompson exploding into a series of harrowing cartwheels down the frontstretch. He suffered serious damage to the sprinter, but was uninjured, as was Zoutte. Houseman led the distance despite a late challenge from Meyer. M. Alexander spun on lap seven and exited, leaving four to finish the event.
Heat four (started): 1. Tom Lenz 8L (1*) 2. David Hall 51 (6*) 3. Mike Trent 2 (3*) 4. Davey Heskin 56 (2) 5. John Anderson 4G (5) 6. Dustin Barks 22 (8) 7. Terry Alexander 77 (4) 8. Danny Heskin 65 (7)
While Lenz took the early lead, it was Hall who grabbed second from row three on the first go-around and looked strong throughout. Trent subbing for an injured John Schulz, ran a strong third to gain a transfer to the A.
B main (started): 1. Beaver (1) 2. Barks (3) 3. Crall (6) 4. John Anderson (4) / 5. Houseman Jr. (8) 6. Heimbaugh (7) 7. Schneiderman (9) 8. Van Haaften (10) 9. Davey Heskin (2) 10. Danny Heskin (11) 11. S. Alexander (5)
The 10 lapper saw Beaver dominate the non-stop event. S. Alexander was in a transfer spot when he got over the turn two berm and exited on lap three. Barks looked good in his first ever visit to Knoxville. Houseman Jr., Heimbaugh and Schneiderman battled for alternate positions throughout.
A main #1 (started): 1. Higday (8) 2. Hall (1) 3. Lindquist (2) 4. Peters (5) 5. Johnny Anderson (3) 6. Mason (10) 7. Kearney (13) 8. Beaver (17) 9. Mosher (9) 10. Mather (12) 11. Lenz (6) 12. Mitrisin (16) 13. Corbin (11) 14. Crall (19) 15. Trent (15) 16. Golik (14) 17. Houseman (4) 18. Meyer (7) 19. John Anderson (20) 20. Barks (18)
Hall jumped out to a nice lead and seemed headed to his first career Knoxville win. Barks exited on lap nine. With Hall a half a lap from victory, John Anderson got upside down on the backstretch bringing a stop to the event. Hall led Lindquist, Higday, Peters and Johnny Anderson back to green, white, checker racing. On the restart, Higday shot under both Lindquist and Hall to take the lead. The leaders crossed the stripe for the white flag before Meyer and Houseman made contact sending the Y2 upside down hard. He was treated and released. Now Higday would have an open track ahead and wouldn't relent in garnering his 10th career 360 win at Knoxville. Beaver was the hard-charger, moving up nine spots.
A main #2 (started): 1. Mitrisin (5) 2. Trent (2) 3. Kearney (10) 4. Corbin (4) 5. Mather (7) 6. Mosher (8) 7. Peters (13) 8. Beaver (9) 9. Lindquist (14) 10. Mason (11) 11. Hall (15) 12. Schneiderman (20, alt.) 13. Crall (3) 14. Heimbaugh (19, alt.) 15. Lenz (6) 16. Barks (17) 17. Houseman Jr. (18, alt.) 18. Golik (1) 19. Johnny Anderson (12) 20. Higday (16) DNS - Houseman, Meyer, John Anderson
Trent shot out to the early lead before Johnny Anderson and Beaver contacted on lap three in turn two. Beaver got upside down and headed for the work area for repairs, while the 7a was done. Higday went pitside as well. The Beaver crew needed more time, and got it when the red was thrown for Crall who spun and came down hard on all fours on the restart. He would restart at the tail. Trent led Corbin, Mitrisin, Mosher and Golik back to green flag racing. Three laps later, Mitrisin shot by Trent in the winning move. One final slowdown came on lap eight, when Houseman Jr. spun on lap eight. Mitrisin pulled away the last seven laps, winning by more than 8 seconds, in collecting his first career Knoxville 360 win. Schneiderman, an alternate, took passing honors, finishing eight spots ahead of where he started.