WoO at Knoxville Dirtphalt & Spencer

Kerry Madsen won his first World of Outlaws race of the season this past Saturday night at the Knoxville Raceway. It was his third career series win. Madsen is a native of Australia but calls Knoxville, Iowa home here in the states as he races full time with the Outlaw series in the summer. Madsen was the 2005 Knoxville track champion and since then he has made a persistent effort to compete at the highest level of the sport and it’s beginning to pay off after a slow start this season. After a fifth place finish on Friday night at Spencer’s Clay County Fairgrounds and a win on Saturday it appears his #29 Keneric racing team is putting the pieces together to be a team to watch over the next couple of months with a lot of big money races on the line culminating in August at the Knoxville Nationals.

The track conditions were very tough at Knoxville on Saturday night with high temperatures, wind, and very low humidity that didn’t allow the 70,000 gallons of water applied to the racing surface in the 48 hours prior to racing to hold up. Sammy Swindell took off with the lead but didn’t catch the rubber groove being built on the bottom side of the track in time and Madsen took advantage by making the winning pass on lap six, and from there it was a freight train on the bottom groove like a NASCAR race at Martinsville. Good news is some of the local Knoxville Regulars had some good showings as Brian Brown, Ian Madsen, and Terry McCarl finished in the top ten with several others qualifying well and making the A-Main. Ian Madsen and Ryan Bunton won their heat races to guarantee top ten starting spots in the feature. In the 360 sprint car class Clint Garner won his third feature of the season.

I felt bad for the Dunkin's though on this night as the track didn't hold up at all and deteriorated quickly. But I have faith they will have this dry weather situation figured out this next week and for the Nationals. But what a sour note to end on with a dirtphalt race. The teams didn’t learn anything for the Nationals, the fans paid a lot of money to see a bad race.

On Friday night I made the four hour drive to Spencer for the first time to watch the Outlaws. This is my tenth dirt track in Iowa I have been to. I was treated to a very good race on the 3/8 mile clay oval. Brad Sweet won his first career Outlaws feature there as he raced hard with leader Jason Sides the first half of the race and finally made the pass and pulled away in dominating fashion. I really like the track up there. It reminds a little of Bloomington in turns 1&2 and a little of Huset’s in 3&4.
The only gripe I had was the concessions taking forever. They need to learn to have more than 2 cash registers for 8 lines of people, and to have a separate line for nachos. But a good race and experience over all. I’m still not sure why the track has brown clay dirt instead of black Iowa dirt. The old half-mile track had sand in it from what I heard so maybe that’s why. Here is a link to my YouTube channel to see video from Spencer. I have the WoO Dash and the start of the 360 Non-Wing feature. http://www.youtube.com/arniebhg But it sure makes for a dusty experience. Surely the glaciers back in the ice age didn’t miss Clay County in Iowa did they?