*Format: The traditional Knoxville Nationals point system is used both nights, with the exception being that all teams entered are allowed to race both qualifying nights and you are able to use the better of your two nights. In the sprint car nationals the field is split into two separate nights. The heats use a 10 invert and with 80 cars we had 16 cars in each heat, and only the top four transfer to the A-Main where the invert is 8. After each night is run the points are totaled up and the feature lineups are set for Saturday.
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*Thursday: Billy Moyer killed them in the Thursday night 25 lap feature after starting third and grabbing the lead on lap eight and pulled away. Moyer made a statement with this win and it looked like he was clearly the man to beat. However Moyer timed 19th, and that cost him valuable points. The heat races were awesome on this night with a lot of passing and optimum track conditions. Tim McCreadie put on a good show on this night after some bad luck sent him to the D-main where he finished third and transferred to the tail of the C-main where he raced up to 4th and tagged the tail of the B-Main where he climbed up to 9th.
Qualifying top ten: Scott Bloomquist (17.277), Rich Bell, Dennis Erb Jr., Kent Robinson, Mike Marlar, Jimmy Ownes, Brady Smith, Steve Francis, Chad Simpson, Terry Phillips.
Heat winners: Brian Birkhofer, Jesse Stoval, Jimmy Mars, Billy Moyer, Tyler Reddick.
A-Main top ten: Billy Moyer, Shannon Babb, Steve Francis, Brian Birkhofer, Jimmy Mars, Scott Bloomquist, Brady Smith, Brian Shirley, Denny Eckrich, Austin Hubbard.
Scott Bloomquist was the top point man over all setting quick time, finished third in his heat race, and sixth in the A-main to give him 484 points. That would end up being enough to give him the pole on Saturday night.
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*Friday: Mike Marlar started third and grabbed the lead coming off of turn four on the opening lap and led from the green to the checkered. Steve Francis and Brady Smith were there knocking on Marlar’s bumper a couple of times but they couldn’t around him and Marlar eventually broke away to win handily. Steve Francis had a good run from fifth to second and was the only driver to end up on the podium both nights. This race didn’t see a lot of passing after the opening laps. The 25 lap A-Main went non-stop in 9:03 minutes setting a new 25 lap track record for late models. The race track was really wide and slick on this night compared to the night before where the track held up better. Earl Pearson Jr. drove from 18th to eighth for hard charger honors.
Billy Moyer qualified sixth, but after having to start ninth in his heat he couldn’t advance his way in the field and finished where he started in ninth, which put him in the C-Main. He won the C-Main, but then he was light at the scales after he lost a 40 pound piece of lead off his car somehow. Apparently in the Lucas Oil Late Model Series there is a one pound per lap allowance for weight, he was 12 pounds light at the scales and the race was 15 laps. I’ve never heard of such a rule, but because Moyer was within the allowance he was able to advance to the B-Main. But that lead he lost apparently went through the radiator because they were not able to make repairs in time for the B-Main and they scratched for the night.
Qualifying top ten: Brian Shirley (17.480), Billy Moyer Jr., Jimmy Owens, Denny Eckrich, Pat Moore, Billy Moyer, Dave Eckrich, Brady Smith, Steve Francis, Kent Robinson.
Heat Winners: Donnie Moran, Earl Pearson Jr., Will Vaught, Tim McCReadie, Shannon Babb.
A-Main top ten: Mike Marlar, Steve Francis, Brady Smith, Jimmy Owens, Jonathan Davenport, Brian Shirley, Scott Bloomquist, Earl Pearson Jr., Tyler Reddick, Jason Feger.
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**Saturday: This night was only for the D, C, B, and A mains. I like this format for the Nationals type of events. Especially with a 100 lap A-Main you get to see plenty of racing and it’s for all the marbles. No sense in having a support class to eat up the track and slow things down. I’m glad Knoxville decided to not run a support class this year.
Jimmy Owens grabbed the lead on lap 1 but soon faded to sixth after Scott Bloomquist passed him on lap 3. On lap ten the order was Bloomquist, Smith, Francis, Shirley, Birkhofer, Owens, Babb, and Moyer. Brady Smith passed Bloomquist on lap 12 to take the point and a lap later Brian Shirley stopped to bring out the yellow while he was in third. Shirley lost a cylinder and was done for the night. Brian Birkhofer led one lap on lap 26 but Smith shot back by him a lap later. At the halfway mark the order was Smith, Birkhofer, and Francis lurking. Smith had a 2.5 second lead going into traffic and Francis started making his move by getting around Birkhofer and then reeling in Smith and made the pass for the lead on lap 71 and pulled away. Francis ran a smart race saving his tires on restarts and the first 50 laps so he was there at the end. The 100 lap championship race took almost an hour to run taking the green flag at 9:26pm and the checkered fell at 10:23.Will Vaught was the hard charger coming from 21st to 11th.
Closing thoughts: The thing I enjoy the most about going to non sprint car events at Knoxville is how appreciative the fans and drivers are about having the opportunity to race on the historic half-mile. This goes for the Late Model Nationals, Harris Clash, all events that I have been to the past few years. Steve Francis said in victory lane, “No disrespect to the World 100, but this is the biggest win of my career.” That is a huge statement considering the man has won the granddaddy of all Late Model races, the World 100 in 1999. Kyle Strickler basically said the same thing this year when won the Modified Harris Clash event. And the past few years when the IMCA Late Models raced you heard it again from Ray Guss Jr. and Tommy Elston, those were the biggest wins of their career to win at Knoxville. I’m not knocking sprint car fans, but the weekly fans that like to complain about small things, go to any other dirt track in the state and see if you think it’s as nice as Knoxville. I don’t think you appreciate the gem in the facility and track that we have here in Iowa.
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Late Model Nationals finish: 1. Steve Francis (5), 2. Brady Smith (4), 3. Brian Birkhofer (7), 4. Scott Bloomquist (1), 6. Mike Marlar (6), 8. Billy Moyer (9), 10. Jonathan Davenport (15), 11. Will Vaught (21), 14. John Anderson (19), 15. Kent Robinson (10), 16. Bub McCool (23), 18. Tyler Reddick (11), 21. Frank Heckenast Jr. (20), 23. Jason Feger (18), 24. Terry Phillips (14), 25. Morgan Bagley (12), 26. Shannon Babb (8), 28. Earl Pearson Jr. (22), 29. Jimmy Mars (16), 30. Denny Eckrich (13), 31. Terry Casey (24), 32. Mark Burgtorf (17), 33. Brian Shirley (3).
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