2015 Knoxville Raceway Season Opener

Finally Mother Nature cooperated and the Season Opener for the 2015 Lucas Oil Knoxville Championship Cup Series was this past Saturday night. This was the first event for the FVP National Sprint League at Knoxville and with the ASCS National tour rained out early in the day we had a high number of entries, 98 total sprint cars in the pit area on this night. That was more than any night last season and not since July 28, 2012 have we had 98 or more cars.  Everyone was excited to be racing at Knoxville!

Weather conditions at 7:00pm were 72° and over cast with 57% humidity, winds out of the SE at 12mph, and a dew point of 54°.  The track was heavy and fast, but it widened out nicely for the features.  It was chilly for the fans late but with free kids night the crowd was good.



410 Report
38 cars signed in.  Top 10 Qualifying:  Danny Lasoski set quick time with a lap of 14.967 (120.2 mph), followed by Heskin, Austin McCarl, Kaeding, Brown, Terry McCarl, Bill Balog, Wayne Johnson, Schneiderman, Clauson. Good job by Kaeding and Brown who went out late in the order (33rd and 36th) and timed in the top five.

Heat winners were Henderson, RJ Johnson, Madsen and Zomer. With 32 or more cars qualifying the format becomes four heat races, making the drivers have to finish in the top five of their heat race to transfer to the A-Main. Henderson and Johnson won from the front row of their heats while Madsen and Zomer both won from row two.

Brown was the only driver in the top eight of qualifying not to transfer to the feature from his heat race, but he would go on to win the B-Main.  New rule this year at Knoxville is that the first and second place finishers in the B are able to earn their time slot back in the A main lineup (but cannot start better than ninth) while third and fourth place cars have to tag the tail of the A. This rule change makes the B more interesting, it rewards someone who qualified well who couldn’t make it through their heat, but this change devalues the heat races somewhat.

The A-Main racing was simply awesome. Bill Balog started on the pole and led until lap five when Wayne Johnson caught him and made the pass.  A lap later Lasoski also went past Balog. Lasoski caught Johnson in traffic and made the pass on lap 15. Tim Kaeding nearly spun his car early in the race but recovered and charged up to second place.  At the end of the 25 lapper TK was just as fast the Dude. Bryan Clauson drove from tenth to fourth and will now be in Indianapolis for a couple of weeks to try for his second Indy 500 start. Zomer and Henderson were the hard-chargers both advancing 11 positions.



Danny Lasoski (Studio 92 Photo)

Lasoski picked up career win #102 at Knoxville, and wins the inaugural NSL event at the track. He also broke another track record, now winning his sixth Season Opener, breaking a tie with five wins with Sammy Swindell. 

410 A Main Finish (started): 1. Danny Lasoski (6); 2. Tim Kaeding (8); 3. Wayne Johnson (2); 4. Bryan Clauson (10); 5. Dusty Zomer (16); 6. Mark Dobmeier (11); 7. Justin Henderson (18); 8. Bill Balog (1); 9. Brooke Tatnell (12); 10. Ian Madsen (15); 11. Dustin Selvage (17); 12. Davey Heskin (7); 13. Josh Schneiderman (4); 14. Austin McCarl (5); 15. Ryan Bunton (23); 16. Bronson Maeschen (14); 17. Kaley Gharst (22); 18. Lynton Jeffrey (13); 19. Logan Forler (19); 20. Brian Brown (9); 21. Terry McCarl (3); 22. Brad Loyet (20); 23. RJ Johnson (21); 24. Dylan Peterson (24). Lap Leaders: Balog 1-5, W. Johnson 6-15, Lasoski 16-25. KSE Hard-charger: Zomer.

360 Report
32 cars.  Justin Henderson set quick time at 15.941.  Not surprising since Henderson set quick time seven times last year in the 360 class.  Clint Garner was second followed by Joe Beaver, Tony Bruce Jr., and Randy Martin.  Heat winners were Blake Hahn (front row), Jordan Weaver (front row), Tony Shilling (front row), and Tony Bruce Jr. (third row).  TBJ looked impressive in the fourth heat race.

Russ Hall started outside row two and drove past the front row of Matt Moro and Jon Agan through turns one and two and set sail. On lap 15 Henderson began reeling in Hall in traffic and made the pass on lap 16, but Hall was not to be denied and he went back by Henderson on the next lap to get his third career 360 win. Tony Bruce was fast coming from eighth to third. On lap 14 Agan was running second and made contact with a lapped car sending him to the pits ending his night. Rough start to the season for Agan who also had some bad luck in Osky last week in the Sprint Invaders show. Jamie Ball had to pit early to change a tire, but later pulled in.

360 A Main Finish (started): 1. Russ Hall (4); 2. Justin Henderson (6); 3. Tony Bruce Jr. (8); 4. Matt Moro (1); 5. Nate Van Haaften (11); 6. Joe Beaver (5); 7. Tony Shilling (17); 8. Clint Garner (7); 9. Randy Martin (3); 10. Josh Baughman (12); 11. Tom Lenz (18); 12. Jake Bubak (22); 13. Dakota Hendrickson (9); 14. Blake Hahn (19); 15. Jordan Weaver (20); 16. Dustin Clark (15); 17. Sawyer Phillips (16); 18. Ryan Giles (24); 19. Jon Agan (2); 20. Bart Friedrichsen (21); 21. Jamie Ball (13); 22. Calvin Landis (14); 23. Casey Friedrichsen (10); 24. Cody Ledger (23). Lap Leader: R. Hall 1-15, Henderson 16, R. Hall 17-18. Hard-charger: Shilling.

305 Report
28 cars signed in. Chris Walraven was quick time with a lap of 16.966.  Walraven is racing for his charity Gigi’s Playhouse this year with their winnings going to support a good cause for Downs Syndrome children.  Heat winners were Stacey Alexander, Jeff Wilke, and Chase Wanner.  Devin Kline drew the pole with the 2014 champion J Kinder alongside of him.  Kinder drove away to lead the first nine laps until a caution slowed the field down. McKenna Haase started eighth and was running fourth. On the restart both Kinder and Haase had no power and went pit side and Kline inherited the lead and would go on to win his third career feature. Stacey Alexander drove from 16th to second, Walraven was third. Kade Higday advanced ten positions from 17th to seventh.

305 A Main (started): 1. Devin Kline (1); 2. Stacey Alexander (16); 3. Chris Walraven (6); 4. Kevin Hetrick (5); 5. Christian Bowman (3); 6. Trevor Smith (4); 7. Kade Higday (17); 8. Chase Wanner (18); 9. Jeff Wilke (11); 10. Mike Mayberry (28); 11. Tanner Edwards (13); 12. Brad Comegys (22); 13. Don Dawson III (25); 14. Corey Kautz (23); 15. Kevin Hiemstra (19); 16. Lee Patterson (27); 17. Rob Weuve (24); 18. Ben Woods (7); 19. Joe Simbro (10); 20. J Kinder (2); 21. McKenna Haase (8); 22. Josh Jones (12); 23. Cody Ambers (9); 24. Christopher Scank (20); 25. Mitchell Alexander (15); 26. Cliff Jones (26) DNS – Casey Friedrichsen, Dan Henning. Lap Leaders: Kinder 1-9, Kline 10-15. Hard-charger: S. Alexander.

We also had 12 Dirt Trucks on this night with Matt Moro picking up that win. This race was a Memorial for Mark Fee who passed away over the winter.  Mark was a Fair Board Member and a long-time supporter of dirt track racing, racing stock cars and trucks in central Iowa over the years. It was good to see the Dirt Trucks make their annual appearance at Knoxville. You can learn more about the DTRA at www.racedtra.com.

Notes
The competition in the 410 class is tougher than advertised.  Lasoski, McCarl, Brown, Kaeding, Henderson, Heskin, Clauson, Zomer, Dobmeier… that being said, I think Lasoski is the man to beat.  I look for Lasoski to win a lot more races in 2015 and probably dominate the NSL. He is now the point leader for both the NSL and at Knoxville.  Him and Guy Forbrook with solid financial backing are going to be a tough combo to beat and can probably have a shot at winning the Nationals.  It will be interesting with Brown and Kaeding being the other top dogs in the Midwest.

Hopefully the other top dog, Terry McCarl will be back racing soon. He was involved in a nasty accident with Brad Loyet on lap two of the A-Main which he suffered a fractured L4 vertebrae (lower back by your hips).  Terry had some mechanical problems and slowed coming down the front stretch, Brian Brown tagged Terry but was able to drive away after getting all four wheels off the ground, then Loyet had no time to react and hit Terry as he was nearly stopped on the track. Terry was able to walk to the ambulance.  Thank goodness for the safety innovations in the past 10-15 years.  Keep up with Terry’s latest condition on his website, Facebook, and Twitter. Praying for a speedy recovery for Terry.

The level of competition in the 360 class is high as well. This might be one of the toughest field of cars I’ve ever seen in that class this year.  Clint Garner is back in the 360 class.  The five time track champion is one of the best at Knoxville in the 360, but the competition is stiff with Henderson, Beaver, Agan, Hall, Ball, Moro, Van Haaften.  It should be an interesting season in the 360 class with those heavyweights. 

The 305 class is going to come down to Kinder being able to keep his car together. It sounded like his engine was toast.  Kline and Walraven are the next two guys in line to win the championship I think.  Both have fast cars.  Matthew Stelzer missed this week due to a wedding but he will be back this coming week.

The chicken bites were excellent!

I’ll be back next week with more tidbits.