Brown & Zomer Win on Twin Features Night!

Twin Features night is always a pivotal night in the points for the Knoxville Raceway track championship. This year Danny Lasoski is looking for his tenth championship and had a 249 point lead before the night started. A good night for the Dude and his tenth championship is nearly assured with only four weekly nights left on the schedule after this week. With Twin Feature night scheduled on the same weekend as the Kings Royal in Ohio the car count was lower than in some recent weeks, or years past when teams liked to show up for the extra laps in preparation for the Nationals in August. This is good news for the Knoxville Regulars in that there were fewer cars enabling them to have the opportunity to get more points on a night where points mean more than ever. Brad Loyet was the only “visitor” on this night in the 410 class and Billy Alley made his second Knoxville appearance of the season in the 360 class.

This night was the warmest of the season so far. 84 degrees, not much wind, 74% humidity, and a dew point of 75 degrees which means it was muggy out. When the dew point is above 70, you can guarantee the race track will hold together well all night and it did. The track was well prepared and it was good conditions for racing, lap times were slower, which is the perfect recipe for good racing.
 
410 Report
30 cars signed in. Time Trials top eight were Justin Henderson 15.167, Danny Lasoski, Tim Kaeding, Brian Brown, Ian Madsen, Dustin Selvage, Terry McCarl, and Dusty Zomer. Selvage was the only driver out of the top eight not to transfer from his heat race.

Heat race winners were Terry McCarl (row two), Danny Lasoski (row three), and Dakota Hendrickson (row one). The racing surface was in excellent shape on this night making for a lot of great racing in the heats.

There was some controversy in heat three with Craig Dollansky after the race was over. He originally was disqualified for not going to the scales immediately and going to his pit. However it was later determined he stopped near his pit with a small fire. He then rolled to the scales and met minimum weight. No one could confirm if his car rolled on to the concrete pit area before going to the scales so he was given his finishing spot back.

The first A-Main was without a doubt the best feature of the season. Justin Henderson jumped the inside berm in turn four on the start and Lasoski jumped out to the lead early. Brian Brown passed Lasoski on lap three and pulled away. With five laps to go Tim Kaeding caught the leaders through lapped traffic was able to pass Henderson, Lasoski, and then Brown on the last lap to cross the line first. Brown finished the race with a bent radius rod on the right front that slowed him down a bit in the closing laps. After the race in tech Kaeding’s #3 was disqualified for an illegal muffler, more specifically internal parts that are required to be there were missing, so the muffler was tampered with in some way. Everyone is looking for an edge, but tech inspection has been heightened in recent weeks. The win is Brown’s 30th at Knoxville.

410 A Main #1 Finish (started): 1. Brian Brown (4); 2. Danny Lasoski (2); 3. Justin Henderson (1); 4. Terry McCarl (6); 5. Ian Madsen (5); 6. Dusty Zomer (7); 7. Bill Balog (8); 8. Davey Heskin (11); 9. Tasker Phillips (10); 10. Craig Dollansky (19); 11. Bronson Maeschen (13); 12. Dakota Hendrickson (17); 13. Lynton Jeffrey (15); 14. Logan Forler (14); 15. Dustin Selvage (9); 16. Brad Loyet (23); 17. RJ Johnson (20); 18. Chris Martin (18); 19. Brooke Tatnell (16); 20. AJ Moeller (21); 21. Mike Moore (22); 22. Jordyn Brazier (24); 23. Josh Schneiderman (12); DQ (muffler) - Tim Kaeding (3). Lap Leaders: Lasoski 1-2, Brown 3-19, Kaeding 20. Hard-charger: Dollansky.

A-Main two on Twin Features night is always entertaining with the lead lap cars from the first feature being inverted, which on this night put Dustin Selvage and Logan Forler on the front row and the top two finishers in row seven. Selvage was out to a good size lead early but a couple of cautions allowed the field to catch up to him. Dusty Zomer started tenth and quickly worked his way towards the front and by halfway was gaining on Selvage and Hendrickson for second. On lap 12 Zomer made the pass for the lead and went on to pick up his first win of the season, and his first win at Knoxville in almost four years (July 30, 2011). Heskin was gaining on Zomer with three laps remaining but lost ground the last couple of laps to finish second. Lasoski was the hard charger in third.

410 A Main #2 Finish (started): 1. Dusty Zomer (10); 2. Davey Heskin (8); 3. Danny Lasoski (14); 4. Craig Dollansky (6); 5. Dustin Selvage (1); 6. Dakota Hendrickson (4); 7. Justin Henderson (11); 8. Logan Forler (2); 9. Terry McCarl (12); 10. Tasker Phillips (5); 11. Ian Madsen (9); 12. Lynton Jeffrey (3); 13. Brooke Tatnell (20); 14. Brad Loyet (15); 15. Mike Moore (22); 16. Chris Martin (17); 17. Bob Weuve (23); 18. RJ Johnson (18); 19. Bill Balog (7); 20. Brian Brown (13); 21. Josh Schneiderman (24); 22. AJ Moeller (19); 23. Jordyn Brazier (21); DQ (muffler) - Tim Kaeding (16). DNS – Bronson Maeschen. Lap Leaders: Selvage 1-11, Zomer 12-20. Hard-charger: Lasoski.

360 Report
26 cars signed in. Justin Henderson set quick time for the sixth time this season in the 360 class at 16.041. The rest of the top eight in time trials were Calvin Lands, Billy Alley, Ian Madsen, Nate Van Haaften, Clint Garner, Joe Beaver, and Jamie Ball. Heat race winners were Sawyer Phillips, Jon Agan, and Clint Garner.

Billy Alley drew the pole in the top eight redraw and led every lap in an impressive run for him Alley is two for two at Knoxville this season and the two time 360 Nationals champion should be a solid contender again this year. Henderson finished second but had nothing for Alley on a late restart. Ian Madsen was third performing double duty in preparation for the 360 Nationals.

360 A Main Finish (started): 1. Billy Alley (1); 2. Justin Henderson (6); 3. Ian Madsen (8); 4. Clint Garner (7); 5. Dakota Hendrickson (2); 6. Nate Van Haaften (4); 7. Jamie Ball (9); 8. Joe Beaver (5); 9. Jon Agan (11); 10. Calvin Landis (3); 11. Russ Hall (14); 12. Matt Moro (15); 13. Ricky Montgomery (17); 14. Sawyer Phillips (16); 15. Logan Forler (19); 16. Tom Lenz (18); 17. Ryan Giles (13); 18. Corey Timmerman (22); 19. John Anderson (21); 20. Tony Shilling (10); 21. Cody Ledger (20); 22. Alan Zoutte (12); 23. Chris Walraven (23); 24. Tyler Brooks (25); 25. Mike Dapra (24). Lap Leader: Alley 1-18. Hard-charger: Henderson.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

History and Notes
Brian Brown gets his 30th win. His first win was on May 24, 2003. In twelve years he has won 30 features. That is a good pace for the 34 year old driver. Maybe not the pace of Lasoski, but 10 years from now the odds of Brown being next to Lasoski at the top of the Knoxville wins list is pretty good if he continues to race weekly.

Brian Brown stopped early in the second race with no steering. He went to the work area and they filled it up with fluid, but a few laps later he stopped on the track again and his race was over. There are no words left to describe his season at Knoxville, but maybe the win in the first race is the kind of black magic they needed to exercise the demons. One thing I know is that he passed both Lasoski and Henderson to get that win, so he has a fast car.

I feel for Tim Kaeding and his team but rules are rules. Kaeding drove a good race and passed some really good competition. I’m not sure how much the muffler affected the outcome but he looked impressive for sure.

The cars performing the best overall in the Twin Features by average of their two race finishes were: Lasoski 2.5, Zomer 3.5, Henderson 5.0, Heskin 5.0, McCarl 6.5, Dollansky 7.0, Madsen 8.0.

Bryan Clauson and the Wood Racing 17w team elected to race at the Kings Royal where they were quick time and finished 13th. They crashed on Friday night in their heat, won the B, and managed to finish 15th.

Austin McCarl entered and timed, then had to park his car on this night to get his 100 show up points and keep eligible for end of the year awards. Austin’s engine broke in Park Jefferson last week in an NSL event. He should have a fresh engine ready for the Capitani Classic and Nationals. If Austin has a fresh bullet and can time well at the Nationals, he could be a Nationals A-Main qualifier again. I would love to see Austin get his first win at Knoxville. It’s coming.

As most people are aware by now, Kade Higday was awarded the 305 feature win from June 27 after the 5J of Devin Kline was disqualified for an illegal tire. I don’t want to get into the specifics but after sitting down with John McCoy and discussing this I have a lot of confidence in this ruling. The whole deal stinks for everyone involved. Kline has some talent and I have no doubt he will win again, but it sucks for him that this asterisk will stick with him for a while.

I do want to congratulate Kade Higday on his first career win. He drove his butt off that night on a tough track. I’m sure it’s not how he dreamed of winning his first race at Knoxville, but you take em any way you can. It sounds like he will be given proper victory lane treatment this coming week. Higday is the second youngest 305 feature winner at 16 years, 9 months old, roughly eight months older than Carson McCarl was when he won in 2011.

Higday and his father Josh now are in a fairly elite club of father and sons to win at the historic half-mile. Off the top of my head I can think of the following: Steve & Kraig Kinser, Joe & Joey Saldana, Lenard & Terry McCarl, Terry & Carson McCarl, Sammy & Kevin Swindell, Sonny & Greg Helms, Larry Ball Jr. & Jamie Ball…. I probably missed at least one, but that is just off the top of my head.

FREE kids night from July 11 has been rescheduled for this coming Saturday night!

Points
410: Lasoski leads the points over Henderson by 302 points.
360: Garner leads the points over Van Haaften by 339 points.
305: Stacey Alexander leads Christian Bowman by 220 points.