Lasoski Wins #106, Zomer Blazin' Hot

Saturday wasn’t a full moon but a lot of crazy things happened on this night. The track received 1.5” of rain around 7:00am and there was a power outage around town, including for two hours at the track. The track crews did their part to get the track and pit area ready and kudos to them. We had several crashes, some of them lengthy delays in clean up, and another power outage that took out several light poles during the 360 heat races. Some weird wild stuff I tell ya.

Drivers going double duty on this night in the 410 and 360 class were Justin Henderson, Terry McCarl, Dusty Zomer, Logan Forler, Danny Lasoski, and Jamie Ball entered in both the 360 and 305 class.

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.

McCarl Wins #55

Independence Day at Knoxville Raceway had plenty of fireworks on the race track this past Saturday night! We welcomed back the National Sprint League and it was 360 Twin Features night while the 305 class had the night off. Driver competing in both classes on this night were Justin Henderson, Ian Madsen, Bryan Clauson, Chris Martin, and Dusty Zomer. Henderson does this every week but the other teams were taking advantage of the two features and extra laps to prepare for the 360 Nationals coming up next month. Jake Bubak returned for his second appearance in the 360 class while Ohio’s Paige Polyak entered on this night in the 410 class as she tries to get more laps to improve on her 410 Nationals D-Main finish last year. Polyak is the only woman to win a sprint car race at Eldora Speedway.

The Lasoski Reign Continues

Mother Nature tried to spoil our night with a rain shower just past the 5:00pm hour. After a good 15 minute rain and assessing the situation it was decided to try to get the races in with a pushed back start time to 9:00pm, and cars hit the track around 9:15pm. Thankfully the car count was the lowest of the year and we finished at 12:44am with no B Main’s needed. The track was fast, tacky, and narrow, but we got the race in.

We didn’t have Dusty Zomer or Tim Kaeding on this night, they opted to race with the World of Outlaws in Huron, SD instead of driving to Knoxville with a high chance of rain. We did gain some visitors however with car owner Keith Kunz making his sprint car debut at Knoxville with Christopher Bell. That team might be back this coming week as they try to get some laps in before the Knoxville Nationals. We also welcomed two-time Little 500 champion Jacob Wilson, who competed earlier in the day in the USAC Silver Crown event in Newton. Jordyn Brazier made his Knoxville and United States debut on Saturday, he is the son of Garry who will also be competing at Knoxville later this summer.

Schatz wins Fog Shortened Race

I’ve seen it all now. What a crazy and wacky night of events with Mother Nature throwing more wrenches at us than AJ Foyt climbing out of his car in a rage at Indy. Morning showers, overcast all day, water seeping up from sheepsfoot holes delaying hot laps, the sun pops out during hot laps and time trials and dries out the track quickly, then we have nice wide racing surface after the heats, only to have a pesky shower pop up out of nowhere on the radar and cause a rain delay. The shower popped up about 15 miles southwest of the track, turned west, then back east.  When the rain cleared out a thick attack of moths encountered the raceway. Then we get back to racing after 1:00am and just as the 410 feature pushes off a thick fog rolls in and stops a race just past halfway. In a matter of ten minutes the visibility went from perfect to 1/8 of a mile.   

Donny Schatz won, not surprising. I give credit to our announcers Johnny Gibson and Tony Bokhoven for calling that race, their eyes were better than mine. The track prep crew and push truck drivers put in a long day. We have so many great people at Knoxville, but these people are the best in the business.

Lasoski, Alley, Haase Win on Slideways Night!

Bing Bang Media photo

After last week’s no chance of rain, but pesky drizzle and cancellation, Mother Nature cleared up for a great night of racing this week.  It was another full field with 92 sprint cars entered.  The World of Outlaws event at Lakeside Speedway was rained out early in the morning allowing several teams to drive three hours north to Knoxville to tune up for next week’s Mediacom Shootout. Shane Stewart, Kerry Madsen, Paul McMahan, Jason Sides, Kraig Kinser, David Gravel, Logan Schuchart, and Jacob Allen all made the tow. For $15 fans were able to see eight of the thirteen full-time Outlaws. And for $30 you can see all of them this coming Saturday!

Weather conditions at 7:00pm Saturday were 75° and overcast with 65% humidity, winds out of the SE at 11 mph, and a dew point of 62°.  The track widened out quickly and the lap times were slow in time trials but the track was awesome all night long and plenty of room to race.

Henderson Wins Two!

Three weeks in a row with racing at Knoxville, we are on a roll!  Mother Nature gave us a scare with a storm approaching from the southwest so we were in rain mode from the get go, expecting rain to hit us around 11:00pm. Fortunately the storm system dissipated as it approached Knoxville and the rains held off until 3am. Watching the radar all night on my laptop for the second week in a row wasn’t much fun, but necessary to help race officials.

Great to see another full field of cars with 91 sprint cars entered.  The big surprise of the night was Kerry Madsen’s Keneric team rolling into the pit area with a pickup and open trailer.  With no World of Outlaws race on this night they had a night off. The team flew back from Charlotte and put together a car that afternoon and pulled it into the track. Crew chief Tyler Swank had packed shocks in a suitcase, otherwise their tools were somewhat limited,  but pitting next to brother Ian Madsen I’m sure helped. 

Weather conditions at 7:00pm were 71° and over cast with 50% humidity, winds out of the SE at 10 mph, and a dew point of 52°.  The track widened out nicely.

410 Report
33 cars signed in.  Top 8 Qualifying:  Brian Brown set quick time for the second week in a row with a lap of 15.272 (118 mph), followed by Justin Henderson, Terry McCarl, Danny Lasoski, Kerry Madsen, Tim Kaeding, Brooke Tatnell, and Austin McCarl.