Brown and Cornell sweep to Mid-Season Knoxville Titles
Saturday, June 20, 2009
By Bob Wilson
KNOXVILLE, Iowa (June 20) Knoxville Raceway celebrated its 56th Mid-Season Championships as Brian Brown and Jonathon Cornell captured feature titles here on Saturday night. The crowd was treated to near-perfect track conditions created by rain throughout the week.
Brown, who won here two weeks ago, started in the third row of the A Main but it was pole sitter Don Droud, Jr who took the early lead in the 25-lap event. Droud led Brown for the first five laps as the Missouri driver quickly made up the distance between them. Lap six had just been completed with Brown narrowly showing the way when the first yellow was displayed for the stopped car of Austin McCarl.
Brown led the field back to the green but Droud was able to re-take the lead in turn two with a low line on the track. Again, Brown kept pace and finally after several very close laps Brown again took the point on the tenth go around. It was a lead he would never relinquish the rest of the way.
By lap 14 the leader had entered lap traffic but Brown was able to cut through it with precision to create a twenty car-length advantage. Meanwhile, behind him, Droud was fending off Bronson Maeschen, Billy Alley and points leader Johnny Herrera.
The second and final yellow flew because of a smoking oil fire on the machine of Mark Dobmeier who had stopped at the backstretch pit entrance. When the race went green again Brown held his spot and rode it all the way to a $3,500 payday. Droud held his spot for second, Alley was third, Maeschen showed a career best fourth and Herrera claimed fifth. Completing the top ten were Dusty Zomer, Lynton Jeffrey, Skip Jackson, Seth Brahmer and Josh Schneiderman.
In the companion 360 division, Jonathon Cornell won his first feature event at this historic half-mile race venue. He started in the third row but was never really a factor until about the half-way point of this 15 lap A Main.
Pole sitter Clint Garner took the immediate lead with Chad Humston right on his rear. Humston took the lead away on lap five and held it for two more circuits. That’s when Garner retook the front spot as well as Humston’s line around this huge oval. The fast line seemed to be high in turns one and two while running low in turns three and four.
Lap eleven saw the yellow fly for Ryan Roberts who had stopped on the track with a flat right-rear tire. He was not able to make it back out of the work area to race. Prior to this incident Cornell had gained the runner-up spot from Humston.
When the race resumed, Cornell slid Garner in turn two and grabbed the lead at the same time. Garner stayed close but he could not challenge Cornell’s Maxim. Dustin Selvage finished in third and was followed by Jack Dover and Jon Corbin. Rounding out the top ten were Humston, Ricky Montgomery, Johnny Anderson, Gregg Bakker and Joe Beaver.
An additional program of 305 sprints saw Matt Stephenson take his first career win here at the Knoxville oval. Stephenson took the lead on lap 5 and was challenged to the end by Rob Kubli and Johnny Anderson.
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