Knoxville ends season with Zomer and Bakker sprint wins
Saturday, September 5, 2009
By Bob Wilson
KNOXVILLE, Iowa (September 5) Several winners were crowned at Knoxville Raceway Saturday night as this track’s 56th season of weekly racing came to an end. Johnny Herrera (410s) and Clint Garner (360s) each gain track championships at this central Iowa racing facility. Dusty Zomer (410s) and Gregg Bakker each grabbed season-ending feature events.
With 25 laps and a $3,500 pay day on the line in the 410 division, pole sitter Bronson Maeschen jumped to the lead at the end of lap one. Just three laps into the race fifth running Kerry Madsen brought out the yellow when he stopped on the track. It turned out that his hood had worked itself loose and he came to the work area to tape it to the frame.
On the restart, Mike Moore hit the loose stuff up high and tipped his car over.
Maeschen led Wayne Johnson, Rager Phillips, Terry McCarl and Zomer back to the green. One lap later Zomer surprised everyone when he blew by McCarl and Phillips in turn one. Two circuits later he had taken over the runner-up spot.
Lap 11 saw Zomer take the lead as he steered his sprinter high out of turn two. When he and Maeschen came into turns three and four, the Maeschen sprinter lost a wheel which bounded over the tall Knoxville fences. The car itself struck the turn wall and was done for the night.
When the race resumed, it would stay green to the end. Tenth starter Brian Brown made a pass of McCarl on lap 14. McCarl fought to get the spot back but was unable.
When Zomer blew by the flag stand to take the checkered flags, he had manage only a ten-car advantage over second place Brown. McCarl stayed for third, Johnson held for fourth and Phillips was fifth.
Pole sitter Josh Higday took lap one of the 360 feature but was soon passed by 2009 Rookie of the Year Jonathan Cornell. Cornell then began to pull away from the pack until a yellow was displayed on the sixth go around for a two-car skirmish in turns one and two.
When the 20-lap race went green again second running Bakker went to the bottom while Cornell took to the top. When they came across the stripe it was now Bakker in the lead. The race would stay that way until Garner took the runner-up spot on lap 10. Lap 13 saw a yellow displayed for a stopped car.
The single file restart saw no position changes with the front running cars. Lap traffic did not play a part in deciding the winners of either feature event on this night.
At the end of the 10-mile sprint, Bakker was the winner with Garner, Cornell, Dustin Selvage and Jon Agan forming the top five finishers.
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