Haudenschild and Swindell Master Knoxville Oval
Friday, June 4, 2010
By Bob Wilson
Haudenschild and Swindell Master Knoxville Oval
KNOXVILLE, IOWA (June 4) Jac Haudenschild and Sammy Swindell showed “the boys” the quick way around the big half mile at Knoxville Raceway Friday night. For Haudenschild it was a rare World of Outlaws (WoO) event and for Swindell it was the Masters Classic.
The WoO feature was a Knoxville classic as the field of cars was inverted from the finish of the feature of Thursday night. Thus, Jac Haudenschild, who finished 20th, started on the pole. And, it was Haudenschild who took the lead at the drop of the green flag. Brian Brown, who started beside him, settled in behind the Ohio native in a 25-lap race that nearly went the distance without a slow-down flag.
With a track that wore out early, Haudenschild placed the Carnahan XXX on the high cushion and set sail on Knoxville’s half-mile oval. Brown, a local driver, paced the leader at a short distance and never seemed out of contention. Behind that pair raced Mark Dobmeier, another Knoxville regular and Kraig Kinser.
Haudenschild hit lap traffic on the eighth go around and dealt with it well. By lap 12 the leader entered heavy traffic and Brown was able to make up a little of the distance. The low portion of the track was totally used up so most everyone was on the top. Further back in the pack, the inverted cars were slowly making their ways forward, but it was slow going.
With five laps to go, Haudenschild nearly found himself sideways as he and the lap car of Don Droud Jr. came together. “Haud” was able to straighten his line but by then Brown and Dobmeier were breathing down his neck.
Lap 23 saw the only yellow of the night as sixth running Donny Schatz blew a right-rear tire going into turn two. A yellow on the ensuing restart enabled Schatz to re-enter the event where he finished 14th in the twenty-four car field.
On the double-file restart Haudenschild was able to hold his position as Brown trailed by ten-car lengths at the finish of this $10,000-to-win event. It was third-running Dobmeier who figuratively hit a wall on the restart and saw several cars get by him. Placing third through fifth were Tyler Walker, Lucas Wolfe and Kerry Madsen. Completing the top ten were Jason Sides (who started 17th), Kraig Kinser, Dobmeier, Brad Sweet and Sammy Swindell (who started beside Sides).
Sammy Swindell repeated as champion in the 18th annual Masters Classic. The Classic is a race open to drivers who are 50 years of age or older and the event is in celebration of the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame and Museum’s annual induction banquet (this weekend).
A field of 15 cars with drivers reported to the line for the 22-lap event and only two inconsequential yellow flags slowed the race in the early stages. The early portion of the Classic saw a four-car battle for the top spot as Mike Peters held off Swindell, Randy Smith and Danny Lasoski.
Swindell grabbed the lead for good on the fifth lap and Lasoski made a pass of Peters on that same lap. At first “The Dude” tried to work the bottom in his chase of Swindell, but it only took him a couple of laps to realize that that portion of the track was gone for the night.
Just at the half-way point Swindell began entering lap traffic and he dealt with those cars easily. Most everyone had jumped up to the cushion but the leaders used all of the track to get by the back markers.
With fifteen laps in the books Swindell had placed a full chute of Knoxville’s big half mile between himself and Lasoski. At lap twenty he had lapped everyone up to fourth place. He easily brought the Quiring Maxim across the finish line to garner the $3,000 that the race paid. Lasoski and Peters followed in that order as Roland Johnson and Mackie Heimbaugh rounded out the top five. Smith dropped from the event in the late stages with engine problems.
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