Dobmeier, Humston and Agan Set Off Knoxville Fireworks
Saturday, July 3, 2010
By Bob Wilson
KNOXVILLE, Iowa (July 3) Mark Dobmeier, Chad Humston and Jon Agan each grabbed feature event wins at Knoxville Raceway Saturday night on the eve before our Nation’s birthday.
In the 20-lap feature for the 410 division, Dobmeier took the lead on a lap four restart when he made two passes on that lap. The first pass was of leader Davey Heskin. While that pass was in progress Brian Brown zoomed by both cars on the low side. Heading down the backstretch and into turn three, Dobmeier dove low and slid Brown to gain back the lead.
From that point Dobmeier held that top spot and in fact was able to build a sizable lead over the second running Brown. Prior to the half-way point Dobmeier came upon lap traffic and Brown reeled him in quickly. It looked to be a fight for the lead but a yellow came out for a stopped car on the track.
The restart saw little change in the positions as most all of the front runners found the cushion to be the fastest way around this big half-mile oval. A yellow for a spun car just after the sixteenth circuit once again brought the field of cars to a single file alignment. That restart saw Terry McCarl, in his first race back after sustaining an injury to his right arm, come into contention.
Just when it looked like the final laps would see not changes in position, the last yellow of the event flew. This change of events meant that the race would actually go twenty-one laps with a green-white-checkered flagging.
What an amazing turn of events and driving skills were in store for the fans on that ensuing restart as Dobmeier was able to protect his lead, but behind him was a different story. In turn two Johnson was able to slide Brown for the runner-up position but as that was happening McCarl passed them both on the bottom of the track. Heading into turn one of the final lap, Johnson slid McCarl in turn two to gain back the second place finish.
The Dobmeier $3,000 win in the Lunstra J&J was his seventh at this Central Iowa racing facility. Trailing were Johnson, McCarl and Don Droud Jr. who made a pass of Brown on that final lap. Completing the top ten were Dusty Zomer, Skip Jackson, Ricky Logan, Lynton Jeffrey (from 17th) and Ian Madsen.
On this night it was Twin Fifteen features for the 360 sprint division. In the first one, Chad Humston led the distance to take his second win here this season. Though three yellow flags slowed the race, Humston was the driver to beat and no one had the goods on this night.
With a track that was “narrow”, there was not a great deal of passing in this first feature. Clint Garner took second from Dustin Selvage on the last restart and they were followed by Josh Higday (started 15th) and Matt Moro.
With a complete inversion of the first feature’s finish, the second fifteen-lapper saw Jon Agan in control of the race from start to finish. One red flag flew at lap eight for Brett Mather who had struck the second turn wall. He collected Josh Higday who then restarted on the tail.
Agan, collected the $1,000 check for winning the second feature and he was followed by Tony Shilling, Nate VanHaaften, Johnny Anderson and Wayne Johnson.
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