It's Great to be Racing (or from) Knoxville this Sat. Night!!!
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
by Bill Wright - After everyone took a breath after the 45th Annual Knoxville Nationals a week ago, it’s time to go back racing at Knoxville Raceway this Saturday night!!! It’s Knoxville Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development Growth Alliance Night, and Knoxville residents will be the beneficiary! If you’re from Knoxville, simply show your proof of residence and you will be able to purchase $5 tickets for adults. Knoxville youth 14 and under will be admitted free! Hot laps start at 6:45 pm, with racing around 8:00 pm.
One thing is guaranteed…we will have a first time champion crowned in the 410 class. But who will it be? Kerry Madsen’s lead over second place, Wayne Johnson, is a mere fifty points.
Madsen’s six wins are tops amongst the locals. His biggest win came in the July 23 Summer Classic. He enters the final two shows off the momentum of a charge from 15th to 6th in the main event. Johnson, still ailing from a golf cart incident, also qualified for the main event, finishing 21st. It looks like it will go down to the last night in this battle.
Another battle has waged for third. Brian Brown must recover from a blown powerplant at the Nationals to hold his 50 point lead over Ricky Logan, who finished 14th in the B main two weeks ago. Skip Jackson, who qualified for another Nationals A main, sits fifth in points, but his lead over Justin Henderson is only 25 markers.
Billy Alley is sixth in the points race, followed by Don Droud Jr. and Matt Moro. Jesse Giannetto and Calvin Landis sit tied for tenth in the standings. There is a lot yet to be decided in the 410 ranks!
Jake Peters appears headed to a second consecutive 360 points championship. His lead over Johnny Anderson is a somewhat comfortable 184 points. As we’ve seen, however, anything can happen. John Kearney is third in points, but Larry Ball Jr. sits only nine points behind him in fourth. Josh Higday has used three wins since late June to surge to fifth in points, ahead of Joe Beaver and Brett Mather (separated by 1 pt.), Dusty Zomer and Bronson Maeschen.
With just two points shows left on the schedule in both the 410 and 360 classes, you won’t want to miss history being made.
The 13th Annual Huset’s Gold Cup last Saturday night saw Chad Meyer as the victor over Kevin Swindell and Alley, after a great night of racing. Meyer took home $8,000 for his efforts. Other Knoxville notables competing included Peters (7th), Zomer (8th), Henderson (9th), Tim St. Arnold (13th), Robert Bell (19th), John VanDenBerg (21st) and Mike Moore (23rd).
Brown soared to victory last Sunday in Sedalia at the Missouri State Fair Speedway. Brown bested Randy Martin and Jesse Hockett to take the Winged Outlaw Warriors feature. Other Knoxville drivers included Logan (4th) and Eric Jobe (5th).
Website Updates
I’ve received many e-mails with suggestions, concerns and compliments on the website and I appreciate them all. I have received a number of e-mails concerning the history of Knoxville, i.e. All-time feature winners, track records, Hall of Famers, etc. being included on the site. I am happy to announce that we will be working hard on this in the coming months and you will find much of this in our “History” section so keep checking with us. Remember the revamped site has only been up for almost seven months, and they threw a race season at us in there somewhere! Things have gone incredibly smoothly with the site, especially on race nights, despite visitors in the thousands. Thanks for your patience with us!
The full 1997 season in now “in the can” and you will be able to find it soon in our previous results section on the top of our “Results” page. Relive Doug Wolfgang’s last full season at Knoxville, along with a Nationals win by Dave Blaney, a 360 Nationals drubbing by David Hesmer and Joey Saldana’s emotional All Stars win. Find out what they drove, where they qualified and where they started, coming soon. In the meantime, check out all the other seasons we have available for your pleasure as we continue to move backwards through the years. Until next time…
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