Justin Zoch's Upper Midwest Ramblings
Tuesday, May 9, 2006
The biggest story of the last three days has to be Brooke Tatnell’s 14.407 second trip around Knoxville. Tatnell broke Terry McCarl’s track record by exactly half a second on a night that featured plenty o’ moisture and perfect air density. Several drivers ran historically fast laps and still missed the invert for the heat races. Ryan Anderson, who torched his Mopar at the opener, was the first car out and ran a 15.1 second lap with his backup engine and was very excited about its power. As it turned out, that lap was only good for 37th quick on a historic night. Congrats to Tatnell on his NTR and his first World of Outlaws win at Huset’s…Tim St. Arnold and Chris Walraven also entertained brief moments of fame at Knoxville track record holders…As for former track record holder Terry McCarl, he also lost his track record at US36 Raceway to Paul McMahan on Friday night. His weekend, however, was quite successful regardless. He finished third on Friday, second to Danny Lasoski on Saturday and second to Brooke Tatnell on Sunday and pulled to second in the WoO point standings. Strangely, he also leads the Knoxville point standings…McCarl and Lasoski are now tied with seven wins each for 2006 after Lasoski swept to three wins last week. He also scored an NST win at Davenport, a Winged Outlaws Warriors win at Bolivar in his father’s car on Friday.
Wouldn’t it be fun to be the World of Outlaws point leader? Not this weekend. Donny Schatz had a horrible go of it on Friday night at US36, flipping in the dash and then on the first lap of the feature. After the races, the crew drove all night to Wichita, put another car together, slept a few hours and woke up to find the race canceled. They left for a ten hour haul to Huset’s where Schatz again had a bad night, filled with a disappointing time trial, a heat race smash into the turn two fence that relegated him to the B-main and then an 11th place run in the A-main…Rick Wright has been supporting the World of Outlaws for several years and Jac Haudenschild finally got him a win on Friday night at US36, after Joey Saldana stole one from him in the final corner at Volusia in February. Haud truly seems to be faster than he’s been in years and Wright’s car has never looked better, either on or off the track…The track was extremely heavy on Friday night and never really got as wide or as racy as the 90 foot banks normally allow for but Tim Shaffer certainly saw plenty of potential. Shaffer said he had not raced on dirt as good as US36’s since Lernerville…20 years ago!
Nice to see a huge crowd at US36 Speedway on Friday night and promoter Mike Franks had to be pleased that the concession stands were cleared out, with the exception of nachos. It appeared that plenty of folks were ready for a big show at the five year old facility...The crowd at Huset’s would be a big test of the effect of the split on an informed audience, which Huset’s certainly houses. These were not the curiosity seekers that US36 entertained. While Huset’s had a nice crowd but it was certainly not a pack-the-hills crowd that they’ve seen in the past.
Well wishes to Stevie Walsh who spent his Saturday night in the hospital with IVs in his arms after a bout with food poisoning. His car owner Larry Weeks put Curtis Thorson in the car for the night and Thorson looked to have a B transfer spot secured when he flipped in turn one. Third-running Troy Meyer clipped him slightly, breaking the front end and flipping in turn three. Walsh will return next week and Thorson could return in his own racer later this year…The Thorson/Meyer incident helped 360 point leader Chuck Swenson secure a transfer spot into the 360 A-main. He might have wished he’d rolled it into the trailer. Swenson crashed hard into the turn three fence after contact with Stacey Alexander. The car was a near total loss…Becca Anderson’s weekend was full of ups and downs as she won the dash at US36 but crashed on the first lap. Her Knoxville debut time trial lap for Mike Woodring turned heads but she missed the A-main. On Sunday, contact from Dion Hindi put her out of the B-main on the final lap while out of a transfer…Dave Hall made his first start of 2006 after losing an engine on practice night. Hall has a Rush Racing Eagle Chassis and a new SS Custom Engines motor but crashed out of the B-main on Saturday…Brett Golik was on hand on Saturday night but did not turn a lap and is reportedly selling his operation.
Davey and Danny Heskin each sat out the opener at Knoxville after running on practice night. The boys were absent to attend prom on opening night but returned this week, prom dates in tow. It was 16-year-old Danny’s first night at Knoxville…Nice to see Ray Allen Kulhanek back in Knoxville. The Texas based driver last appeared in Terry Alexander’s 77 for the 360 Nationals but this time he just simply kept driving north after the ASCS Gulf South event at 67 Raceway in Texarkana. Kulhanek will return again for the 360 Nationals in James Parker’s 41…Bronson Maeschen is off to an impressive start in the 410 division and made A-mains on Tuesday at Davenport against the NST and Friday against the World of Outlaws. Unfortunately, with the steep competition through two weeks, Maeschen is still waiting for his first Knoxville A-main start…Eric Vanderploeg attended the races at Knoxville on Saturday night and related that he might have a 360 running by season’s end. The youngster is still racing go-karts but hopes to return to the Sprints. He’s got one 360 victory to his credit at Knoxville…Another racer with one career win that has gone absent is Minnesota’s Ryan York, who continues to run a modified in his homestate…But, the real question is, where is Robert Bell? He has not resurfaced after losing an engine in the Sprint Invaders run at Lee County.
Chad Meyer rode out a grinding crash at Huset’s during the A-main and reduced his car to rubble. Perhaps that is one reason that fellow Sioux Falls racer Clint Garner is concentrating solely on Knoxville this year. Don’t look for Garner to be making runs at Huset’s until later in the season, if at all, as he focuses on Knoxville’s point chase…It was nice to see Jason Martin back on track this weekend after his scary incident at East Bay Raceway Park in February sidelined him. It was one of those crashes that instantly felt like a fatality and it is great to see Martin back in the seat that was successfully filled by Brian Brown and Rob Chaney.
Tidbits
Jackson Speedway had a successful debut, from most accounts, and promoters JP and Sabre Karpowicz put their first ever promotion in the books. Gregg Bakker took advantage of a dry-slick surface and a pole start to take his first win of 2006 over 12th-starting Scott Winters. There were 29 360s on hand, which bodes well for the future of the division at Jackson. Frank Phipps won the 13-car Limited Sprint feature, formerly known as the DBSCS. The Limiteds are off next week but will travel to Canby Speedway in, appropriately, Canby, Minnesota, for a Saturday nighter that pays $500 to win and $100 to start…Eric Lutz gave credit to his father for getting his racer perfect for him to drive to victory at I-90 Speedway on Saturday in Lyle Howey’s first night as promoter…Chuck Zitterich is now the director for the ASCS Midwest Region. He was, and still is, the director of the ASCS Northern Plains region…Jesse Smith was the winner of the season opener at Arlington Speedway on Saturday night. Nice to see John Greenwood’s 1st back in the line-up and garnering a top-five finish.
Next weekend, I’ll be heading back to Knoxville for two nights of racing with the WDRL Late Models and 305s on Friday and then the IRA versus Knoxville Challenge on Saturday night. Sunday, well, Sunday is for mother’s and mother wants me to attend Lil Sister Al’s final dance recital. So, needless to say, Huset’s will go unattended. In the meantime, keep me in the know at Justin@mompub.com.
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