Justin Zoch's Upper Midwest Ramblings
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
For the first time this season, Knoxville Raceway had a regular weekly show. Oh, sure, there have been two on the schedule already but with the World of Outlaws and NST regulars taking the chance to hit the raceway, this was the first glance at the true weekly contingent of 410 Sprints. With 29 signed it at the back gate, Brian Brown made good on his early season potential as a title contender and scored his first 410 win of the season. It was the fourth of his career at Knoxville and his fourth overall of the season. Brown has a healthy point lead of 195 early in the season…In the 360s, Dustin Lindquist surprised many locals not familiar with the Minnesotan by passing Johnny Anderson, who had a race-long battle with Brett Mather, in the waning laps. It was the first win of the season for Lindquist, who racked up a full handful in 2005. It was also the first career win at Knoxville for his crew chief Brad Sparks, who has previously worked with Chuck Swenson, Jesse Gianetto and several others.
Jake Peters finally got his luck turned around on Saturday night after crashing while leading last Saturday. Peters had fuel pickup problems on Friday night at Donnellson and broke a fuel pump in the heat race at Knoxville, relegating him to the B-main. He charged from 10th in the B-main to fifth in the A-main and remained a point chase contender…Jeff Mitrisin, the point leader, missed the top five for the first time this season with a seventh place finish. But, we’ll let him off the hook this time. Mitrisin was hit in the face with either debris or a mudclod in the waning laps, cutting a large gash in his nose. Badly bloodied, Mitrisin only lost a handful of spots. He maintained his point lead over Johnny Anderson and an impressive Stacey Alexander…Apologies to Brett Golik. It was erroneously reported here that he was selling his equipment a few weeks back. That’s not true, according to Golik, and he returned this week…It was a nice debut for Jon Corbin in Rex Brunner’s 15 car as he charged from the B-main to sixth in the A-main. Corbin is second to Dustin Lindquist in the chase for 360 Rookie of the Year. In the 410s, Dusty Zomer has a small lead over Rager Phillips and Bronson Maeschen. Congrats are due to Phillips on his first career Sprint Car win against the Sprint Invaders on Friday night at Lee County…Josh Schneiderman, another 360 Rookie contender at Knoxville, had to borrow a car from the Wares/Harrison Motorsports crew for Saturday night after smashing his own racer into the concrete while heading pitside at Lee County. The throttle reportedly hung up…Happy Birthday to Race Talk publisher Tina Baker last Monday. Race Talk is one of the newspapers nicest enough to print this column each week.
Mark Dobmeier finished second to Lou Kennedy Jr. on Friday night at River Cities and then drove all night to Knoxville, only to battle magneto problems all night and never turned a lap…Dusty Zomer had a nice weekend. He finished sixth, his best 410 finish ever at Knoxville, and then won the Huset’s Speedway weekly opener on Sunday. It was his third career 410 feature win…Troy Meyer brought out a brand new race car with a brand new paint scheme on Saturday night. It must have worked. Meyer finished a strong ninth in the feature…Knoxville has run eight features in 2006 and has had eight different winners.
Tidbits
Brian Madsen, Johnny Parsons III and Steve Whalen have their first promotional venture next Monday at the rejuvenated Steele County Speedway. It will feature Modifieds, B-mods and the 317 Sprints. The next event is a Wednesday night ASCS Northern Plains affair on June 21. For more information, check out www.steelecountyspeedway.com. Frank Phipps is currently two for two at Jackson in Limited Sprint action while Jake Leighty won their ‘traveling’ show at Canby, Minnesota…Nice to see Ronnie Smith back in action as he finished third at Arlington on Sunday night. Chris Graf won his first featch of the year…Congrats to Bill Warren for picking up the IRA feature win at Wilmot on Saturday. Warren joins Craig Dollansky, Todd Hepfner and Kaley Gharst as feature winners with the group this year. What a change a week makes for the IRA. From tiny Wilmot the powerfully fast Superior Speedway. On Saturday night, they head to Deer Creek Speedway near Racine, Minnesota…Well wishes to Terry McCarl and here’s hoping for a quick recovery to his broken leg, which he suffered on Saturday night after the checkereds at Sharon. One can imagine he’ll be back long before anyone expects. Remember in 1996 when he drove all season with a broken arm? McCarl continues to share the lead for feature wins with Danny Lasoski, Dave Steele and Jon Stanbrough, who swept the weekend KISS shows. All four have seven wins…St. Francois County Raceways in Farmington is hosting a two-day $7,500 Summer Nationals for 410s next Friday and Saturday night.
That will do for this week’s abbreviated rambles. Next week, I’ll be heading to Superior for the IRA show on Friday night, Knoxville on Saturday and Steele County on Monday. Sunday is reserved for the I-Cubs and sunshine. In the meantime, I’d appreciate being in the know at Justin@mompub.com.
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