Alley and Peters Open July with Knoxville Wins
Saturday, July 1, 2006
By Bob Wilson
Knoxville, Iowa - July 1 - Nebraska's Billy Alley and South Dakota's Jake Peters each captured feature events Saturday night as Knoxville Raceway moved its 2006 season into the month of July.
Alley guided the Gifford Motorsports J & J to its second win of the season at this central Iowa racing facility but it was not a victory that came easily for him. An emotional Alley later dedicated the win to his young friend, Daniel McMillen, who had died in a non-racing accident.
The early stages of the race belonged to two Aussies as Lynton Jeffrey nipped first lap leader Blake Feese at the end of lap two and Skip Jackson did so to him on the next go around. At the end of five laps Jeffrey could only count a one car-length advantage over Jackson. Both men staged a torrid dog fight for the top spot with Jeffrey finally able to pull away as the twosome approached lap traffic at the end of four miles.
With ten laps in the books Jeffrey could claim a slim 10 car-length separation between himself and a determined Jackson. One lap later Feese caught fire and made a pass of Jackson in heavy traffic. As the frontrunners completed lap twelve the caution flew for a spun car in turn two. On the restart a second caution appeared as fifth running Bronson Maeschen spun on the front stretch. Somehow the rest of the field managed to miss the stopped sprinter. He would restart on the tail and gain a 12th place finish.
When the race resumed, Alley was able to overtake and pass the Feese machine for the third spot. As Feese began to drift backward on the ensuing laps it was obvious that mechanical problems had developed on the vacated Kerry Madsen ride. On lap 16 Feese pulled to the infield.
In the meantime, Jeffrey continued to lead the 20-lap race. Jackson continued to dog him with Alley waiting for either of them to make a mistake. As Jeffrey recorded lap 17 with only a five car-length lead, the yellow was displayed for Jesse Giannetto who had somehow lost control of his sprinter on the front stretch and backed it hard into the infield retaining wall. He was not injured but his car was too damaged to continue.
On the green flag restart, Alley dove low in turns one and two and surprised Jackson who was not typically on the bottom. Alley roared out of two with the runner-up spot and his sprinter pointed toward the lead. And, he would have it after yet another yellow forced a single file restart. That saw Alley take the lead from Jeffrey as they roared out of turn four on a green-white-checkered restart to complete twenty laps. The final circuit did not see Alley pull away as Jeffrey finished only four car lengths behind when the race ended.
Brian Brown, who started 18th and is the current points leader finished an amazingly close third, and just as amazing was the fourth place finish of Clint Garner who started 19th. Calvin Landis was fifth after running in or near that spot most of the race. Completing the top ten finishers were Jackson, Dusty Zomer, Tim St. Arnold, Ryan Anderson and Matt Moro.
Jake Peters recorded his second win in a row in the 360 sprint division after taking a third lap lead from Eric Mason. Lap one was a wild one as Peters and Mason split to each side of leader Tyler Thompson as they exited turn four. The 16-year-old Thompson ran hard at the front end of the race but would wreck on lap nine after running up over a tire.
A yellow flag on lap four and then a red flag on the ensuing restart when John Schulz made hard contact with the turn four fence slowed the early portion of the race. The contest continued another four laps when the final red flew for the Thompson incident. All the while Peters seemed to have the field covered.
When the race was ten laps in the books, fourth row starter Joe Beaver came into the picture and took the runner-up spot. Beaver stayed amazingly close to the leader but could never get the lucky break that sometimes happens in racing. When Peters flew by the checkered flag in his self-owned Eagle at the end of 15 circuits on this half-mile oval, Beaver was only two car lengths behind.
Third went to John Kearney, fourth was claimed by Dustin Lindquist and Jeff Mitrisin drove from deep in the pack to record fifth. Mason, Frankie Heimbaugh who started beside Mitrisin, Troy Meyer, Stacy Alexander another deep starter and Josh Schneiderman completed the top ten finishers.
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