THE 14 SECONDS CLUB
Saturday, November 4, 2006
By Bob Wilson
The more things change, the more they change.
Thinking back to my childhood in 1954 when Knoxville Raceway first started weekly racing, the cars seemed so fast to me. The track record was quickly established at 31 seconds for a lap around this half-mile oval. Before the end of the year it had been lowered into the 28 seconds bracket. "Man," I thought, "How much faster can they go?!"
Knoxville has nearly always depended upon timed trials to set the line-ups at each race event. Arguably it is the fairest way to do it. That being said, the need for speed has continued to this day. Just when you think the bar has been set, someone times a faster lap.
1959. It was the super-modified era here at Knoxville. Sonny Helms wiped nearly a second and a half off of Earl Wagner's existing track record. 23.13. The number will forever stick in my head. I firmly believed at that time that no one could ever top that mark; that the bar would forever set on that lap.
1961. The 1st annual Super-Modified Knoxville Nationals was staged in July. Roy Robbins used a wing in time trials to lower the one-lap track record to twenty-three seconds flat. I was amazed, not only by the lap but by the "airscoop" as well.
So the "wing" was banned from Knoxville and the following year Jerry Richert, Sr. and especially Jerry Blundy lowered the track record into the twenty-twos range without it. Then Jay Woodside, Joe Saldana and Dick Sutcliffe placed the bar in the twenty-ones. Before the decade of the sixties was over, the record had fallen into the twenty seconds bracket with Bill Utz, Greg Weld and Ray Lee Goodwin resetting the bar. Was there no mercy; no end to ever increasing speed?
1970. Soon into the season Joe Saldana lowered the mark to 20.37. It would stay there for six years. Drivers continued chipping away at it until Steve Kinser officially timed the first non-wing lap of 19.895 on my birthday in 1981.
2000. Jay Drake currently holds the track record for traditional sprints at 18.795.
Wings. Kinser's 19.895 lap in 1981 was not the first time nineteen seconds had been breached at Knoxville. Ken Weld did it at the 1973 Nationals when once again the use of wings was allowed. Wolfgang was the first to enter the 18-seconds bracket, Steve Kinser claimed the first 17-seconds lap and oddly enough Bobby Allen broke both the 16- and 15-seconds barrier in 1985 and 1989 respectively. My childhood voice said, "Well, that's it. Can't go much faster than that."
1998. Late in the season Don Droud, Jr. forged the first 14 seconds lap. It was just one of those nights. I recall distinctly both qualifying laps. The first lap was right at fifteen seconds even and the second lap did it at 14.934. Terry McCarl is one of the few drivers who understands what that lap meant to the history of Knoxville Raceway. It was a milestone at this historical old fairgrounds. With the first ever automobile race being staged here in 1901, in just under a century this is what technology had handed us in terms of speed.
I recall sending a letter to Droud after the season was over, trying to help him understand what he had accomplished. I included the one-lap track record holders from 1961 to his new mark. I admonished him to look at the names of who had come before him; that he was in the company of the best to have ever raced here.
2006. Brooke Tatnell smashed the Knoxville track record by taking a full half second off the mark which at that time was held by McCarl. It was a magical night for me, having seen all of those records being set over the years. I was in nirvana as thirty drivers ducked under fifteen seconds, twenty-five of which broke McCarl's timed lap. Nothing like that had ever happened before here with so many drivers going so fast on the same night.
Calvin Landis has timed four 14-seconds laps while McCarl, Chris Walraven, Brian Brown and Joey Saldana have accomplished that fete three times. "It's quite a remembrance," I say to myself. "Surely there will never be a thirteen seconds lap."
The more things change, the more they change.
Below you will find a listing of the 14 Seconds Club. It shows what date a driver anointed himself and just how fast he went. The current one-lap track record is 14.407. The bar is set.
14 Seconds Club
Don Droud, Jr. August 29, 1998 14.934
Terry McCarl April 24, 1999 14.961
Joey Saldana June 29, 2001 14.947
Joey Saldana April 30, 2005 14.908
Brian Paulus April 30, 2005 14.931
Sammy Swindell April 30, 2005 14.966
Chad Kemenah April 30, 2005 14.992
Brian Paulus August 10, 2005 14.978
Terry McCarl, August 11, 2005 14.907
Shane Stewart August 11, 2005 14.997
Brooke Tatnell May 6, 2006 14.407
Jason Meyers May 6, 2006 14.527
Jason Solwold May 6, 2006 14.567
Chris Walraven May 6, 2006 14.593
Stevie Smith May 6, 2006 14.633
Billy Alley May 6, 2006 14.634
Tyler Walker May 6, 2006 14.649
Randy Hannagan May 6, 2006 14.678
Terry McCarl May 6, 2006 14.681
Danny Lasoski May 6, 2006 14.696
Craig Dollansky May 6, 2006 14.727
Becca Anderson May 6, 2006 14.734
Calvin Landis May 6, 2006 14.789
Tim St. Arnold May 6, 2006 14.791
Bronson Maeschen May 6, 2006 14.793
Brian Brown May 6, 2006 14.808
Lynton Jeffrey May 6. 2006 14.826
Shane Stewart May 6, 2006 14.827
Jerrel Slinkard May 6, 2006 14.828
Mark Dobmeier May 6, 2006 14.829
Kerry Madsen May 6, 2006 14.834
Joey Saldana May 6, 2006 14.846
Tony Bruce, Jr. May 6, 2006 14.849
Wayne Johnson May 6. 2006 14.877
Tim Shaffer May 6, 2006 14.893
Skip Jackson May 6, 2006 14.909
Dusty Zomer May 6, 2006 14.915
Clint Garner May 6, 2006 14.924
Daryn Pittman May 6, 2006 14.925
Matt Moro May 6, 2006 14.944
Wayne Johnson May 13, 2006 14.878
Danny Lasoski May 13, 2006 14.926
Calvin Landis May 13, 2006 14.988
Jason Solwold June 23, 2006 14.973
Brian Brown July 8, 2006 14.827
Bronson Maeschen July 8, 2006 14.831
Billy Alley July 8, 2006 14.838
Chris Walraven July 8, 2006 14.884
Calvin Landis July 8, 2006 14.888
Ricky Logan July 8, 2006 14.892
Dusty Zomer July 8, 2006 14.921
Skip Jackson July 8, 2006 14.948
Rager Phillips July 8, 2006 14.997
Ricky Logan August 5, 2006 14.987
Don Droud, Jr. August 10, 2006 14.927
Brian Brown August 26, 2006 14.999
Chris Walraven September 2, 2006 14.906
Randy Anderson September 2, 2006 14.946
Calvin Landis September 2, 2006 14.997
Daryn Pittman October 7, 2006 14.872
Craig Dollansky October 7, 2006 14.946
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