Only 65 days . . . . but who’s counting!
Thursday, February 8, 2007
Knoxville, IA by - Bruce Neimeth
The second sound you’ll hear load and clear on April 14th will be a collective exhale from the office at Knoxville Raceway – right after the first sprint cars drive down into turn one on the gas! The first 60 days of the “off season” were okay. Catch your breath. Start selling Nationals tickets for 2007.
The next 64 days were busy with advance ticket sales for all 15 days of special events, updating formats for the Midget and Late Model Nationals, finalizing the 6 days of 305 racing, starting the advertising and promotion campaigns, construction of new front grandstand restrooms.
Now we are all ready to get back to racing. Some of us were ready right after the season ended, but if you mentioned it you might be committed for treatment. The action for 2007 has already started.
• The 410 Knoxville Championship Cup Series already has information on 8 driver/team changes - John Corbin, 2-time 360 feature winner moving up to the 410s in the #15 - Jack Potter II will move directly from the 305 Sprints to Gil Sonner’s #47, as he follows his fathers, Jerry Potters footsteps, a former regular competitor with one 410 feature win at Knoxville – Davey Heskin will move up to the 410s from the 360s in 2007, driving the familiar Butch Maxwell #56 – Billy Alley, 2006 410 season champ and 2-time 360 season champ moves from the 17G to the Vermeer Motorsports #55, the 2005 410 season championship team – Moving into the Gifford Motorsports 17G will be Dennis Moore, Jr., 3-time feature winner, returning to run Knoxville fulltime after a racing on the west coast in 2006 – Ricky Logan, 4-time 410 feature winner returns to the #10 VanderEckin Motorsports after a year testing the waters in a number of cars in 2006 - Mike Deavers will travel from Illinois each weekend to race in the #72 after competing around the Midwest in 2006 – Last but not least, Dustin Lindquist used his teams 22-hour round trip travels in 2006 to run the entire 360 series, picking up 2 feature wins, to springboard into one of the premier rides in the country, the 5M of Forbrook Racing out of Ohio. Following drivers like Haudenschild, Swindell, Walker and Herrera, Dustin will get a taste of being a true outlaw as he and Guy run wherever the purses and the competition are good. They will make a number of appearances at Knoxville Raceway during 2007 including the Knoxville Nationals.
• The 360 Knoxville Championship Cup Series looks pretty stable for 2007 with the only known change so far being Veteran driver Larry Pinegar, 3-time 410 feature winner taking over Larry Weeks’ 00. Larry, a 2-time feature winner at Knoxville as a driver looks forward to Pineger returning him to victory lane as an owner.
• With the return to one national 410 touring series, the World of Outlaws, we can expect all the stars to be at Knoxville Raceway on April 28th and June 16th as tune ups for the 47th Annual SuperClean Knoxville Nationals. The Purse has been increase to over $900,000 with $150,000 to the winner.
• The 2-day Pepsi Midget Nationals will be co-sanctioned by seven key regional and national series, USAC, Badger, MARA, POWRi, ARDC, RMMRA and SMRS. This assures that the event will have champions and winners from California to New York, Texas to the Canadian border racing for the title of Knoxville Champion.
• The Lucas Oil Knoxville Late Model Nationals will repeat the 2006 format of 66 of the best late model drivers across the country racing in 3 complete programs in 3-nights, highlighted by the 100-lap championship feature, covered by Speed Channel. Once again the event coincides with the Nextel Cup race at Kansas City, and we expect at least two of the Nextel stars to again challenge the famous ½ mile. In 2006 Tony Stewart stated 17th and finished 2nd.
• The 305 Sprint Cars, the fastest growing sprint car class across the country, will make 4 appearances over 6-days at Knoxville Raceway, racing for over $30,000 in prize money.
Keep checking back as nothing in racing is cast in concrete until the green flag waves.
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