8 States Represented by First 8 Entrants for Masters Classic
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Professional golf has its Seniors Tour, while winged sprint car racing has its Knoxville Masters Classic for drivers age fifty and over. And this year’s $3,000-to-win, $300-to-start Masters Classic for 360-cubic-inch sprint cars at the legendary Knoxville Raceway has thus far attracted eight entrants from eight different states: Carl “Midge” Miller of New Jersey, Oscar Smith of Michigan, Rev. Mark Amenda of Illinois, Bill Smith of Minnesota, Dale McCarty of Missouri, Bobby Becker, Jr., of Nebraska, Earnest Jennings of Oklahoma, and Joe McCarthy of Colorado.
Interestingly, none of the early entrants have ever won the event in its 14-year history, although Midge Miller of the United Racing Company (URC) finished fifth in 2001. Midge is also well known for having towed from the Friday night Masters Classic in Knoxville, Iowa, to a Saturday night URC show in Delmar, Delmar, in one of the years past. Midge will be campaigning his wife Pat’s Jereco-powered Shaw chassis number 8 sprinter.
Last year, as an event ‘rookie’, Bobby Becker finished a credible sixth behind 2006 winner (and ’07 National Sprint Car Hall of Fame inductee) Shane Carson, 2003 and ‘04 winner (and ’06 inductee) Jimmy Sills, A.J. Weaver, Terry Alexander and Bobby Thompson, respectively. Becker will pilot his own L&L-powered Wolfweld chassis number 8B sprinter.
Bill Smith of Worthington, Minnesota, and Earnest Jennings of Norman, Oklahoma, are both Masters Classic veterans. Smith’s best finish was ninth in 1996, while Jennings claimed an eleventh place finish last year as his premier run in the Knoxville Masters Classic. Past winners of the event include Rick Ferkel (1993, ’94, ’95), Billy Engelhart (1996, ’97), Jerry Crabb (1998), Roger Rager (1999, 2001, ‘05), Terry Pletch (2000), Mike Peters (2002), Jimmy Sills (2003, ’04), and Shane Carson (2006).
Over the fourteen years, 136 different drivers have competed in the Knoxville Masters Classic, and Rev. Mark Amenda of Streator, Illinois, and Joe McCarthy of Broomfield, Colorado, will bump that number higher this year as event ‘rookies’. The track will host open track practices on Saturday, April 14, and Thursday, May 31.
For more information on the June 1-2 weekend of winged 305-, 360- and 410-cubic-inch sprint car racing at Knoxville, visit the track’s web site at www.knoxvilleraceway.com. For more info on that weekend’s National Sprint Car Hall of Fame induction banquet, visit www.sprintcarhof.com.
|