Upper Midwest Ramblings from Knoxville’s WoO Show
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
by Justin Zoch - If anyone should know, it would be Johnny Gibson. The veteran series announcer travels the country watching the World of Outlaws night-after-night-after-night. When we were getting the Knoxville press box office pool together [a weekly game that yields prizes like quarter-filled Subway Club cards and John Kerry campaign buttons] on Saturday night before hot laps, Gibson commented that “if the 15 and the 9 are taken, I don’t know if I want in.” It certainly seemed last weekend at Knoxville that the era of dominance by these two is under way. Donny Schatz and Joey Saldana ran one-two at last year’s Nationals and Schatz swept to victory at last October’s rescheduled WoO stop. On Saturday night, the 15 and the 9, for all practical purposes, dominated the evening’s event. Aside from Kerry Madsen’s charge in the A-main, which ended when the rear end shucked out with two to go, the feeling that Schatz and Saldana would dominate was palpable – and odd. When was the last time the World of Outlaws were there and at least one of the trio of Steve Kinser, Terry McCarl and Danny Lasoski were not favorites to win? Schatz has now won three straight at Knoxville in World of Outlaws action.
Speaking of Madsen, his younger brother Ian passed on that he has agreed to run the Daryl Arends 1A machine at Knoxville this summer and could debut as early as next weekend… Photographer and frequent message board inhabitant Mike Nelligan [perhaps better known as MSPN] was in town for World of Outlaws weekend but will not be around next Saturday for Justice Brothers Night. It’s nothing personal against the Knoxville weekly show, either. He’ll be in Kansas City marrying his bride-to-be Kim. Congrats to the happy couple… Steve Breazeale returned to Knoxville’s victory lane in the 305 feature on Friday night after Trish Dover’s bid for history went flat as her right rear with four laps remaining. Dover would have been the first female ever to win at Knoxville [odds are still 2:1 that she will be by season’s end with five more 305 events on the sked]. Breazeale, who has to have the most commonly misspelled name in racing, drove around Clint Garner to take the win in Bruce Clark’s 66. Garner was later DQ’d for being too light at the scales in the Mick Fishel’s new F1. Fishel is from Allison, Iowa, and also owns a USAC Silver Crown machine that Russ Gamester runs on the dirt. It was the first ever start for the 305 car... Steve Yarns is really what it is all it about. He raced Knoxville’s 305 division on Friday night and finished 16th. How did he spend his Saturday? Camped on the concrete of the old Pamida parking lot, Yarns and crew soaked up the sun, drank some beers by their trailer and readied themselves for a night of World of Outlaws racing before heading back to Jackson, Minnesota, where he’ll be a regular in the 317s this season
I hitched a ride to Knoxville with photographer Vince Peterson and his father and aside from introducing me to Newfoundland’s best import, folk-rock band Great Big Sea, he also snapped some photos that he put online at www.vfcfunding.com under the Track Rat Photo Section... Shawn Lee from Spickard, Missouri, has now raced a Sprint Car twice in his life. Last September at Knoxville and this April at Knoxville, although he never really got his number 40 305 Sprinter to run right. Talk about putting feet to fire… On the way back to Minneapolis on Sunday morning, I spied 360 racer Rod Richards filling up his motorcycle at the Pleasant Hill Kum &Go [where they have now 64 ounce Nuclear Energy Drinks on tap at the Soda Fountain – perfect for those post-Knoxville Sunday mornings] and he passed along that he will most likely not return to the Sprint ranks in 2007 but may dabble in racing of the two-wheeled variety… Chuck Swenson is not the most animated guy in the pit area before the races but he becomes goes all John Force when he gets to victory lane. Swenson’s second career win at Knoxville came after passing last week’s winner Josh Higday in turn one on an early restart. If Swenson so desires, he could make a serious charge for the championship and, unbelievably, Rookie of the Year. Swenson made it a two-win weekend by backing up his Friday night win in non-sanctioned action at Kopellah… In last week’s column I said Knoxville had 29 410s for opening night when Bob Weuve’s last arrival actually pushed the count to 30, which sounds much higher. This week, of those 30, only Seth Brahmer missed the Outlaws date due to a crunched chassis in last week’s A-main.
Early votes for Most Improved in the 360s have got to go to Mike Houseman Jr., who has clicked off a tenth and a sixth in his first two starts for Mike Waddell… Did you ever think you’d live to see the day when a 14-second lap at Knoxville was met with a hearty ho-hum? Wing rules, tire rules, weight rules – nothing has slowed these cars. Jason Meyers turned a 14.753 but nothing under a 14.500 will impress anyone any more. By the way, Jason Meyers has been really fast lately. He has six straight top-tens and four straight top-fives to go with his win at Eldora. Minus the Joey/Donny show, he might have won Knoxville… Skip Jackson’s 14th was the highest finish of the five Knoxville regulars in the A-main. The track could have put seven into the main if Scott Winters and Ricky Logan used provisionals but the teams declined them… Danny Lasoski had a disappointing outing in Knoxville, where he finished an unheralded eighth, but rebounded Sunday and beat nephew and ’06 Nationals co-headliner Brian Brown to the finish line at Sedalia for a Winged Outlaws Warrior victory… Josh Schneiderman arrived in Knoxville on Saturday after a fifth place finish at Lee County the previous night but was still nursing a badly bruised arm from his hard crash on opening night. Josh and his teammate John Schulz are due a little luck in Marion County, it seems… Mitchell Alexander raced the 305 show on Friday night and said prior to it that he was hoping to get his 360 put back together shortly but was running the 305 division in the meantime. Unfortunately, he grenaded that engine during the heat race… Former IRA racer Randy Reinhard has resurfaced and is running 305s around his Fort Dodge, Iowa, home. He made his Knoxville Raceway debut on Friday night and finished 11th.
Next week is a regular night of racing but there could be some of the higher dollar, love-to-travel IRA teams tuning up for their May 12 Knoxville showdown en route to their Sunday night twilighter at 34 Raceway in Burlington, Iowa. Travis Whitney will lead the IRA contingent into their third weekend but Mike Kertscher has been the story. If he would have not have run out of fuel at the opener, he’d be two-for-two and on top of the points on his comeback tour.
Best Moment: The John Hall/Johnny Anderson photo finish in the 360 heats. I always love it when the 360s put on a spellbinder in front of the masses of casual Outlaws gawkers. Hopefully, at least one first time fan caught the excitement offered up by Hall’s by-a-nose victory either en route to the beer stand or on their way back to the stands.
Worst Moment: Tim Kaeding took a grinding crash with Jason Martin and was dazed afterwards. Radio communications told of possible cage damage from the severity of the impact but, despite being in a bit of a hazy daze, Kaeding was uninjured.
Biggest Surprise: Seriously, three laps into the second feature of 2007, Josh Higday looked like he might lead every lap of the season. After a yellow for Natalie Sather’s spin, Chuck Swenson whipped past Higday to take the lead and eventual win. It was early but Higday looked untouchable for the second week in a row and I’ll guarantee you that you could have fetched pretty steep odds taking the field vs. Higday only three laps in.
Biggest Disappointment: Realizing that the aforementioned Tim Kaeding was reportedly out of a ride regardless of his Knoxville performance. Just when it looked like the trouble 11K machine had found its way, it’s over. Kaeding will now run the Rush Racing 2 until Brooke Tatnell returns from tending to his ailing father in Australia.
Most Important Thing: The racetrack was great. After a solid night of WDRL late model racing and an afternoon of unseasonably warm and windy conditions, everybody was a little tentative when discussing track conditions. Quals were pared to one lap and the track crew got it right. With a huge crowd on hand, it would have been a shame to send them home disappointed. Instead, the buzz was great from all corners.
That’s it for this week. FlatOut Magazine contributor and devout Sprint fan Rob McCuen fills in the Friday time slot with his band the White Hot Tizzies and their appearance at the Hexagon Bar in Minneapolis while Saturday is reserved for week three of the Championship Cup at Knoxville for 410s and 360s. Sunday, the weekend ribbons are tied at 34 Raceway’s IRA show. In the meantime, keep me posted and informed at jzoch@threewidemedia.com.
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