Lindquist and Dobesh are New Winners at Knoxville Raceway
Saturday, May 5, 2007
By Bob Wilson - Dustin Lindquist and Bryan Dobesh became first-time winners at Knoxville Raceway Saturday night. Both men are rookies in their respective divisions.
Lindquist, a Floodwood, Minnesota pilot driving for veteran owner Guy Forbrook, did not lead at the outset as those laurels went to pole sitter Ricky Logan. Logan found the cushion to his liking in the early going as Lindquist, who started right beside him, trailed at a close distance. In fact, Lindquist was using the low line in turns three and four to close the gap on Logan on each go around.
With five laps in the books, Logan began entering lap traffic. As he focused toward turn three, a slower car impeded his line on the cushion. That is when Lindquist dove to the bottom and grabbed the lead. Once in front, Logan was unable to stay with him. Three laps later, Dusty Zomer made a pass of Logan to take the runner-up spot.
At the five-mile mark of this 20-lap race, the top five showed Lindquist, Zomer, Logan, Randy Anderson and Brian Brown who had marched all the way from seventh row start. The next lap saw a yellow thrown for a spun car, robbing Lindquist of the huge lead he had built.
On the restart Lindquist again pulled away in his Maxim/Mopar. Soon, Anderson gained third and it was at this point that B-Main winner Kaley Gharst made his presence known having started in row ten. Again, no one was able to keep up with the pace the leader was blazing toward a $3,000 payday.
Lap 18 saw the final caution flag for a spun Dennis Moore, Jr. who had been running eighth. With but two laps to go, Lindquist again pulled away from the field to record his first ever feature event win on Knoxville soil. Anderson made a late race pass to claim second, Zomer was third, Gharst took an amazing fourth and Logan registered fifth. Rounding out the top ten finishers were Brown, Wayne Johnson, Billy Alley, Skip Jackson from a tail-end start and Mark Dobmeier. 34 cars signed through the pit gate.
In the 360 sprint division, Bryan Dobesh led the entire 15-lap distance while recording his first feature event win at Knoxville. Dobesh took the immediate lead at the outset as he found the fast way around the half-mile oval to be on the cushion which on this night was no more than half way up on all four turns. His nearest competitor was Josh Schneiderman who pushed the Sioux Falls (S. Dak.) driver in the early stages.
Though one red flag slowed the event, Dobesh slowly pulled away from Schneiderman and had nearly a twenty car-length lead just past the half-way point. Behind those two drivers it was anyone's race for third as Pete Crall, John Hall and Jake Peters contested for that spot to the end.
Dobesh pushed his self-owned Maxim to a near straightaway win as the checkers flew at the end. Schneiderman claimed second with Crall staging a career best third. Peters and Hall rounded out the top five. Completing the top ten were Johnny Anderson, Josh Higday from row eight, Jeff Mitrisin, Joe Beaver and Natalie Sather from row seven. Thirty-seven cars participated in the six-event program.
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