Upper Midwest Ramblings from Knoxville’s Hall of Fame Weekend
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
by Justin Zoch - After spending three days in Knoxville, Iowa, for practice and for rain (and rainbows, consequently) on Friday night, the Hall of Fame weekend finally came to a rousing conclusion on Saturday night with the best race of the weekend -- the Master’s Classic. The oft-maligned event was pushed from Friday headliner to Saturday headliner and race organizers were more than a little concerned that the grandstand would empty after the Saturday 410 featch, which often occurs. But, most hung around and were treated to a gem between Hall of Fame inductee Kenny Jacobs and unheralded Texan AJ Weaver.
Jacobs had the poll in John Kearney’s car with a groove of rubber nearly wrapped around the raceway while Weaver greened outside row seven. Jacobs led early but Weaver quickly reeled him in and, despite a green-white-checkered finish, held on for the biggest victory of his career. Weaver is a three-time Masters entrant and first-time winner. Jacobs also drove Guy Forbrook’s car for the first time in his storied career but exploded the engine in the A-main. Afterwards, Jacobs described the detonation as so severe it actually scared him in the cockpit! On Friday, Dustin Lindquist quit Forbrook’s Five car, and racing apparently, due to personal reasons. I haven’t had a chance to talk to Lindquist personally yet but have heard from several reliable sources that the decision had nothing to do with Forbrook or the team.
With Jacobs’ induction on Saturday afternoon into the Hall of Fame, most of his family was there to root him on. However, two key members stayed home in Ohio to do what the Jacobs clan does best – race. His son Lee finished third at Fremont on Saturday night while his brother Dean was simultaneously driving to third behind Paul McMahan and Jason Solwold at Eldora’s World of Outlaws show… Shane Carson joined his father Bud in the Hall of Fame on Saturday afternoon and was slated to race Larry Weeks’ 00 in defense of his 2006 Masters title but the engine locked up on the car while regular shoe Larry Pinegar was pushing off for hot laps and was finished. Dwight Snodgrass quickly stepped in and offered his powerful 2X after Josh Higday was finished with it. Carson, however, was relegated to the tail after switching horses and was never a factor.
In the 410 feature, Calvin Landis finally had a little good luck and eked out victory over Dusty Zomer, who was charging hard before the engine stumbled while gasping for fuel on the final lap. Landis had two gallons left and took his third career win at Knoxville but first in weekly competition (his two previous wins were a prelim for the Summer Classic and last year’s Nationals Non-Qualifier program)… Randy Anderson set his third quick time (out of five weekly shows) but his brand new race car was upside down by night’s end, the result of a slider-gone-bad from Brian Brown. For the second straight week, the racing was fierce all throughout the 410 featch and Anderson again wound up on the wrong end of it… Kaley Gharst again struggled in qualifying and was set to make another charge through the field, as he has done all season, but banged the fence a ton in turn four and shattered the Jacobs Ladder, ending his night and handing the point lead to Dusty Zomer. Gharst is now third behind Zomer and Brown… In 360 action, Jake Peters appears to be hitting midseason form and he very casually strolled by Dave Hall for the lead and the win. Peters’ next win at Knoxville puts him into double digits. It was his fourth win of 2007.
Ron Rosenboom took a year off from racing in 2006 but retuned for 2007 and made his first start at Knoxville since “sometime at the Nationals in the mid-1990s”… The oldest entrant in the field for the Masters was 75-year-old Dale McCarty although he was not the only septuagenarian in the starting order as 71-year-old Don Stoutner and his crew chief and son Kurt towed their rig out from Brighton, Colorado… It was an emotional night for Joe Kouba as he hung up his helmet for the final time. Kouba started on the front row and maintained second through the early going before being sidelined by mechanical ills. Kouba has also been a passionate, classy guy and he’s done untold good for sport of Sprint Car racing in Minnesota. Thanks for the memories #55!... Mark Toews returned to Knoxville for the first time since the 2004 Nationals but this was the first time he’s ever raced a 360 around the Raceway. Toews runs two times a month at Jackson and seems to be enjoying the balance between family and fast cars. Toews parked next to Jerry Richert Jr. on the backstretch. Those two Gophers are the last guys to clear Knoxville’s famous fence.
With Eagle Raceway scheduled to go wingless on Saturday night, Toby Chapman and Mark Pace made their season debuts but missed the A-main… Scott Winters hopes to return to Knoxville this Saturday after missing the last two weeks while waiting for a refurbished 410… Toni Lutar was also missing but he was not sitting out – he raced Skagit Speedway (much closer than Knoxville to White Rock, BC) and finished fourth in his first race there this season. Lutar will be missed in the Knoxville pits but bets are that he’ll return for the Southern Iowa Speedweek, if not before… Billy Kain had been helping Lutar at Knoxville this year and this weekend he lent his services to Tim Gee, who finished fourth in the Masters. Kain must be some kind of Canadian liaison. Gee was unsure if he would return for the 360 Nationals and Tournament of Champions this year because of the expense and time involved in the 1,500 mile tow from Leduc, Alberta. Gee was the youngest Master as he turned race-eligible, fifty, on Thursday… Lynton Jeffrey has taken a week or two to get his team straightened out and will return when he is ready. Vortex has been building a lot of wings this year and has taken priority over Jeffrey’s racing… Anyone know where Dave Saffell was last Saturday night?... Glenn Freeland was hoping to help push Trish Dover into the record books on Friday night as she tries to become the first female feature winner at the speedway. The event was rained out, however. Dover’s next shot comes on June 15 as the 305 accompany the World of Outlaws Late Models. She’d better hurry though because Natalie Sather could steal the honor from her. Sather is one of only five drivers that have made all six A-mains this year (the others are Josh Higday, Jake Peters, Brett Mather and Johnny Anderson) and she was eighth this week… Freeland spent Saturday night in Bronson Maeschen’s pits again and was very busy. Maeschen lost a wing panel in hot laps and made hard contact with the turn four steel. The team thrashed, transferred from the back of the B-main and came through the field to nab 11th…
With the World of Outlaws heading for Knoxville in a few weeks, Joey Saldana will be hoping to get back to victory lane – he hasn’t been there since April 20. He does have five seconds place runs in that stretch, however… From May 4 to June 4, Jon Stanbrough has 11 Sprint Car wins (wonder when the last time someone chalked double digit wins in a 30-day stretch was?) and they feature many prominent wins, including the Hulman Classic, the Jack Hewitt Classic, three King of Indiana Sprint Series shows and last weekend’s Sheldon Kinser Memorial at Bloomington… Mark Dobmeier registered another two-win weekend with victories at River Cities and Huset’s bookending his seventh place run at Knoxville. On Friday night, he won from 25th at River Cities because of a new rule for 2007 which deposits the point leaders at the back the first race night of each month. They probably didn’t expect Dobmeier to win but he did… Two weeks ago, Pete Crall had the best finish of his career when he chased Josh Higday across the line in second. This week, he went home with a broken left foot. His father, Mark, described it as such via e-mail “In the feature, on the lap he crashed, the vibration got really bad in turn three and the driveline (u-joint) let go coming out of turn four. The new steel DMI housing saved him from the u-joint, but the housing got pulled out of the motorplate in the crash and got him in the foot. His left foot is broken. He will see the orthopedic specialist today (Tuesday) and go from there. We'll see what the doctor says. Too bad, looks like his run of good luck is on hold for now.” Tough break for a very classy kid from Kansas… Last week I asked for brother/sister combinations that raced against each other and race archivist Jim Harris passed along California’s Jessica Helberg (19) and Jojo Helberg (16) who race each other in USAC Western States and CASA action. Check them out at www.helbergmotorsports.com... Mark Amenda was scheduled to race a Sprint Car for the first time in a dozen years but power steering problems sidelined him at Thursday’s practice and with the rainout, he had to return to Streator, Illinois, on Saturday afternoon. Amenda is now Pastor Mark and had to preach on Sunday morning… World Racing Group CFO Brian Carter towed his 305 Sprint Car all the way from Texas to race Knoxville and had the chance to do it on practice night but the Friday 305 program erased any hope of competition action. Carter is a regular with the Smiley’s Sprint Series of Texas and also ran the Chili Bowl this year.
Next week, it will be back to Knoxville and Huset’s for their weekend programs while Friday night is reserved for the Washington Nationals first visit to the Metrodome since we stole DC’s club in 1961. In the meantime, keep me posted at jzoch@threewidemedia.com.
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