Tatnell and Moro Find Victory Lane at Knoxville
Saturday, July 21, 2007
By Bob Wilson
KNOXVILLE, Iowa (July 21) Brooke Tatnell and Matt Moro found pots of gold at the end of their rainbows Saturday night at Knoxville Raceway. Tatnell's pot contained $3,000 and Moro's was stuffed with $1,250.
Tatnell, who took the night off from running with the World of Outlaws, started in the fifth slot when the twenty-lap feature event went green. He quickly found himself behind the race leader Larry Pinegar and trailed at a short distance. Both drivers toured the big half-mile oval on the top side with Bronson Maeschen in tow.
On lap eight Tatnell, a driver from San Suci, Australia pulled a slider in turns one and two taking the lead from Pinegar. Down the backstretch Tatnell flew and dove low when he reached turn three. Pinegar took that same turn on the high side and as they made their way toward turn four, Tatnell came upon a lap car and was momentarily hindered. That gave the momentum back to Pinegar who came under the flagstand first.
Two laps later Tatnell had regained his focus and as those two cars again roared down the front chute this time the lap belonged to the Aussie. Before another lap could be completed, the yellow flag was displayed for a stopped car on the track.
When the race resumed, Dusty Zomer made a pass of Pinegar and picked up the chase of the race leader. Zomer tried to make a race of it but Tatnell began to pull away with the lead. At lap 15, the yellow was displayed when fourth running Ricky Logan blew a tire while negotiating into turn one. Maeschen, who was directly behind him nearly became entangled with the hapless Logan mount. Then, on the restart, the side board of the top wing on Logan's car tore off bringing out the caution flag one more time. This time Logan was not able to re-enter the race.
Once the race went green again it stayed green until the checkered flags flew for the winning Tatnell. Zomer took a solid second, Calvin Landis was third, Brian Brown advanced from an eight spot start to take fourth and Skip Jackson, a sixth row starter claimed fifth. Completing the top ten were Lynton Jeffrey, Pinegar, Kaley Gharst, Dion Hindi and last row starter and B Main winner Travis Cram.
The companion 360 sprint division found Matt Moro taking the fourth Knoxville win of his career. He was trailed all the way in this 15 lapper by Ryan Roberts. Both drivers started on the front row. Moro was never truly threatened in this event until he came into lap traffic just after the four mile mark. That is when Roberts began to cut into his comfortable lead.
With time and laps running out, Roberts closed the once sizable Moro lead to just five car lengths. What may have led to an exciting finish was possibly thwarted when a yellow flag was displayed for a stopped car on the track.
The single file restart saw Moro again take off on the cushion which on this night was the fast way around this historic oval. Roberts trailed at a short distance but could never mount a charge that would lead to a pass. For Moro, it was his second win of the season here. For Roberts, a rookie here, it was his career best at this track. Rookie Bryan Dobish took third while another rookie, Russ Hall was fourth. Points leader Josh Higday finished fifth. Nate VanHaaften, John Kearney (started 14th), David Hall, Joe Beaver (started 13th) and Mike Houseman, Jr. completed the top ten.
It was announced during the evening that Yvonne Sonner, wife of long-time car owner Gil Sonner had passed way. Gilly and Yvonne were fixtures at Knoxville Raceway since the 1960s.
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