Dobmeier and Roberts are Winners in Knoxville Sprints
Saturday, July 28, 2007
By Bob Wilson
(3M and Wal-Mart Night)
KNOXVILLE, Iowa (July 28) Mark Dobmeier won his second feature event of the season while Ryan Roberts took his initial feature win here at Knoxville Raceway Saturday night.
Dobmeier, a rookie 410 sprint car driver at this central Iowa fairgrounds half-mile track, took the lead at the outset and never relinquished it through two yellows during the ten-mile sprint. A row one start enabled the Grand Forks, North Dakota driver to take the point position at the outset. Fellow front row starter Brent Antill followed but could not keep up the pace that the leader set.
A yellow after lap six for a slowing Calvin Landis bunched the cars into a single-file restart. Dobmeier had mounted a sizable lead at this point only to have it melt with the caution period.
On the restart, second running Antill and third place Brian Brown fought it out for the runner-up spot as Dobmeier began to pull away once again. Brown took that second place spot on the eighth go around and set his sights on the leader. He was unable to make up any of the lost ground and in fact by the half-way point was nearly a full chute behind the fleet Dobmeier.
Lap 13 saw Dobmeier enter into lap traffic in his Lundstra J &J and Brown began to close the gap. Lap 15 saw Brown trail by a mere ten car lengths. That was when the yellow was again displayed, this time for debris on the track. As it turned out, the debris was from Dobmeier's car (pieces of the torque tube assembly).
The loss of parts did not seem to slow the North Dakota driver as when the race resumed he again pulled away from Brown, who would have to settle for the runner-up spot on this night. Dobmeier received $3,000 for his efforts.
Brooke Tatnell (from 10th), Wayne Johnson (from 9th) and Lynton Jeffrey completed the top five finishers on a track which saw the cushion as the fast way around. Rounding out the top ten were Antill, Skip Jackson, Dion Hindi, Ricky Logan and Jack Dover. Thirty-one 410 sprints signed through the pit gate.
The 360 sprint field swelled to 38 cars as several new teams arrived at Knoxville to compete in the 360 Nationals at this track in one week. Pole sitter Ryan Roberts had his hands full in this one as Greg Bakker gave him a run for the money for the first ten laps. Roberts held the cushion even though Bakker would use the bottom to make a race of it. Coming from the tenth spot was Clint Garner who would be a player in this 15-lap feature.
Roberts, from Aurora, Nebraska, fended off every move that Bakker would throw at him. Lap nine saw a blanket finish as Roberts held the top spot by a matter of inches. With ten laps in the books it was Roberts, Bakker, Garner, Matt Moro and Josh Higday. Two laps later Garner had taken the runner-up spot in his chase to the front.
Though he had entered into lap traffic, Roberts was able to guide his self-owned sprinter through the backmarkers as well as keep Garner at bay. Garner attempted several lines on this big half mile but none would work on this night to run down the leader.
The final lap saw Garner follow Roberts on the cushion through turns one and two. At they entered turns three and four several lap cars entered the picture in the bottom groove. That eliminated any chances of a Garner slider as Roberts then came across the finish line to win by ten car lengths. Trialing those two were Bakker, Moro and Higday. Completing the top ten were Bryan Dobesh (from 12th), Nate Mosher, Jeff Mitrisin, Russ Hall (from 15th) and John Hall.
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