In The Groove
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
by Stacy Ervin - The 54th season of weekly racing is now history at the Sprint Car Capitol of the World. Along with fantastic racing and good times, there were also plenty of story lines to follow this year at he Knoxville Raceway. Following are some random thoughts to recap this season.
Rookie drivers in the 360 division were particularly good this year. Not only did Bryan Dobesh miss out on the track championship by seven points, but Gregg Bakker, Ryan Roberts and Russ Hall also posted strong season finishes. In addition, Dustin Selvage, no longer a true rookie, but still a young driver, had an impressive season, posting his first win on the final night. And Natalie Sather, the young lady from North Dakota, earned tremendous improvement in her driving ability by frequenting the hallowed half-mile of dirt.
In the 410 division, rookie Mark Dobmeier was also impressive and Davey Heskin and Jack Dover showed potential. But the rookie crop took a hit when Dustin Lindquist chose to walk away from what promised to be a stellar career and Jon Corbin failed to show up on a regular basis.
Two perennial 410 favorites made comebacks this year much to the delight of the fans. Iowa native Dennis Moore Jr., who spent a few years racing in California, returned in the 17G, then parted ways with the team before Nationals. He returned to sub for 360 pilot Joe Beaver late in the year. Iowa transplant Travis Cram jumped into the 17G when Moore left, put the car in the Nationals A-Main and left the season-championship crowd breathless with an unbelievable threading of the needle between two lapped cars.
Brian Brown and Josh Higday set their own fates on opening night back in April when they won the features. Ironically, both repeated wins on May 19. The pair went on to be crowned champions in their respective divisions. For Brown, it was vengeance from his five-point failure last season and he wrapped up the title a week early just to be sure. The championship drama was all Higday on the final night when he blew a motor in hot laps, had to race a different car from the back of all events and nearly got beat by Dobesh.
Dobesh's first Knoxville win was literally a gift. He missed out on the post-race festivities but took the notch by his name when pseudo first-time winner Josh Schneiderman was found to have illegal parts on fair night.
Matt Moro's season back in a 360 started off on a tentative note, with a bone-jarring series of flips down the frontstretch on opening night and then a flip in hot laps the next week. He recovered nicely with a third-place points finish and a couple of feature wins though.
Rager Phillips also pulled a double disaster, going for a nasty ride down the frontstretch on twin-features night and then dumping his mount again the next week.
Randy Anderson and Bronson Maeschen have established themselves as the kings of fast time trials.
Kaley Gharst was the benefactor of race leaders crashing in two different divisions in three nights.
Gary Wright showed he is still king of 360 racing after he won his B-Main on qualifying night at the 360 Nationals and came through the field to finish second in the A.
Trish Dover nearly got one for the girls when she made her 305 debut early in the season before a flat tire deflated her lead.
Low car counts, disappointing ticket sales, unprecedented track reworking and one-lap time trials should also be noted this year and pondered before next season comes around.
As always, twin-features night turns the tide for the season at Knoxville Raceway. It's the night that can make or break a season in a heartbeat. This summer's version saw the mysterious absence of three-time track champion Jake Peters, who had been on track for a fourth title. He never would return this season, amid speculation that he was hurting from an early season wreck at another track. The night also saw Higday miss the transfer to the twin features, causing many to believe Jeff Mitrisin would come out the big winner in the points.
However, he vacated the Wares 360 to drive the Sonner 410 late in the year.
Twin-features night also appeared to be the one where motor troubles began to plague the low-budget 360 team of nice guy Tom Lenz. By the end of the season and after several dramatic blow-ups, a few of which came while he led races, he had teamed up with equally nice guy Larry Weeks and his famous “double nuthin'” ride.
Violent accidents, unfortunately, still go hand in hand with sprint-car racing. The year's worst was probably the one belonging to Pete Crall, who sat out a month and a half with a broken leg. It was a tough break for the talented pilot, but good to have him back to finish out the year. The year's weirdest belonged to Mike Deavers, who somehow landed his mount straight up on its tail just under the flagstand on championship night.
“Ill-fated slide jobs” are also nothing new to sprint-car racing, but this year seemed to include way too many. And more than one such incident could not be classified as a slide job attempt at all. The world watched as Brian Brown put the “Higginsville sandwich” on Randy Martin as he led the feature on opening night of the 360 Nationals and sent him on a vicious ride with the fence. Brownie quickly became the villain, but his fate was apparently lost on a few others. On the penultimate night of racing, John Schulz pulled an exact replica of that maneuver and John Hall was the unfortunate victim in the 360s, while Wayne Johnson put the move on Jack Dover in the 410s. It's a disturbing trend and it has to stop.
Speaking of John Hall, this was the season of resurgence for the 1988 360 rookie of the year and 20-year Knoxville veteran from my side of the state. It was an unexpected but happy surprise to see him start the year on a strong note, including a heat-race win over powerhouse Johnny Anderson by a 0.021 margin on Outlaw night. A setback at 360 Nationals, when Hall lost a feature transfer to Dobesh by about that much, started the downward trend. He was running fifth in the second to last feature of the year when Schulz nailed him to the fence, destroyed all hope of a top-10 point finish and set up a long winter of rebuilding the low-budget team.
Highlights of this year for this track official included meeting NASCAR driver and road-race specialist Boris Said on opening night, helping track historian Bob Wilson lay out the Nationals program and hosting the “Women in Sprint Car Racing” forum for the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame and Museum during Nationals. As always, I don't know where I would be without my race-night family to share both good and bad times in laughter, tears, debates and silliness. Thanks to Kris, Roger, Big Al, Cappy and Marilyn, Bruce and Karen, Lisa, Bob, Rob, Dave, Kristi and Nyle, Tony, Justin, Arleta, Maridel, Lori and Troy for another happy year.
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