Sweet Sweeps Knoxville Midget Nationals
Sunday, June 22, 2008
By Bob Wilson
KNOXVILLE, Iowa (June 21) Brad Sweet of Grass Valley, California captured both the Friday and Saturday portions of the 7th annual Knoxville Midget Nationals. Friday he was crowned King Doodlebug VI and 24-hours later he led nearly every lap of the championship feature to place his name on the list of Nationals champions at this central Iowa race track.
Sweet, who started on the pole of the 25-lap feature event, beat fellow front row starter Michael Pickens (Auckland, N.Z.) to the first turn and rolled his Kasey Kahne Racing/Mopar midget on the cushion to grab the first of many circuits of this race. Cole Whitt, also of California, filled in behind him but could not keep pace with the fleet Sweet. By lap 10 he was nearly half a front chute ahead of Whitt on this giant half-mile dirt oval. Behind him Jerry Coons, Jr. (Tucson, Arizona), Dave Darland (Lincoln, Indiana) and Brady Bacon (Broken Arrow, Oklahoma) slugged it out for the third spot.
A yellow slowed the action of the 26 starters when Brad Kuhn lost a left-rear tire in turn one. He did not restart. Just prior to that incident, Coons had taken the runner-up spot in the race.
On the restart it was Sweet, Coons, Bacon, Pickens and Darland in that order. The battle at this point was really for second through fifth on the track and again a yellow was displayed slowing the field on lap eighteen.
On the restart, Coons dove to the bottom in turns one and two while Sweet took to the high cushion. Coming out of turn two the duo were side by side and down the backstretch Coons assumed the lead. Coons kept that spot for one more circuit but on lap twenty, Sweet dove hard into turn three and came out of turn four with the lead again. Coons tried to maintain momentum on the bottom of the oval but could not keep up with the leader. Bacon took third for good two laps later and relegated Pickens back to fourth. And, that’s the way it stayed to the end as Sweet celebrated his $3,350 win flashing past the finish line.
Darren Hagen, Riverside, California was fifth. Completing the top ten finishers were Whitt, Ricky Stenhouse of Olive Branch, Mississippi (the defending champion), Tracy Hines of New Castle, Indiana, Darland and Mike Hess of Riverton, Illinois.
38 cars competed on this final night of competition sanctioned by USAC. Other sanctioning bodies of this event were BMARA, POWRi and SMRS.
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