Brandon Wimmer and Tony Moro provide the Fireworks at Knoxville
Friday, July 4, 2008
By Bob Wilson
KNOXVILLE, Iowa (July 4)- Former Indiana sprint racer Brandon Wimmer and Des Moines, Iowa native Tony Moro captured feature events in a rare July 4 race show at Knoxville Raceway Friday night.
Wimmer, who is a weekly participant in Knoxville’s 410 winged-sprint division, found a ride in the Clark Racing 305 sprinter on this Nation’s holiday evening and collected $750 for the win.
Front row starter John Kearney grabbed the lead when the green flag dropped on the 15-lap event. Kearney, Justin Giannetto and Wimmer utilized the high cushion on the big Knoxville half mile while second running Mitch Alexander tried his luck on the bottom. This foursome pulled away from the rest of the pack and early on it could be seen that one of these four would be the eventual winner.
By lap five, Kearney could muster only a five car-length lead over Alexander with Giannetto and Wimmer in the chase. It appeared that Alexander was slowly cutting into the lead by using the bottom.
Lap eight found the frontrunners head into lap traffic in turn three. As they came down the front chute it was a four-wide racing situation at the flag stand with Kearney keeping the top spot as he and Alexander sped through the backmarkers.
Kearney and Alexander began to pull away from the third and fourth place drivers after the encounter with the two lapped cars. Then, on lap twelve after showing some smoke, Giannetto’s engine expired as he rounded the first turn and coasted into two.
On the restart, Wimmer was able to get by Alexander and as he roared into turn three of that lap he tried to put a slider on Kearney. The lead car was able to fend it off only to have another caution flag slow the race for a stopped car after the 14th go around.
The final restart went Wimmer’s way as he chased Kearney very closely and dove into turn one on the low side. Kearney, who tried to utilize the momentum of the top, was unable to fend off the Wimmer challenge and drifted back to second. At the finish it was Wimmer, Kearney, Alexander, Tom Lenz and Bob Lamb.
In the companion Dirt Truck competition, Tony Moro inherited the lead at the half-way point of the 12-lap event to eventually pull away for the win. Ed Nelson and Lou Sipolt dropped from the event while leading. Chasing Moro to the checkers was Brian Nevins, Jr., Bob Murray, Rick Clark and Bret Moyer.
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