Jackson and Moro Take Feature Wins at Knoxville Raceway and beat rain too
Saturday, July 19, 2008
By Bob Wilson
KNOXVILLE, Iowa (July 19) – Skip Jackson and Matt Moro each won feature events at Knoxville Raceway Saturday night. An impending storm forced to track officials to rush the program along but that did not slow the action on the historic half mile.
Jackson, who had the pole of the twenty-lap feature, quickly forged to the point when the race went green but just as the first lap was completed, a yellow was thrown for Ryan Anderson who had struck the turn two wall.
On the restart, Jackson again got away quickly but this time Billy Alley took up the pursuit of the fleet Jackson machine. Then on the very next circuit Davey Heskin made a quick pass of Alley in turn two to grab the runner-up spot. And, that’s the way it would be as the top five cars of Jackson, Heskin, Jeffrey, Dobmeier and Alley quickly circled the big Knoxville half mile at the five mile mark.
Jackson had managed to create a nice fifteen car-length advantage at this point while the top cars surged around the cushion, that is, all but Heskin who worked his sprinter on the bottom. The true battles for the top positions were behind Jackson and Heskin as those cars continued to sort out the positions.
By the fourteenth go around it was obvious that Heskin was catching the Jackson J & J sprinter. With the race going green for such a length of time, the lap cars were starting to play a factor. Truly, it seemed that Heskin’s low line was working for him and his plan of making it two wins in a row.
On lap fifteen Heskin pulled even with Jackson in turns one and two and took the lead running down the back chute. Jackson was not about to allow him to take the win easily and they came across the line in close order. On the next circuit Heskin began to pull away and looked to be the winner.
For some reason the youngster changed his line and began to use the high groove once again. That is when Jackson began to catch him once again by running on the bottom. With the white flag having been shown, Jackson pulled even with Heskin in turns one and two. It was still anybody’s race as they headed down the back chute but Jackson pushed it harder into turn three and retook the lead. Heskin tried to make a comeback but the laps had run out.
Jackson came across the finish line first for the $3,000 top prize and his 25th career win here with Heskin just five car lengths behind him in second. Alley, who had drifted back at the mid-point of the race, recovered to take third. Dobmeier, who had started eighth, was fourth and Dusty Zomer took fifth. Rounding out the top ten finishers were points leader Danny Lasoski, who clearly missed the set up on this night, Brian Brown (from 12th), Lynton Jeffrey, Calvin Landis and Justin Henderson (from 16th).
In the companion 360 feature, Matt Moro led the 15-lap distance to take his second main event in a row here. Moro utilized the top of the track the entire way to drive to his sixth career win here. Chasing him the distance and running the bottom was Gregg Bakker. Jesse Giannetto made a late race pass of Josh Higday to take third as Higday settled for fourth. Dustin Selvage was a factor throughout the event and finished fifth. Completing the top ten were Clint Garner (from 14th), Ryan Roberts, Jeff Mitrisin, Tennessee visitor Don Young and Nate VanHaaften.
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