Tatnell wins Knoxville’s Pre-Nationals Sprint show
Sunday, August 3, 2008
By Bob Wilson
KNOXVILLE, Iowa (August 2) – Brooke Tatnell formerly of Australia and now calling Minnesota home, captured the 20-lap feature at Knoxville Raceway Saturday night during the finals of the 360 Arnold Motor Supply 360 Knoxville Nationals. The win was Tatnell’s third career 410 win at the central Iowa race facility as the 410 division ran a companion program to the evening’s festivities.
Dusty Zomer, the pole sitter, took the early lead and set the pace with Tatnell in close pursuit. Both drivers kept their cars on the high cushion in turns three and four but split in turns one and two when Tatnell stayed on the top and Zomer dove to the deep bottom.
On lap eight, when Zomer dove to the low side in turn one, a lap car also chose the same route, impeding Zomer and allowing Tatnell to take the lead as he drove through turn two and down the backstretch. Once Zomer cleared the lap car Tatnell had put a good distance between them
By lap ten Tatnell had roared out to a half-chute advantage on a track which had seen much racing on this night. Behind him Zomer was fending off the advances of Danny Lasoski, a third row starter. Those two and Tatnell rode the high cushion when not in lap traffic. But, by lap fourteen Tyler Walker had come into the mix as well as into contention.
As the laps wound down, no one had anything for Tatnell’s Barry Lewis/Cool which swept to the win by a full straightaway advantage. Zomer was able to keep his runner-up position, Lasoski took third and Walker, who is in town to compete in the Nationals competition was fourth. Justin Henderson finished fifth. Rounding out the top ten were Davey Heskin, Billy Alley, Wayne Johnson, Kaley Gharst and Tim Kaeding, who started dead last after transferring from the B Main.
A total of 129 sprinters crowed into the pits (forty-four 410s and eighty-five 360s).
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