Knoxville Night Two

Evening all, night two has been and gone.

Tonight we had 5 Aussies racing.
Ian Madsen;
Skip Jackson;
Brooke Tatnell;
Paul Jeffrey and;
Mitch Dumsney.

Ian Madsen was the fastest out of our Aussies finishing 8th in the time trials over all. Danny Lasoski who is hoping to come racing in Australia time trialed second with a 15.29 and the King, Steve Kinser placed first in the time trials with a 15.233,

Tatnell was the first to run a heat in Heat 1. He started 3rd and had some go for a couple of laps till he lost some horse power. After going into the pits once the night was over we found out it was due his magneto moving. He finished 7th but still made it into the B main.

Heat 2 saw Skip finish 4th and straight into the A main, Madsen finish 6th, and Mitch finish 8th both through to the B main.

The only Aussie in Heat 3 was Jeffrey's and he finished 7th also into the B main.

They had the great Karl Kinser on stage talking about his greatest moments in sprint car racing and I just wanted to share a quote with you. "I've been all over the world, Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania...... And no track compares to Knoxville Raceway."

Heat 4 saw Sammy Swindell start in 8th and go straight to first after some great racing.

B main saw Jeffrey starting 15th however he pulled off with a few laps to go and did not finish. Mitch started 11th finishing 12th. Tatnell starting 13th, and finishing 7th. Finally Madsen who started outside poll kept our Aussie spirit alive by finishing first. Unfortunately for the 55 team, it seems they did an engine just before he crossed the line.

A main had Skip starting poll, and Madsen supposed to start at the rear but they didn't get to change their engine so stayed in field.
Skip broke away on the first 2 starts but unfortunately cars either spun out or collided so on the the start of the 25 lap feature he got passed by Swindell and Schatz.
It was close just before the checkered flag on turn 4 with Schatz coming out of no where from at least half a turn behind and over took Sammy for first, however the yellow flag came out just before he crossed the line. With a restart Sammy got away and Skip moved to 2nd but it wasn't meant to be with yet another yellow coming out at the third turn as a car spun out on the track. People noticed Schatz right rear starting to go down, his pit crew were ready for him to come in field and change the tyre but with two laps to go in the A main it wasn't worth it, he'd have to tag the back and wouldn't make it far enough through the crowd to score as many points as he would if he just went for it. Sammy shot off on the restart with Schatz trying to catch him, unfortunately his wheel gave him difficulty causing Skip to over take him on the 3rd turn followed immediately by 21. Leaving him with 5th place and sure enough just after he crossed the line his wheel went. Skip got third as the 21 car just beat him by a front tyre on the front stretch in the dying seconds.

It sure was the best A main so far with only more to come. Keep tuned for tomorrow nights World Challenge, we will be taking the Ipad to the track so we can get the blog up quicker.

Night all.
Crabby Jnr.

Location:Knoxville, Iowa, USA