The Harris Clash ranks as one of the most prestigious single-day events in IMCA modified racing these days. The event held at the famous Knoxville Raceway was rescheduled from Tuesday night, but the fans still saw seventy modifieds in action Thursday night. Those seventy modifieds were narrowed down to a field of thirty for the feature event that would run twenty-five laps. I thought the feature used to be thirty, but I may be mistaking.
Jay Schmidt and Mark Elliott were the front row starters for the feature event. Elliott would quickly get out front to pace the field with Todd Inman following closely behind. A caution flag waved on lap six, bunching the field back up with a double file restart. The middle of the pack got a bit out of shape, allowing Richie Gustin to slip by several cars to advance into the tenth spot on lap seven after starting twentieth. Gustin would make his way by two more competitors the following lap as he steadily got faster on the bottom side of the track.
Meanwhile, Josh Foster and David Murray were also cars that were on the move. Foster climbed to the fourth position after starting thirteenth while Murray advanced from sixteenth to fifth by lap eleven. Elliott continued to hold down a comfortable margin up front. With six laps remaining Murray opted to go to the outside of Jeff Jones before darting back to the inside of Josh Foster to take over the third spot. It appeared Murray was set to track down the top two contenders until he slammed into the wall and brought out the caution with two laps to go.
The two-lap shootout saw the top five as Mark Elliott, Jordan Grabouski, Richie Gustin, Josh Foster, and Jeremy Mills. With the double file alignment, Grabouski took the inside with Gustin on the outside. After watching Gustin run the inside groove to get to the front, I was skeptical he would have anything for the front runners from the outside line. When the green flag waved again, Elliott and Grabouski got good starts to pull away slightly. Bad luck would strike Elliott as he exited turn two and slowed down the backstretch, leaving the race lead open for Grabouski and Gustin. Gustin powered back on the outside and drew even exiting turn four for the white flag. The two raced side by side through the first set of turns before Gustin drove deep into turn three. Richie Gustin would get momentum off the cushion to give him the big payday and the win. Jordan Grabouski would settle for second, Jeremy Mills was third, Josh Foster fourth, and Johnny Saathoff was fifth.
Gustin pulled off an improbable win. He won a b-main event that lined him up twentieth on the grid. Mills started seventeenth, Long eighteenth, and Saathoff 21st. So there was plenty of passing going on throughout the field.
I'd like to personally thank Bob Harris for the great hospitality he gave the Positivelyracing.com crew. I met up with Bob after the races and we both agreed that tonight was one of the most competitive races we had seen in awhile.
I also had the chance to chat with Jim Zimmerline. Jim is a photographer and was on hand taking pictures tonight. So be sure to check out Zipp's Photos at www.zippsphotos.com.
A little sidenote that isn't so much related to the races tonight. I've gotten to know quite a few people either through the racing community personally or they've noticed who I am because of this blog. I've noticed recently that many of them called me by my "nickname" or screenname of "Tapfan", or "Tap" for short. While I do answer to that, I would like people to know that I do have a real first name. It seems as though sometimes people only call me by the nickname and it makes me wonder if they even know my real name. So next time you see me, I would greatly appreciate it if you used my name rather then Tapfan. Ok, I'll get off my soapbox now.
- Racing may be a hobby, but it's DEFINITELY addictive!!
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