Saturday, October 1, 2011

Birkhofer Victorious on Second Night of Knoxville LMN

Friday night marked the second night of the Knoxville Late Model Nationals, but it started off much the same way Thursday night did. Scott Bloomquist drew the lucky #1 for time trials, and his time would stand above all others as he once again set quick time for the night.

Once again five heat races would be in store for the night, but they didn't provide quite as much excitement as the previous night. When the first heat was announced, many people could only shake their head. Dan Schlieper, Tim McCreadie, Steve Casebolt, Brady Smith, Scott James, Jason Rauen, Jimmy Mars, Tyler Reddick, Jimmy Owens, Scott Bloomquist, and three other drivers comprised of that first heat. A lot of tracks would love that for their feature, let alone a heat race. And the biggest surprise of the night, perhaps, was Jason Rauen pulling off the upset win. That began the streak of three consecutive heat race victories by drivers from the state of Iowa as the Simpson brothers (Chris and Chad, respectively) followed right behind with wins. Illinois driver Frank Hackenast Jr broke up the sweep as he took top honors in heat four, but another Iowan Brian Birkhofer made it four for five for the Hawkeye state.

Jimmy Owens, Thursday night's feature win, fared poorly in that first heat race mentioned above and was scheduled to run the C-main. However he apparently didn't want to race or had issues as he failed to make the call. Following the B-main event, the feature would slowly begin to assemble on the front stretch with Iowa representing the front row in Rob Moss and Jason Rauen.

Rauen would get the early advantage while Brian Birkhofer slipped into second. Darrell Lanigan used the high side to motor by Moss for third prior to the only caution of the race coming out on lap three when Jared Landers hit the wall in turn two. Shortly after the green flag waved on the restart, Birkhofer dove to the inside of Rauen to grab the top spot away. On lap seven I looked through the field and saw that Don O'Neal was making great progress after starting tail of the field as he had worked his way up to eleventh already. His momentum fizzled as the race went on, only able to advance two more positions to finish ninth.

Meanwhile Lanigan ducked to the bottom of the track in turn four to get the second position away from Rauen, but as Lanigan skated up the track upon exit of the corner that allowed Will Vaught to sneak past both machines to snare the runner up spot. Vaught and Lanigan would race each other for that second position for most of the remainder of the twenty-five lapper, but neither one could muster up the horsepower to chase down Brian Birkhofer as he picked up night two top honors. Lanigan finished second, Vaught third, Scott Bloomquist was fourth, and Jason Rauen completed the top five. Billy Moyer finished with a solid sixth place finish after transferring out of the B-main.

Saturday's action will be nothing less then spectacular. C and B-mains will be run with six cars advancing out of the B to join the top twenty-four cars in points to fill up the thirty-car starting field for the 100-lap finale. A full program of IMCA modifieds will also join the card on Saturday night as I believe somewhere around forty were invited to this prestigious event. Be sure to get out to the Knoxville Raceway if you're in the area!

No comments:

Post a Comment