After getting rained out on the raindate, the third time was the charm as the Harris Clash was run Tuesday night, July 28th at the Knoxville Raceway. Seventy-eight IMCA modifieds made their way back to the historic half-mile. 120 cars were pre-entered for the initial date a couple weeks back, but with the weather not cooperating officials opened up the field to allow anybody to show up Tuesday night.
The format changed a little bit from advertised due to the car count. Eight heat races were run with the top two transferring directly to the feature while the rest were sent to one of four bmains. Heat race winners then redrew for the first four rows while the second place runners drew for positions nine through sixteen. The top three from each bmain also advanced into the twenty-eight car feature.
With just modifieds on the card for the night, the feature rolled out onto the track and started right about 9:15. Josh Gilman and Billy Davis Jr. sat on the front row as the green flag waved, but it would be Jay Noteboom grabbing the lead with Jeremy Mills close behind at the completion of lap one. Mills drove his car in the middle groove of the track to make the pass on Noteboom on lap two, but a caution negated the pass. That caution would involve roughly ten cars in turn one while two more cars got tangled up in turn two.
When the green flag came back out, Mills again used the middle groove to drive by Noteboom for the lead. Behind them, Nate Caruth had charged his way to third on lap five after starting fifteenth on the grid. Noteboom then got to the inside of Mills and the two raced wheel to wheel for a couple laps before Noteboom regained the top spot on lap seven of the twenty-five lap race.
After restarting at the tail of the field as a result of being involved in the early caution, Al Hejna used the cushion to pass car after car to climb back into the top ten on lap nine. As the halfway signal was given to the drivers, Nate Caruth was slowly catching the top two as they were racing hard with each other. Mills would not be able to keep pace with Noteboom, which allowed Caruth to duck under Mills to take over second with six laps to go. A lap later Hejna got by Josh Gilman for sixth. As the laps clicked down, Caruth was within striking distance as he got to the rear bumper of Noteboom as the white flag waved. Noteboom was able to inch away exiting turn two on the final lap, but Caruth made a last-ditch effort in three and four only to come up short at the line. Jay Noteboom took home the $2,000 prize followed by Nate Caruth, Jeremy Mills, Michael Long, and Todd Shute. Al Hejna settled for sixth. For complete results, check out www.imca.com
Noteboom has been on a winning streak as of late. He won three feature on the Big Dog Dakota Tour, won a $1,000 paycheck in Spencer, and then grabbed a win and a second place finish recently in Nebraska. His luck continued Tuesday night as he drew the low number to put him on the pole of the first heat race, and then backed it up with the win in the feature.
The checkered flag waved at around 9:45, not bad for a Tuesday night show. Other then the ten car pileup in turn one early in the feature, there were hardly any delays the rest of the night. In fact, no cautions were thrown in the heat races.
I'd like to thank Bob Harris for putting on a great show and also for his hospitality. I was able to meet him briefly before the races Tuesday night and told him I was very appreciative of his compliments on my writing skills. It's kinda fun hearing from people that read my "stories" as several of them have been ones that I wouldn't think would be a "follower" of my work. I'd like to take this time to thank everybody that does read my thoughts.
Wednesday night I'll be traveling about thirty minutes to the north as I take in the Deery Brothers late models in action at the Highway 3 Raceway in Allison. Also in action will be the bmods, stock cars, hobby stocks, and hornets. Hot laps are scheduled to get underway at 6:30 with racing following at 7:00.
- Racing may be a hobby, but it's DEFINITELY addictive!!
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