40 Midgets
29 410s

Midgets

Jerry Coons Jr., Brady Bacon, Dave Darland, Bryan Clauson, Mike Hess and Brad Kuhn all locked themselves into the Midget Nationals Finale by finishing in the top six spots in the "King Doodlebug" event Friday night. Hess was not present Saturday.

Heat one (started, *qualified for feature): 1. Don Droud Jr. 4 (7*) 2. Teddy Beach 125 (6*) 3. Ryan Pace 44 (5*) 4. Mike Riley 05x (4) 5. Chad McDaniel 1c (1) 6. Donnie Lehmann 31 (3) DNS - Doug DeWitt 11D (2)

Beach used an exceptional first lap to grab the lead from McDaniel. As Beach put some distance between himself and the field, Droud was on the move. He was in fourth by lap two and pressuring McDaniel by lap four, when McDaniel jumped the cushion and took a horrifying flip into turn one. The fuel tank was retrieved from Highway 14 and McDaniel was uninjured. Beach now had no one between himself and an impressive Droud, who took the lead on the restart and never looked back. Lehmann exited on lap two in a back-up car. His primary mount looked to blow a motor in hot laps.

Heat two (started, *qualified for feature): 1. Johnny Rodriguez 21az (4*) 2. Brad Mosen 3 (6*) 3. Tracy Hines 1 (5*) 4. Brad Loyet 05 (3) 5. Jimmy Light 49 (2) 6. Daniel Adler 50 (1) 7. Joe Boyles 7B (7)

Rodriguez shot around Light for an early lead and led the 8 lap distance. Mosen earned some passing points by shooting to second from his thrid row starting spot, and Hines provided some excitement in winning a battle for third with Loyet.

Heat three (started, *qualified for feature): 1. Josh Wise 20 (4*) 2. Cole Carter 7 (6*) 3. Davey Ray 91 (2) 4. Tom Hessert III (7) 5. Ryan Kaplan 27 (1) 6. Leroy Holler 29L (5) 7. Bill Allen 11m (3)

Kaplan jumped to an early lead from the pole, but soon Ray shot around the high side, taking the point on lap three. Wise, Carter, Ray and Kaplan provided a four-car party for the front. Eventually Wise would use the high side to his advantage and went on to win going away. Hessert was able to grab fourth on the last lap from Kaplan.

Heat four (started, *qualified for feature): 1. Bud Kaeding 38 (3*) 2. Russ Harper 9H (2*) 3. Levi Jones 21 (5*) 4. Kyle Nicholas 29 (1) 5. Andy Martin 21m (7) DNS - Harley Slotten 12 (4), Mallory Armfield 5MA (6)

Hansen shot out and led the first two circuits, but Kaeding used his patented high side to gain a lap three lead and hold it to the finish. Jones followed suit on the high side, but fell .004 of a second from getting by Harper at the finish.

Heat five (started, *qualified for feature): 1. Jay Drake 97 (6*) 2. Ryan Durst 191 (2*) 3. Garett Hood 11H (5) 4. Mike DiBart 23 (7) 5. Joe Ligouri 28 (1) 6. Darren Hagen 71 (3) 7. Michael Lewis 2 (4)

As the field entered turn one under green, Ligouri spun, collecting Hagen and Lewis, who flipped with serious airtime. All were uninjured, but done. Durst grabbed an early lead, but Drake proved to be the class of this field, grabbed a lap three advantage and sailing in a mostly single-file four-car event.

Rain fell just as B main one was getting set to start. The lineups for Sunday at 7 p.m.:

B main one: 1. Hood 2. Hessert 3. Riley 4. Nicholas 5. McDaniel 6. Kaplan 7. Lehmann 8. Holler 9. Boyles 10. DeWitt

B main two: 1. Ray 2. DiBart 3. Loyet 4. Martin 5. Light 6. Adler 7. Hagen 8. Allen 9. Armfield

410s

Skip Jackson (25th car out to time) set the standard in time trials at 15.640 on a dry surface. Kerry Madsen (10th car out) was second quick, followed by Brian Brown (7th), Tim St. Arnold (2nd), Lynton Jeffrey (6th), Billy Alley (13th), Rager Phillips (14th), Calvin Landis (27th), Wayne Johnson (16th) and Dusty Zomer (19th). Tyler Houseman failed to get a time in.

Heat one (started): 1. Jackson 2 (6) 2. Zomer 1z ( 3) 3. Jesse Giannetto D1 (2) 4. Chad Meyer 1w (1) 5. Clint Garner 40 (7) 6. Phillips 9 (4) / 7. Joe Beaver 53 (9) 8. St. Arnold 7w (5) 9. Tony Shilling 47T (8) 10. Robert Bell (10)

Giannetto took the early lead. Jackson had it dialed in on the low side and took the point from the "Bulldogg" on lap three of 8. St. Arnold spun while running seventh on lap four, bringing a caution. The restart saw Jackson leading Giannetto, Meyer, Zomer, Garner and Phillips back to green flag racing. Zomer shot around Meyer and Giannetto when the green flag fell using the cushion to lock down the runner-up spot.

Heat two (started): 1. Madsen 55 (6) 2. Landis 70 (4) 3. Bronson Maeschen 96 (1) 4. Jeffrey 12 (5) 5. Jerrel Slinkard 15s (2) 6. Ricky Logan 5J (3) / 7. Trevor Green 11AU (7) 8. Jerry Richert Jr. 55K (9) 9. Natalie Sather 94s (8) DNS - Tyler Houseman 50

Maeschen grabbed the early lead using the low side. Logan had a rough start and quickly fell out of the top six in the vacationing Larry Ball Jr. machine. Madsen was on a mission, with Landis in tow. Landis battled Maeschen before taking second on the final circuit. Logan also waited until the last lap to capture the final transfer from Green.

Heat three (started): 1. Johnson 10 (4) 2. Matt Moro 47 (1) 3. Brown 21 (6) 4. Kaley Gharst 44G (7) 5. Alley 17G (5) 6. Mike Moore 69 (8) / 7. Ryan Anderson 71R (3) 8. Greg Jones 3J (9) 9. Randy Anderson 81 (2)

Moro grabbed an early lead and held it until a drag race with Johnson coming for the checkers resulted in Johnson snatching victory by .022 seconds. One caution slowed the affair when Ryan and Randy Anderson conflicted in turn four on lap seven. The result was Ra. Anderson leaving on a hook after contacting the wall. Ra. Anderson's misfortune smiled on Moore who grabbed the final transfer.

Rain postponed the remaining events to Sunday at 7 p.m. The lineups:

B main (2 to transfer): 1. St. Arnold 2. Ry. Anderson 3. Ra. Anderson 4. Green 5. Shilling 6. Sather 7. Beaver 8. Richert 9. Jones 10. Bell 11. Houseman

A main: 1. Johnson 2. Landis 3. Phillips 4. Alley 5. Jeffrey 6. Brown 7. Madsen 8. Jackson 9. Zomer 10. Logan 11. Giannetto 12. Slinkard 13. Meyer 14. Maeschen 15. Moro 16. Garner 17. Gharst 18. Moore

Sunday June 4th

Knoxville Raceway

Midget Nationals and 410s

33 Midgets
23 410s

Midgets

B main (started): 1. Darren Hagen 71 (12) 2. Davey Ray 91 (2) 3. Tom Hessert III 5 (3) 4. Brad Loyet 05 (6) 5. Joe Boyles 7B (11) 6. Kyle Nicholas 29 (5) / 7. Daniel Adler 50 (10) 8. Donnie Lehmann 31 (9) 9. Mike Moore 11m (14) 10. Andy Martin 21m (8) 11. Doug DeWitt 11D (13) 12. Ryan Kaplan 27 (7) 13. Garett Hood 11H (1) 14. Mike DiBart 23 (4)

The top six transferred to the A in the 10 lap event. Ray took the early lead. Hagen was slicing through the field and was sixth by the end of lap two. Hagen pulled an ill-fated slider on Hood in turn four in a battle for second the next time around. Hood was done, but would receive a provisional for the main event. Ray led Loyet, Hessert, Hagen and Nicholas back to green flag racing. As the field completed lap three, Hagen shot around Ray using the cushion in turns three and four. He pulled away the rest of the way. DiBart and Kaplan exited early.

Midget Nationals (started): 1. Bud Kaeding 38 (10) 2. Brady Bacon 991 (3) 3. Brad Kuhn 74 (2) 4. Russ Harper 9H (14) 5. Don Droud Jr. 4 (6) 6. Nicholas (24) 7. Jay Drake 97 (7) 8. Ryan Pace 44 (16) 9. Brad Mosen 3 (14) 10. Levi Jones 21 (18) 11. Jerry Coons Jr. 11 (5) 12. Tracy Hines 1 (17) 13. Teddy Beach 125 (11) 14. Boyles (23) 15. Loyet (22) 16. Hagen (19) 17. Bryan Clauson 67 (1) 18. Ray (20) 19. Josh Wise 20 (9) 20. Lehmann (27, pr.) 21. Dave Darland 9 (4) 22. Cole Carter 7 (13) 23. Martin (25, pr.) 24. Hood (26, pr.) 25. Hessert (21) 26. Ryan Durst 191 (15) 27. Johnny Rodriguez 21az (8)

The top five from Friday's "King Doodlebug" feature drew for their spots in the first three rows, and driver introductions followed. Once green, Kuhn was the early leader in the 25 lap event on a dry surface. With rubber developing in turns one and two, it was a fight for the low side there. Kuhn found the fast way in three and four on the cushion and led a battle for second between 16 year olds Clauson and Bacon. Bacon grabbed the spot and was gaining on Kuhn until Hagen spun, bringing a caution on lap 14. The restart saw Kuhn leading Bacon, Darland, Kaeding, Clauson and Wise back to green flag racing. Rodriguez was running 8th when he dropped off the track on lap 14. Durst exited a lap later. Bacon was true to the low groove and moved under Kuhn to complete lap 15. Four laps later, Loyet spun in turn two, slowing the event again. Bacon led Kaeding, Darland, Kuhn, Wise and Carter back to green. One more lap was in the books when Martin got upside down, bringing the night's only red flag. Kaeding had nice restart and made the high groove work in turns three and four, getting around Bacon to lead lap 21. Carter surrendered a top ten run with a flat right rear, pulling off the track. One more caution slowed the event and set up a green, white, checker finish, when Clauson stopped on the white flag lap. Kaeding led Bacon, Darland, Kuhn, Droud and Wise back to green, but Wise suffered a flat and we had to do it again. Kaeding held on in the last restart as Darland dropped out. Nicholas was the hard-charger, moving up to 6th from 24th.

410s

A main (started): 1. Kerry Madsen 55 (7) 2. Wayne Johnson 10 (1) 3. Brian Brown 21 (6) 4. Billy Alley 17G (4) 5. Skip Jackson 2 (8) 6. Ricky Logan 5J (10) 7. Clint Garner 40 (16) 8. Matt Moro 47 (15) 9. Dusty Zomer 1z (5) 10. Bronson Maeschen 96 (14) 11. Trevor Green 11AU (20) 12. Rager Phillips 9 (3) 13. Tim St. Arnold 7w (19) 14. Calvin Landis 70 (2) 15. Jerrel Slinkard 15s (12) 16. Jesse Giannetto D1 (11) 17. Mike Moore 69 (18) 18. Greg Jones 3J (22) 19. Robert Bell 71 (23) 20. Tony Shilling 47T (21) 21. Chad Meyer 1w (13) 22. Lynton Jeffrey 12 (5) DNS - Kaley Gharst 44G

23 cars signed in, so no need for a B main tonight. Landis shot out to a commanding lead using the high-side in the 20 lapper on the dry-slick surface. A battle for second waged with Johnson and Jeffrey duking it out. Disaster struck for Jeffrey on lap nine when he came to a stop while running third. Teh restart saw Landis leading Johnson, Alley, Madsen and Brown. Madsen worked around Alley, who put a mad slider on Brown to hold him off. Giannetto suffered a flat right rear on lap 15 slowing the event again. Landis now led Johnson, Madsen, Alley and Brown. Madsen put a big slider on Johnson to take over second on lap 16. That would prove to be huge, as Landis, who had the race win in hand, blew his left rear tire the next go-around. He would rejoin the field at the tail. Now Madsen led Johnson, Alley, Brown and Jackson back to green flag racing. The only change in that order was a Brown pass of Alley for third. Meyer exited on lap 10, Shilling on lap 17. Garner and Green shared hard-charger honors, moving up nine spots.