Hoseheads Sprint Car Photos & News

Well the 47th Annual Knoxville Nationals is now in the books. Congratulations go out once again to Donny Schatz after winning his 2nd straight title at sprint car racings biggest event, proving that he is without a doubt the #1 winged sprint car driver in the country. The big announcement at this years nationals was that the Donny Schatz race team will be joining with Tony Stewart Motorsports for the 2008 season, giving TMS a two car team in the World of Outlaw ranks. Schatz will team with current TMS driver Paul McMahan. Paul has shown the ability to be a consistent force, and with Schatz joining, Stewart will have his best shot of getting another WoO title next season. This should prove to be a very potent sprint car team.

Arriving the Saturday before the Nationals, the plan was for a little relaxation prior to the busy week of racing that would lie ahead. Monday night I was pretty much talked into attending the Front Row Challenge which is held in Oskaloosa Iowa and promoted by T-Mac Productions. For those that have never attended this event, the format is qualifications, heat races, a dash and the B and A main events. You can usually expect several of the big names to appear. If you can get yourself the pole for the main event through your qualifying races you are then given the option to start at the rear for 50K to win, or remain up front for 5K to win. Since I have been attending this event, I have only seen this feat done 1 time, and that was by Jac Haudenschild. I can’t quote the exact year off the top of my head, but that is what has kept me coming back. In recent years however, I have found this race to be rather boring, and they try to promote it as a big party which tends to make the program too long. Let me be clear, that this is only my opinion and every year after saying to myself that I am not going, I end up in the truck anyway and make my way there. I am after all, a sprint car junkie. But I do vow, that after this years turn of events, I will not be attending The Front Row Challenge again. After rains fell all afternoon at the campground, and numerous calls made to the track, I was told we were going racing that evening.

While making the turn towards the track at around 7:30pm I could still see at least a dozen or so haulers that still had not been checked in. So at this point, there was no hurry and we purchased our tickets and returned to the truck for some tailgating with our new friends from down under. As the haulers never moved from the street over the course of 2 hours, I was told that the pits were a total mess and the ones that were in the pits were stuck there so the rest would be pitting from the street. It is now at least 10 pm and a car has still not hit the track. Thank God we had a full cooler with our favorite beverages. After another hour, it was decided to head back to the campground. Returning to the ticket booth to try and get the $100 back that we had vested in tickets we were told that they will be running the race and refused to give us the refund. At this time, amazingly there were people in line still waiting to buy tickets. Mine could have been sold by the track right away upon my reimbursement. Needless to say, I was not happy with T-Mac productions as I cut my losses and returned to the campground. This was around 11PM and they still had not timed a car. Later I heard that they did in fact run the show, although only 27 sprinters stayed. NASCAR star Kasey Kahne was there to run as advertised, but decided to leave also. So, as I mentioned earlier, I will not be attending the Front Row Challenge in the future. I don’t think I am alone, as I was witness to many fans that were more disgruntled then myself. I keep checking my mail box everyday for a thank you note for my $100 donation to T-Mac Productions, but it still hasn’t arrived. Any day now I guess.

The following night at Oskaloosa would be what is fast becoming my favorite event of the week. I’m speaking of the 30K to win Non Wing Challenge. The weather looked good all day, although the temperatures were sweltering in the mid to upper 90s we arrived at the track and once again commenced to tailgating. I no sooner was mixing my 1st crown and coke when all of a sudden it quickly looked like it was 10 PM and the rains started. Just my luck, as there were 47 of the best non-wing drivers checked into the pits and this had promised to be a great night of non-wing action. This was the kind of rain that forced a cancellation right away. So it was back to the camp ground and into the camper to sit out more rain.

At last Wednesday and the 1st night of the 47th annual Knoxville Nationals would be scheduled to kick off. At the campground all day the rain was off and on. Listening to the radio, the time was moved back to a 9PM start. As we moved into the late afternoon the start time would be moved to 10PM. Another hour or so and the opening night was canceled and the Wednesday night show would be moved to Friday night. So far the weather 3, myself 0.

The Thursday night show went off as scheduled with 50 cars taking time. Quick time went to TMS driver Paul McMahan with a 14.8 on the historic half mile. A surprise 2nd quick was Stevie Smith in the RAACE sponsored sprinter. Stevie has been running a limited schedule this season and was very quick at this years Nationals. The A main was won by Jeff Shepard driving the 1Z car followed by Brook Tatnell. An impressive Wayne Johnson was 3rd followed by Saldana and McMahan rounding out the top 5. Steve Kinser was 6th just one spot out of the top 5.

On Friday night the Wednesday night field would take to the track. 55 cars were slated to time with Tim Shaffer in the #6 Casey’s general store sprinter setting fast time with a 15 flat. Jason Martin would clock in at 2nd with a 15.1. One of my favorites, posse driver Fred Rahmer flipped in hot laps and had to scratch from this year’s event. Danny Lasoski was able to start the A-main from the pole due to the qualifying night invert of 8 cars. Lasoski got off to a great start and pretty much checked out from the rest of the field. A hard charging Schatz was coming on at the end but never really had the chance to contend with Lasoski. 3rd went to an impressive Jason Solwold followed by Chad Kemenah and Jason Sides rounding out the top 5.

Due to the weather, the format was changed, and the non-qualifiers show which is usually slated for Friday night would be contested on Saturday afternoon under sunny skies and 97 degree heat. Not being a big fan of day time sprint car shows I chose to stay out at the campground and listen to the show on the radio. With the top 50 cars in points from the previous two nights already locked into Saturday night, this show is held to round out the last 10 spots for the C-main, the D and E-mains for Saturday night’s finals. Taking the A-main on the afternoon show was Kerry Madsen in the Selma Shell 11H followed by Jonathan Allard, Brock Mayes, Jac Haudenschild and Jason Meyers rounding out the top 5. This gives you an idea of how tough the Knoxville Nationals can be. These top 5 drivers you would not have predicted going in, would be running a non-qualifiers show. The points system makes it very difficult, and you also need a little luck.

Track officials began digging up the surface at the conclusion of the Saturday day show to prep the track for later on in the evening for sprint car racings biggest event. Kudos goes out to the Knoxville staff as they had a good surface for racing later on that evening. This isn’t the 1st time they have had to do this, and experience pays off in these situations. Scheduled to go on television live that evening they were under the gun and once again came through.

Saturday night started out with the E-Main. The top 2 would get to tag the back of the D. Chris Schmeizie of Victoria BC Canada took the win followed by Matt Wasmund of Jackson Minnesota. In the D-Main it was Ryan Farrell of Perth, Western Australia taking the win. In 2nd and also transferring to the C was Travis Rilat from Forney Texas. In the C-main Lance Dewease from Fayetteville Pennsylvania took the win with World of Outlaw regular Justin Henderson of Sioux Falls South Dakota also grabbing a transfer spot.

Next up would be what usually is one of the best races of the week during the Nationals. The B-main. With 4 transferring into the A this race usually provides plenty of excitement. With 7K on the line just to start the final, this usually provides plenty of excitement. Randy Hannagan of Pittsboro Indiana led all 22 laps to claim the victory. Behind him there was plenty of excitement as Shane Stewart drove to a 2nd place finish. Behind him was 10th starting Brian Brown, and the final transfer spot went to Tim Keading from San Jose California, who started in the 8th position. I was happy to see Tim grab that last transfer spot as I find him to be one of the more exciting drivers to watch.

The A main event was all Donny Schatz. At the start McMahan took the lead but going into turn 3 on lap 1 Schatz executed a text book slide job and would have the lead at the flag stand. A red would fall right after that as Travis Cram spun in turn 1 and collected Keading who flipped hard in turn 1. The restart once again saw Schatz make it clear to everyone that he was not going to lose. McCarl put a slide job on McMahan for 2nd and just when Schatz was entering lapped traffic another yellow flew. On the restart McCarl tried to pull off a daring slide job on Schatz in turns 1 and 2 taking Schatz all the way up to the fence. Never lifting Schatz once again pulled away. Jason Martin then got upside down bringing out another red. The next restart saw McCarl try the same move but this time Schatz was ready and began to pull away. As the race wore on it appeared that McCarl used up his tire as he was passed by Saldana and later by Dollansky. Late in the race McCarl took 3rd back from Dollansky to put himself on the podium. The hard charger award went to Knoxville regular Brian Brown who finished an impressive 13th after transferring from the B.

If I was to grade this years Knoxville Nationals I would have to give it a C. It had some good moments but I didn’t witness the passing that usually comes with this event. I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that the leaders were never in lapped traffic enough as the yellows always seemed to fall at the wrong time for us fans. Sprint car fans know that winged racing begins when the leaders start darting in and out of lapped traffic. Just personal opinion, but I just didn’t see enough of the close racing that usually comes with the qualifying night shows.

One rumor that was traveling around this year was that Knoxville could possibly be looking to cut back their weekly 410 division shows. I hope this rumor does not surface to be fact. Knoxville has always had one of the best weekly shows in the country with their 410 and 360 divisions. Its probably one of, if not the only track where you can see a weekly show and not sit through a support class such as modifieds or street stocks etc… I was told that west of the Mississippi there are now only 5 tracks that are running a weekly 410 show. Don’t get me wrong, I like the 360 class also, but I would hate to see it get to the point where the only time you see winged 410s is if the WoO comes to town. Is it possible that this is the future of our sport? More on that later.

One more thing, if you have not picked up the book Lone Wolf, the story of Doug Wolfgang, penned by Dave Argabright you should. A very good read as is all of Dave’s stuff. It’s great to hear Doug tell his story in his own words. When asked who my favorite sprint car driver of all time is, the answer is hands down Doug Wolfgang. It’s a book that every fan of this sport should own, with the foreword written by Steve Kinser. That’s all for this month. Feedback, facts and comments are always welcome at rnett1@hotmail.com