Hoseheads Sprint Car Photos & News

The 54th season of weekly racing is now history at the Sprint Car
Capitol of the World. Along with fantastic racing and good times, there
were also plenty of story lines to follow this year at he Knoxville
Raceway. Following are some random thoughts to recap this season.

Rookie drivers in the 360 division were particularly good this year. Not
only did Bryan Dobesh miss out on the track championship by seven
points, but Gregg Bakker, Ryan Roberts and Russ Hall also posted strong
season finishes. In addition, Dustin Selvage, no longer a true rookie,
but still a young driver, had an impressive season, posting his first
win on the final night. And Natalie Sather, the young lady from North
Dakota, earned tremendous improvement in her driving ability by
frequenting the hallowed half-mile of dirt.

In the 410 division, rookie Mark Dobmeier was also impressive and Davey
Heskin and Jack Dover showed potential. But the rookie crop took a hit
when Dustin Lindquist chose to walk away from what promised to be a
stellar career and Jon Corbin failed to show up on a regular basis.

Two perennial 410 favorites made comebacks this year much to the delight
of the fans. Iowa native Dennis Moore Jr., who spent a few years racing
in California, returned in the 17G, then parted ways with the team
before Nationals. He returned to sub for 360 pilot Joe Beaver late in
the year. Iowa transplant Travis Cram jumped into the 17G when Moore
left, put the car in the Nationals A-Main and left the
season-championship crowd breathless with an unbelievable threading of
the needle between two lapped cars.

Brian Brown and Josh Higday set their own fates on opening night back in
April when they won the features. Ironically, both repeated wins on May
19. The pair went on to be crowned champions in their respective
divisions. For Brown, it was vengeance from his five-point failure last
season and he wrapped up the title a week early just to be sure. The
championship drama was all Higday on the final night when he blew a
motor in hot laps, had to race a different car from the back of all
events and nearly got beat by Dobesh.

Dobesh's first Knoxville win was literally a gift. He missed out on the
post-race festivities but took the notch by his name when pseudo
first-time winner Josh Schneiderman was found to have illegal parts on
fair night.

Matt Moro's season back in a 360 started off on a tentative note, with a
bone-jarring series of flips down the frontstretch on opening night and
then a flip in hot laps the next week. He recovered nicely with a
third-place points finish and a couple of feature wins though.

Rager Phillips also pulled a double disaster, going for a nasty ride
down the frontstretch on twin-features night and then dumping his mount
again the next week.

Randy Anderson and Bronson Maeschen have established themselves as the
kings of fast time trials.

Kaley Gharst was the benefactor of race leaders crashing in two
different divisions in three nights.

Gary Wright showed he is still king of 360 racing after he won his
B-Main on qualifying night at the 360 Nationals and came through the
field to finish second in the A.

Trish Dover nearly got one for the girls when she made her 305 debut
early in the season before a flat tire deflated her lead.

Low car counts, disappointing ticket sales, unprecedented track
reworking and one-lap time trials should also be noted this year and
pondered before next season comes around.

As always, twin-features night turns the tide for the season at
Knoxville Raceway. It's the night that can make or break a season in a
heartbeat. This summer's version saw the mysterious absence of
three-time track champion Jake Peters, who had been on track for a
fourth title. He never would return this season, amid speculation that
he was hurting from an early season wreck at another track. The night
also saw Higday miss the transfer to the twin features, causing many to
believe Jeff Mitrisin would come out the big winner in the points.
However, he vacated the Wares 360 to drive the Sonner 410 late in the
year.

Twin-features night also appeared to be the one where motor troubles
began to plague the low-budget 360 team of nice guy Tom Lenz. By the end
of the season and after several dramatic blow-ups, a few of which came
while he led races, he had teamed up with equally nice guy Larry Weeks
and his famous “double nuthin'” ride.

Violent accidents, unfortunately, still go hand in hand with sprint-car
racing. The year's worst was probably the one belonging to Pete Crall,
who sat out a month and a half with a broken leg. It was a tough break
for the talented pilot, but good to have him back to finish out the
year. The year's weirdest belonged to Mike Deavers, who somehow landed
his mount straight up on its tail just under the flagstand on
championship night.

“Ill-fated slide jobs” are also nothing new to sprint-car racing, but
this year seemed to include way too many. And more than one such
incident could not be classified as a slide job attempt at all. The
world watched as Brian Brown put the “Higginsville sandwich” on Randy
Martin as he led the feature on opening night of the 360 Nationals and
sent him on a vicious ride with the fence. Brownie quickly became the
villain, but his fate was apparently lost on a few others. On the
penultimate night of racing, John Schulz pulled an exact replica of that
maneuver and John Hall was the unfortunate victim in the 360s, while
Wayne Johnson put the move on Jack Dover in the 410s. It's a disturbing
trend and it has to stop.

Speaking of John Hall, this was the season of resurgence for the 1988
360 rookie of the year and 20-year Knoxville veteran from my side of the
state. It was an unexpected but happy surprise to see him start the year
on a strong note, including a heat-race win over powerhouse Johnny
Anderson by a 0.021 margin on Outlaw night. A setback at 360 Nationals,
when Hall lost a feature transfer to Dobesh by about that much, started
the downward trend. He was running fifth in the second to last feature
of the year when Schulz nailed him to the fence, destroyed all hope of a
top-10 point finish and set up a long winter of rebuilding the
low-budget team.

Highlights of this year for this track official included meeting NASCAR
driver and road-race specialist Boris Said on opening night, helping
track historian Bob Wilson lay out the Nationals program and hosting the
“Women in Sprint Car Racing” forum for the National Sprint Car Hall of
Fame and Museum during Nationals. As always, I don't know where I would
be without my race-night family to share both good and bad times in
laughter, tears, debates and silliness. Thanks to Kris, Roger, Big Al,
Cappy and Marilyn, Bruce and Karen, Lisa, Bob, Rob, Dave, Kristi and
Nyle, Tony, Justin, Arleta, Maridel, Lori and Troy for another happy
year.

e-mail Stacy here

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