I spent Thursday and Friday nights at two of the best dirt tracks in the country: Knoxville Raceway and Marshalltown Speedway. Knoxville is most famous for its sprint car racing, and as host to the annual Knoxville Nationals. Marshalltown is an up-and-coming 1/4 mile clay track, which hosts the annual Stock Car Shootout and Havoc on the High Banks. Both tracks featured IMCA races this past week.
The view from the Knoxville Grandstands overlooks the pit area and the Naitonal Sprint Car Hall of Fame & Museum. 121 Modifieds signed in to win the Harris Clash, with an additional 62 Sport Mods vying for their title.
Here the modifieds line up for hot laps. The modifieds were split into 12 heat races with only the winner transferring to the A Main.
Modifieds slide through Turn One. Note how clearly the groove and cushions are visible. And this was just hot laps! The non-qualifiers ran B Mains, where the top 3 cars advanced to the A Main.
Flagman Doug Clark flies the checkers.
Alas, I didn't get to see the end of the race because it was rained out! Fortunately, I had already planned my Friday night racing fix, as some of the out of state teams were headed to Marshalltown.
Here, a "Racing Rascal" helps flagman Ryan Bergeson wave the checkers at the end of a heat race. The "Rascals" get to help announce, score and flag one heat, plus meet their favorite racer and have their picture taken in victory lane.
Marshalltown runs five classes of car each week: Dwarf cars, Sport Mods, Modifieds, Stock Cars and Hobby Stocks. Here Austin Lucas collects his trophy for winning the Sport Mod race. Prior to this win, only Kevin Sather (the IMCA National Sport Mod points leader) and Luke Wanniger (Nationally 2nd in points) had won this year in the division at Marshalltown.
Jeff Wollem collects his second Stock Car trophy in as many weeks. Wollem is President of the Fair Board, which oversees the Speedway. Both Knoxville and Marshalltown tracks sit on the County Fairgrounds. Thus, the promoters must also navigate the political scene by keeping their Fair Boards happy!
Capping off the night was the Modified race. Various businesses and individuals added money to the purse, and by the end of the night over $1250 went to the winner. Jimmy Gustin, the local hero, managed to slide past Joey Schaefer with a handful of laps to go to capture the pot. In victory lane, Gustin exclaimed, "I guess the party is on me tonight!"
All in all, it was a fun time. I attempted to get in a Saturday night race, but we were rained out again (after hot laps, naturally!).
IG,
Knoxville is awesome and getting 121 modifieds there is a testament to a great facility and program. I'm 60 and still love playing in the dirt on a 1/4 mile banked clay track most Friday nites. You still coming to Indiana this summer?
HoosierRacer13
IG,
That should be an awesome midget race at Anderson Saturday nite before the Brickyard. 400 laps on the fastest 1/4 mile high banked asphalt track in the world and, of course, including pit stops. That's a great track and home of the Little 500 sprint car race prior to the Indy 500. Enjoy.
DW - I didn't know it was on until a friend mentioned he was working in the pits at the race! So that cleared up what I would be doing Saturday night. I think it will be a great race - most of the USAC teams should be there, plus a few out of Wisconsin as their sanctioning body is supporting it too.
I.G. great pics. Luv Knoxville. Hey if you are going to Anderson Ind. Goto the Haul of fame. My grandfather Harold Wirtjes is listed there as an owner. You are going to love latemodels at Eldora. First time I was there this year for Prelude and Dream was awsome....Hope to see ya at the races...
IG - You did a fine job of capturing the fun of the dirt track races on the weekend. Hope you enjoy the races this coming Saturday nite...and looking forward to meeting you at Indy on Sunday.
Noah - Glad you had a great time. You need to bring your little flagman to Marshalltown sometime. He'd enjoy it. At Boone there is usually a line-up of about 3-10 little flagmen who stand down by the front stretch and helf flag the race. He'd fit right in.
