BY: WFO_ICE
KNOXVILLE, IOWA (October 8, 2012) - The Team VLR Dirt Late Model series pulled into the well-known Knoxville Speedway where thirty-five drivers would take a shot at becoming the Knoxville Nationals Champion!
With a stout field A2d would continue his dominance at VLR by winning the "Snickers" Pole Award with a fast time of 13.385 seconds thanks to a faster TRT because Wheel (BLS_18) would run the exact same time. Doit 10 qualified 3rd after posting a 13.385913 followed by VLR_McGee and JSN who both ran a 13.40. And if the close qualifying times were any indication, the racing would be great tonight.
-Heat one kicked off with Ice leading the field for the 1st six laps until A2d found the way around on the bottom and JSN would follow suit and both advancing to the Knoxville Nationals A-Main.
-Wheel would move from 4th to 1st to win heat two with last week's winner Brad bringing home the second and final transfer position.
-Faschek would prove that he is going to be a forced to reckon with a VLR this season by winning heat three. JR would outduel Dirty for the 2nd transfer spot.
-In heat 4 Shock started on the pole and never relinquished the spot by winning the heat after qualifying a dissapointing 16th. Doit 42 beat Doit 5 for the final transfer spot from the heats.
The C-Mains would take only the winners to the B. Travis was able to hold off a charging Mav to win C Main by just over two car lengths. Ranger found victory lane in C Main 2 to get the only transfer spot to the B-Main from his C Main.
In the B-Main only 2 drivers would advance to the Knoxville Nationals A-Main and Ice was determined he would be one of them leading by all 15 laps. Doit 10 moved from 3rd to 2nd getting by Kevin for what appeared to be the final transfer spot. However after the B-Main was ran, the decision was made to let the 3rd place finisher in the B-Main to transfer after California driver IFRT_JR was unable to run so Kevin jumped at the chance to start shotgun on the field.
Ten drivers and 8,000HP lined up for their shot at winning the Knoxville Nationals! A2d and Wheel led the field to the green. A2d was able to get the jump on the start and would immediately start running the bottom groove while defending Knoxville Nationals winner BLS_18 seemed content to run behind him on the topside allowing A2d to pull him around the track. By lap four they had started to break away from the field. JSN and Faschek started racing hard for the 3rd spot while Brad, Shock, and Ice were in a heated battle for 5th.
Back up front Wheel still seemed content riding the top groove and let A2d lead the way as they continued to pull away from the field. On lap 11 Ice would make a strong move under Brad for 5th after starting ninth. However, Ice was unable to keep his car glued to the bottom and would slide up into Brad almost spinning him out which allowed Dirty to move up into the 6th spot.
Still up front it was more of the same as A2d continued to run the bottom and Wheel was right on his bumper running the top. Although the top 2 seemed content where they were after 15 laps the battle for 3rd was fierce as JSN and Faschek continued to swap the position virtually every lap. With all this battling Shock and Brad had worked together to get 5th and 6th away from Ice and was quickly running Faschek and Jason down. By lap 19 it had gone from a 2 car battle for 3rd to a 5 car battle with JSN, Faschek, Brad, Shock, and Ice.
Lap 22 would see some contact as Shock would get under Faschek moving him up the track and out of the 4th spot and again on lap 24 Faschek was moved off the bottom groove as Brad was unable to check up and all but spun Faschek going into turn 1 sending Faschek all the way back to 7th. A frustrated Faschek would then run a little to hot into turn 3 clipping Ice's nose thus allowing Shock and Brad to drive away.
On lap 26 Wheel finally ran out of patience and made a move for the lead. He was able to get under A2D and take the lead on lap 27 but A2D stayed strong on the outside and moved back to the lead on lap 28. Over the final 22 laps the lead would officially change hands thirteen times. With ten laps to go there were battles for position all over the track.
A2d and Wheel wer fighting for 1st. JSN, Shock, and Brad for third. Ice and Faschek for 6th. Dirty, D42, and Kevin for 8th. As the laps wound down it was obvious it was going to be more of a chess match than a race and that boded well for Wheel because he is the defending state high school chess champion in Wisconsin. Talk about a nerd.
On the last lap Wheel was able to get to the inside of A2d through turns 1 and 2 then was able to move up in front and block him coming out of turn 4 and would go on to claim the 2012 Knoxville Nationals with A2d coming home 2nd, nearly side by side with 18 for the lead, and JSN able to hang in there for 3rd.
Shock drove home 4th and VLR teammate Brad recorded another solid top five after falling back in the field early. Ice was able to finish 6th just ahead of rival Faschek who come home 7th. D42 came back and got 8th while Dirty and Kevin finished 9th and 10th respectfully.
Catching up with Wheel after the race he was clearly excited. "I was so patient in the beginning that after about half way I had to do some racing. A2d is a fierce competitor and ran me so clean. This track was great with 2 grooves that put on a hell of a show for the fans."
A2d was also happy with the race. "This track was awesome. I just knew that someone was going to come in and make it a battle but I guess Wheel and I just kept driving away. I've never been so mad about such a light hit before, but I really wanted and thought I could win this one."
Next week VLR travels to Tennessee to run the Scorcher 60 at Volunteer Speedway in Bulls Gap, Tennessee. VLR_Shock is guaranteeing a win at one of his local tracks or he will have Faschek to donate $2,000 to the VLR website and lick a goats ass.