I have found the Harris Clash as a must see event in the past years and this year was no difference so i decide to make the 60 mile trek from Marshalltown to the famous Knoxville Raceway on the Marion County Fairgrounds in Knoxville for the 20th Annual Harris Clash.
This night of the Harris Clash would have only the IMCA Modifieds as the IMCA Late Models and IMCA Sport Mods will run theirs on Tuesday July 26th. There would be 74 IMCA Modified drivers signed in from Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado and Canada to do battle on the 1/2 mile.
The only major in the heats and b-features was when Luke Wanninger would roll on the back stretch, Wanninger would climb from the car okay.
After 6 heats and 3 b-features helped get the best 30 cars for the feature it was time for the 30 lap feature. The interesting format for the feature as they would run 15 laps then have a 5 minute pit stop break and then run the final 15 laps.
Kenny Schrader and Randy Havlik would redraw the front row for the feature but before a lap could be completed the caution would fly for Levi Nielsen getting into the wall. That caution would force a complete restart and when it got going it was 2nd row starter Michael Long taking the race lead and really never looking back.
The second race caution came out on lap 9 when Josh Foster came to a rest on the back stretch. On the restart LOng would have Havlik and Schrader right behind him but again Long would pull away.
The next caution would be the halfway caution for the 5 minute pit stop and as soon as the line-up was correct, the crews would have 5 minutes to do work on the car. After the pit stop the race would resume and Long would get a great restart again but the caution flew again on lap 17 for debris on the race track and for Jimmy Gustin getting in the turn 3 wall.
On the restart and before the field could complete another lap the caution would come out as Fred Schimmels would lose the handle in turn 1.
Long would still be able to pull away but then 3 more cautions came out on lap 22, first for Joel Bushore and Kellen Chadwic getting together, 2nd one for John Allen in turn 4 and then for Jay Noteboom coming to a stop in turn 1 after something broke in the rear end of the car.
Long would have Schrader, Mark Elliott and Eric Dailey right there. Dailey started 17th in the feature. Long would get an excellent restart and go on and lead the final 8 laps and Dailey would get by Elliott and Schrader but didn't have enough laps to chase down Long.
This is where it gets interesting, Long would cross the line in first but he would come across the scales 20 lbs too light, he was giving 3 chances to make the weight across the scale but failed to do so so that handed the win over to Eric Dailey would moved up 16 spots in the feature.
After Dailey was credited the win, Jordan Grabouski took 2nd, Kenny Schrader was 3rd, Mike Van Genderen was 4th and Todd Shute took 5th.
My only problem all night was the track was a little rough so hopefully the track will be in better shape in 2 weeks for the Late Models and Sport Mods Harris Clash.
Thanks to Bob Harris, Knoxville Raceway, Tim Stevens Racing and all the wonderful drivers for such great hospitality. Tammy from Tim Stevens Racing thanks for the wonderful supper.
Reminder to attend Marshalltown Speedway this friday as the IMCA Modifieds will be racing for $500 to win and don't forget Sunday at the Benton County Speedway its the Hogan Memorial for the IMCA Modifieds with at least $1,250 to win!
For complete racing results check out http://www.imca.com/ or http://www.knoxvilleraceway.com/ or http://www.harrisclash.com/. For Pictures from the night be sure to check out http://www.moto.photoreflect.com/ or http://www.zippsphotos.com/
