Memorial Day Memories
|
Memorial Day can be a somber day of remembering those who died for our freedom. To honor those who gave the ultimate sacrifice at Gettysburg, Omaha Beach, Okinawa, A Shau Valley and Fallujah, among many other places.
For almost 100 years, race fans have honored these heroes by making Memorial Day weekend the biggest racing weekend of the year.
This year, we were unable to make the trip east to the Yard of Bricks, but we did go to the sprint car hallowed ground of Knoxville. It is a great tradition to camp at the North Campground at Knoxville on this weekend.
Many people will spend four days there celebrating by holding baggo tournaments, BBQ’s and watching as much racing as possible. It becomes a colony of friends and family who are more than welcome to share food and drink as well as their TVs and satellites.
Knoxville hosted the 410 ci and 360 ci sprints during Justice Brothers Night on Saturday. Thirty-three 360s and only 20 410s competed for Paul Gillund’s cash.
With only 20 cars in the 410 class, three heats were contested with Prairie City driver Lynton Jeffery winning the second heat and Newton boy Bob Weuve finishing fifth in the third heat.
All 20 cars were qualified for the A-main.
Each week, the fastest qualifier draws for an invert and this week Terry McCarl, returning to his roots from the Outlaw circuit, drew a No. 12. This meant he would start 12th and Josh Schniederman would start on the front row.
After a spin on the first lap, Johnny Herrera made a dramatic move to pass Schniederman for the lead and checked out from the rest of the field. Jeffery looked strong in second but was unable to reel in Herrera. McCarl and Jeffery had a good battle for second with McCarl gaining the No. 2 spot on lap 15.
A late race yellow for Billy Alley put McCarl within reach of Herrera.
On the restart, Herrera took the low side pulling up in front of McCarl, but Terry would not surrender and charged back on the high side. With two laps left, McCarl tried a daring slide job on the low side, but Herrera would not lift, sticking his right rear to the cushion.
It appeared both drivers would land in the laps of the first row of Hall of Fame spectators when Johnny shot out into the lead as McCarl was forced to brake. Herrera led the rest of the way to his second feature win of the season. Weuve, struggling with track conditions, finished 16th.
In the 360 class, four heat races were won by Joe Beaver, Chad Humston, Jon Agan and Prairie City native Nate Mosher. Tom Lenz won the B-main. The A-main saw Bryan Dobesh line up beside last week’s winner Ryan Roberts. Dobesh got the lead for good on lap two and never looked back. Roberts was able to stay close but was never able to make a race of it.
The finish was Dobesh, Roberts, Clint Garner, Johnathan Cornell and Matt Moro. Mosher finished 19th.
Sunday the TVs moved outside as everyone in the campground gathered to watch the Indy 500. While watching it on TV is nowhere the same as being there, it did provide us with the next best thing. It was one of the top 10 best races in my book as four different drivers led. No one had enough for Helio Castroneves though as he captured his third 500 victory.
There has never been a more emotional win at Indy. Helio, along with his entire team, climbed the frontstretch fence. Even Roger Penske was seen running toward the fence before he decided to let the younger folk partake in that. It was only Friday when the final tax evasion charge was dropped against Castroneves and his sister.
Helio had a hard time conducting his post-race interview after breaking down into tears following the traditional gulp of milk. There wasn’t a dry eye to be found as even my wife teared up during the interview.
Last year’s Iowa Corn Indy 250 winner Dan Weldon finished second followed by a steady Danica Patrick. I can’t wait until June.
Twenty-eight pounds of hot wings were demolished while waiting for the Coca-Cola 600 to start Sunday night. Rain forced the race to be held Monday.
That gave us something to watch Monday as we fired up the grills. A big breakfast was served up as we watched rain interfere with the race. The most exciting part of the 600 for us was when our 6-year-old decided to tie our 50 pound chocolate lab pup to a folding table full of chips and potato salad.
The pup, being curious, burnt her nose while sniffing the fire pit and took off in a dead sprint out of the campsite. Chips were flying in the air and the dog — looking like a rodeo bronco dragging the table behind — wiped out the baggo game.
We settled back just in time for the race to be called and David Reutimann was declared the winner.
Next year we’ll make it back to Indy.
