7/16/2016
Sprint Source
Marion County Fair Blue Ribbon Knoxville Winners Dollansky, Beaver & Logan
Craig Dollansky led the 20-lap distance in sweeping the feature event during the annual Marion County Fair at Knoxville Raceway Saturday night. Joe Beaver found his way to victory lane in the 360 division and Ricky Logan took the 305 feature during HyVee Night at this central Iowa racing facility.
A red flag flew immediately at the beginning of the 410 feature. Dakota Hendrickson became crossed up in turn one forcing Scott Bogucki to strike the turn one fence and end up upside down. Hendrickson and Bogucki were unable to restart.
When the race resumed with a complete restart, Dollansky took charge with Brooke Tatnell in tow. They ran like that through the first seven laps with Dollansky hitting lap traffic before a yellow flew for Jeff Swindell who spun on the bottom of turn two. Dollansky resumed his point position on the restart and at the half-way point he had forged a 100-yard lead.
The big battle behind him and Tatnell was a dandy with RJ Johnson and Davey Heskin. That skirmish would settle itself on lap thirteen when Heskin moved on by. That same lap also saw Dollansky enter lap traffic as the top five runners following him were Tatnell, Heskin, Johnson and Austin McCarl.
With five laps to go Dollansky continued in lap traffic but had driven to a full front chute margin over Tatnell. At the checkered flags Dollanksy picked up is 16th career feature win at this historic track and was $5,000 richer. Tatnell, Heskin, Johnson and McCarl held their spots to complete the top five.
Joe Beaver, who started in the second row of the 360 feature had lady fortune smile upon him as pole sitter Clint Garner dropped from the event and left the door wide open for the Beaver machine to pass right through it. Pole sitter Garner had taken off in a flash when the green flag started the 18-lap feature event. On lap two in turn three Garner’s car suddenly slowed and he tried valiantly to bring it to the pits but a yellow ensued none the less for the John Hall machine which had stopped in turn two up against the fence. He and Garner were unable to restart.
Beaver then restarted in the lead and held that spot throughout the rest of the event. At lap nine and the mid-way point he had headed into lap traffic with Matt Moro, Jamie Ball and Tony Shilling following. He then began pulling away as Moro nearly tagged the wall on lap 14. That enabled Ball to come within striking distance of the Moro machine and one lap later Ball had that runner-up spot.
In the end it was Beaver picking up his 7th career win at this half-mile oval with Ball, Moro, Shilling and Ryan Giles chasing to the finish line.
Ricky Logan utilized his pole position start to lead the 15-lap distance in the 305 feature event. Only one yellow slowed the Little Rock, Arkansas native as he became the 6th driver in race track history to win a feature in all three (410,360, 305) divisions. Trailing at the finish were Devin Kline, Christian Bowman, Corey Kautz and McKenna Haase.
Also on the race card for the night were the DTRA (Dirt Truck Racing Association) dirt trucks. Tony Moro proved to be too much for the field as he led from start to finish in that 12-lap event and claimied his 6th career dirt truck win here. Completing the top five finishers were Brad Comegys, Anthony Moro, Pat Gordin and Larry Webb.
Of note on this evening was the Moro family of Des Moines. For the first time in this track’s history three generations were racing at this facility on the same night. Tony Moro (grandfather racing dirt trucks), Matt Moro (son in 410 & 360 sprints) and Anthony Moro (grandson also in dirt trucks) took competitive laps in racing during the night.