OneDirt

“The invaders are here,” Tall Tom said, smiling, pushing a couple of papers toward me. My thoughts first went toward the news, wondering if I had missed something. Like who the invaders were. Another country? If so, who? Did that wacky North Korean dictator finally totally lose it? Or maybe aliens had landed? And, it being one day until Independence Day, I couldn’t help but hope that Will Smith and Randy Quaid were in the stands. Jeff Goldblum too. And then I remembered, weren’t the Invaders a late 60’s early 70’s pop band? Like Paul Revere and the Raiders? Or another group like that, wearing pastel uniforms, long hair, singing soft, sweet, songs about love?

He saw the puzzlement on my face. “Invaders, not Outlaws. Guys that don’t regularly race here, trying to get some track time in before Nationals. Every little bit of time here helps, and we’re just going to be seeing more of them every week leading up to Nationals. It’s great!”

California's Justyn Cox

Tall Tom pointed out several “invaders” on the print-out of who was racing Saturday night. Mathew Reed, out of Scoresby, Australia, Jamie Veal from Warmambool, Australia, Keith Bloom from Anderson, California, and sixteen year old Justyn Cox, from Clarksburg, California. Tall Tom wandered away, smile on his face, while I started studying the papers he had given me. I spent the rest of the night of fine racing watching how our invaders did, knowing that it wasn’t so much about how they did tonight that mattered, but what they could learn before Nationals.

Now to the races. Mark Doebmeier won in the 410 class, while Chad Humston and John Agan in the 360 Twin Feature took home the money.

John Agan

In an amazing moment of racing Doebmeier took the lead on a lap four restart, first passing leader Davey Heskin, while both Doebmeier and Heskin were being passed down low by current point leader Brian Brown. Doebmeier then went low and passed Brown on turn three. Just prior to the halfway point of the 20 point race Doebmeier’s lead was being cut as he was wading into lapped traffic and Brown was closing when out comes a yellow flag for a stopped car.

“Darn!” said Big Bob beside me, swinging his arm and snapping his fingers. “Just as it was getting interesting!”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“A moment ago it was a race through lapped traffic. Now all of the traffic is going to be behind them with the restart. Two totally different races…”

I nodded agreement with sufficient authority that he might think that I had known that all along, and we went back to watching racing.

Ricky Logan with a fan.

Not much change in the order of things until a spun out car in the 16th lap tightened things up. It tightened up again as Doebmeier was heading for the checkered flag and a yellow came out. Then the 20 lap feature became a 21 lap feature, as this final lap had to be redone. Doebmeier held on to the lead, but Brown wasn’t going to hold on to second. In turn two Wayne Johnson slid past Brown at the bottom of the track, while Terry McCarl, back from an arm injury, passed them both. On turn one of the final lap Johnson was able to pass McCarl to regain second. The final order was Doebmeier, Johnson, McCarl, Don Droud, Jr., Brown, Dusty Zomer, Skip Jackson, Ricky Logan, Lynton Jeffrey and Ian Madsen.

This race had some amazing passing. McCarl, for example, came from 16th to finish third, and almost had second. One guy near me seethed as McCarl made pass after pass. He had earlier voiced his disapproval of the McCarl family over his cell phone. By this time of the night I had wandered over to the second floor of the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame and Museum to watch, and listen to this fellow (not on purpose though!). Earlier in the evening, something happened in the infield where Austin McCarl was ready for his time trial, but somehow he didn’t get onto the track. The announcer noted that it was a track mistake, and young Austin was allowed to take his time trial alone. This big sixty-ish fellow didn’t it this at all, and was loudly informing whoever was listening on the other end of his distress. He yelled, with one ear to his cell phone, and a finger in his other ear, “I GUESS IF YOUR NAME IS MCCARL AND YOU ARE FROM ALTOONA YOU GET YOUR OWN RULES!” And on and on. Most of us around him were acting nonchalant about it just like we are accustomed to bigger older fellows with beet-red faces in t-shirts and shorts with tattoos on their calves screaming on the phone with a finger in their ear as a regular event.

RJ Johnson's #71

When I wasn’t wondering why he had a finger in his ear, I looked around for an emergency defibrillator, a little worried that he was going to have a heart attack. Recognizing that I probably couldn’t figure it out if I found it, and that the EMT’s with the raceway were actually only as far away as the center of the track, I relaxed a bit. After the man had calmed down and before the main events started, the announcer let us know that Terry McCarl had been penalized for a “tire infraction.” I thought about going and informing him that it appeared that the McCarl family had been subjected to the same set of rules as everyone else, but he was clapping exuberantly at the announcement, but I paused to watch. For some reason he was clapping with his hands over his head, drawing everyone’s attention. It worked, because most of us turned to watch. I took a couple of steps toward him to engage him in conversation about the matter, but quickly thought better of it. I reasoned that if he didn’t see that his first assertion about special rules for McCarls didn’t fit in with the McCarl penalty, it was likely not wise to point it out. Besides, I was still worried about his imminent coronary, and didn’t want to unnecessarily rile him.

Over the course of the rest of the races, I noticed that the big red-faced man only cheered for people from outside of Iowa. Which is fine, of course. We all cheer for whomever we wish. It’s just nice that this gentleman comes to Knoxville and enjoys the racing and contributes to the local economy. I think that he also patronizes our fine local tattoo artist, as I noticed that the tattoo on his calf matches exactly a tattoo a young lady of my acquaintance has. She’s from Knoxville and is young enough to be his granddaughter. I didn’t point that out either.

Chad Humeston

In the first of the 360 Twin Features, Chad Humsten led the entire way despite three yellow flags. Point leader Clint Garner took second, followed by Dustin Selvage, Josh Higday, and Matt Moro in fifteen laps. In an amazing run, Garner hasn’t been out of the top ten finishers in two years.

In the second 360 feature, Jon Agan led the entire way. A red flag flew at lap eight when Brett Mather hit the wall in turn two, bounced, and inadvertently hooked Josh Higday, who ended up going to the back in the restart. Following Agan past the finish line were Tony Schilling, Nate Van Haaften, Johnny Anderson, and Wayne Johnson. It may have been in this dustup that a complete tire flew up and hit the window in front of me. It sailed through the air and hit the window, flapping like a beached 40 pound black carp before it fell to earth two stories below.

Justyn Cox gets pushed off.

I’ll admit that during this race I was pulling for one of the “invaders,” 16 year old Justyn Cox from California. Mrs. K had told me before the races that he was one to watch, and since she always knows what is going on, I stopped to speak with him in the pits before hot laps started. He came out to greet me with a smile. I’d read up a little on him, enough to know that he has been racing since he was four years old. He was as excited as he could be, so pleased that he could now race at Knoxville because he had turned sixteen years old. Unlike many racers, he only had a couple of people helping him with his car. This was his first time at Knoxville, he said. When we parted I wished him luck, and he told me “See you at the 360 Nationals!”

Justyn did well in his heat event, and just as the cars were rolling off the track, I googled his website, saw he was on Facebook, and I quickly pushed the “like” Justyn Cox button. And there I saw it, his result was already posted on Facebook, and he wasn’t even off the track yet! Maybe someone should tell him that as of this July 1, teens can’t text or post to Facebook via their phones while driving in Iowa! What will they think of next? “Tweeting” during a race?

The rest of the night he did great, first in just making the main event, and then in finishing 14th. To my mind, however, he did much better than that. During the race, he rose as high as fifth, and was looking to move up when a tight cluster of cars came together between turns two and three. I was watching his red number 5 closely, and cringed when he became surrounded on all sides by other cars, and in the middle of a three abreast formation. To my eye there wasn’t a concessions stand pickle slice worth of room between him and the cars on each side. Rather than press, he backed off, and I was glad he did. If I had thought of it, I would have wiped my brow in relief.

He backed way down to 14th, and unless he had mechanical problems, it didn’t look like he needed to. He showed great presence of mind here, knowing he should learn the track well before pressing too hard. Which is, as I thought watching the Independence Day Fireworks after the races were over, something we all need to remember about life in general.

That’s all until next Saturday Night, when I’ll see you in the beer line…

Dr. Bob Leonard

Bob Leonard’s radio interview with Mario Andretti was recognized as best feature in the sports category in 2009 by the Iowa Broadcast News Association. He is the author of Yellow Cab.