The old saying that, "the third time is the charm" seemed to hold true as this past Tuesday night, the Harris Clash was able to be held. There were 78 cars on hand to try their luck at taking home the trophy. It was unfortunate that weather had played a hand in the return of many of the 120 original entries, but it was certainly a stellar field that did compete. There were eight heat races which qualified the top two, and 4 B-Mains which qualified the top three, making for a 28 car starting field for the A-Main.
Some drivers had their night end early. The 92 of Jeff Stephens was leading heat two, when on the white flag lap, he would go up in smoke. Earlier in the heat, Kelly Shryock would lose his motor. Both drivers were done for the night. It was noted that all heats were run without one caution.
After the eight winners of the heat redrew, as did all of the second place finishers, it was Josh Gilman pulling out the #1 pill to start on the pole along side Billy Davis, Jr. On lap two, with Jay Noteboom leading from starting third, two separate incidents in turns one and two, would leave only 21 cars able to restart the contest. When racing resumed, it would be Jay Noteboom and Jeremy Mills leading the field. Those two would pester each other for most of the race. Mills would take the lead for a few laps, but Noteboom regained the point. Meanwhile, the car to be watching was the 7C of Nate Caruth. He was making tremendous headway as he charged into third position from starting far back in the starting field. Also coming through traffic from starting in the 16th position, was the 5 of Todd Shute as he found himself in seventh position with about 10 laps to go. Right behind him was the 7 of Al Hejna who had been in the pits after the early skirmish, tagged the field and made an amazing charge through traffic.
With six laps to go, Caruth had been able to pass Mills and as the laps wound down, he was catching leader Noteboom. Laps would run out for Caruth however, as Jay Noteboom would take the win. Young Nate Caruth would have to be content with the runner-up spot, third was Jeremy Mills, Michael Long kept his car toward the front the whole evening, to take fourth, Todd Shute was fifth and Hejna finished in sixth.
Our thanks and appreciation goes out to Bob Harris for once again putting this show on for the fans and drivers. It is one that we always call a "must see" in our book.
More complete results can be found at http://www.imca.com/ as well as http://www.knoxvilleraceway.com/. The season is winding down, but there are still many weekly track races as well as specials in our area. Try and get out to a race near you. Happy racing!
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