Aussies racing at the 62nd Knoxville Nationals

The 62nd Knoxville Nationals are set to get underway tomorrow in Iowa, and 10 Aussies are having a crack at “The Granddaddy Of ‘Em All” from August 9-12.

It’s a huge four days the half-mile (0.8km) Knoxville Raceway, also known as the Sprint Car Capital of the World, where the A-Main winner of Saturday’s big one will take home $185,000 USD, whilst the total four day purse is worth $1,159,005 USD.

10 Aussies will be taking on the 62nd Knoxville Nationals, with no racer from down under having ever taken out.

It was going to be 11 Aussies taking to the Wednesday and Thursday qualifiers, heats and Mains, but at the last minute, Queensland’s Cody Maroske has split with his 101 team, citing that, “This was my personal decision, and came about due to a difference in opinions between myself and the team owner.”

With Wednesday and Thursday split into two fields, the Aussie challengers on Wednesday include Lynton Jeffrey (NSW), Scott Bogucki (SA), Brooke Tatnell (NSW), Kerry Madsen (NSW), and James McFadden (NT) … Maroske was to run on Wednesday, as well as taking on the rookie of the year award.

McFadden took a victory lane shoey at the Southern Iowa Speedway the other night. Image: Richard Hathaway

Aussies taking on the field on Thursday will include Ian Madsen (NSW), Jamie Veal (VIC), Lachlan McHugh (QLD), Rusty Hickman (VIC), and Trent Pigdon (WA) … Pigdon will be the Aussie competing for the Rookie prize.

McFadden heads in hot after taking out a win in the Front Row Challenge at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa, whilst at the same event Hickman came undone in a huge crash in the B-Main and will head into Knoxville after having built another car.

McHugh will be hoping to cap off his American campaign with a strong showing in the nationals

Veteran Kerry Madsen heads into Knoxville as the winningest Aussie at the track in a career that has captured 26 features at the famed Raceway, with his win on May 27 of this year helping him surpass two-time track champion Skip Jackson for that honour.

Scott Bogucki also had a crash in Oskaloosa in the A-Main, and after a controversial disqualification surrounding the mandated cylinder heads on his car at the 360 Knoxville event 5 days ago, he’ll be raring to show some speed, whislt the 2023 Victorian champion Jamie Veal will hope to carry his good national form to carry into Knoxville.

Bogucki heads back to Knoxville with a point to prove this week

HOW THE FOUR DAYS PLAY OUT

WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY: QUALIFYING NIGHTS

Order of Events: Hot laps, Qualifications, 5 Heats, C Main, B Main, 25 lap A Main.

Qualifications – 200 points are awarded for quick timer, 198 for second quick, 196 for third, etc.

Only the top 50 qualifiers each night make the heats, the rest are put in the last chance heats if needed in which the first eight finishers will fill the back of that night’s C feature (starting in the sixth row).  If there are ten or less cars not making the heats, they will line straight up by time starting in the sixth row.  The quickest will be given 50 points, the next 47, etc.

Last Chance Heats (for drivers out of the top 50 in Qual.) – 50 points awarded to the winner, 47 for 2nd, etc.

Heats – 100 points are awarded for the heat race winner, points go down by three for each position: 97, 94, 91, 88, etc.

Heats are inverted by 8. This sets up the best racing of the

week. Only the top four finishers go to A Main, fifth through eighth go to the B Main, finishing positions 9-10 go to the C Main.

C Main

 Top four finishers go to the back of the B. Fifth place is worth 92 pts., 6th is 90, etc.

B Main

The top four finishers transfer to the tail of the A. The B awards 142 points for fifth, 140 for sixth and so on by twos.

A Main

The A Main points are the same as time trials: 200, 198, 196 etc. This explains how a driver can not make the A, but if he timed well may have more points than someone who did make the A.  The invert for the A Main is eight.

First tie breaker is the finish position in the respective main event. Next tie breaker is ranked in the time trial. The third tie breaker is the second time trial lap. Other tie breaking criteria may be implemented if needed.

A perfect score (quick time, heat win, feature win) is 500.

The top 16 in combined points from Wednesday and Thursday are locked in to Saturday’s Championship A Main, Teams 17th-26th in points are awarded the first 10 positions in the Saturday B Main. The rest of the field comes back for more racing on Friday.

FRIDAY: “HARD KNOX” QUALIFYING NIGHT

The top 4 finishers from the Hard Knox A-Main will earn the 21-24 starting spots in Saturday’s A Main. Friday’s event will consist of split field qualifying, 6 heats (invert 4), C Main, two B Main’s and the Hard Knox 25 lap A Main. 

*The Friday format may change if there are any weather related scheduling issues.

CHAMPIONSHIP SATURDAY: KNOXVILLE NATIONALS

E Main, 10 Laps

D Main, 12 Laps

C Main, 15 Laps

B Main, 22 Laps

A Main, 50 Laps

The top four finishers of the B, C, D, and E Mains will transfer to the tail of the next event (if there are scratches, there may be more taken for a particular event). The top four finishers from the B Main will earn starting spots 17-20 in the A Main.

NSW veteran Kerry Madsen become the most winningest Aussie ever at the Knoxville Raceway last May with his 26th feature win at the Iowa track.

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