By Bill W
May 10, 2012 – It was another solid Saturday night at the Knoxville Raceway for 17 year old Carson McCarl. The Rookie in the 360 class rebounded from a tough late restart to finish seventh in the main event, while coming out after two nights of racing in second place in the point standings. The Altoona, Iowa driver will be back in the saddle this Saturday night at Knoxville.
Opening night saw Carson emerge with the points lead, and take it into the races on Saturday. “We were going in as the point leader, and I was pretty confident in the car,” he says. “We started the car and it wasn’t really sounding right. Something went wrong with the spark plugs.”
The issue continued into time trials, where he would qualify tenth in the field of twenty-five. “We qualified terrible,” says Carson. “They ended up pulling a six (for the feature inversion), so we knew we were going to have to be starting back a bit.”
Starting third in the heat, Carson made a strong run against some stout competition. “We got up to second,” he says. “Our heat was tough. We had Clint Garner, Jon Agan and Jason Johnson in our heat, so I was happy about being second. We got the motor back running.”
Carson would start inside row five for the feature. “We were going really well,” he says. “We were passing some cars, and I got up to seventh. The yellow came out with about six to go, and I went for a gutsy move on the restart that didn’t work out. The guy in front of me slipped a tire on the restart, so I went for the slide job. I got in the middle and knew it wasn’t going to work, so I was stuck in the middle.”
Several cars had to be passed again for Carson to wind up back in seventh. “Jamie Ball, Tony Shilling and a couple other guys got by me there,” he says. “I lost about four spots on that, but I was able to get back up to seventh. It was another solid run, and we are still doing well with the points, so I’m happy about that. We were faster than seventh, but with the mistake, that’s where we ended up.”
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Carson would like to thank Deanfield Farms (Gary and Sally Dean), AmeriCashAdvance.com, Vortex, Rossie Feed & Grain, Hoosier, DeBerg Concrete, HRP, Engler Machine, Phil and Vivian, Eagle Motorsports, Rider Racing Engines, Van Der Brink Designs, Justice Brothers-Gillund Enterprises, Country Builders Construction, CM Rock, Hinchman Racewear, Schoenfeld Headers, BMRS, Crow Safety, Butlerbuilt, KSE, Aurora Rod Ends, Chris Spaulding – Attorney at Law, K&N Filters, Sander, Bell and Jocko’s for all their help!
Carson McCarl Altoona, IA _MG_9803