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– BRANDON, S.D. (Aug. 15) – It was slow motion and then everything sped up.
That’s the best way Austen Wheatley can describe his horrific crash last Wednesday during his qualifying night at the 51st annual Knoxville Nationals at Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, Iowa. It was such a nasty wreck, even Speed TV featured it.
Wheatley was racing Chad Kemenah for the final transfer position during a heat race when Kemenah’s rear axel broke as he entered turn three. As Kemenah spun out and slid up the track, Wheatley had nowhere to go and slammed into the stalled car.
“It was kind of slow motion,” the Lake Stevens, Wash., native said. “I saw it break and I saw a gap between the fence and him, but it closed up in a hurry. Going 130 miles per hour, gaps don’t stay very long.”
The impact destroyed Wheatley’s car and sidelined him for the rest of the night. He was checked out by the paramedics and the only damage was bruised knees. His car was another story.
“It was destroyed,” the 18-year-old said. “We saved the seat, tail tank, power steering box and a couple of hoses. It hurt the engine and everything. Basically, it was a $50,000 crash.”
The crash also hurt Wheatley in the points at the Knoxville Nationals, where every race and every position adds up. He was relegated to start 14th in a semi-feature on Friday, which gave the team enough time to get the backup car ready for action.
Wheatley drove to sixth in the semi-feature, earning a transfer to the feature after passing eight cars.
“I think every time I hit the track we were better and better,” he said. “Having to run that qualifier wasn’t really a bad thing. That gave us some extra track time.”
Wheatley finished 16th in the feature, which put him sixth in the D Main for Saturday’s feature night at the Knoxville Nationals. With the top two cars transferring to the back of the C Main, Wheatley quickly rocketed to third place. He eventually fell back to fourth in the closing laps of the competitive race.
However, the runner-up was disqualified for not going to the scales and one of the C Main cars had to scratch after a hot-laps crash, allowing Wheatley to advance to the next feature. He started last – 22nd – and finished 14th to cap his Knoxville Nationals.
“The C Main was probably the best I have ever felt at Knoxville,” he said. “We passed cars and we had good speed.
“Overall, the weekend was good and bad. We destroyed a car, but I think it was good because I’ve never been great at Knoxville and I feel like we were decent at the end.”
He wrapped up the weekend on Sunday at Huset’s Speedway in Brandon, S.D., with the All Star Circuit of Champions.
Wheatley qualified 20th and finished seventh in his heat race, which was one spot out of automatically advancing to the feature. However, he placed third in the B Main to transfer and start 20th in the main event.
“We struggled early,” he said. “I didn’t have enough side bite when the track was slick.
“The longer we went, the faster I got and the more cars I passed.”
That played out in the feature as well. Wheatley fell to last in the opening laps before utilizing the shaky cushion to his advantage. About halfway through the 30-lap feature, Wheatley began to rocket through the field. He climbed into the top 15 with approximately eight laps remaining before the track took rubber in the top groove.
“When it rubbered down at the end, it kind of handicapped us because everyone went to that line,” he said.
Wheatley passed a trio of cars at the end and finished 12th, which was his 11th top-15 finish of the season.
He will compete with the All Stars on Wednesday at Red River Valley Speedway in Fargo, N.D. Wheatley will then race with the World of Outlaws on Friday at River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, N.D., and Saturday at Huset’s Speedway.
QUICK RESULTS –
Aug. 10 – Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, Iowa – Qualifying: 35; Heat race: 8 (2); B Main: DNS (17).
Aug. 12 – Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, Iowa – Semi-feature: 6 (14); Feature: 16 (11).
Aug. 13 – Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, Iowa – D Main: 3 (6); C Main: 14 (22).
Aug. 14 – Huset’s Speedway in Brandon, S.D. – Qualifying: 20; Heat race: 7 (7); B Main: 3 (3); Feature: 12 (20).
SEASON STATS –
34 races, 20 features, 0 wins, 1 top five, 5 top 10s, 11 top 15s, 15 top 20s
UP NEXT –
Wednesday at Red River Valley Speedway in Fargo, N.D., with the All Star Circuit of Champions, and Friday at River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, N.D., and Saturday at Huset’s Speedway in Brandon, S.D., with the World of Outlaws
FAVORITE NUMBER –
11: Cars passed in the D and C Mains at the Knoxville Nationals at Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, Iowa, last Saturday.
SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS –
Website: www.austenwheatley.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/MiniWheats44w
ON THE AIR –
Click on the link below for video of Wheatley’s bad crash on his qualifying night at the Knoxville Nationals on the Dirt Report on Speed TV:
http://www.speedtv.com//video/newest/dirt-weekend-update-august-14-2011-1110509367001/1#_vtop
Here is another link to the wreck from the Knoxville Raceway network and High Vista Video Productions:
APPAREL –
Wheatley has gray and white t-shirts, gray sweatshirts, and charcoal gray hats and beanies for sale. For more information, visit www.austenwheatley.com.
SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT – Advanced Racing Suspensions
Located in Indianapolis, Advanced Racing Suspensions manufacturers shocks for sprint cars, micro sprints, mini sprints, midgets and other types of race cars. For more information, visit www.advancedracing.net.
“We’ve used Advanced Racing Suspensions for our shocks ever since I was in the 600cc micro sprints,” Wheatley said. “We knew they were really good shocks so we’ve continued to use them in sprint cars and couldn’t be more happy.”
Wheatley would like to thank his sponsors, including Wolfweld, The Oil Medics, SpeedMart, Fire-Down Graphics, Astro Titanium, DMI, Brown & Miller Racing Solutions, Goodyear and Redlined Welding & Construction for their continued support.