Knudtson Gets First Win of 2005

[tqj3]

Release: May 2, 2005

 

Boerne's Knudtson Gets First Win of 2005, Moves Viking Racing Camaro to Second in Sportsman Title Chase at San Antonio Speedway

 

San Antonio – Eric Knudtson thinks finishing in the top three is a bad night for the Viking Racing Chevrolet Camaro unless he is first on the list. So he figures Saturday night's run at San Antonio Speedway, racing from seventh on the grid to grab the lead on a restart halfway through the race, then holding off the field on two more restarts to win by nearly the length of the front straight was a pretty good night. That gives the Boerne driver three top three finishes in the three points races so far this season and moves him into second place in Sportsman points.

 

It would have been a perfect night if he could have taken the Viking Chevy Monte Carlo to the win in the "Spring Fling 75" late model race, but that turned into a crashfest with two red flags and Knudtson finished 12th even though he wasn't involved in any of the wrecks.

 

"I haven't driven the late model for a couple of years," he said after the race, "and we're concentrating on winning the Sportsman championship this year with the Camaro, so I'll only run four or five late model races. We started at the back of the 18-car field and spun once early in the race because we haven't got the setup right, and I was trying to go as fast as possible.

 

"It was a rough night all around. I had damage to the rear of the Camaro before we ever got the green flag in the Sportsman race." (Even the Road Runner class winner commented on the rough driving after that race.)

 

Knudtson's two straight third-place finishes to start the season were due to a push in the car that the team found in the two-week break after the April 9 race and a couple of other tweaks they made last week, and Eric says they have at least one more change they want to make before next weekend.

 

He came into Saturday night trailing Tater Mason by ten points and Greg Rohmer by seven, but Mason had a bad night and Rohmer finished second behind Knudtson, so the Viking Gunite-sponsored Knudtson moves into second place six points behind new leader Rohmer and five ahead of Mason in third.

 

"It's really too early to worry about points," Eric says, "but we expected a three-driver race for the title and that's the way it's shaping up. We'll be back out there next week."

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T. Q. Jones P. O. Box 91346 Austin, TX 78709-1346

PH: (512) 261-5236 Email: tqj@mindspring.com

[Definitive]

He talked the talk...then walked the walk...way to go Eric.

[tqj3]

TD-

That's not the half of it. He's been walking the walk since the first of the season. Believe me, it wasn't because Eric wasn't driving his tail off. As Tavo Hellmund says, he's been "heroing" the car around the track since the American Classified 25, but this weekend it was almost there and Eric did the rest.