Austin McCarl – Momentum For Knoxville!
(Bill W) April 21, 2009 – Park Jefferson Speedway was the right fit for 16 year old Austin McCarl last Friday night. A finish outside the top five in his heat race didn’t deter him, and the night ended with a solid charge through the field in the main event. He’ll strap a 410 into Janet Holbrook’s #17 machine for the first time this weekend, as he practices Friday and competes on Saturday at the Knoxville Raceway!
The 3/8 mile oval just across the Iowa border into South Dakota hosted the Jackson Sprint Touring Series on Friday. Austin liked what he saw. “It was a fun joint,” he says. “It was the perfect size really, and had some bank in it. It was ideal, I guess.”
The high school sophomore finished where he started in the heat (sixth), but it wasn’t because the car wasn’t operating. “I was running fifth the whole race, and then there was a red,” says Austin. “On the restart, I drove a little too straight into the bottom and a guy got me there and we ended up sixth. The car was good all night; I just made that mistake in the heat race.”
The heat result put him outside row one in the B, where he finished second and transferred to the main event. “The car was good in the B,” he says. “(Ryan Anderson) was on the pole and I followed him the whole way. Looking at the positive, I need all the laps I can get, so it was good to run the B. It helped in the A for sure.”
Austin tested out every inch of the track and began to move forward in the feature from outside row nine, despite there being one real groove. “We were moving pretty well,” he says. “I made a few mistakes, but I also did some good things, and we started moving up. The groove was mostly around the bottom, but on the restarts I went to the top to try to make something happen.”
He explained the track conditions in the feature. “It was really slick with no fence. There was a bit of a cushion in one and two, but in three and four, there was nothing. You’d just fall off the racetrack up there.”
In the end, Austin had surged forward nine spots and finished ninth. He explained how he was getting by cars on such a narrow track. “I was coming off of turn four really well, and there was a hole in two that everyone kept hitting. I was kind of driving down next to the infield, and getting through there nice. A lot of the cars were hitting the hole, and I was getting by them there.”
Overall, the night went really well, and Austin should carry some momentum into this weekend. He said, “I was really happy the way the night went, and I’m excited to get going with the 410 this weekend at Knoxville.”
Austin would like to thank Janet Holbrook, Lenard, Kenny, Jimmy, DeBerg Concrete, AmericashAdvance.com, Burnett’s Rock and Landscaping, Phil and Vivian, and Goodyear Tires for all their help!