Chris Knopp will admit he has an addiction.
And he is living proof that once racing is in the blood, it never
leaves.
Knopp also realizes what his budget is and adjusts his racing
program accordingly.
Once a 410 Sprint car feature winner, Knopp is now strapping behind
the wheel of a 358 late model and is unbeaten after his first
weekend of racing.
Knopp won last Saturday night’s season opener at Susquehanna
Speedway Park.
“I told my guys everybody’s fired, I’m selling out, I'm going out
on top,” Knopp joked with his crew following his big SSP feature
win. “Winning felt pretty damn good I will say. It’s been a long
time-since 2003 since we won a race. We had some good finishes in
the sprint but it seemed each year, things just got worse. So it was
nice to get back to the winner’s circle.”
After fielding his own 410 Sprint car for about ten years, Knopp
said he wasn’t having much fun anymore and knew he needed to go a
different direction if he wanted to stay on the racing circuit.
“I didn’t want to quit racing but I knew I couldn’t afford to field
a 410 sprint out of my on pocket competitively,” said Knopp, who
resides in Fawn Grove. “I was beat before I got to the track and I
wasn’t interested in racing just to say I raced a sprint car so
that’s why I went this direction. I put this deal together and I can
afford to do it.”
Knopp drew a good starting position for the opener at SSP and was
able to stay out front and take the checkered flag. But not after an
event that seemed as if it took hours to finish.
“We were going down the backstretch on the last lap and I was like
“I’m gonna win this thing” and then the caution came out,” said
Knopp, 40. “I was like man, we were so close. But there were so many
cautions and it took a long time to finish. But we held on and it
was a great feeling.”
Knopp thought about going the 358 Sprint car route but Friday night
racing is nearly impossible for him, thus the reason he decided on
the 358 late model division.
“With my business (Harford County Transmissions), it’s hard to race
on Friday night because I usually don’t even get out of work until
at least 7pm so the 358 sprint deal really wouldn’t work out at
Trail-Way or Williams Grove,” he said. “And Lincoln only races about
12 or so times and I wanted to race more than that so we will race
the full season at Susquehanna and then venture out to some late
season bigger races.”
Knopp said he feels a lot less pressure in the late model deal as
well.
“I love sprint car racing but I’m 40 years old and nobody’s gonna
give me a ride, I know that much,” he said. “There are too many good
kids out there. Plus I think there’s a lot of pressure in sprint car
racing to perform well because of the amount of quality drivers,
good car owners, sponsors, and for what it costs to do, it was a
pressure cooker for me. This is much more laid back and I’m having a
blast doing it. And I’m learning because I don’t know a thing about
it. It’s definitely a different animal.”
Knopp will return to SSP this weekend looking to make it back to
back checkered flags.
WHATS HAPPENING
Friday night will be the final handicapped 410 Sprint car event at
Williams Grove Speedway until May 21. The 358 Sprints join in on the
action Friday. Beginning next weekend at the Grove, time trials will
be in affect for the next four weeks.
Williams Grove is back Saturday with the Saturday Night Series
featuring the Super Sportsman, 358 late models, and the 305 Sprint
cars.
The 305 Sprints and 358 late models join the micro sprints Friday
at Path Valley Speedway while the 358 Sprints and thundercars are
back in action at Trail-Way Speedway. Trail-Way returns Saturday
night with micro sprint racing.
Lincoln Speedway switches to 7pm racing this weekend with 410
Sprints, 358 Sprints and thundercars while Port Royal returns with a
regular program headlined by the 410 Sprints.
Susquehanna returns with its second week of stock car racing
Saturday night while it’s a regular show of 358 Sprints and stock
cars at Selinsgrove Speedway. Hagerstown Speedway is also back
Saturday with a regular show headlined by late models.
The URC Sprint tour stops at Delaware International this weekend
while the WoO Sprints are in action Friday at Paducah International
Speedway and Saturday at I-55 Speedway while the WoO Late models
head to Virginia Motor Speedway for a two night show.
PIT STOPS
Don Kreitz, Jr. won Sunday night’s 410 Sprint feature at SSP over
Tyler Walker, Greg Hodnett, Lance Dewease and Fred Rahmer. Kreitz
was using Hoosier Tires…
Jason Meyers won his fourth World of Outlaws Sprint car feature
last weekend at Tri State Speedway over Lucas Wolfe, Kraig Kinser,
Brad Sweet and Paul McMahan…
Byron Reed picked up the All Star Sprint car win in that Attica
Raceway Park Spring Nationals over Dale Blaney, Tim Shaffer, Danny
Smith and Rob Chaney…
According to the Port Royal Speedway press release, track officials
were walking the track Sunday picking rocks in an attempt to further
improve the new racing surface. Why does this seem like a weekly
event at the track? Supposedly the track’s new clay was sifted and
tested out as great clay, so why all the rock problems all of a
sudden?…
