Mike Knight Tuned Up, Ready To Plunge Into Meat
May 14, 2009 RIPLEY, NY – Mike Knight isn’t thrilled with his early-season performance, but he has a feeling that better days are ahead. Coming off a strong second-place finish in the 25-lap dirt Late Model feature on Sunday night (May 10) at Eriez Speedway in Hammett, Pa., and a valuable day of testing on Monday at Tri-City Speedway in Franklin, Pa., the 22-year-old talent from Ripley, N.Y., is heading into the meat of his 2009 schedule with renewed confidence. “We’ve been struggling to figure out the new Rocket (Chassis) front-end we’re using this year,” said Knight, an up-and-coming racer who campaigns family- owned equipment. “It’s different from what we’re used to, so it’s been tough trying to figure out the right setup. “But I think we’re headed in the right direction now. We changed a lot of stuff for Eriez on Sunday and it worked pretty good, and on Monday we tested our new car (which sports the same front-end design as his reworked older machine) for the first time at Tri-City and we found some things that should help us win some races with it.” Knight has already driven his No. 9k to Victory Lane this season, capturing the April 26 feature at Eriez & May 2 at Stateline Speedway in Busti, Ny. But his other dirt Late Model starts have been frustrating, including all three of his runs on the O’Reilly All-Star Late Model Series. With the new All-Star Circuit of Champions tour serving as his primary focus for 2009, Knight had high hopes of getting off to a fast start. But he finished 17th (after breaking a ball-joint while running sixth) in the series opener on April 17 at Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, Pa., then failed to qualify on April 18 at K-C Raceway in Alma, Ohio, and last Saturday night (May 9) at Winchester (Va.) Speedway. He currently sits eighth in the All-Star points standings. While Knight waited until Lernerville’s All-Star show to kick off his ’09 dirt Late Model season, he actually got in the racing groove two months earlier by driving Jim Clinger’s E-Mod in February’s UMP DIRTcar-sanctioned Alltel DIRTcar Nationals at Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, Fla. He plans to run Clinger’s No. 222 often this season; in fact, he steered the car to a ninth-place finish in his latest start, on Sunday night at Eriez. Knight has two dirt Late Model events on his schedule this weekend. He will make a short drive north on Friday night (May 15) to compete in a $2,000-to-win event at Freedom Raceway in Delevan, N.Y., and he’ll make another visit to Eriez Speedway on Sunday evening (May 17). Knight’s dirt Late Model operation carries sponsorship from Arrowhead Wine Cellars, Mobilia Fruit Farm, Ottawaya’s Auto Body, Knight Farms, Corry Chrysler, Jay’s Auto Wrecking, Jim’s Parts Plus, RJB Construction, Chess a’ Pizza, NYPenn Surveying, TeCulver Contracting, Genesis Shocks, Crager Race Engines, Slavic Custom Racing Shirts, Farr MotorSports, MWB Web Designs and American Racing Tires. More information on Mike Knight will be available soon on his completely redesigned website, www.mikeknight9k.com. The new website is expected to be up-and-running in the next week. For more information on Mike Knight, visit www.mikeknight9k.com. MKR PR.
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