The Lucas Oil Knoxville Late Model Nationals opener was held on Thursday night at the famed, Knoxville Raceway (Knoxville, Iowa) where 72 entries converged on the 1/2 mile oval for the $7,000-to-win event.
Austin started his night by qualifying 13th fastest in his group, and with the top eight qualifiers in each heat race inverted, he started in the 4th position. He went on to race to a 3rd place finish in his heat race to lock into the 11th starting spot for the 25 lap, preliminary feature. He raced into the top ten early in the feature before a hole was discovered in the radiator during an early race red flag. As a result he retired to a 19th place finish.
Friday night would see another $7,000-to-win event contested, and it would prove to be a night of challenges for Hubbard. Qualifying resulted in Austin starting 4th in his heat race, but he slipped to a 6th place finish, which relegated him to a b-main. B-main action found Hubbard starting deep in the grid, and ultimately retiring near the race's midway point after failing to advance any positions as his night came to an early end.
For the final leg of the event on Saturday night Austin started 6th in the B-main. He would run in a transfer spot for much of the race before slipping to a7th place finish in the closing laps, which unfortunately left him one spot short of transfering to the featue as his weekend came to a disappointing, early end.
Full results from the event are available at www.LucasDirt.com. |