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Mark Dobmeier – Primed for Knoxville!

Mark Dobmeier and the Jimco Racing/Polaris #13 team are primed for Knoxville Raceway in Iowa as August rolls in. The team picked up quick time and the feature win July 15, and they’ll return for this Sunday’s “Cappy Classic” as well as next week’s 57th Annual Knoxville Nationals. In addition, the Grand Forks, North Dakota driver has a good lead in the Jackson Motorplex point standings in Minnesota. Last Friday, he finished third in the Barb Wieskus Classic there.

Mark’s starts at Knoxville have been limited this season, but they’ve been good. “We had only raced at Knoxville once this year,” he says. “We wanted to get back one more time before the Nationals. We came out and had quick time, which I believe is the first time we’d done that there.”

After finishing fourth in his heat, he started the main event outside row one beside Terry McCarl. “The first start I got a good start, but Terry laid back, looking for a restart,” says Mark. “He got that. The second and third, he actually got the better of me, but the fourth one was the one that counted, and we beat him off the line a little bit.”

From there, Mark would lead every lap and claim a half beef during the Marion County Fair. “We were able to keep it up front,” he says. “The car was working really well, and has this year on the bigger tracks, especially. In the end, we got to kiss the cow. We’re going to pick up the beef after the Nationals.”

The team is confident heading into this weekend. “We feel like we’ve had good speed at Knoxville,” says Mark. “Our long track program has come leaps and bounds compared to previous years. Racing at Jackson every week helps us out a little bit. This week, we’re freshening up the car. We have some fresh parts and a fresh body. We’ll bring it down for the ‘Cappy Classic’ Sunday and next Thursday for the Nationals.”

Last Friday, Mark also felt the car was running well at Jackson. “We were fifth quick in qualifying,” he says. “We felt like we had a strong car. In the heat, we started fifth and rolled up to second. We were able to pick a few guys off on the bottom.”

He lined up outside row three in the feature. “Jackson can be a tough track to pass on,” says Mark. “It was fast on top, and there just wasn’t enough on the bottom to make it work. It was kind of one-lane around the top. But Brian Brown and Ian Madsen were in front of us, and I got lucky enough that they were racing each other pretty hard on the first lap. They were cutting each other off and it slowed both of them down. We were able to sneak by them and get into third.”

Mark would settle for the last podium spot in the end. “The car felt great, but when I would get to Dusty Zomer in second, we battled the dirty air thing,” he says. “It’s like you have a whole different car in that situation. We settled in to finish third there, and we’re still leading the points there, so everything is good.”

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