C2CRL Charity Event Recap

by Ryan Senneker
16 Nov 2021
Coast 2 Coast Racing League | Charity Event Finals
Disabled Veterans Charity Event | Knoxville Raceway

Kyle Moonen took the checkered flag at the Coast 2 Coast Racing League’s Disabled Veterans Charity Event at Knoxville Speedway, the culmination of four action packed nights of racing, ahead of Lane Snook and Ross Korynta. Tonight’s excitement involved several series of shorter races including a Veterans Only 20 lap race leading up to the 50 lap feature event to finish out the night. Starting off in 2nd place, Moonen seemed to hold back in the beginning while just holding his position for the first half. Securing the lead on lap 30 from Atkinson, Moonen took advantage of the lap traffic using the opportunity to create a gap between himself and the rest of the field.

To get into the C2CRL Disabled Veterans Charity Event, all drivers had to pay a minimum registration fee with all proceeds being donated to support Disabled American Veterans (dav.org) and Honour House Society (honourhouse.ca). Both charities support our military veterans and their families with a wide range of support programs. The night’s action consisted of several class main events, the top 4 finishers from each race moving up to the next level. The big movers throughout were Joe Canellas and Greg Parmalee who each joined us in the D Main race and made the transfer spots through to the B Main, running those three races one after another. The top 4 from the B Main advanced to the feature, along with the winner from the Veterans Only race. The feature opened with an impressive show of car control from the 27 driver field as they gave the fans and our nations’ heroes a flawless four wide salute in the 360 dirt sprints for a full lap around Knoxville Raceway.

With fuel conservation being a real concern for these drivers over the 50 laps we saw different strategies emerging as some chose to save early and some ran hard to the end. Moonen was confident that he could push it as he explained to us, “I wasn’t too worried about it. I knew at that last caution I had, you know, enough left. I was more worried about Lane [Snook] and the guys behind me, if they had enough, if they were saving up until then, that was kind of the trick of it.” Austin Stern showed us how close the drivers were on fuel as he ran out of fuel coming out of turn 4 around the final lap unfortunately dropping from 3rd to 8th coming across the finish line and giving up that podium finish to Korynta.