PETERSEN MEDIA- Ashton Torgerson had a very solid showing during his rookie attempt at the Knoxville Nationals. In the end, the Glendale, AZ runner ended his week finishing ninth in the Saturday night ‘B’ Main.

“Overall, it was a great first Nationals and I came up just short on the Saturday night ‘A’ on two different occasions,” Ashton Torgerson said. “It undoubtedly the toughest field of the year and for me to be in the hunt for qualifying for the feature was huge, and I learned a lot a very tricky track.”

Hitting the track for his preliminary night back on Wednesday night, Torgerson got his week off to quick start as he timed in ninth fastest, which is huge for points with the Nationals format.

Lining up seventh in his heat race, the Glendale, AZ runner needed to race into the Top-4 to lock into the opening night feature, but he came up just short as he ran fifth and was forced into the ‘B’.

Unable to race in out of the ‘B’, Torgerson’s 12^th place finish forced him to run Friday’s Hard Knox program to set much of Saturday’s feature line ups.

Getting off to an even better start on Friday night, Torgerson earned fast time honors in his qualifying flight which put him in the second row of his heat race.

Getting a great jump in his heat, Torgerson raced into second which safely put him in a transfer. Holding the spot, the youngster was locked into the Hard Knox feature event and was awarded the pole with his qualifying efforts factored in.

Leading the field to green with four lock in spots to the Saturday feature up for grabs, Torgerson slipped to second as the field charged into the first set of turns.

Holding down second for the first nine circuits, Torgerson fell back to fourth on a lap-10 restart. Holding on to the final transfer into the Knoxville Nationals finale, another restart on the 16^th lap saw the youngster fall out of the Top-5 as he ran in sixth.

Falling as far back as seventh, he showed grit as he raced back into fifth in the closing laps, before ultimately settling for sixth at the finish, which put him in the ‘B’ on Saturday.

Taking the green from 12^th in Saturday’s ‘B’ Torgerson again needed to get into the Top-4 to make the coveted Knoxville Nationals feature event.

On a very racy track, he was able to work his way forward as a spirited battle for the final transfer spots broke out. Though he was unable to get one of the godlen ticket’s, Torgerson capped a solid week off with a  ninth place effort in the ‘B’.

“It was a great starting point, and I definitely learned each time I hit the track and that will help for years to come,’ he said. “Thanks to everyone at Shark Racing for all of their hard work and really helping me get comfortable.”

BY THE NUMBERS: Starts-53, Wins- 3, Top 5’s-10, Top 10’s-17

ON TAP: Ashton Torgerson and the Shark Racing team will be back in action on Saturday night at Port Royal Speedway.

STAY CONNECTED: Stay connected with Torgerson Racing on Facebook, and @TorgersonRacing on Twitter.

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