Tea driver wins Knoxville race

A local man won his first sprint car race in Knoxville, Iowa, last month.

Matt Juhl, partner and vice president of production for Tea’s Octane Ink, won his first 410 sprint car race in Knoxville June 17. It was his first win in Knoxville and his first win racing the 410.

“We time in eighth and then we made the invert and made it for heat race. We started on the pole for the feature,” he said. “Then I was able to lead every lap and take the checkered.”

At that race, Juhl said there were 22 racers that came from all over the Midwest and one team that comes to race there in the summer from Australia.

Of his win, Juhl said this race was the biggest he has won.

“At first it was kind of unbelievable. I was super excited once I was able to get in victory lane,” he said. “A win at Knoxville is not easy to do. It’s pretty cool to be my first win in Knoxville.”

Besides racing in Knoxville, he also races in Jackson, Minn. Juhl said he’s usually racing every Friday night in Jackson and Saturday nights in Knoxville during the summer months.

Juhl got his start in racing at nine years old when his dad got him started racing go karts. From there he moved up to outlaw dirt karts in his early teens.

After racing those, he took some time off from racing to go to college where he ran track and cross country.

“I was able to get back into racing sprint cars when I was done with college,” Juhl said.

The Knoxville Raceway is the Sprint Car Capital of the World with more than 200,000 sprint car racing fans visiting the venue every year, it is the third-largest outdoor stadium in Iowa. The Knoxville Raceway hosts races nearly every Saturday night from April-September, view the full schedule at knoxvilleraceway.com/schedule. Knoxville Raceway is located 30 miles southeast of Des Moines in Knoxville, Iowa, at the Marion County Fairgrounds.

Mutt Juhl is pictured at right after his win in Knoxville, Iowa. His sprint car is pictured below.