The Big Game Treestands #7 team opened up the month of June on Saturday as they traveled to Michigan for their lone visit of 2012 in ‘The Great Lakes State’ at I-96 Speedway to sling dirt at the newly reconfigured 3/8-mile track located outside Lake Odessa for the NAPA Rumble.
After Mother Nature delayed the start of the program, the night got off to a great start for Dollansky as he muscled the Aggressive Hydraulics Maxim to the 2nd fastest time in qualifying at 12.148 seconds among the 26 cars. Lining up outside row two for heat competition, ‘The Crowd Pleaser’ maintained 4th in the 8-lap heat to earn a spot in the dash. An inversion of four put the Eaton’s Aeroquip Performance Products #7 inside row two and finished 3rd.
In the 35-lap A-Main the MobileStar backed sprinter lined up inside row two. When the green flag dropped on the main event Dollansky quickly powered into second as the field reached turn 1. As leader David Gravel began working lapped traffic, ‘The Crowd Pleaser’ narrowed the gap until lap 10 when he used the highside of the speedway to rocket around Gravel and assume the top spot. As the feature continued, the Elk River, Minnesota native put some space between himself and the field until a red flag just after the halfway point. With 17 circuits remaining, Dollansky used a great restart as he again opened up the lead and effectively working through traffic as the laps wound down powering to the checkered flag.
"We weren’t too bad starting the night qualifying well, got through the heat race, had a decent dash, and made some adjustments come feature time,” commented the pilot of the #7 who leads the series with 120 laps led. “Once we got into the lead I felt like we had a good line going and ran at a good pace and were patient with lapped cars. This was a great effort by DJ, Luke, and our entire race team. It’s always a team effort any time you win. From Big Game Treestands, Aggressive Hydraulics, MobileStar, Aeroquip, and many others theirs a lot of people it takes to make things happen so it’s a great night for them as well.”
The triumph in Michigan moves Dollansky into 4th in the World of Outlaws championship standings, 71 points out of 1st, as well as tying teammate Sammy Swindell for series wins this season as the Big Game Treestands drivers lead the way with four victories each.
Be sure to check out the CDR website for photos of Saturday’s victory along with the newest June wallpaper.
Craig, DJ, and Luke now travel to Indiana where action continues on Tuesday at Kokomo Speedway.
Photo courtesy of T.J. Buffenbarger
- Craig Dollansky Racing on Jun 03, 2012
- Article Date: 6/3/2012 by Reid VanEck - CDR Public Relations