KNOXVILLE RACEWAY, Knoxville, IA, May 11, 2013 – Donny Schatz remained dominant claiming victory for the fourth time in the last five spring World of Outlaws shows at Knoxville Raceway. The Fargo, North Dakota native claimed his sixteenth career feature here at the “Sprint Car Capital of the World” in the Mediacom Shootout Saturday night. Craig Dollansky was second, ahead of Brian Brown.
Brown shot into the lead early in a quest for a sweep after winning his heat and the Dash from the second row. Dollansky moved past Tim Kaeding into third on the third circuit and Cody Darrah followed him into the show position on lap five before Brad Sweet brought about a caution with a flat right rear.
Schatz used the restart to his advantage, cruising from outside row three in the double-file alignment to third. On lap nine, Brown stumbled a bit on the cushion, allowing Dollansky by him. Schatz moved into second on lap thirteen, and Kaeding moved into third two laps later. Schatz then made his move to the lead on lap eighteen, before Rager Phillips flipped trying to avoid Kaeding. He was uninjured.
Brown tried to redeem himself shooting into second behind Schatz on the double-file restart, but it was negated with a frontstretch melee involving Lucas Wolfe and Davey Heskin, who got upside down, and Mark Dobmeier and Sammy Swindell. No one was injured.
Schatz led the single-file restart back to green and sailed the last seven laps to the win in the Tony Stewart Racing #15. Brown shot back into third behind Dollansky, while Kaeding exited with a flat left rear while running fourth. Kerry Madsen advanced to fourth ahead of Paul McMahan. Darrah, Daryn Pittman, hard-charger Kyle Larson, who passed a total of 29 cars in the B and A mains, Dusty Zomer and Joey Saldana rounded out the top ten.
Swindell set quick time over the field at 14.699 seconds. Sweet, Chad Kemenah, Brown, Wolfe and Schatz were heat winners, while Brown took the Dash, and Pittman won the B.
“I wish this place was a little closer to my house,” said Schatz in Victory Lane. “The car was awesome. This whole race team…Tony (Stewart) has done a great job assembling this team. It was a tricky track tonight. You had to work for it.”
“Donny has this place wired,” said Dollansky. “We had a good racecar early in the race, and we were able to get through lapped traffic very good. It was a hard fought battle. We’ll just keep working hard at it. We lost to one of the best teams here at Knoxville Raceway.”
Brown was also complimentary of Schatz. “We just weren’t as good as we needed to be in the middle portion of the race. What can you say about Donny? He owns this place. The Nationals goes through him. We’ll work to get better for August. Everyone on our team did a great job.”
Tony Shilling led wire to wire in the 360 class to claim his second career victory in the 360 class. Before a lap could be completed in the 18-lap main event, Jon Agan got upside down, collecting Stacey Alexander. Both were uninjured, but done for the night. Once underway, Shilling led Cole Wood and Clint Garner back to green.
With six laps in the books, Alan Ambers became the second flip victim of the event in turn two. He was unhurt. The restart saw Shilling ahead of Wood, Garner, Matt Moro and Jamie Ball. Shilling remained strong on the cushion and pulled away from Wood. Garner would claim second with six laps to go, while Wood would hand onto third ahead of Moro and a late charging Joe Beaver. Ball, hard-charger Russ Hall, RJ Johnson, Nate Van Haaften and Mike Houseman Jr. completed the top ten.
Ball set quick time on the night, while Houseman, Agan and RJ Johnson claimed the heats.
“I didn’t know what to do. (Wood) showed me the bottom and I thought it was faster. I moved down there, and it kind of went away…so I went back to the cushion and it paid off. I knew (Garner) was a big threat. I just raced my race and prayed for the white flag.”
Saturday, May 18 is McKay/Allied Insurance Night as Knoxville Championship Cup Series action returns. All three sprint car divisions will be in action. For more information, visit www.KnoxvilleRaceway.com!
- Admin Account on May 13, 2013
- Article Date: 5/12/2013 by Bill Wright