Tag: Chico

Schatz takes Night 1 of the Gold Cup Race of Champions

[media-credit name=”Tony Stewart Racing” align=”alignright” width=”210″][/media-credit]CHICO, Calif. – Sept. 6, 2012 – Well, that just shook up the points.

A pair of drivers in contention for the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series championship took a major hit on Thursday while a four-time champion survived a treacherous track on the opening night of the 59^th annual Gold Cup Race of Champions at Silver Dollar Speedway.

Donny Schatz slid by polesitter Kyle Larson exiting turn two on lap 20 en route to his eighth World of Outlaws victory of the season. The win, combined with some misfortune to a couple of fellow championship contenders, moved Schatz into the points lead for the first time in the last 21 races.

“It was fun,” he said. “(Larson) was really good on the top and we had a decent car on the bottom. It just was really tricky to run. It took me five or six laps to figure out how to drive it. It was a fun race and I’m glad to come out on the good side of it.”

Two drivers in search of that same title found bitter results.

Craig Dollansky, who entered the event with the points lead after 16 consecutive top-10 finishes, spun out after contact during a restart on lap 17. Dollansky, who had restarted eighth, headed to the work area to have everything checked out only to be left there. Since the race was past the halfway point, he didn’t get the guaranteed two minutes.

Dollansky later returned after a caution, but raced two laps down and finished 20^th. He is 12 points behind Schatz in the championship chase.

Sammy Swindell, who entered the event third in points, was set to capitalize on Dollansky’s bad luck. Swindell ran in the top three for most of the feature until a last-lap miscue stopped him on the frontstretch – only a handful of feet from crossing the finish line.

While Swindell was chasing down Larson in traffic for the runner-up position, Swindell dove to the bottom in the final turn. It appeared that he clipped the infield tire, which knocked his car up the track and into the frontstretch wall. He could only watch as all of the remaining cars on the lead lap drove by. Swindell was credited with an 18^th-place finish, which dropped him to 74 points behind Schatz in the championship battle.

In front of the tough luck was a great clash between Schatz and Larson, who traded slide jobs at least a half dozen times.

Larson led the first 10 laps before Schatz took the lead exiting turn four on lap 11. The duo slid each other in nearly every end of the track for two laps with Schatz having the advantage at the finish line before Larson held onto the lead on lap 13.

After the sixth – and final – caution of the race came on lap 20 when Kerry Madsen stopped on the frontstretch, Schatz got the opportunity he needed. On the lap after the restart, Larson got into the demanding cushion and Schatz slid off the bottom in turn two just in front of Larson.

Larson nearly jumped the cushion the ensuing two laps, which let Swindell close to within a couple of car lengths. Schatz entered traffic on lap 29, allowing Larson and Swindell to rapidly gain ground.

“I had to take about five laps just to settle down,” Larson said. “He got about a straightaway out there and then I just started trying to run the heck out of it. I caught him there coming to the white (flag) and got close coming to the line.”

As Schatz was dramatically slowed on the bottom, Larson powered to the cushion and Swindell to the very bottom of the inside groove. Schatz held off the late charges with Larson bouncing off the cushion and Swindell facing his own disaster.

“We just cruised around and watched and watched Sammy hit the tractor tire there at the end and stick it in the fence,” said Tim Kaeding, who finished third after avoiding Swindell’s damaged car. “He was about eight feet short. I’ve been there several times.”

Jason Sides placed fourth and Sean Becker was fifth. Bill Rose ended sixth and Steve Kinser earned the KSE Hard Charger Award after maneuvering from 22 ^nd to seventh. Shane Golobic finished eighth, 21^st starter Joey Saldana ninth and Lucas Wolfe rounded out the top 10.

Qualifying – 1. 1-Sammy Swindell, 12.321; 2. 15-Donny Schatz, 12.604; 3. 57-Kyle Larson, 12.618; 4. 27-Sean Becker, 12.623; 5. 88X-Brad Bumgarner, 12.702; 6. 83-Tim Kaeding, 12.729; 7. 3C-Cody Lamar, 12.842; 8. 7S-Jason Sides, 12.856; 9. 121-Shane Golobic, 12.913; 10. OO-Jason Statler, 12.925; 11. 5W-Lucas Wolfe, 12.933; 12. 77-Shane Stewart, 12.938; 13. 19-Tyler Wolf, 12.941; 14. 4-Cody Darrah, 12.972; 15. 7-Craig Dollansky, 13.018; 16. 6-Bill Rose, 13.052; 17. 18H-Jac Haudenschild, 13.083; 18. 83JR-Kyle Hirst, 13.091; 19. 11K-Kraig Kinser, 13.111; 20. 22-Mason Moore, 13.122; 21. O-Jonathan Allard, 13.130; 22. O4-Kevin Sharrah, 13.144; 23. 9-Joey Saldana, 13.152; 24. 11-Steve Kinser, 13.182; 25. 25M-Bobby McMahan, 13.252; 26. 29-Kerry Madsen, 13.255; 27. 2-B.J. Martin, 13.255; 28. 11M-Peter Murphy, 13.263; 29. 92-Andy Forsburg, 13.300; 30. 36-Steve Tatterson, 13.377; 31. 53-Andy Gregg, 13.444; 32. 89-Rico Abreu, 13.505; 33. 7K-Kenny Allen, 13.513; 34. 63-Chad Kemenah, 13.536; 35. 25-Jason York, 13.543; 36. 21J-Richard Brace, 13.546; 37. 15H-Pat Harvey Jr., 13.596; 38. 26M-Sean McMahan, 13.753; 39. 18-Travis Jacobson, 13.754; 40. 33E-Evan Suggs, 13.786; 41. 88-Koen Shaw, 13.967; 42. 6UP-Danielle Simpson, 14.260; 43. 7Y-Clayton Snow, 14.346; 44. 28B-Adam Brenton, 14.597.

Heat 1 – (10 Laps – Top 5 finishers transfer to the A-feature) – 1. 19-Tyler Wolf [1]; 2. 1-Sammy Swindell [4]; 3. 88X-Brad Bumgarner [3]; 4. 18H-Jac Haudenschild [5]; 5. 121-Shane Golobic [2]; 6. O-Jonathan Allard [6]; 7. 25M-Bobby McMahan [7]; 8. 92-Andy Forsburg [8]; 9. 7K-Kenny Allen [9]; 10. 88-Koen Shaw [11]; 11. 15H-Pat Harvey Jr. [10].

Heat 2 – (10 Laps – Top 5 finishers transfer to the A-feature) – 1. 83-Tim Kaeding [3]; 2. 4-Cody Darrah [1]; 3. 15-Donny Schatz [4]; 4. 29-Kerry Madsen [7]; 5. 83JR-Kyle Hirst [5]; 6. O4-Kevin Sharrah [6]; 7. 6UP-Danielle Simpson [11]; 8. OO-Jason Statler [2]; 9. 26M-Sean McMahan [10]; 10. 63-Chad Kemenah [9]; 11. 36-Steve Tatterson [8].

Heat 3 – (10 Laps – Top 5 finishers transfer to the A-feature) – 1. 7-Craig Dollansky [1]; 2. 57-Kyle Larson [4]; 3. 5W-Lucas Wolfe [2]; 4. 9-Joey Saldana [6]; 5. 3C-Cody Lamar [3]; 6. 53-Andy Gregg [8]; 7. 11K-Kraig Kinser [5]; 8. 2-B.J. Martin [7]; 9. 18-Travis Jacobson [10]; 10. 25-Jason York [9]; 11. 7Y-Clayton Snow [11].

Heat 4 – (10 Laps – Top 5 finishers transfer to the A-feature) – 1. 6-Bill Rose [1]; 2. 7S-Jason Sides [3]; 3. 27-Sean Becker [4]; 4. 11-Steve Kinser [6]; 5. 77-Shane Stewart [2]; 6. 11M-Peter Murphy [7]; 7. 89-Rico Abreu [8]; 8. 33E-Evan Suggs [10]; 9. 21J-Richard Brace [9]; 10. 28B-Adam Brenton [11]; 11. 22-Mason Moore [5].

Dash – (8 Laps, finishing order determined first 10 starting positions of A-feature) – 1. 57-Kyle Larson [2]; 2. 27-Sean Becker [1]; 3. 83-Tim Kaeding [5]; 4. 1-Sammy Swindell [4]; 5. 15-Donny Schatz [3]; 6. 19-Tyler Wolf [7]; 7. 7-Craig Dollansky [9]; 8. 7S-Jason Sides [6]; 9. 4-Cody Darrah [8]; 10. 6-Bill Rose [10].

C-Main – (10 Laps – Top 2 finishers transfer to the B-feature) – 1. 33E-Evan Suggs [6] [-]; 2. 18-Travis Jacobson [5] [-]; 3. 25-Jason York [1] [$150]; 4. 88-Koen Shaw [7] [$125]; 5. 7Y-Clayton Snow [9] [$125]; 6. 28B-Adam Brenton [10] [$100]; 7. 15H-Pat Harvey Jr. [3] [$100]; 8. 6UP-Danielle Simpson [8] [$100]; 9. 21J-Richard Brace [2] [$100]; 10. 26M-Sean McMahan [4] [$100].

B-Main – (12 Laps – Top 4 finishers transfer to the A-feature) – 1. 11K-Kraig Kinser [2] [-]; 2. 22-Mason Moore [3] [-]; 3. O-Jonathan Allard [4] [-]; 4. 25M-Bobby McMahan [6] [-]; 5. OO-Jason Statler [1] [$200]; 6. 53-Andy Gregg [11] [$180]; 7. 63-Chad Kemenah [14] [$175]; 8. 89-Rico Abreu [12] [$160]; 9. 11M-Peter Murphy [8] [$150]; 10. 18-Travis Jacobson [16] [$150]; 11. 92-Andy Forsburg [9] [$150]; 12. 7K-Kenny Allen [13] [$150]; 13. 2-B.J. Martin [7] [$150]; 14. 33E-Evan Suggs [15] [$150]; 15. O4-Kevin Sharrah [5] [$150]; 16. 36-Steve Tatterson [10] [$150].

A-Main – (30 Laps) – 1. 15-Donny Schatz [5] [$8,000]; 2. 57-Kyle Larson [1] [$4,000]; 3. 83-Tim Kaeding [3] [$2,500]; 4. 7S-Jason Sides [8] [$2,200]; 5. 27-Sean Becker [2] [$2,100]; 6. 6-Bill Rose [10] [$2,000]; 7. 11-Steve Kinser [22] [$1,800]; 8. 121-Shane Golobic [13] [$1,600]; 9. 9-Joey Saldana [21] [$1,500]; 10. 5W-Lucas Wolfe [14] [$1,300]; 11. 83JR-Kyle Hirst [17] [$1,200]; 12. 11K-Kraig Kinser [18] [$1,100]; 13. 63-Chad Kemenah [25] [$400]; 14. 4-Cody Darrah [9] [$700]; 15. 25M-Bobby McMahan [23] [$600]; 16. 77-Shane Stewart [15] [$600]; 17. 3C-Cody Lamar [12] [$600]; 18. 1-Sammy Swindell [4] [$600]; 19. 19-Tyler Wolf [6] [$600]; 20. 7-Craig Dollansky [7] [$600]; 21. 29-Kerry Madsen [24] [$600]; 22. 22-Mason Moore [19] [$600]; 23. O-Jonathan Allard [20] [$600]; 24. 88X-Brad Bumgarner [11] [$600]; 25. 18H-Jac Haudenschild [16] [$600]. Lap Leaders: Kyle Larson 1-10, 13-19; Donny Schatz 11-12, 20-30. KSE Hard Charger Award: 11-Steve Kinser [+15].

59^th annual Gold Cup Race of Champions Points (After Night 1)

1. Donny Schatz, 542; 2. Kyle Larson, 539; 3. Tim Kaeding, 532; 4. Sean Becker, 522; 5. Jason Sides, 521; 6. Bill Rose, 500; 7. Shane Golobic, 494; 8. Lucas Wolfe, 488; 9. Sammy Swindell, 479; 10. Cody Darrah, 473; 11. Steve Kinser, 471; 12. Cody Lamar, 466; 13. Joey Saldana, 465; 14. Kyle Hirst, 464; 15. Tyler Wolf, 462; 16. Shane Stewart, 460; 17. Kraig Kinser, 452; 18. Craig Dollansky, 450; 19. Brad Bumgarner, 448; 20. Bobby McMahan, 432; 21. Jac Haudenschild, 417; 22. Kerry Madsen, 415; 23. Jonathan Allard, 411; 24. Jason Statler, 411; 25. Mason Moore, 402; 26. Andy Gregg, 371; 27. Peter Murphy, 365; 28. Rico Abreu, 358; 29. Kevin Sharrah, 353; 30. Chad Kemenah, 349; 31. Andy Forsburg, 349; 32. B.J. Martin, 345; 33. Kenny Allen, 334; 34. Travis Jacobson, 330; 35. Steve Tatterson, 318; 36. Evan Suggs, 315; 37. Jason York, 285; 38. Koen Shaw, 269; 39. Pat Harvey Jr., 262; 40. Richard Brace, 262; 41. Danielle Simpson, 260; 42. Clayton Snow, 258; 43. Adam Brenton, 255; 44. Sean McMahan, 254.

World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series Top 20 Championship Standings

Pos.	Driver	Total	Diff	Wins	T5	T10	QT
1	Donny Schatz	7835	0	8	27	47	2
2	Craig Dollansky	7823	-12	7	31	44	8
3	Sammy Swindell	7761	-74	11	25	38	12
4	Joey Saldana	7739	-96	5	20	43	9
5	Steve Kinser	7716	-119	3	24	41	0
6	Kraig Kinser	7497	-338	4	18	35	5
7	Cody Darrah	7317	-518	1	18	30	2
8	Kerry Madsen	7269	-566	5	12	31	1
9	Chad Kemenah	7177	-658	2	9	28	2
10	Lucas Wolfe	6877	-958	1	7	19	1
11	Bill Rose	6292	-1543	0	0	10	0
12	Jason Sides	4889	-2946	0	14	23	1
13	Jac Haudenschild	3024	-4811	0	2	7	0
14	Tim Kaeding	3007	-4828	3	7	14	0
15	Daryn Pittman	2537	-5298	0	6	13	1
16	Sam Hafertepe Jr.	2454	-5381	0	3	7	0
17	Danny Lasoski	2431	-5404	1	5	8	0
18	David Gravel	2385	-5450	0	7	9	4
19	Paul McMahan	2296	-5539	1	2	3	0
20	Stevie Smith	2276	-5559	0	3	11	1

September 7, 2012

Schatz Wins Race With Mother Nature

[media-credit name=”Paul Gould Photos” align=”alignright” width=”200″][/media-credit]The Mini Gold Cup is a two night race for the World of Outlaws that has the reputation of being a top drawer event. But this year’s first night was anything but top drawer. The racing was fierce and every position was hotly contended for. But that was because the track was a narrow single groove dry slick surface that continued to take rubber quickly. By the end of the A Main what you saw was patience and skill from some of the best dirt drivers in the world, because they were racing on a track that was maybe ¾ of a groove wide.

The evening started out with a threat of weather looming. The activities were hurried along in an attempt to beat the weather and get in the show because the forecast looks even worse for tomorrow nights activities.

The track record was set in 2009 by Joey Saldana with a lap of 10.918 seconds. Quick Time was set by Kraig Kinser with a lap of 12.458 around the ¼ mile track. He was closely followed by the seasons only two time winner this year Tim Kaeding, with the rest of the top 5 in qualifying being Jac Haudenschild, Steve Kinser, and Sammy Swindell.

The heat races showed some incredible moves by the Outlaw stars. Among them, a full power slide by Jason Sides out of the second turn to take over two places and the lead in one corner. Cody Darrah made a strong showing by moving from 8^th to first to win the second heat but showed little after that. Stand out Kyle Larson was having an unusually off night and was sent to the pits in the second heat after having two unassisted spins. Donny Schatz dominated heat 3 leading from flag to flag. And Joey Saldana would make a power move to the outside of Bill Rose down the back stretch to win the fourth and final heat of the night.

The Dash inversion would determine the fate of many of the drivers in the A Main as the track would begin to take rubber, lose grip and narrow its groove significantly. The inversion drawn by quick time holder Kraig Kinser was a 6. Sending Kinser to the 6^th spot out of 10, it was a position he would not advance beyond during the dash. As a matter of fact only two drivers would better their starting position in the dash, Tim Kaeding and Lucas Wolfe. And they would only increase their positions by one spot when the checker flag waved. Donny Schatz would take the checkers after starting on the dash pole.

With the first 5 rows for the A main set, the B main went off without issue. But again the track narrowed and the starting order was nearly a mirrored image of the finishing order. Jac Haudenschild, Kyle Larson, Chad Kemenah and Trey Starks would start and finish 1 thru 4 transferring to the A Main.

For Donny Schatz winning the A Main came down to three things, 1) Patience 2) Tire Management 3) Reading the groove on the track as the race progressed. “You just had to be cautious not to spin your tires and slip up out of that bottom groove,” Schatz said. “There wasn’t a lot of moving around. There were guys trying things, but just couldn’t make anything work. You had to be on the bottom of the race track, right on the gutter. As long as I stayed there and tried to keep from making a mistake, I was going to be ok.”

The A Main was only interrupted by 2 cautions the first when Kyle Larson spun out of 2 on lap 23. By that time the track conditions had deteriorated to the point that the restarts were made single file rather than the normal double file per Outlaws procedure. The second came on lap 34 and set up the Green White Checker finish when Robby Whitchurch blew a right rear tire and came to a stop in turn 4. When the green flag flew for the last time Schatz was amazing as he held his line and never smoked a tire until the final lap coming to the checkered flag. He had lead the entire race from beginning to end. He smoked a tire one time off of four on the checkered flag lap.

“You had to be patient. It’s not fun when you have to be patient, but you have to do what you have to do to finish.” Said Schatz from the podium.

“I just fell in behind Donny and tried to learn something,” said second place finisher and last years King of California winner, Jonathan Allard said. “I’ve been known for not managing my tires as well as we could have, but the Goodyears lasted, we came home with second and we’re very proud of that. I was hoping maybe Donny would get into traffic, but he was too smart to do that.”

Joey Saldana had a stronger comment about the surface and the racing it produced. ” I want to apologize to the fans. The World of Outlaws puts on a much better show than this and I am really sorry you all didn’t get to see a better show. Maybe the track will be in better condition tomorrow night,” stated Saldana from the podium.

The bottom line comes down to every series no matter who they are or what they drive has a bad night once in while. There is only so much that the sanctioning body can control. Weather and a poor track surface are high on the list of things that they can’t control.

But if you really watched the racing tonight you got an amazing show of the skills that it takes to make the best of the bad situation and maximize the finish. Schatz lead from flag to flag, picked up his second win and extended his points lead. But he did it by managing the situation he was given. He raced smart and he raced patient. He didn’t drive over his head and tear up the tires.

The old time warriors of the outlaws were evident tonight. They made passes. Maybe only one. But they finished with tires on the car and the car in one piece. They maximized their situation the best that circumstances allowed. It was an amazing thing to watch. No there weren’t many daring slide jobs or sliding above the buffer to beat a guy to the straightaway. But to watch the skills of driving dirt in a 12 second lap and never smoking the tires and driving straight off and still maintaining the speed and balance of the car, now that was an E ticket ride for the experienced race fan.

Hopefully tomorrow night will be better. But if not I am sure Donny Schatz is ready to race Mother Nature for the Mini Gold Cup once again.

March 24, 2012

Tag: Chico

Schatz takes Night 1 of the Gold Cup Race of Champions

Schatz Wins Race With Mother Nature