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Tri State Outlook
by Duane Hancock
Chasing rain has been normal for the World Of
Outlaws so far in 2008. When the series visited Ohio
last weekend, they were still chasing rain.
Even with an 80% chance of thunder storms, a nice
field of cars and good crowd greeted the World Of
World on their stop at Attica Raceway Park last Friday
night. 46 cars were ready for action. A strong wind
was present and was causing some drivers a few
problems. Wind gust blew a few drivers right off the
top of turn 3 during their one attempt of a qualifying
lap. Rob Chaney set quick time on the night. Even with
the strong wind, the track surface was holding up
pretty good through qualifying. A brief shot of water
on the top side as the heats pushed off was the only
thing the track crew could do all night. Strong storms
were on the way and the ARP officials were determined
that the show would get in before the rains hit.
Instead of keeping the full house from waiting for the
rain and the scheduled start time, the heats pushed
off 28 minutes early. As usually on the 1/3 oval, the
heats produced some good racing. Heat 1: Sam Hafertepe
JR and Kraig Kinser were rubbing wheels before the
green flag was dropped. Once the green dropped, the
duo tried to see who could out block each other for
the lead. Kinser won that battle as a yellow waved for
Mark Keegan blowing off the top of turn 3. Once the
heat restarted, the race was on. Kinser lead most of
the heat and held off a fast Paul McMahan for the win.
Dale Blaney, Hafertepe, and Chaney transfer. Heat 2: A
huge traffic jam on the start in turn 1. Phil
Gressman, Tim Shaffer, and Daryn Pittman all got
collected in the wreck. Pittman took a mild tumble but
a strange one. The car almost did a total nose dive.
The blunt force when the car nose dived, tweaked
Pittman's back. Daryn made a trip to the hospital and
was later released. Bruce Robenalt and Shane Stewart
somehow drove through the spinning cars without a
problem. Local David Harrison had a great run holding
off the boys for a while. Donny Schatz took over and
went on to win the heat. Craig Dollansky, Harrison,
Stewart, and Lucas Wolfe transfer. Wolfe made a charge
from 8th to transfer. Not sure if you know the WOO
rules but the heats only invert 4. So all the fast
cars start up front and the deeper they start, the
slower they timed in at. Heat 3: Joey Saldana gets
docked a row for jumping the start. Mike Dussel spins
on the restart. Tough luck for Mike. I personally
think he has had an excellent season so far at Attica
and Fremont for his rookie season in a 410. Some great
runs for Mike to date but not on this night. Kevin
Huntley leads the heat to the crowd delight with
Saldana and Steve Kinser in tow. The Pup and Joey
start fighting for the lead and are having a good
battle. After siting back and watching a few laps, The
King decides he has had enough messing around and
pulls a text book slide job on both Joey and The Pup
to take the lead. Now that much of the crowd has went
wild from that awesome move only few could of made
work, Kinser drives off to take the win. Saldana,
Huntley, Kerry Madsen, and Jason Meyers transfer.
Meyers barely held off a charging Brandon Martin. The
two were bumping and banging from the exit of turn 4
to the line for the final transfer spot. It was very
close. An excellent heat race! Heat 4: Chad Kemenah
and local Andy Shammo battle upfront in this one.
Kemenah trys to get some momentum going for him on
what was once his home turf. Kemenah goes on to win as
Shammo fades the in closing laps. Jac Haudenschild,
Shammo, Chad Blonde, and Byron Reed, from 10th,
transfer. Shammo's great run excited the locals fans
and many were pit side patting Andy on the back. Still
pushing the program because the rain is getting
closer, the C Main was ready after just 2 quick late
model heats. The start of the C, Cap Henry spins off
turn 2 collecting Tim Shaffer. Cap has been very
impressive so far in 08 but, not tonight. Cap is towed
back to the pits. Mike Linder and Randy Hannagan
battle it out in this one. Scott Euler slow the race
with a spin. The top 2 moved on and some heavy hitters
are still deep in the pack. Terry McCarl pulls in
during the C after an absolute terrible night. He just
could not get his car to work all night long. Linder
and Hannagan transfer, Shaffer falls 1 spot short
after restarting last. The Dash is pushing off before
all the C main cars are stopped yet. The quick program
and high winds are drying the track out pretty
quickly. The Dash was a pretty decent race. Schatz and
Haud battled upfront until McMahan gets the Ferkel 0 a
moving. Haud holds off McMahan for the win. The makes
up a very popular front row for tonight's 40 lap A
Main. No messing around, straight to the B. The
drivers were told, have the cars ready right after the
B. The 8 minute horn will blow as soon as all cars
exit the track after the B. Caleb Griffith spins on
the start of the B. After that, Chris Andrews holds
off a strong field to take the B Main win. The B Main
was good to the local boys as 3 of the 4 transfer were
taken by the locals. That put 2 of the 3 WOO regulars
in the B on the trailer. Martin, Lee Jacobs, and Tony
Bruce Jr transfer. The B is in the books by 9 PM. The
APR crew sees that the storms are just miles away and
says lets get this a moving. The WOO official blows
the 8 minute horn as some cars already are being
pushing to the track surface to get ready to fire. All
cars make it before the 8 minutes are up and the cars
as pushing off just as a few rain drops begin to fall.
With a hard slick top groove, a power dusty middle
groove, and a hard slick bottom groove, there seems to
be a few different lines for the A. It is what it is
because in all fairness the ARP crew was a victim to
mother nature and could not do a thing with the track
due to the major storm minutes from the track. Shaffer
and Jason Sides take a WOO provisional to tag the
tail. Hafertepe Jr spins before the field can get out
of turn 1 on the start. Paul McMahan gives us a site
that many were happy to see, the Ferkel 0 car leading
a WOO A Main. Lap 1, Chaney spins. Restart, McMahan
looks very strong and opens up a 15 car length lead.
Schatz is getting quicker each lap. Donny catches Paul
and takes the lead a few laps later on lap 11. Lap 17,
Lee Jacobs spins. It is all Schatz upfront but a 5 car
battle for 2nd is keeping the fans on the edge. As the
laps past by, its still all Schatz. Lap 26 Haferpete
stops. Lap 28, Kinser stops. With 12 to go, Schatz
gets a great restart. Saldana finally breaks out of
the battle for 2nd for a chance to run down Schatz.
Joey is closing. 5 to go, Joey cuts the lead down to
just 2 car lengths. Next lap, Joey has problems in
turn 2, just a bit, and Donny opens up a 6 car length
lead. The last few laps its all Schatz. Donny wins.
Saldana, Stewart, Kemenah, Meyers, from 11th, round
out the top 5. Shaffer had a great run from 25th to
8th. Yes, its 9:32 PM, the A Main is over and the rain
has started pick-up a bit. A pretty good show. The
heats were all pretty good and not a bad A Main. No
real battle for the lead but some great 3 to 5 car
battle for 2nd to 8th. Yes, it got dusty. You cannot
do a thing about that with no time to work on the
track and strong winds all night long. Excellent job
by the ARP crew and the WOO crew to get this one done
before the storms hit. Now, all I need them to do is
work on making the storms hold off on my drive some.
No such luck but hey made for an interesting drive
home. Not every night your car gets blown all over the
road and you can dodge tree limbs and branches 5 or 6
times.
Saturday a much nicer day for the WOO visit to
Eldora Speedway. No rain around and 37 cars ready for
action. Joey Saldana keeps his Eldora quickness and
sets fast time on the night. The track is starting to
form a cushin as the Eldora crew lays some water down
before the heats. Heat 1: Daryn Pittman, back after a
trip to the hospital the night before, sets a quick
pace to start the heat. Pittman lead the pack as the
others just fell in line and followed. DP lead start
to finish. Saldana, Dollansky, Haudenschild, and Kraig
Kinser transfer. Heat 2: Dean Jacobs and Lucas Wolfe
had an excellent battle upfront. The two were using a
bunch of blocking to try and out duel each other. Dean
made an excellent move going into turn 2 that kept the
pack behind him the rest of the way. Jacobs wins.
Meyers, Wolfe, Schatz, and Haferpete transfer. Heat 3:
Madsen shot out to the lead and never looked back.
Everyone else just fell in-line and stayed put for the
entire 8 laps. Madsen, Stewart, Ed Lynch JR, Chad
Hillier, and Brian Paulus transfer. Heat 4: Butch
Schroeder gets a good start but gets pinched into the
turn 2 off before lap 1 is complete. McMahan takes off
on the restart and looks strong for the second night
in a row. Terry McCarl is in hot pursuit, trying to
forget the nightmare he experienced the previous
night. McMahan stays strong and holds off a fast
McCarl for the win. Hannagan, Steve Kinser, and
Gressman transfer. Jeremy Campbell's ride when up in
smoke during the heat. Chad Blonde looked pretty fast
but just couldn't get enough of a rhythm a going to
put it to good use. More water is added to the track
before we go into the rest of the WOO program. The
cushin is moving up closer to the wall after the mods
and stocks loosen it up some. McMahan and McCarl draw
the front row for the Dash. McCarl gets the jump as
Meyers follows from his 4th place starting spot.
McMahan falls back each lap. Meyers takes the lead.
Meyers is looking good and takes the win over Stewart
and McCarl. The B Main is strong again. 4 WOO
regulars, 4 All Star regulars, and a few drivers that
are very strong that are running here and there this
season. Rob Chaney jumps to the lead on the start.
Chaney uses the Eldora cushin to gain a decent lead.
Kemenah works from 5th to 2nd. Blaney is on the move
as well from 7th, Bruce is falling back. Blonde is
super fast again and is moving towards the top 5 from
10th. Blonde has been running the cushin and decides
in turn 1 to dive low. Chad can't slide back up the
banks before he loops it out. His nice run just turns
sour. After that, its all Chaney. Chaney wins,
Kemenah, Blaney, and Bruce transfer. Sides takes a
provisional for the 2nd straight night. After a quick
shot of water from the middle groove on down, the 30
lap A Main is ready to push off. The track has really
been getting more racy all night long. A decent
cushin, a old style Eldora slick spot before the
cushion, and a bottom that still could be raced on.
The dust has been fairly held down most of the night
as well. Green waves. McCarl makes an excellent slide
job to move from 3rd to 1st before the pack heads down
the back stretch. T-Mac lead lap 1. The water applied
has moved everyone down the track surface a little,
plus is creating some pretty decent dust as the guy
run through the middle of the track. Lap 2, Meyers
takes the lead. T-Mac stays strong as the Saldana and
Schatz start moving to the front. The laps are
clicking off quickly and as a great 3 car battle
upfront is taking place. Meyers, Schatz, and Saldana
are just a few car lengths apart. Stewart is not far
behind and The Wild Child is moving past cars as well.
Down to less than 10 to go, Meyers is holding on but
Donny and Joey are on his tail tank. Schatz trys to
get a run through traffic but can't make a pass. Lap
26, Schatz gets a run and takes the lead. Saldana is
trying to get past as well. Lap 27, bad luck strikes
Meyers. Hot Foot blows a tire going into turn 2 and
stop against the wall. The Elite Racing Team try all
they can to get the repairs made before the 1 to go
but, just as they drop the jack, the 1 to go is
displayed. I am not sure, since the pit lane was clear
and the pack had not pass him yet, why he could not of
pushed off and tagged the tail. During the yellow,
Saldana try to smooth out a path above the cushion for
the restart and his one shot at Donny. Schatz gets an
excellent restart and leaves the pack in the dust.
Schatz sweeps the Ohio weekend. Saldana, Stewart,
Haud, up from 10th, and Pittman round out the top 5.
Chad Kemenah got the hard charger award, racing from
23rd to 10th. The A main had a great 3 car battle
upfront for a third of the race. McCarl made an
excellent move to start the race and the battle stayed
good upfront for a good part of the A.
This year the King's Royal will be the 25th
anniversary. Former winners, Sammy Swindell and Donnie
Kreitz Jr have stated they will be back racing at the
Royal this year. Look for some other special events
that weekend as well with former Royal winners...It
sounds like the field for the Ollies Outlet 360
Challenge will feature more talent that just the 3
NASCAR starts. Drivers like Donny Schatz, Greg Wilson,
Jason Sides, and several other regular 410 drivers are
planning on racing as well. With a $27,000 plus purse
each race and a chance at a $50,000 bonus, they shows
could be an instant hit. The 1st one of the 3 kicks
off June 17th at Sharon OH Speedway...Look for another
McCarl to invade Ohio this weekend. T-Mac was in town
last weekend for the WOO shows, look for A-Mac, Austin
McCarl, to make his 1st Ohio appearance in the Janet
Holbrook 17 car this weekend. A-Mac plans to hit
Limaland Motorsports Park Friday and Waynesfield
Motorsports Park Saturday. Of course, weather
permitting.
UPCOMING:
FRIDAY:
SOD Cherry MI
SATURDAY:
HOSS Lorain County OH
SOD I96 MI
KISS/MSCS Haubstadt IN
SUNDAY:
KISS Kokomo IN
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