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PITTMAN USES $50,000 KINGS ROYAL PAYDAY TO RE-CHARGE SEASON
ROSSBURG, OH (July 13) – Perseverance and patience can be painful, but it all paid off Sunday night for Daryn Pittman and car owner Reeve Kruck as they captured their first World of Outlaw (WoO) Sprint victory of the season, and in a big way. Pittman joined an elite crowd as he stepped high atop Eldora Speedway’s fabled throne to be crowned King Daryn XXV and $50,000 champion of the silver anniversary edition of the Kings Royal. Additionally Pittman was handed the keys to a specially decaled 2008 Arctic Cat ATV.
In typical Kings Royal fashion, the event was not without drama.
It all began Saturday night as a light rain shower halted the 40-car field with only one lap of the hot lap session in the books, the showers turned into severe weather and relentless rain, forcing the officials to observe the advertised rain date for the first time in 25 years. The nearly 24-hour wait produced sunny skies and a well-groomed race track to complete.
All seemed to be rolling smoothly through hot laps, but during time trials another storm developed – not from Mother Nature. WoO officials ruled that Donny Schatz’s time trial run was interfered with by another car leaving the racing surface at the completion of his qualifying run, and was given a second chance on the racing surface. That resulted in a switch from 20th fastest to 6th fastest and erupted 20-time WoO champion Steve Kinser into a fireball. A highly verbal confrontation with WoO officials resulted in Kinser’s decision to temporarily load up his machine. He later relented and pulled it back out, just in time for his heat race. Later in the evening, Kinser did return to the WoO command center to apologize for his action.
With that out of the way, the four qualifying heat races took to the massive one-half mile clay oval with some of the most exciting action in Kings Royal history. Running under an Eldora designed format, the top two heat winners were locked into a dash event to determine the first eight positions in the Kings Royal. This put added pressure on the drivers.
Making that elite cut were heat winners Jason Meyers, Schatz, Joey Saldana and Pittman, with Dale Blaney, Paul McMahan, Stevie Smith and Shane Stewart advancing via their runner-up runs.
Saldana parlayed the dash victory into a pole starting berth, with Meyers finishing runner-up.
Six more cars advanced through the B-Main and the final two positions were earned by Ryan Meyers and Kraig Kinser based on their time trial runs.
With the 24-car field in place, the traditional pre-race pageantry was bypassed to allow the fans an early exit, but that didn’t pre-empt any of the race or decrease the hype amongst the drivers.
As expected, Saldana, a two-time Kings Royal crown recipient, pulled away from the field at the dropping of the green flag. Pittman jumped from his fourth-place starting berth, with Meyers, Blaney and Schatz in pursuit. Within five laps, Saldana was approaching lapped traffic, allowing Pittman and Meyers to gain momentum and just as a pass was about to develop for the lead, a red flag appeared on lap eight for a vicious Shane Stewart flip in turn one. There were no injuries but the car was devastated.
An open red flag period piqued the attention of the fans and worked to the benefit of the teams. With a vision of the fast and racy surface, the crews frantically made adjustments.
When the green re-appeared it was still all about Saldana as he again mastered the talented field with a wide advantage. Behind him were Pittman and Meyers, but Schatz was dropping off the pace a pit, allowing Terry McCarl, and Paul McMahan to get by, while also on the move was a determined Kinser, as the drama returned. He had moved from 18th to 11th in ten laps and was stampeding forward.
The next delay came on lap 14 when Blaney, another former champion of the event clipped the front wall and destroyed the front end of the machine. He was visibly shaken up from the contact, but did not seek medical attention.
Under WoO rules, the restart worked in Pittman’s and Meyers’ hands. They were in heavy lapped traffic when the yellow appeared, but on the restart, those lapped cars were moved to the back of the field. This time around Pittman and Meyers were able to hang with Saldana, as now Chad Kemenah had found a new groove on the track and moved forward from mid-field to run 6th on the restart. Kinser must have seen that groove as within two move laps he was up to 9th, right behind Schatz.
The caution flag came out on lap 23 as Brian Paulus stopped on the track, and yet another caution flag appeared on lap 24 and that could very well have been the turning point for the race. Ironically, it was car number 24, Terry McCarl, bringing out the caution. He tagged the wall on the restart and damaged enough radius rods to eliminate him from competition.
By now, Kemenah was up to fourth, and Kinser seventh.
Big time drama and disappointment hit on lap 26 as Saldana’s right rear tire exploded down the back stretch to bring out the yellow flag and a new race leader. Saldana’s crew was unable to get the tire changed before the restart of the event.
Pittman responded with a strong run, as Kemenah tried a slide job on Meyers on the restart, but it didn’t work.
The final caution flag of the race came two laps later as Chad Blonde came to a halt on the front stretch, but that set up a twelve lap dash to the finish.
Pittman continued to dominate, but as the laps wound down, Meyers was gaining momentum and with the white flag in the air, he pulled within inches of Pittman. Lapped traffic was the key and entering turn three, Meyers tried a desperation slide job that nearly pulled off the win. Pittman sensed the oncoming move and was able to put in an effective block that provided him with the $50,000 payday. Meyers hung on for second, with a jubilant Kemenah in third. Schatz rebounded with a fourth place finish with a revitalized Kinser up to fifth.
25TH ANNUAL KINGS ROYAL – 36 cars
Fast Time: Kenny Jacobs 13.801
Heat 1: Jason Meyers, Dale Blaney, Brain Paulus, Kenny Jacobs, Chad Blonde, Steve Kinser, Tim Hunter, Dustin Daggett, Todd Kane
Heat 2: Donny Schatz, Paul McMahan, Chad Kemenah, Terry McCarl, Kraig Kinser, Craig Dollansky, Butch Schroeder, Lee Stark, Danny Smith
Heat 3: Joey Saldana, Stevie Smith, Chad Hillier, Jac Haudenschild, Randy Hannagan, Tim Shaffer, Ryan Myers, Greg Wilson, Jason Sides
Heat 4: Daryn Pittman, Shane Stewart, Rob Chaney, Kerry Madsen, Sam Hafertepe Jr., Caleb Griffith, Tony Bruce Jr., Bill Rose, Bruce White
Dash: Joey Saldana, Jason Meyers, Dale Blaney, Daryn Pittman, Donny Schatz, Shane Stewart, Paul McMahan, Stevie Smith
B-Main: Steve Kinser, Tim Shaffer, Chad Blonde, Sam Hafertepe, Jr., Danny Smith, Randy Hannagan, Tony Bruce, Jr., Greg Wilson, Jason Sides, Dustin Daggett, Tim Hunter, Bruce White, Butch Schroeder, Craig Dollansky, Kraig Kinser, Caleb Griffith, Lee Stark, Todd Kane, Bill Rose, Ryan Meyers
A-Main: 1) Daryn Pittman 2) Jason Meyers 3) Chad Kemenah 4) Donny Schatz 5) Steve Kinser 6) Kenny Jacobs 7) Stevie Smith 8) Kerry Madsen 9) Paul McMahan 10: Jac Haudenschild 11) Chad Hillier 12: Tim Shaffer 13) Randy Hannagan 14) Brian Paulus 15) Rob Chaney 16) Danny Smith 17) Ryan Myers 18) Chad Blonde 19) Joey Saldana 20) Terry McCarl 21) Sam Hafertepe Jr. 22) Dale Blaney 23) Shane Stewart 24) Kraig Kinser
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