By DEAN REYNOLDS
He is know King Donny the 34th backing up his king titles he earned in ’07. ’09 and last year. What also puts this North Dakaota great in the history books is that he’s the first to go back to back in the 35 year history.
Donny Schatz took the lead from Cole Duncan on lap 14 and just basically gave them an ass whooping! But, if it wasn’t for a lap seven caution on heat one you wondered if all this could have happened. What makes Schatz one of if not the best is taking advantage of everything that is given to him.
Passing three cars in those fnal three laps to win the heat and to start sixth in the 40 Lap A-Main. From there he did what Schatz does. While there’s been several of these $50,000 to win or more victories hearing him describe to crowned him King was the highlight of his night…it was Mr. Steve Kinser.
Schatz might be King, but Christopher Bell will be the talk. After winning Friday then starting deep in the field to wall hug his way to second place at the finish. His late race pass of Brad Sweet even came with a front wing askew.
Sweet had a good weekend with a second and two thirds although he always wants to win….
Feel good stories were from 4th place – 6th place finishing Cole Duncan, Ryan Smith and Lee Jacobs. Look for stories on all three here in DTD.
A total of 53 cars entered the action on the final night with Max McGee, Bob Tucker, Danny Holtgraver and the return of Sammy Swindell as new entrants. Swindell had a cool feeling as he was wheeling the #39 that is owned by his son Kevin. Sammy did put the car in the starting lineup…
Drivers that didn’t return from Friday were Sean Zemunik, Quentin Blonde, Mitch Wormall and Cale Thomas…
The first two nights saw fast track conditions and very limited yellows and cars breaking. On Saturday it must have been teams turning up the wick as many engines went south during the night. Brady Bacon, Parker Price-Miller, Holtgraver and Jordyn Brazier were done early all with smoke from under the hoods…
Speaking about Bacon, he has the title no one wants of being the only driver to be on his wing in the three nights…
The pre-race intros are always unique and have the second row filled with Haundenschild’s produced the loudest roar. As you can imagine what greeting Schatz got…
When you look at surprise drivers that didn’t qualify for the Kings Royal you would look at Dale Blaney, Jason Johnson, Paul McMahan, Greg Wilson, Trey Starks and Travis Philo…
It was announced that the crowd was the largest in Kings Royal history and also beat the crowds that fill the Rossburg, Ohio oval for the World 100 Late Model event. The 50/50 was over $32,000!
