Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
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Schatz got a mulligan on his qualifying lap. Schatz went out and ran two shitty laps around the middle of the track and was 20th quick, pulled in and whined about something to an official, and they let him go back out for another lap saying he was "interfered with". Then he was 6th quick on his do over. It's not because it was Tony's car at Tony's track or because he is the new poster boy for the WoO...it was because he was "interefered with" by who knows what??? I was watching him run both laps and sure as hell didn't see anything that would have caused him to require another lap do over. Kinser loaded up his car in the hauler and was ready to tell them to stuff it for the night, but was persuaded to stay and race. If I was Kinser I would have headed out the back gate and went home and shined up the NST t-shirt trailer. Anyone care to give the official reason for the do over? I thought interference was a 15 yard penalty, not an extra lap in qualifying.

Former Owner/President of FAST and Black Swamp Media
Group. Currently just another fan in the stands.

Greg Wilson was slow getting off of the track, during Schatz's qualifying run. That is what I heard

On BOTH laps?? Whatever....if Wilson was on the track at all he was at the bottom of the backstretch or the bottom of turn 4. I didn't see him either way, but how does that explain how he was 26th quick on lap 1 and 20th quick on lap 2?

Former Owner/President of FAST and Black Swamp Media
Group. Currently just another fan in the stands.

i was told there was debris on the track, but i don't remember any debris being cleaned up.

The only "debris" was the bullshit that was flying from the 15 team.

Former Owner/President of FAST and Black Swamp Media
Group. Currently just another fan in the stands.

Obviously something went wrong - Donny was way slow on the first lap. I guess he didn't try on the second knowing he would get a do-over due to the interference. Schatz turned in a normal time for him the second go-round. Kinser was upset (to put it politely) that he got knocked off the pole of his heat. Wah! - it's not the first time he's threatened to take his toys and go home and it probably won't be the last.

Phil Taylor

home-theater-systems-advice.com

The only reason Shatz was 20th & 26th quick was because he ran the bottom in turns 3 & 4 both laps!!! Then when he gets his mulligan laps he runs the top of turns 3 & 4 & is 6th quick. If there was this so called "DEBRIS" or "CAR" still on the track why didnt the so called "Officials" throw a yellow flag,like they have done many times before? It all seems a BIG joke to me!!!!

Ok, if there was something on the track, why no yellow flag? If they knew right away someone or thig go in the way, why not give him the green again? Here is another why....Why didnt he just get put right back on the track, like when they miss a guys time instead of going back to his hauler to do whatever type of adjustments he needed to go faster????

Life's short, race hard!!!

Do we really need to ask why??? I just wanted to point it out to those who weren't there. Typical BS. I bet if Blaney would have had to make a right hand turn to get around a WoO car exiting the track he would not have gotten the same consideration. I still think the car on the track he had to avoid was a phantom car. Think it will be shown next Saturday on SPEED? We'll see.

Former Owner/President of FAST and Black Swamp Media
Group. Currently just another fan in the stands.

Okay,

I was standing in the pits when all this went down... According to Workin' Woodies son, the officials called over the radio that the push truck was still on the track when Schatz was trying to time. It "interferred" with his ability to drive his chosen line around the bottom.

When Kinser, McCarl, and Kemenah were going nuts yelling at the officials they made the following points: (1) supposedly it wasn't called (that there was interference) until after he made his laps; (2) this was the 3-4 time this year that Donny has gotten to time more than once, and no one else has gotten that luxury; and (3) there has been a push truck around the bottom of back stretch and turns 3-4 on every qualifying lap since 1962...

Note also that Schatz drove the exact same line around the bottom on both laps, and slid up through the middle and spun the tires on both laps, and then timed almost the exact same time... it looked like he was taking the Bobby Allen/Jason Sides line as the top really slicked over...(damn sun and wind) then he went out and ran the high line on his 3rd (5 minute later) lap... That was also brought up...

The kind of sad thing I kept hearing was a lot of drivers were milling around the "WoO Command Center" when Kinser was in there going nuts. I heard more than once that the 3rd lap was bogus but there wasn't any reason to complain out of fear of getting screwed later... So, they'd let Steve go complain as he has some clout... Of course that was followed with the comment "there are different rules out here for the TSR cars and the green car..."

Chad Kemenah said the funniest thing I have ever heard at a race track and he said it completely straight faced... "There was a ballon on the track, I thought it was a land mine, it scared the shit out me, I need another lap too..."

Some of Kinser's crew guys said among themselves that they needed to unload since it was (1) a TV race and the sponsor probably wouldn't be too happy if they weren't on TV; and (2) Steve had made every A-Main... I was kind of hoping he would leave to make a point...

Some of the people milling around Kinser's car during the adventure claimed Schatz walked by with a big grin on his face when they loaded Steve's car in the trailer. I didn't see that, but there were a lot of ppl saying it happened...

At the end of the day it was a complete joke. The WoO officials are a complete joke and have absolutely zero integrity in my eyes. Now, I have a serious bias... I think the WoO as an organization is complete joke, the stock stuff is going to collapse and they have way too many expenses if you look at their stock information... that being said this was an absolute joke... Go Jason Meyers, Dollansky, and Saldana... hopefully, one of those three can beat Donny for the championship...

I wish Earl still did Eldora's track prep.  

Thanks for the report bahdubbie. Sounds like some shit was stirring about at Eldora the same place where the deal with Saldana and his blown tire fiasco occurred back in April anyone remember that? Hope some more people chime in on this as I'd like to hear more. In the mean time I don't believe I'll be attending anymore WoO events this year.

the bawl baby get his way again...i bet he got his miserable ass booed too!

Lincoln 1845 ft/.35 mile T1=118MPH 
Eldora 2287 ft/.43mile T3=135MPH
Port 2716 ft/.51 mile T3=TBD
Grove 2792 ft/.53 mile T3=135MPH
Selinsgrove 2847 ft/.54 mile T1=136MPH
"I didn't move to PA from El Paso in search of better 
weather." Van May

What was the deal about a helicopter "buzzing" the crowd last night?

Wish I'd stayed the extra day...sounds like a pretty exciting event.

The helicopter was a camera crew filming for Speed per the guy at the back gate...

The other thing that kind hinted toward the shadiness (is that a word?) of the Donny fiasco was that Gibson never explained what was going on over the P.A... now, he talks about as clearly as any PA announcer in the USA and when Schatz went back out for his 3rd lap he mumbled something Donny Schatz with another lap... no explanation...

I'd love to see Swamp's All Star officials officiating the Royal again, but that won't happen for TV reasons... I'd love it even more if some of the WoO guys did the real outlaw thing and just went around and hit the big shows, whether it was a big show at Skagit, or PA Speedweek, or big show at fill in the blank USA...

I wish Earl still did Eldora's track prep.  

Donny Schatz is a whiner and the woo is a big joke anymore i wouldnt let someone pay my way into one of their races.

Interestingly, it was all captured on the TV broadcast, including Kinser giving Carlton Reimers a piece of his mind. From what I was told by eyewitnesses, officials waved off the first lap well before it was completed. He then went back out for one more lap after coming into the pits.

The helicopter deal had to do with a car owner who has a 'copter flying around with a TV cameraman getting a look at the scene from above...only thing is...the Eldora area was in a "no-fly" zone during the event.

I guess the funny thing is everybody thought it was Tony Stewart's helicopter buzzing around. We all know how Tony likes to horse around. lol

Right on Bahdubbieracer, I was there also & watched pretty much the same thing, its also kind of interesting that 2 major holders in shares have both gone & sold off all of them recently!

So I guess the officials did wave off the first lap before it was completed. If that's the case I guess he was entitled to another lap. I'm not a Schatz fan, but maybe we're making a bigger deal out of this than there really is. As for SK throwing a fit, it isn't the first time it's happened.

We heard an Eldora security guy warn another that a high-profile car was leaving the track shortly and would cause a near-Earnhart style riot all the way out the gate. As far as I'm concerned, the whole controversy could have been EASILY resolved by resetting everything to ZERO and sending everybody back out in the same exact order for 1 more lap on the clock. Certainly would have taken less time than all the arguing and drama did.

If SPEED caught anything on tape to verify that there was nothing or noone on the track during his first qualifying attempt, do you really think that the WoO would let them show it on TV? The word was probably already out before the A-Main lineup was even completed.