|
by Greg Soukup
Mother Nature did her worst to hold sway over the 2009 Eagle Nationals presented by Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum. After a heavy overnight rain the crew at “America’s Home Track” Eagle Raceway had their work cut out for them. But their diligence led to an extremely fast track, evidenced by Sammy Swindell setting a new 410 Sprint Car track record. His 11.076 second lap during time trials eclipsed the previous standard, a 11:124 circuit, also set during time trials in 2002 by Joey Saldana. Unfortunately, as usually happens, the fast racing surface made passing difficult.
The weather did take a toll on the crowd, when the forecasted sun and warm temperatures turned out to be heavy overcast skies with scattered heavy mist that threatened to cancel the races altogether. But, racing won out despite starting late while the track was run in.
23 Budweiser 360 Sprints and 31 Monster Energy Drink IMCA Modifieds checked in to accompany 22 cars for the World of Outlaws field.
Tige Jensen’s #71 took a nasty ride down the back stretch wall in the first Budweiser 360 Sprint Car heat. Tige suffered an injury to his right ankle, and his racer was totalled. The injury ended not only his night in the 360, but rendered him unable to compete in the 410 class in the #57.
The World of Outlaws Sprint Cars ran their Crane Cams Dash to set the lineup for their A Feature. The finishing order was 6-Danny Lasoski, 9-Joey Saldana, 10-Sammy Swindell, 5W-Lucas Wolfe, R19-Jac Haudenschild, 15H-Sam Hafertape Jr., 7S-Jason Sides, 19-Craig Dollansky, 83-Tim Kaeding and 14-Jason Meyers.
The Budweiser 360 Sprints were the first cars to challenge Eagle’s high banks for an A Feature. The start was called back after Trevor Grossenbacher, last week’s feature winner, made hard contact with the wall coming out of turn #3 in the 35AB. He was unable to continue. After a complete restart, Zach Davis’ 3Z was in the lead with Gage Dorr in the 17, Gene Acklund’s 14G and the 96KX of Adam Gullion rounding out the top 4. Acklund snared second from Dorr on lap 3. Lap 4 saw Davis made contact with the back stretch wall and go flying, ending up on the fence in turn 3 while wiping out the track warning lights at the fence. Davis was unhurt, and made the long walk back to his pit after being released from his car’s precarious perch. Eagle’s officials made the decision at that time to postpone the Monster Energy Drink IMCA Modified A Main to next week due to the late hour. That made the running order Acklund, Dorr, Gullion, and Terry Holliman in the 23. After the restart and with 7 laps down Austen Wheatley’s 44W hit the wall in turns 1 & 2, ending his night as his car was towed into the pits. On the restart Gullion moved past Dorr for second, but the yellow flew for the 11E of Ian Eastman. After the restart the 3X of Julee Jamison flipped in turn three, bringing out another red flag. Gullion again grabbed second from Dorr on the restart and on the following lap the red flag flew yet again. Jeff Griffis’s #3 hit Terry Holliman’s left rear, sending Griffis spinning and flipping in turn 4. Because it was feared that Griffis may be suffering seizures the Life Flight Helicopter was called. As Griffis was being taken to the ambulance he had regained conciousness and waved to the crowd. When the helicopter arrived, Griffis was transferred to it for the flight to the hospital for observation. The long delay caused the Eagle officials to call a halt to the race.
Danny Lasoski used the option he got by taking the Crane Cams Dash to start on the pole for the World of Outlaws A Main. He took advantage of this by being first back to the flag stand in his #6 at the completion of lap #1. Close behind were Saldana’s 9, the 10 of Swindell, Hafertape in the 5W and the R19 of Haudenschild. By lap #5 Lasoski and the others were already encountering lapped traffic. On the 9th lap Swindell got around Saldana to take second. The only caution of the race was displayed on lap 11 when Donny Schatz slowed to a stop on the front stretch in his #15 after the engine began smoking heavily the lap before. He was pushed to the work area, but the problem was too severe to repair. Lasoski again held the point after the restart and Swindell made a valiant effort on the outside on lap 17 as the 6 had difficulty passing the 71R of Ryan Anderson. Lasoski did complete the pass on the following circuit and held on for the win. Craig Dollansky in the 19 managed to get the best of Wolfe as the field came around on the last lap.
“I owe this win, and a huge thanks to Lonnie Parsons and Don Lamberti for giving me the chance to drive the #6 this year. They always give me a strong car, and we feel that we’re a threat every night that we race. Also, I want to thank “Sumo” and Sheldon for their help with the car. And I can’t forget Kistler Engines, JEI Chassis and Casey’s General Stores” Lasoski said. When asked about his choice to start on the pole, rather than outside, Danny stated “Well, after getting lucky when that boy drew the 2 pill for the dash and me being able to win it, everything worked according to plan. I just wasn’t sure that the plan would work”.
Since the Budweiser 360 Sprint A Main completed only 9 laps of the 13 required to be considered complete, their first feature will restart next week on lap 10 with the cars maintaining the position that they were in when the race was called.
Next week the regular season continues as Colby Ridge presents “Christmas in July” featuring the Auto Trans Matic IMCA Sport Compacts, the Valentino’s IMCA Hobby Stocks, the Monster Energy Drink IMCA Modifieds and the Budweiser 360 Sprints. The pit gate will open at 4 and the front gate will open at 5:30. A donation of a new toy to the Toys For Tots campaign will give a $5 discount off of an adult admission. “Pork Chop the Clown” will be amusing the fans with his antics also.
World of Outlaws results:
World of Outlaws 07-04-09
Eagle Raceway
Qualifying
1) 10-Sammy Swindell 11.076 2) 6-Danny Lasoski 11.214 3) 14-Jason Meyers 11.289 4) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr. 11.375 5) 20-Kraig Kinser 11.433 6) 11-Steve Kinser 11.480 7) R19-Jac Haudenschild 11.482 8) 9-Joey Saldana 11.498 9) 7S-Jason Sides 11.498 10) 19-Craig Dollansky 11.501 11) 5W-Lucas Wolfe 11.523 12) 83-Tim Kaeding 11.550 13) 3S-Stu Snyder 11.637 14) 71R-Ryan Anderson 11.646 15) 88-Mike Boston 11.677 16) 22-Brian Ellenberger 11.688 17) 15-Donny Schatz 11.725 18) 4W-Matt Wasmund 12.000 19) 27-Patrick Bourke 12.161 20) 92J-Jr Topper 12.224 21) 21-Ryan Kitchen 12.154 22) 57-Tige Jensen 12.295
Heat 1 (10 Laps, top 6 finishers transferred to A-feature)
1) R19-Jac Haudenschild 2) 19-Craig Dollansky 3) 10-Sammy Swindell 4) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr. 5) 3S-Stu Snyder 6) 22-Brian Ellenberger 7) 27-Patrick Bourke
Heat 2 (10 Laps, top 6 finishers transferred to A-feature)
1) 9-Joey Saldana 2) 5W-Lucas Wolfe 3) 6-Danny Lasoski 4) 15-Donny Schatz 5) 20-Kraig Kinser 6) 71R-Ryan Anderson 7) 92J-Jr Topper
Heat 3 (10 Laps, top 6 finishers transferred to A-feature)
1) 83-Tim Kaeding 2) 7S-Jason Sides 3) 11-Steve Kinser 4) 88-Mike Boston 5) 14-Jason Meyers 6) 4W-Matt Wasmund 7) 21-Ryan Kitchen
Crane Cams Dash (8 laps, finishing order determined first 10 starting positions of A-feature)
1) 6-Danny Lasoski 2) 9-Joey Saldana 3) 10-Sammy Swindell 4) 5W-Lucas Wolfe 5) R19-Jac Haudenschild 6) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr. 7) 7S-Jason Sides 8) 19-Craig Dollansky 9) 83-Tim Kaeding 10) 14-Jason Meyers
A-main (40 laps) - Starting Position [#]
1) 6-Danny Lasoski[1] [$10,000] 2) 10-Sammy Swindell[3] [$5,500] 3) 9-Joey Saldana[2] [$3,200] 4) 19-Craig Dollansky[8] [$2,800] 5) 5W-Lucas Wolfe[4] [$2,500] 6) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr.[6] [$2,300] 7) R19-Jac Haudenschild[5] [$2,200] 8) 83-Tim Kaeding[9] [$2,100] 9) 7S-Jason Sides[7] [$2,050] 10) 14-Jason Meyers[10] [$2,000] 11) 11-Steve Kinser[12] [$1,500] 12) 3S-Stu Snyder[13] [$1,200] 13) 20-Kraig Kinser[11] [$1,100] 14) 22-Brian Ellenberger[16] [$1,050] 15) 71R-Ryan Anderson[14] [$1,000] 16) 27-Patrick Bourke[19] [$900] 17) 4W-Matt Wasmund[18] [$800] 18) 88-Mike Boston[15] [$800] 19) 15-Donny Schatz[17] [$800] 20) 21-Ryan Kitchen[21] [$800] 21) 92J-Jr Topper[20] [$800] 22) 57-Tige Jensen[22] [$800]
Lap Leaders: Danny Lasoski 1-40
SuperClean Start of the Night Award: Craig Dollansky
Penske Power Position Award: Joey Saldana
KSE Hard Charger Award: Craig Dollansky
I am lucky enough to work at one of the best tracks
anywhere.
|
