Russ Hall – Cashing in at Donnellson!
(Bill W) April 8, 2014 – Russ Hall and the Skillz Motorsports #29 team locked up their first win of the season with the Brockway Mechanical & Roofing Sprint Invaders last Saturday at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson, Iowa. The defending series’ champion led from start to finish in the 25-lap feature event.
The 3/8-mile semi-banked oval seems to always lend to good sprint car racing. “I thought coming in, the track may be heavy with all the rain they had during the week,” says Russ. “It turned out to be smooth, and it slicked off as the night went on. You really couldn’t ask for a smoother surface for this time of year.”
Despite starting fifth in his heat, Russ was on top of the track. “We had a pretty tough heat race,” he says. “I went and watched the track a little bit after hot laps and watched the modifieds run. I could see the track was slicking up a little in the straightaways. We made some adjustments there before we went out for the heat. I think we hit on the setup a little better than most.”
The Pleasant Hill, Iowa driver made his way up to second and challenged for the lead. “We got into second place there behind (Bret) Tripplett,” says Russ. “We were able to put a slidejob on him for the lead, but the caution came out. After that, running the top two was the key to making the Dash. Tripplett had a good car in the heat race, and we settled for second.”
The redraw for the Dash saw Russ start outside of row two. Before a lap could be completed, he was leading and checking out on the field. “We made a few more adjustments,” he says. “They really worked, because I think we were leading coming off of turn two after the start. We were lucky enough to have the Junior Fan of the night draw me the pole for the feature. We had luck on our side too.”
Russ took off from his pole position. After an early red flag, he took off and put several lapped cars between himself and the second place car of Scotty Thiel. A caution came out around the midway point. A new rule with the series puts lapped cars at the tail of the field and put Thiel on his bumper. “I kind of forgot about that rule,” says Russ. “That’s when you need them to leave them in the order! I figured we had at least three or four of them between us and second. I didn’t know who was behind me. I figured it was Scotty Thiel or (Tony) Shilling.”
He needn’t worry as he pulled away in clean air and cruised to his first win of the season aboard the Schnee chassis powered by Ostrich Racing Engines. “We had a car that was taking off well all night,” says Russ. “By lap 20, I had some room between the lap cars and myself, so I was taking it a little easy. I was trying not to catch them too fast, because they were running three-wide and the rubber was starting to take hold. I took my time a little bit, and I think Scotty was running me down a little bit. I think if it came down to it, we would have been able to hold him off if it came to that.”
Russ will be back in action with the Sprint Invaders at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa, Iowa on Wednesday, April 16 and on Friday, April 18 at the Independence Motor Speedway in Independence.
Russ and the Skillz Motorsports team would like to thank: Waterfront Seafood Market, Kulow Trucking, Northtown Motors, Schnee Chassis, Ostrich Racing Engines, Tom Davis Automotive, Des Moines Industrial Products, Midland Performance, Ballistic Designs, HRP, Jim’s Johns, R&L Racing Shocks and Jocko’s.
Russ and the Skillz Motorsports team in Victory Lane at Donnellson (Ann Davies Photo)
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