Photo by http://www.johnsracingphotos.com Joey Saldana picks up exciting, non-stop Thunderbowl Raceway World of Outlaws feature
By Gary Thomas
Tulare, California – March 22, 2009…Brownsburg, Indiana's Joey Saldana and Altoona, Iowa's Terry McCarl have had exciting moments in the past at the Thunderbowl Raceway & the pair were at it once again on Saturday night with the duo putting on a thrilling show in traffic that was eventually captured by Saldana after 35 laps of fast paced action on the 1/3 mile clay oval.
Saldana had previously won a World of Outlaws event at the Thunderbowl Raceway in February of 2007 and also picked up a preliminary victory at the track during the Trophy Cup that same year. "The track was great tonight and I really don't think it could have been much better," Saldana said. "It was a lot of fun to be able to race right up next to the wall and I have to thank everyone involved with the Thunderbowl for giving us an outstanding track to race on."
The 35 lap feature began with front row starters McCarl and Germantown, Tennessee's Sammy Swindell battling hard into turns one and two for the lead. McCarl tried hard to slide up in front of Swindell, but the driver of the Tom Rolfe Trucking No. 10 blasted around the outside of the Big Game Tree Stands No. 24 to take the lead heading down the back stretch. It didn't last long however, as traffic came into play and McCarl pounced to take the lead with a slider off turn four on lap 6.
At this time Saldana then began to show his strength in the Budweiser No. 9 machine as he closed in quickly on Swindell and executed a big time slide job to claim second on lap 10. With heavy lapped traffic in front of McCarl it gave Saldana the chance to gain ground and the "Brownsburg Bullet" didn't let it go to waste as he inched his way into the lead on lap 12. McCarl would return the favor though and the pair would put on a show slicing & dicing through traffic over the next few laps until Saldana got the advantage on lap 15.
Saldana would extend his lead after getting out front, but the battle began to heat up for second as McCarl had to contend with Swindell, Fargo, ND's Donny Schatz, Elk River, MN's Craig Dollansky and San Jose, CA's Tim Kaeding. The slicked off racing surface created some fantastic side by side racing as the positions seemed to change each and every lap over the remaining 20 circuits with drivers using every inch of the Thunderbowl Raceway clay.
Just when it seemed like Saldana might pull away from everyone however, he began to have difficulty in traffic with about 10 laps to go and McCarl gave it a valiant charge to close back in and make it an exciting race to the finish. With McCarl breathing down his neck in the thick & heavy lapped traffic it forced Saldana to be mistake free over the remaining laps and that's exactly how it played out.
With the white flag in the air Saldana was able to make a great move and get by a couple lap cars to give him the room he needed to pull away and take the checkered flag to score his third career Thunderbowl Raceway victory. McCarl crossed the line in second to cap off a strong weekend that also saw him reset the all-time Thunderbowl track record with a lap of 12.713 seconds in qualifying on Friday.
Coming home in third and continuing his strong season was Sammy Swindell, who also finished a very close second the previous night. The three-time World of Outlaw champ has moved to fourth in series points, just six digits out of second. Crossing the line in fourth was current Outlaw point leader and three-time defending series champion Donny Schatz who had his best run of the California swing aboard the Armor All No. 15. Rounding out the top five was Craig Dollansky in the Direct TV No. 19 who had an entertaining battle with Schatz over much of the race.
Finishing sixth was the locally based Roth Motorsports No. 83 driven by Tim Kaeding, seventh went to Findlay, Ohio's Chad Kemenah with Friday's winner Randy Hannagan of San Jose, Bloomington, IN's Steve Kinser and Australia's Kerry Madsen completing the top 10 in the main event.
With rain in the area race officials pushed the show along and the extremely well run and exciting program ended with the checkered flag dropping at 8:59 pm.
Racing action will return to the Tulare Thunderbowl Raceway on Saturday night April 11 with a three-division card featuring the Golden State Challenge King of California 410 Sprint Cars, the 360 Wingless Bandit's and the Western States Modifieds.
For more news and info on the Tulare Thunderbowl Raceway please log onto http://thunderbowlraceway.com/index.html
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