HammerDownUSA.com
Daryn Pittman dominated the final night of the Cleveland Brothers Summer
Nationals on Saturday to earn the first victory of his career at historic
Williams Grove Speedway.
Pittman, who entered the finale as the Summer Nationals points leader in the
Titan Garages and Carports Maxim, won the JakesKarts.com Dash, started on the
pole and held off Donny Schatz’s ParkerStore J&J for 30 caution-free laps
to roll into the
Craig Dollansky, who won the second night of the Summer Nationals, finished
third in the Karavan Trailers Maxim with Brooke Tatnell in the Race Outfitters
Eagle and Joey Saldana in the Mopar-powered Dodge/Curb Records JEI completing a
top-five sweep for the Mean 15 in the heart of Pennsylvania Posse country.
Pittman had been close to winning before at Williams Grove, but something
always conspired to keep him out of the winner’s circle until Saturday night.
That’s why even though he was starting from the pole, Pittman refused to be
confident about winning until the checkered flag waved.
“I think I thought that twice here in the fall last year and it bit me,” said
Pittman, of
“It seemed like we had been on the outside for every start so to be on the pole
was a good advantage. So many times throughout the past years we’ve always had
good prelim nights and come full point and full pay days, we seem to fall
apart. We kicked the rods out here in the spring on the last lap and fell out.
I was confident in the car, but nervous on the other side, too, knowing we
needed to take full advantage of it.”
The luck also went Pittman’s way in the feature. Schatz was trying to reel in
Pittman, cutting the deficit each lap as they weaved through traffic. Then
midway through the main event, Schatz’s motor had trouble. He stayed out and
managed to finish second despite losing a cylinder.
“We blew a motor,” said Schatz, of
By nursing his car to the finish, Schatz managed to increase his lead in the
championship standings to 207 points.
“We’re consistent,” Schatz said. “You’ve got to be, not just for championship
points, but money-wise. You’ve got to be in the money every night. That’s what
we’re here for. These guys worked hard and I wanted to get them a win tonight.
We weren’t very good the last two nights and tonight we were good and had
something go wrong. It wasn’t anything anybody did. You just can expect some of
the metal in these motors to do all these miracles. It got real hot and we took
a chance on us and it bit us.”
Pittman never let up, instead increasing the pressure on himself and the field
as the race went on.
“I didn’t know what Schatz was doing behind me,” Pittman said. “I knew once we
got to traffic, the first four or five cars we got to I split and got by real
quick. … I kept seeing Schatz try to slide me a little bit so I knew I was
getting pressured pretty hard and I had to make something happen. Luckily we
made all the right calls and got through it clean enough and in one piece.”
While Pittman certainly deserved the spotlight for his dominating run on
Saturday and consistent performance throughout the Summer Nationals, it was the
“The top five finishers are the top five in
Dollansky, whose motor stumbled at the start of the dash to put him third, was
also excited about the performance of the
“I think this is a very strong group, there’s no question about it,” said
Dollansky, of Elk River, Minn. “I think you saw that during the Kings Royal
weekend as well as this weekend here. There are a lot of good, strong race
teams out here. The finish speaks for itself. Out here is as tough as they get
with the Pennsylvania Posse. It was definitely a good run for the
Even Brooke Tatnell, a masterful driver on the bull rings who doesn’t hide his
disdain for Williams Grove’s half-mile, was all smiles after earning a top-five
when he failed to make the feature during the May event.
“It’s never been a secret of what I think of this place,” said Tatnell, a
native of San Souci, New South Wales, Australia. “I think of this place like
what Americans think of vegemite. You’ve got to get used to it. I think we’ve
finally figured out where we need to be to run this place. It’s a good weekend
for the
The positive results also mean Tatnell can relax —if only slightly — when the
“We don’t have to fret about it for the month prior, we can just worry about it
two weeks prior,” Tatnell joked. “It’s definitely a confidence run. We were
concerned about how we were going to do this weekend and we’ve exceeded our
expectations. We’ve come across some things we need to do. Schatz said to me
before, ‘I used to hate that place then one day I stumbled on something and
been good ever since.’ Hopefully this was our stumbling block.”
A top-five for Joey Saldana’s team also was encouraging. The Kings Royal
champions, Saldana’s team has been doing everything it can to keep pace with
Schatz.
“I wish I would have won, obviously, but it was neat that the
“It’s a huge confidence here. The first time we were here, my car was really
good. This time we’ve kind of struggled with it. Tonight we finally felt like
we were close. Not close enough, but close. At least we have something we can
work off of when we come back.”
There’s no rest for the Mean 15 teams as they race Sunday night at Lebanon
Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y., and Tuesday at Fulton (N.Y.) Speedway
before shifting to the PolyDome Princeton Nationals on July 28-29 at Princeton
(Minn.) Speedway.
WILLIAM
• QUALIFYING: Following two nights of action, Daryn Pittman, Donny Schatz,
Craig Dollansky and Brooke Tatnell were locked into the main event on Saturday.
The rest of the teams were lined up for heat race action according the points
they earned through the first two nights.
• QUALIFYING EVENT WINNERS: Heat race winners included Joey Saldana, Kenny
Jacobs, Mike Erdley and Lance Dewease. … Jeff Shepard won the B-Main. … Daryn
Pittman picked up the win in the dash.
• FEATURE WINNERS: There have been 14 different winners in 35 A-feature events
to visit the RacinSoles Victory Lane with the
• PRELIMINARY FEATURE WINNERS: There have been six preliminary features run
this season by the
• HALF-MILE WINNERS: Williams Grove Speedway is a semi-banked, half-mile oval.
The
• ON TELEVISION: The Outdoor Channel will air at 8 p.m. (ET) on July 26 the
Knight Before the Kings Royal from Eldora Speedway. The Outdoor Channel is
available nationwide through the DISH Network (Channel 153) and DIRECTV
(Channel 606).
• ON THE WEB: The Official
• LISTEN ONLINE: If fans can’t get to a track to see the series, they can
experience the excitement of the
• UP NEXT: On Saturday, the finale of the Summer Nationals at Williams Grove
Speedway that will pay the winner $20,000. On Sunday, the Mean 15 roll into the
• SPONSOR SUPPORT: The
Qualifying points (accumulated over first two preliminary programs.
Top 4 in qualifying points locked into first 4 positions of Dash)
1) Daryn Pittman, Titan Racing USA 21, 1076
2) Craig Dollansky, Karavan 7, 1058
3) Donny Schatz, Schatz 15, 1038
4) Brooke Tatnell, Rush Racing 8, 1036
5) Joey Saldana, Kahne-Curb 9, 977
6) Kenny Jacobs, Jackson 8J, 964
7) Terry McCarl, McCarl 24, 964
8)
9) Stevie Smith, Smith 19S, 951
10) Doug Esh, Leach Bros. 30, 946
11) Mike Erdley, Lisi 11, 945
12) Lance Dewease, Postupack 25, 924
13) Jeff Shepard, Shepard 4J, 918
14) Chad Kemenah, Kemenah 15K, 913
15) Keith Kauffman, Middlesworth 7K, 910
16) Alan Krimes, Krimes 87, 908
17) Randy Hannagan, TH Racing 1X, 886
18) Jac Haudenschild, Wright 35, 883
19) Lucas Wolfe, allebach 5W, 865
20) Alan Cole, Sorokach 35A, 849
21) Fred Rahmer, Kline 22, 834
22) Mark Smith, Zemco 1Z, 793
23) Justin Henderson, Oswalt D1, 775
24) Niki Young, Neiderer 10N, 760
25) Kevin Swindell, Swindell 1, 758
26) Jason Martin, Martin 36, 757
27) Becca Anderson, Woodring 19, 755
28)
29) Dion Hindi, Hindi 11D, 737
30) Chad Layton, Apple 12, 717
31) Don Kreitz, Kreitz 69K, 715
32) Jeremy Campbell, Campbell 10C, 714
33) Craig Keel, Pottorff 9K, 692
34) Michael Carber, Carber 69, 658
35) Josh Wells, Wells Bros. 6W, 623
36)
First Heat Race (8 laps, top 4 finishers transferred to A-feature)
1) Joey Saldana
2) Stevie Smith
3) Fred Rahmer
4) Randy Hannagan
5) Kevin Swindell
6) Craig Keel
7) Dion Hindi
8) Jeff Shepard (DNS)
Second Heat Race (8 laps, top 4 finishers transferred to A-feature)
1) Kenny Jacobs
2) Jac Haudenschild
3) Doug Esh
4) Chad Kemenah
5) Michael Carber
6) Jason Martin
7) Chad Layton
8) Mark Smith
Third Heat Race (8 laps, top 4 finishers transferred to A-feature)
1) Mike Erdley
2) Lucas Wolfe
3) Terry McCarl
4) Keith Kauffman
5) Becca Anderson
6) Josh Wells
7) Don Kreitz
8) Justin Henderson
Fourth Heat Race (8 laps, top 4 finishers transferred to A-feature)
1) Lance Dewease
2)
3) Alan Krimes
4) Alan Cole
5)
6) Niki Young
7) Jeremy Campbell
8)
Dash (6 laps, finishing order determined first 10 starting positions of
A-feature)
1) Daryn Pittman
2) Donny Schatz
3) Craig Dollansky
4) Brooke Tatnell
5) Joey Saldana
6) Stevie Smith
7) Kenny Jacobs
8) Terry McCarl
9) Doug Esh
10)
B-main (12 laps, top 4 finishers transferred to A-feature)
1) Jeff Shepard
2) Mark Smith
3) Chad Layton
4) Craig Keel
5) Niki Young [$200]
6) Josh Wells [$180]
7) Becca Anderson [$175]
8) Jeremy Campbell [$160]
9)
10) Kevin Swindell [$150]
11)
12) Dion Hindi [$150]
13) Jason Martin [$150]
14) Michael Carber [$150]
15) Justin Henderson [$150]
16) Don Kreitz [$150]
A-main (30 laps)
1) Daryn Pittman [$20,000]
2) Donny Schatz [$12,000]
3) Craig Dollansky [$6,000]
4) Brooke Tatnell [$5,250]
5) Joey Saldana [$4,500]
6) Lance Dewease [$4,000]
7) Stevie Smith [$3,500]
8) Terry McCarl [$3,000]
9) Doug Esh [$2,750]
10) Jac Haudenschild [$2,500]
11) Kenny Jacobs [$2,300]
12) Mike Erdley [$2,250]
13) Jeff Shepard [$2,000]
14) Alan Krimes [$1,600]
15) Randy Hannagan [$1,500]
16) Alan Cole [$1,300]
17)
18) Keith Kauffman [$1,050]
19) Chad Kemenah [$1,050]
20) Chad Layton [$1,050]
21) Lucas Wolfe [$1,000]
22) Mark Smith [$1,000]
23) Craig Keel [$900]
24) Fred Rahmer [$900]
Lap leader: Daryn Pittman 1-30