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Lasoski Harvests with Broom - By Bobby Gerould - August 31, 2003 - Calistoga, CA. - 2003 Knoxville Nationals winner, Danny Lasoski completed a three night sweep of the Harvest Classic Sunday night at Calistoga Speedway. Not to be confused with Saturday's "clean sweep" by the Dover, MO. driver, Lasoski's weekend in the Napa Wine Country proved convincingly that his Tony Stewart owned, Home Depot #20 is one super fast sprint car. Starting from the pole position he earned by winning both Harvest Classic preliminary features, Lasoski was never seriously challenged in the 30-lap contest on the 1/2 mile dirt track. With the three straight nights of winning, and unfortunate circumstances for Steve Kinser, Lasoski left Calistoga with the O'Reilly World of Outlaws points lead.
The 30 lap Harvest Classic feature featured great racing, just not any for the lead. Lasoski, in his Eagle/MOPAR-Kistler was greeted in the winners circle by a broom holding, Jimmy Carr, the crew chief of Lasoski's orange sprinter. “I’ve never had a weekend like this—my hat’s off to the entire JD Byrider crew, with Jimmy Carr leading the way", said Lasoski. "I get a little excited sometimes, and he calms me down. I rely on him 100%--he’s not only my crew chief but my best friend as well. I have to thank Paul Kistler, Jerry Russell from Eagle chassis, and Hoosier tires—they make it possible for me to be out here."
The feature line up of 24 cars brought the packed house to their collective feet with fireworks exploding in the cool Calistoga sky. Lasoski jumped to the lead by outdragging Joey Saldana into turn one. The next time by the flagstand, Saldana's Eagle Raceway #17 lost it's muffler on the right side. As the debris caromed off the turn one wall, Paul McMahan ran over the muffler, which exploded his right rear tire and sent him into the concrete that keeps cars on the racing surface. McMahan's Vivarin #11 was damaged beyond repair.
On lap six, three-time Harvest Classic winner, Sammy Swindell went low entering turn one, and pulled even with Donny Schatz but couldn’t take the runner-up spot.
17-time World of Outlaws champion, Steve Kinser, started 19th due to two chassis junking crashes in the preliminary nights of racing. Kinser pleased the Northern California fans with a charge from the back. By lap seven, Kinser passed Randy Hannagan for 10th on the low groove of turn four.
In his winner's interview with Troy Hennig, Lasoski said, "That 11 (Steve Kinser) team works hard, just like my team works hard. They had some misfortune this week, and we have other times this year, and the bottom line is that it’s going to be exciting the rest of the year, and hopefully when it’s all said and done we’ll be out front."
Lap ten was bad for Brad Furr. The recently engaged Pleasanton, CA. driver, lost an engine while running fourth. The action intensified one half-mile later when Kinser took 8th spot from 2002 Harvest Classic winner, Daryn Pittman with a low move exiting turn two. Meanwhile Tim Kaeding who was celebrating his 25th birthday Sunday, jumped the cushion in turn four, allowing both Kinser and Pittman to get by, with Pittman taking 7th, and Kinser running 8th.
The caution flag appeared on lap 13 for Brent Kaeding, who spun and backed into the wall lightly in turn 1. Kaeding was able to restart. B-Main winner, Tim Shaffer was spectacular in his run from 12th starting into the top five. Shaffer snared 5th from Jason Meyers on the top in turns one and two. Shaffer then passed Swindell for 4th on the high groove in three and four.
In deep traffic by lap 20, Lasoski stayed the course and continued to dominate at the track where his car owner holds the all-time one lap track record for midgets. "Tony (Stewart) had a long day today, so I’ll call him at home and let him know that we got the sweep at his favorite California track.”
On lap 26, just four shy of the finish, Swindell suffered a broken wheel on the ORE-CAL #1, J&J. At the same time, Tim Kaeding’s car had a malfunction, sending him into the wall in turn four. Kaeding was shaken, but walked away.
Lasoski took the checkered flag from Jake Vickers with a half-straightaway to spare. Schatz came home second, with Shaffer finishing third in his first weekend of driving for new Beef Packers #83 crew chief, Kenny Woodruff. The top five was completed by Pittman, and Johnny Hererra. Sixth through tenth were Jason Meyers, Kinser, Hannagan, Dennis Moore Jr., and Jason Sides.
Moore Jr. was honored at the conclusion of the race as the 2003 Calistoga Speedway track champion. Moore will receive the traditional Scarborough Trophy named after the late Jim Scarborough who was killed in a racing accident at Calistoga Speedway.
The World of Outlaws now head for Central California. Tuesday night at Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare, CA., WoO will run it's first race ever at the 1/3 mile, high banked, clay oval.
** John Gibson contributed to this report.
O’Reilly World of Outlaws Calistoga Speedway August 31, 2003
Qualifying Points (accumulated over first two nights of competition. First four in qualifying points locked into first four starting positions in Dash) 1) Danny Lasoski, Stewart 20, 1092 2) Joey Saldana, Saldana 17, 1052 3) Donny Schatz, Schatz 15, 1005 4) Paul McMahan, Helm 11H, 1002 5) Sammy Swindell, Roth 1, 999 6) Johnny Herrera, Forbrook 5, 996 7) Brad Furr, Furr 2, 989 8) Jason Meyers, Karavan 7, 987 9) Daryn Pittman, Sher-Don Motorsports 21, 982 10) Randy Hannagan, TH Racing 1X, 977 11) Jason Sides, Sides Motorsports 7S, 965 12) Tim Shaffer, Roth 83, 960 13) Tim Kaeding, Cowen 7T, 926 14) Jonathan Allard, Wright 35W, 925 15) Dennis Moore, Jr., Williams 0, 916 16) Brent Kaeding, Kaeding 69, 911 17) Toni Lutar, Lutar 4X, 909 18) Brian Paulus, P&P Motorsports 28, 904 19) Steve Kinser, Kinser 11, 892 20) Roger Crockett, Henderson 7N, 851 21) Jim Carter, Rudeen 26, 837 22) Brian Coelho, Coelho 5C, 831 23) Jac Haudenschild, Woodward 4, 815 24) Rick Fowzer, Fowzer 5F, 766 25) Andy Forsberg, Forsberg 92, 735 26) Mike Benson, Benson 77, 735 27) Ernest McAffee, McAffee 22, 705 28) Sparky Howard, Howard 6, 381 29) Doug Lippincott, Lippincott 4L, 380 30) Josh Blakeley, Blakeley 33L, 0
First Heat Race (8 laps, top 5 finishers transferred to A-feature)--1) Sammy Swindell 2) Jason Meyers 3) Jonathan Allard 4) Jason Sides 5) Toni Lutar 6) Roger Crockett 7) Sparky Howard 8) Jac Haudenschild
Second Heat Race (8 laps, top 5 finishers transferred to A-feature)--1) Daryn Pittman 2) Johnny Herrera 3) Dennis Moore, Jr. 4) Jim Carter 5) Brian Paulus 6) Rick Fowzer 7) Doug LIppincott 8) Tim Shaffer
Third Heat Race (8 laps, top 5 finishers transferred to A-feature)--1) Brad Furr 2) Randy Hannagan 3) Brent Kaeding 4) Tim Kaeding 5) Steve Kinser 6) Brian Coelho 7) Andy Forsberg 8) Josh Blakeley 9) Ernest McAffee
Dash (5 laps, finishing order determined first 6 starting positions of A-feature)--1) Danny Lasoski 2) Joey Saldana 3) Donny Schatz 4) Paul McMahan 5) Sammy Swindell 6) Johnny Herrera
B-main (12 laps, top 5 finishers transferred to A-feature)—1) Tim Shaffer 2) Roger Crockett 3) Andy Forsberg 4) Brian Coelho 5) Sparky Howard 6) Doug Lippincott 7) Rick Fowzer 8) Josh Blakeley 9) Ernest McAffee
A-main (30 laps)--1) Danny Lasoski 2) Donny Schatz 3) Tim Shaffer 4) Daryn Pittman 5) Johnny Herrera 6) Jason Meyers 7) Steve Kinser 8) Randy Hannagan 9) Dennis Moore, Jr. 10) Jason Sides 11) Jonathan Allard 12) Toni Lutar 13) Jim Carter 14) Sparky Howard 15) Brian Coelho 16) Brent Kaeding 17) Sammy Swindell 18) Tim Kaeding 19) Andy Forsberg 20) Brad Furr 21) Brian Paulus 22) Paul McMahan 23) Roger Crockett 24) Joey Saldana
