Steve Kinser Captures
Phoenix — Oct. 11, 2005 — By Chris
Dolack, WoO Sprint Series Public Relations Director
For the ninth time in his career, Steve Kinser raced to Victory Lane at
Manzanita Speedway on Tuesday night when he captured the Cactus Classic finale,
which was delayed by rain in March.
When a wing valve failed pole-sitter Craig Dollansky, Kinser grabbed the lead
on a restart with nine laps down as Donny Schatz slid into second two corners
later. Kinser and Schatz would duel each other over the final 20 laps, even
splitting a lapped car running through the middle of the high-speed half-mile
oval at one point, before Kinser gained momentum on the bottom and rolled to
the checkered flag in the Quaker State Maxim for a series-high 20th time this
season in a main event. He also has six preliminary feature wins.
Schatz continued his streak as the hottest driver on tour as he held on to
finish second in the ParkerStore J&J as he gears up for the 2006 season
with the Outlaws. Despite his malfunctioning top wing, Dollansky, another racer
preparing to run with the Outlaws again in ’06, kept the VMAC/Karavan J&J
in third with Danny Lasoski in the Bass Pro Shops Eagle and Shane Stewart in
the Snap-On Maxim rounding out the top five.
Randy Hannagan scored another strong run with the Outlaws, driving the Terry
Hannagan Racing Maxim to sixth with ’06 Outlaw Daryn Pittman in the Titan
Garages & Carports Maxim,
After Dollansky held off Lasoski to win the preliminary feature in March,
series officials and SLS Promotions attempted to get the main event in for two
days before they were forced to delay it to Tuesday night. That worked in
Kinser’s favor because once he and Schatz split the lapped car, Kinser found
the bottom was the fastest lane to propel his machine around the track. Schatz
tried to keep pace but a left rear losing air pressure hampered his efforts and
Dollansky was in third still trying to battle with his injured top wing.
Fast-qualifier Terry McCarl was working his way toward the front when suddenly
with 25 laps complete his right rear tire exploded in Turn 1 just as he had
moved into fourth. It sent his car into a flip and brought out the lone red
flag of the event, setting up a five-lap shootout for the $12,000 checkered
flag.
Kinser pinched the bottom as he led the field to the green flag and powered
into Turn 1. Schatz and Dollansky, whose crew repaired his wing under the open
red flag, raced nose-to-tail in an effort to run down Kinser, but with clear
track in front of him, Kinser turned smooth laps and extended his lead to win
1.724 seconds.
“I had a pretty good car,” said Kinser, a Mean 15 racer from Bloomington, Ind.
“I got a little bottled up in Turns 1 and 2 a few times, but I think everybody
was getting up there and getting tight. If you hit it wrong it would wad you up
a little bit. Then I got to where I could work the bottom in Turns 3 and 4 and
I had two grooves to work when we got to lapped cars. I had a pretty good way
to go then.”
The key to victory for Kinser was holding off Schatz and Dollansky on the final
restart with five laps to go.
“That was my main thing, trying to get off there and not let him get a run at
me going into Turn 1,” Kinser said. “The only lap I messed up was the first lap
on the restart. I went in and missed the bottom a little bit. It was a little
slow, but it wasn’t too bad. After that I caught it pretty good the last four
laps. I knew I was getting through there good enough. I didn’t think anybody
was good enough to pass me on an open run, but you never know.”
Schatz had pulled even with Kinser early on, but once they caught the lapped
car running through the middle, Schatz held his position, making Kinser go to
the bottom while he went to the top. From there, Kinser found the bottom was
actually faster than where he had been running and Schatz was unable to get
back along side him.
“It was my own fault because I forced him down there with the lapped car,” said
Schatz, a Mean 15 racer from
Schatz has been one of the top cars on the circuit since he finished second in
the Knoxville Nationals. Four of his eight A-feature victories have come since
late August.
“I guess it says a lot for this whole team,” Schatz said. “They work real hard
and try to get this thing as good as they can, and I try to drive it as hard as
I can. Sometimes it’s probably too hard and it gets me in trouble. I guess the
whole goal is to be consistent. It’s a shame it’s this late in the year, but
there’s always next year.”
After winning the Stacker 2 Dash to earn the pole, preliminary feature winner
Dollansky jumped out to a quick lead. He was pulling away from the field when
the first caution waved with nine laps complete. It was under that caution when
he realized his wing wasn’t functioning properly, but there was no way to
correct the problem without easing into the turns.
“On that restart when Steve got underneath me, the wing cylinder fell right off
so the wing went all the way back,” said Dollansky, a Mean 15 racer from Elk
River, Minn. “I had to go into that first corner easy and push the front end
and let him get underneath me. I was just trying to hang on from that point. We
changed it on the red but it was too little too late then.
“We were actually getting better as the race was going on. When the wing valve
fell off, I knew it had happened rolling around the caution. The wing was all
the way forward and when I pushed on the gas it went back. I knew I was done.”
Dollansky maintained his spot in third in the championship standings despite a
season where odd happenings from blown tires to plug wires falling off have
worked against him.
“We definitely need to get a win here before the end,” said Dollansky, a
two-time A-feature winner in 2005. “We’ve been testing some things and trying
to get some things situated for going into next year. We’ve had some tough luck
this year and it’s kind of sticking with us. Last weekend we had a plug wire
fall off when we were going to sit on the front row of a Dash and tonight we
had a wing valve fall apart. We’ve got to get some of this stuff put behind
us.”
Lasoski, who was coming off a sweep at Dodge City Raceway Park, was able to
cruise around the half-mile oval in the top five for the entire race.
“We probably had a fifth-place car,” said Lasoski, a Mean 15 racer from Dover,
Mo. “The Mopar had been running great so we put another engine in and it would
run wide open but that was it. I couldn’t throttle it. It wouldn’t take off,
wouldn’t do anything. To run across the bottom you had to lift a little bit.
But I’m just tickled. We’re making progress. A top four for us is a victory. We
had an opportunity to run better, but as long as we’re going forward that’s all
we’re working toward.”
Being locked into the Stacker 2 Dash helped Stewart, the Kevin Gobrecht Rookie
of the Year Award leader, maintain his spot and post a top-five run.
“Any time you can get locked in with these guys, it’s very vital,” said
Stewart, of Bixby, Okla., who finished in the top five of an A-feature for the
seventh time this year. “My guys gave me a really good car. The Maxim car was
working really good, the Hoosier tires did their job. We had a Gaerte engine
tonight. Joe has helped us out there and that thing ran really good. We’re just
trying to do a little bit of R&D work. I think we struggled just a little
bit in the middle of summer when it was hot and the air was bad. That’s when
you needed to be in you’re A-game and that’s when we lost a lot of points. My
hat’s off to my guys and my car owner. None of them have given up. It’s been a
struggle. It’s a rookie year for us, but I don’t look at myself as a rookie.
I’ve been pretty hard on myself.”
Following the Cactus Classic, the Outlaws close out the season with a two-day
show Friday-Saturday at Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare, Calif., and a two-day
show Oct. 21-22 at the Dirt Track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
CACTUS CLASSIC NOTEBOOK
• For a series-leading 11th time in 2005, Terry McCarl paced the 23 cars
that went through time trials in the Big Game
“I just have to thank Wesmar,” McCarl said. “If we get this fast in the
features we’re going to be pretty unstoppable next year. Right now we’ve got
the qualifying thing down, which definitely helps on the second day of a
two-day show. It puts you behind the 8-ball on a normal
• Steve Kinser has a series-leading 20 A-feature victories and six preliminary
feature wins this season. … There have been 17 different A-feature winners this
season. Including preliminary features, 22 different drivers have visited
Victory Lane this season with the Outlaws. … Donny Schatz’s victory Oct. 1 at
Williams Grove Speedway was his eighth of the season, second-most this year
with the Outlaws. … Kraig Kinser captured the Knoxville Nationals on Aug. 14
for his sixth A-feature victory of the season. He also has a preliminary
feature win at Las Vegas. …
• Manzanita Speedway is a half-mile oval. Including preliminary features, the
series has raced 37 times this year on half-mile circuits with Steve Kinser
winning 10 times (Volusia, Eldora three times, Knoxville, Williams Grove,
Hartford, Red River Valley, Calistoga and Manzanita), Donny Schatz winning four
times (Las Vegas, Route 66 Raceway, Calistoga, Williams Grove), Sammy Swindell
winning four times (twice at Eldora, once at Hagerstown and Knoxville), Kraig
Kinser winning three times (Las Vegas and twice at Knoxville), Craig Dollansky
winning twice (Manzanita and Williams Grove),
• Drivers who have raced to victory in preliminary features this season include
(in alphabetical order) Craig Dollansky three times (Manzanita/Williams
Grove/Silver Dollar), Jason Johnson once (Williams Grove), Kraig Kinser once
(Las Vegas), Steve Kinser six times (Eagle twice/Billings/Elma/Calistoga/Silver
Dollar), Danny Lasoski four times (Australia/Knoxville/Calistoga/Dodge City),
Fred Rahmer twice (Knoxville/Williams Grove), Kerry Madsen once (Australia), Paul
McMahan once (Williams Grove),
• In the Stacker 2 Dash that set the top six positions for the A-main, Craig
Dollansky, Danny Lasoski, Steve Kinser and Shane Stewart were joined by Terry
McCarl and Donny Schatz — the two fastest qualifiers who transferred through
their heats. In the Dash, Dollansky, the preliminary feature winner in March,
jumped out to a quick lead and motored to victory in the VMAC/Karavan J&J
to earn the pole for the main event. Lasoski was second followed by Stewart,
Kinser, Schatz and McCarl.
• In the B-main, Jason Johnson, the fifth different driver this season in the
Dennis Roth-owned Beefpackers Eagle, raced side-by-side with
• In heat race action,
• Following the Cactus Classic, the Outlaws close out the year with a two-day
show Friday-Saturday at Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare, Calif., and a two-day
show Oct. 21-22 at the Dirt Track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
• The Outdoor Channel will air at 8 p.m. Eastern on Oct. 12 the National Open
from Williams Grove Speedway on Oct. 12, followed Oct. 19 by the race from Dodge
City Raceway Park.
• The Official
• If fans can’t get to a track to see the series, they can experience the
excitement of the
• The
WoO Sprint Series Statistical Report; Cactus Classic finale; Manzanita
Speedway; Phoenix, Ariz.; Oct. 11, 2005
Qualifying
1) Terry McCarl, McCarl 24, 15.633
2) Donny Schatz, Schatz 15, 15.645
3) Kraig Kinser, Kinser 11K, 15.787
4) Daryn Pittman, Titan Racing USA 21, 15.804
5) Sammy Swindell, Forbrook 5, 15.851
6) Brandon Wimmer, Two Winners Racing 7TW, 15.854
7)
8) Randy Hannagan, TH Racing 1X, 15.857
9) Kevin Swindell, Swindell 1, 15.865
10) Joey Saldana, Woodward 2, 15.875
11)
12) Jason Johnson, Roth 83, 15.890
13) Jason Sides, Sides Motorsports 7S, 15.893
14) Brooke Tatnell, Rush Racing 8, 15.912
15) Paul McMahan, Helm 11H, 15.969
16) Jason Solwold, Carnahan R19, 15.984
17) Jeremy Campbell, Campbell 10C, 16.245
18) Kaylene Verville, Verville 01, 16.589
19) Rickey Hood, Cushman 33, 16.765
20) Marty Wilcox, Veal 16, 17.539
21) Ben Gregg, Gregg 22B, 17.715
22) Tim Shaffer, Parsons 6, No time
23)
Top four finishers in preliminary feature (locked into first four starting
positions in Dash): Craig Dollansky, Karavan 7; Danny Lasoski, Stewart 20;
Steve Kinser, Kinser 11; Shane Stewart, Rudeen Racing 26
First Heat Race (8 laps, top 5 finishers transferred to A-feature)
1)
2) Terry McCarl
3) Jason Sides
4) Brandon Wimmer
5) Tim Shaffer
6) Jason Solwold
7) Jason Johnson
8) Rickey Hood
Second Heat Race (8 laps, top 5 finishers transferred to A-feature)
1) Randy Hannagan
2) Donny Schatz
3) Brooke Tatnell
4) Sammy Swindell
5) Jeremy Campbell
6) Marty Wilcox
7)
8)
Third Heat Race (8 laps, top 5 finishers transferred to A-feature)
1) Kevin Swindell
2) Joey Saldana
3) Kraig Kinser
4) Daryn Pittman
5) Paul McMahan
6) Kaylene Verville
7) Ben Gregg
Stacker 2 Dash (6 laps, finishing order determined first 6 starting positions
of A-feature)
1) Craig Dollansky
2) Danny Lasoski
3) Shane Stewart
4) Steve Kinser
5) Donny Schatz
6) Terry McCarl
B-main (8 laps, top 5 finishers transferred to A-feature)
1) Jason Johnson [$20]
2)
3) Jason Solwold [$20]
4) Kaylene Verville [$20]
5) Ben Gregg [$20]
6) Marty Wilcox [$200]
7) Rickey Hood [$175]
8)
A-main (30 laps)
1) Steve Kinser [$12,000]
2) Donny Schatz [$6,000]
3) Craig Dollansky [$4,000]
4) Danny Lasoski [$3,500]
5) Shane Stewart [$3,300]
6) Randy Hannagan [$3,100]
7) Daryn Pittman [$3,000]
8)
9) Joey Saldana [$2,100]
10) Brandon Wimmer [$2,050]
11) Tim Shaffer [$2,000]
12) Kraig Kinser [$1,600]
13) Kevin Swindell [$1,500]
14)
15) Paul McMahan [$1,100]
16) Jason Solwold [$1,000]
17) Jason Sides [$900]
18) Jason Johnson [$800]
19) Terry McCarl [$800]
20) Ben Gregg [$800]
21) Brooke Tatnell [$800]
22) Jeremy Campbell [$800]
23) Sammy Swindell [$800]
24) Kaylene Verville [$800]
Lap leaders: Craig Dollansky 1-9, Steve Kinser 10-30
Driver Team Team Team Team A-feature
Rank Driver Points Points Earnings Diff. Wins Top 5 Top 10
1 Steve Kinser 9281 9281 $486,900 0 20 46 59
2
3 Craig Dollansky 8597 8597 $199,250 -684 2 22 41
4 Donny Schatz 8452 8452 $318,310 -829 8 22 39
5 Kraig Kinser 8372 8372 $328,170 -909 6 20 35
6 Danny Lasoski 8328 8328 $210,005 -953 2 14 36
7 Daryn Pittman 8184 8184 $199,855 -1097 5 16 31
8 Tim Shaffer 8108 8108 $190,085 -1173 3 15 28
9 Terry McCarl 8088 8088 $146,520 -1193 0 12 28
10 Brooke Tatnell* 8072 8348 $187,105 -933 2 19 33
11 Paul McMahan 8066 8066 $126,830 -1215 0 7 24
12 Joey Saldana 7862 7862 $157,385 -1419 0 15 28
13 Shane Stewart 7817 7817 $140,550 -1464 0 7 24
14
15 Jason Sides 7550 7550 $91,450 -1731 0 2 12
16 Jason Solwold 7349 7349 $106,430 -1932 0 4 14
17 Brandon Wimmer 6859 6859 $63,370 -2422 0 1 6
18 Tim Kaeding** 6461 0 $0 -9281 0*** 0 0
19 Sammy Swindell 4711 4561 $117,380 -4720 2 14 18
20 Kevin Swindell 3643 3643 $31,045 -5638 0 1 3
NOTE: Dennis Roth’s No. 83 car driven
Tuesday night by Jason Johnson is 14th in owners’ points. The car also has been
driven this season by Tim Kaeding, Jac Haudenschild,
*Rush Racing’s No. 8 car driven by Brooke Tatnell is sixth in owners’ points.
**Tim Kaeding and Jac Haudenschild each have one victory this season in the No.
83 car.