Schatz Captures WoO Knoxville Spring Sprint Show
Saturday, April 28, 2007
By Bob Wilson - Donnie Schatz still has command of the Knoxville oval. After winning last year's Knoxville Nationals Schatz again guided his Schatz-owned J & J to a 25-lap WoO (World of Outlaws) win Saturday night at Knoxville Raceway. The win paid the North Dakotan $10,000.
Schatz, who shared the front row of the feature event with Aussie Kerry Madsen, took a narrow lead at the end of one lap. Madsen stayed true to his line and roared around the top of the track to take the second circuit by no more than half a car length. Both men kept focused, Schatz on the bottom and Madsen on the top. And, that focus would stay that way to the end of the race.
By lap four Joey Saldana had come into contention on the bottom and quickly made a pass of Madsen. Once by Saldana set his sight on the front runner and made some headway until he was hindered by lap traffic on the seventh go around. That's when Schatz quickly put some distance between them.
At the conclusion of five miles, Schatz was up by eight car lengths and surprisingly Jason Meyers had utilized the bottom to bring himself into the third spot. Two laps later Saldana was close enough to make a move and as he and Schatz roared out of turn two, Saldana took the lead with the low line after the leader had drifted high. The following lap saw all three drivers running nose to tail out of turn two and down the back chute. At the end of 15 laps the books showed Saldana, Schatz, Meyers, Madsen and Terry McCarl in that order.
It was lap 15 that saw Schatz retake the lead in the same spot where he had relinquished it earlier. After Saldana had slid high in turn two, Schatz dove low and exited turn two as the leader once again. One lap later the caution flag flew for a stalled car on the track.
On the restart it was Madsen who made the most of the situation as he quickly made passes of Meyers and Saldana by roaring around the top. Though Madsen had made a good drive on the restart it was easy to see that the bottom was becoming the preferred line. Suddenly the red flag was shown for a wreck in turn two involving Steve Kinser and Paul McMahan. Kinser was able to restart despite having to change the top wing from the easy endo.
When the race went green again, it was obvious that the bottom was now the quickest way around this legendary half-mile oval. Saldana regained the runner-up spot on lap twenty-three as Madsen refused to concede his high line which was within feet of Knoxville's high white turn fences. Just as Schatz took the white flag, the final caution was shown for Madsen, who had stopped just off the pit entrance. His efforts to put one in the books from the high cushion would yield a 21st position finish.
In the end, it was Schatz and Saldana running first and second, just as they had done at the 2006 Knoxville Nationals the previous August. Meyers was credited with a strong third place finish. Craig Dollansky (started 12th) made a late race pass to claim fourth and McCarl settled for fifth. Rounding out the top ten finishers were Tim Shaffer, Daryn Pittman, Danny Lasoski, Brooke Tatnell and Jason Solwold who started 21st. Fifty-eight cars competed on the night.
The companion 360 sprint division saw Chuck Swenson take top laurels at the end of the 15-lap run. At first it looked as if Josh Higday was going to run away and hide as he had done one week ago. However a yellow at the end of lap three saw Higday's huge lead melt as the cars were placed nose to tail for a single file restart.
On that restart, Swenson found the bottom to his liking in turns one and two and roared past Higday coming off the bottom of turn two. It was a position the Watertown, South Dakota driver would never relinquish.
Lap eight saw three-time and defending track champion Jake Peters take over second as he also had gone to the bottom of the track. That relegated Higday to third and he was followed closely by Johnny Anderson.
With less than five laps to go, Swenson entered some heavy lap traffic and it looked as if his pursuers might be able to make something from it. Though the traffic was heavy and preferred lines had to be changed, all of the front running cars faced the same obstacles and only Higday was able to gain one position on the final lap. In the end it was Swenson taking his second career feature-event win here. Higday, Peters, Anderson and Jeff Mitrisin completed the top five. Rounding out the top ten of this division were Mike Houseman, Jr., John Kearney, Bret Mather, Gregg Bakker (started 15th) and John Hall. Thirty-nine cars competed in events during the night.
A complete rundown can be found by clicking onto the RESULTS button the menu bar. Then scroll clear to the bottom of the page.
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