From CDR
The next event on the 2011 schedule for Craig Dollansky and the Big Game Treestands #7 team was a stop at Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare, California, a track that Dollansky has recorded seven top-tens and two top-fives in twelve apperances.
After rain halted the completion of racing the night before in Hanford, Mother Nature was in the area again on Saturday as the program was hurried along to ensure all races were complete. In hotlaps Dollansky piloted the Aggressive Hydraulics Maxim to the fastest time overall and backed it up with a strong run in qualifying, stopping the clocks 5th quick around the 1/3-mile. Starting from third in the second heat race, Dollansky was closed in on Ben Gregg for second and a spot in the dash race but a caution on lap 5 would stop momentum as Dollansky got a bad restart and ended up finishing 4th.
Scheduled to go 35-laps for the A-Main, the Eaton’s Aeroquip Performance Products #7 started inside row six. ‘The Crowd Pleaser’ would hold the eleventh position in the early stages of the race and move up to nineth when a caution came out on lap 16. On the ensuing double-file restart, bad luck came as another car got into the side and spun Dollansky. Sustaining damage to the rear end and a broke jacobs ladder, the Big Game Treestands crew hussled to get as much damage repaired as possible and get Dollansky back out. When racing resumed another caution came one lap later, on lap 17, as Kyle Larson made contact with the front end of Dollansky, breaking the front axle. The #7 crew again tried to make repairs in the allotted two minutes but the damage was to much, retiring Dollansky from the event and ending a stretch of consistent finishes where the Karavan Trailers #7 finished in the top seven in the last four events.
Racing resumes for ‘The Greatest Show on Dirt’ in a couple of weeks when they revisit Giant Chevrolet Kings Speedway in Hanford on March 31st for an event that was postponed from March 18th. The series then heads to Merced Speedway for the first time ever on April 1st before a return to Calistoga Speedway the following night.