By CDR
A stretch of nine events on short tracks got underway for Craig Dollansky on Friday during the opening night of the Duel in the Dakotas as the #7 team adored the Aggressive Hydraulics paint scheme for the first time in 2011. River Cities Speedway, the fastest track on the World of Outlaws circuit, has been a strong track for Dollansky who has four top-five finishes in six races including a victory in August of 2009.
With 32 cars signed into the pit area at the track located in Grand Forks, North Dakota, Dollansky muscled the Big Game Treestands backed sprinter around the 3/10-mile oval in 9.745 seconds, good enough for 3rd fastest overall in qualifying. Scheduled to start fourth in the third heat race, ‘The Crowd Pleaser’ used a great start to move past Lucas Wolfe on the highside and into the second position to earn a spot in the dash race. The six pill inversion was drawn for the dash, meaning the Karavan Trailers #7 would start fourth. In the 8-lap event, Dollansky raced past Steve Kinser and come after Joey Saldana but ended up finishing 3rd.
With the whole racing night hurried along due to rain showers in the area, the 40-lap A-Main was run before the support class as Dollansky lining up third on the grid. When the green flag dropped the Elk River, Minnesota native raced closely with Joey Saldana for second and would assume the position by a lap 7 caution. As racing resumed, leader Bill Rose set a strong pace with Dollansky hounding him for the lead each time in turn three. ‘The Crowd Pleaser’ would make it stick on lap 19 as he raced past Rose and into the lead. The driver of the Aggressive Hydraulics Maxim continued the fast pace working through traffic until the final caution came with 5 laps to go. Dollansky would use a strong start to pull away from the field on the double-file restart and cruise to his third victory of the season and second at River Cities Speedway.
“We started the night out with a good qualifying lap and got ourselves in the dash to get a good starting spot for the feature in the second row,” commented the driver of the Eaton’s Aeroquip Performance Products Maxim. “This Aggressive Hydraulics crew did a good job and I couldn’t be happier for Paul and Jenn Johnson and everyone that supports us from Aggressive Hydraulics. We were running lapped traffic good going high and low and I was able to get home to the checkered flag first. I couldn’t be more proud of this team and everyone from Big Game Treestands with Tod Quiring, Karavan Trailers with Scott Boyd, Eaton’s Aeroquip, Maxim Chassis, Morrison Motors, and everyone that supports us, it’s a great team effort.”
The Big Game Treestands #7 team returns to River Cities Speedway tonight for the finale of the Duel in the Dakotas.
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