From the All Star Circuit of Champions
FARGO, N.D. – Last year when the All Star Circuit of Champions “Thundered
Through the Plains” two-time and defending series’ titlest Tim Shaffer was
riding a huge hot streak that would see him not only claim 16 All Star wins
and the series’ title, but the Knoxville Nationals. Well don’t look now,
but “The Steel City Outlaw” is at it again.
Much like the 2011 Ohio Sprint Speedweek when Shaffer never finished out of
the top three, he is dominating the All Stars’ Great Plains Region. On
Wednesday the Aliquippa, Pennsylvania driver passed four-time World of
Outlaws champion Donny Schatz in traffic and went on to capture the feature
event at Red River Valley Speedway. Shaffer leads the $10,000-to-win Great
Plains Region points with his two wins and a third place run.
The win vaulted Shaffer ahead of three-time series champion Dale Blaney for
the national points lead as well. Shaffer now has 41 career All Star
victories, moving him into 10th on the all-time win list.
At Red River, it was a bit of redemption for Shaffer. Last year he led the
All Star feature only to have Schatz pass him in traffic and go on to win
the race. The roles were reversed on Wednesday as Shaffer took advantage of
Schatz getting hung up in lapped traffic and grabbed the lead two-thirds of
the way through the 30-lap race. Shaffer had to hold off several late
challenges by Schatz and took the Aaron Call/Janet Holbrook Motorsports #83
to victory lane for his sixth All Star win of 2011.
“Wow, what a great race,” admitted Shaffer beside his Kistler Engines/VRP
Shocks/Kistler Racing Products J&J machine. “My hat goes off to (crew
chief) Brian (Kemenah) and the guys. This car really came in late in the
race and we were able to get another win. Donny kind of got me at the start
and was setting a pretty good pace. I just had to be patient and I think I
may have found the rubber before him on the bottom and we were able to get
by him. It’s always good to win races, but this is the time of year when
you want things to be going your way. We’re pretty excited.”
Shaffer qualified fourth in the field of 27 cars and started the feature
event on the outside of pole-sitter Dale Blaney. Blaney led the early going
driving the Ti22 Performance No. 2 before Schatz raced his No. 15 Big Game
Treestands/Fast Lane Car Wash J&J into the lead. Once in front, Schatz
weaved his way through traffic for several laps and looked poised to repeat
his win from last July, but lapped traffic would ultimately cost him the
victory.
With five laps to go, Shaffer, Schatz and Mark Dobmeier were nearly nose to
tail with Tyler Walker, Blaney and a charging Tony Stewart closing in. When
Austin Wheatly got upside down, it gave Shaffer a clear track but set up a
five lap shoot-out. Shaffer would pull away slightly on the restart, but
Schatz mounted one more charge. As Shaffer took the white flag, Schatz was
just a half a car length back. Another caution would set up a
green-white-checkered finish and Shaffer would pull away for the win.
Dobmeier was third in the Lunstra/Dobmeier Motorsports No. 13L J&J. Walker
began the evening by setting a new track record in the Keen Motorsports No.
17 Maxim and finished it by coming home fourth. Two-time NASCAR Sprint Cup
champion Tony Stewart passed Blaney late to earn a top-five finish.
“That was a good race and we just needed a few more laps of lapped traffic
there at the end,” said Schatz. “I got the lead and felt like I was in
pretty good shape, but when it starts taking as long as it did to get by
some of those lapped cars, you knew somebody was coming. Great job to Tim
and his team for coming up with the win. I’m really happy we had a such a
good race for all the people that came out. We’ve got another big show
coming up in two weeks (The $12,000-to-win Champions Challenge on Aug. 17),
and hopefully we can have another great race like this.”
“We were happy to be on the frontstretch tonight,” said Dobmeier, who hails
from Grand Forks, N.D. “The car was really good, but I think I killed my
tire early in the race trying to get up there and race with Donny and
Blaney. I just didn’t have anything left there at the end. I want to thank
everyone for coming out and all of the people that allow me to do this.
We’ve got a good team and this is a good way for us to head into the
weekend and next week at the (Knoxville) Nationals. Maybe we’ll be just a
bit better in two weeks here.”
The All-Stars return to action on Saturday night at Knoxville Raceway. Two
nights later, the series moves onto Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa,
Iowa, for the annual Front Row Challenge. The Thunder Through the Plains
Tour will resume after the 51st annual Knoxville (Iowa) Nationals on
Sunday, Aug. 14 at Huset’s Speedway in Sioux Falls. A Tuesday night event
at Amsoil Speedway in Superior, Wisc., precedes the inaugural Champions
Challenge at RRVS, which will pay $12,000 to the winner and be the final
race in the All-Stars’ Great Plains Region.
Red River Valley Speedway – 8/3/2011
All Star Circuit of Champions (27 Cars)
[#]-Starting Position
Qualifying – Kistler Engines
1. 17-Tyler Walker, 12.739
2. 15-Donny Schatz, 12.763
3. 8-Casey Mack, 12.771
4. 83-Tim Shaffer, 12.906
5. 13-Mark Dobmeier, 13.029
6. 2-Dale Blaney, 13.102
7. 89G-David Gravel, 13.114
8. 2P-Austin Pierce, 13.177
9. 1-Chris Shirek, 13.191
10. 14-Tony Stewart, 13.225
11. 25-Corey Mack, 13.230
12. 19-Donnovan Peterson, 13.339
13. W20-Greg Wilson, 13.348
14. 21K-Lou Kennedy, 13.361
15. 33-Roby Wolfgang, 13.407
16. O4-Cap Henry, 13.435
17. 20K-Thomas Kennedy, 13.486
18. 14R-Jody Roseboom, 13.491
19. 44W-Austin Wheatly, 13.493
20. 92-Mitch Mack, 13.505
21. 3-Pete Miller III, 13.533
22. 15X-Cody Skytland, 13.811
23. 1H-Sye Anderson, 13.878
24. 5-David Gennon, 14.139
25. 10TRB-Bob Martin, 14.165
26. 16-Rayce Martin, 14.271
27. 50-Ryan Flaten, 14.353
Heat 1 – Kears Speed Shop (8 Laps – Top 9 finishers transfer to the
A-feature)
1. O4-Cap Henry[1]
2. 14-Tony Stewart[3]
3. W20-Greg Wilson[2]
4. 83-Tim Shaffer[5]
5. 17-Tyler Walker[6]
6. 44W-Austin Wheatly[7]
7. 10TRB-Bob Martin[9]
8. 15X-Cody Skytland[8]
9. 89G-David Gravel[4]
Heat 2 – All Pro Heads (8 Laps – Top 9 finishers transfer to the A-feature)
1. 20K-Thomas Kennedy[1]
2. 15-Donny Schatz[6]
3. 21K-Lou Kennedy[2]
4. 2P-Austin Pierce[4]
5. 13-Mark Dobmeier[5]
6. 92-Mitch Mack[7]
7. 25-Corey Mack[3]
8. 1H-Sye Anderson[8]
9. 16-Rayce Martin[9]
Heat 3 – MSD Ignition (8 Laps – Top 9 finishers transfer to the A-feature)
1. 1-Chris Shirek[4]
2. 2-Dale Blaney[5]
3. 33-Roby Wolfgang[2]
4. 14R-Jody Roseboom[1]
5. 8-Casey Mack[6]
6. 3-Pete Miller III[7]
7. 19-Donnovan Peterson[3]
8. 50-Ryan Flaten[9]
9. 5-David Gennon[8]
Dash – Outerwears Performance Products (6 Laps, finishing order determined
first 6 starting positions of A-feature
1. 2-Dale Blaney[2]
2. 83-Tim Shaffer[3]
3. 15-Donny Schatz[4]
4. 8-Casey Mack[1]
5. 17-Tyler Walker[5]
6. 13-Mark Dobmeier[6]
A-Main – (30 Laps)
1. 83-Tim Shaffer[2]
2. 15-Donny Schatz[3]
3. 13-Mark Dobmeier[6]
4. 17-Tyler Walker[5]
5. 14-Tony Stewart[9]
6. 2-Dale Blaney[1]
7. 89G-David Gravel[11]
8. O4-Cap Henry[16]
9. 8-Casey Mack[4]
10. 21K-Lou Kennedy[14]
11. W20-Greg Wilson[13]
12. 1-Chris Shirek[8]
13. 19-Donnovan Peterson[12]
14. 14R-Jody Roseboom[18]
15. 2P-Austin Pierce[7]
16. 20K-Thomas Kennedy[17]
17. 3-Pete Miller III[21]
18. 1H-Sye Anderson[23]
19. 15X-Cody Skytland[22]
20. 50-Ryan Flaten[27]
21. 33-Roby Wolfgang[15]
22. 25-Corey Mack[10]
23. 44W-Austin Wheatly[19]
24. 16-Rayce Martin[26]
25. 10TRB-Bob Martin[25]
26. 5-David Gennon[24]
27. 92-Mitch Mack[20]
Hard Charger: O4-Cap Henry[+8]