CDR
It had been almost a decade since the World of Outlaws raced at Farmer City Raceway in central Illinois but on Wednesday Craig Dollansky and the Big Game Treestands #7 team returned to the tight bullring for the first time since 2003 as they looked to carry over momentum from Saturday’s victory in Indiana.
As the first weekday show of the 2012 Outlaws season got underway, 36 cars signed into the pit area. An early draw for time trials saw the MobileStar #7 turn a lap of 10.777 seconds and make the inversion by qualifying 7th fastest. In the third heat Jim Moughan jumped the start which moved the Eaton’s Aeroquip Performance Products Maxim up to the pole where ‘The Crowd Pleaser’ capitalized to score the heat victory. An inversion of six put Dollansky on the outside pole for the 8-lap dash where he lost a couple spots finishing 4th.
“After winning our heat race we got a good draw for the dash on the outside front row,” commented the Elk River, Minnesota native. “I didn’t get a very good start and had tightened our car up too much and lost a couple positions. We went to work on our car and made some good changes for the feature and definitely had a car capable of winning.”
In the 40-lap A-Main the Aggressive Hydraulics backed sprinter started outside of row two. When the green flag waved and the field roared down the frontstretch, Dollansky assumed third and then narrowed the gap on Daryn Pittman for second the next circuit. Battling for the runner-up, ‘The Crowd Pleaser’ took the spot a few laps later and then went three-wide for the lead with Kerry Madsen maintaining the top spot and Pittman running second before a caution on lap 12. Lining up on the outside of row two for the double-file restart, Dollansky got a great restart but contact between Madsen and Pittman spun both cars along with collecting Dollansky and Swindell who had no where to go and ended their night.
“We got a good start and were in the mix for the lead and got by Pittman for 2nd and had a shot to get by Madsen coming out of turn four,” explained Dollansky. “He had gotten out of shape and broke his momentum and I might have been able to squeeze underneath him but knew it would get tight and possibly cause us to make contact. I chose to wait for a better passing opportunity and in the process we lost 2nd but I knew we had good car and a lot of racing left. A few laps later we had a caution and on the restart I had a good run around the outside of Pittman and Madsen but those two got together and spun out collecting us in the process. It was an unfortunate end to our night since we had a good shot at another win for our Big Game Treestands team but we are now focused on this coming weekend’s race.”
World of Outlaws action will now resume at Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, Iowa this Saturday as Mother Nature has already postponed the originally scheduled race on Friday at Eagle Raceway just outside Lincoln, Nebraska. A make-up date of September 19th has been announced for the Eagle Raceway event.