From J&J
McKENZIE, TN – (Nov. 7) With the calendar turned to November, short track racing in the United States is slowly counting down its final laps of 2012. It’s the time of the year when hard work by drivers, crews, owners and manufacturer’s can look at their season and be proud. Last week, Donny Schatz and Tony Stewart Racing were honored at the World of Outlaws banquet in Charlotte for winning the 2012 championship. At the same banquet, J&J Auto Racing was recognized by the series as 2012 Chassis Builder Challenge championship.
Pennsylvania youngster, Tyler Bear, also earned 2012 championship, while Derek Hagar got one final victory in his 2012 season this past weekend. On the other side of the world in Australia, the Sprint car season is just getting started and Chad Ely scored his first triumph of the season last weekend at Speedway City in the opening round action.
WORLD OF OUTLAWS
For the fifth time in his career, Donny Schatz was crowned World of Outlaws champion. The Fargo, N.D., racer piloted Tony Stewart Racing’s (TSR) No. 15 STP/Armor All/Chevrolet J&J powered by Shaver Motors to victory lane 11 times in 2012 WoO action. Eight of those wins came between July 29 and late September and included during that run was his sixth Knoxville (Iowa) Nationals and fifth Williams Grove National Open. The surge lasted for 29 races between a victory at Cornwall (Ontario) Motorsports Raceway and a pair of second-place finishes at I-55 Raceway near St. Louis on Oct. 13.
“The fact that we ran second a lot and third a lot, and that’s what wins championships – is what you do on the nights when you can’t win,” Schatz said, who posted nine wins and nine seconds in his final 30 races of 2012. “This ranks up there as one of the hardest fought ones. We had some of the lowest lows and the highest highs.”
J&J AUTO RACING – WOO CHASSIS BUILDER CHALLENGE CHAMPION
Jack Elam picked up the 2012 Car Builder of the Year hardware for J&J Auto Racing Sunday night at the WoO banquet. J&J has been part of all five championships for Schatz and even had his car-owner, three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Tony Stewart, pick up a pair of WoO triumphs (Silver Cup at Lernerville and Ohsweken Speedway).
“It’s great to be recognized and earn this honor,” said Elam. “It’s a testament to the teams we work with. I really appreciate working with Tony Stewart Racing. Collectively we made a lot of progress this year. It wasn’t easy, but when we did get some things figured it out, it was certainly a pleasure to see our cars race to victory lane. Being there and seeing the TSR team work their way from being quite a few points behind to winning by such a comfortable margin was pretty special. We look forward to working really hard this winter, so that we can be back here next year.”
FLIP-FLOP 50
Derek Hagar was a winner in last weekend’s USCS Flip Flop 50. He collected the most passing points in heat race action behind the wheel of his No. 9jr J&J and then won the K&N Filters Pole Scramble to start the first 25-lap main event from the pole. Hagar raced out into the lead early and withstood a number of cautions to score the victory.
Marshall Skinner raced his No. 26 J&J from seventh to third to give J&J a pair of podium finishers. Terry Gray finished fifth in his No. 10 J&J.
SPEEDWAY CITY
Chad Ely drove the No. S21 J&J to a convincing victory last Saturday night at Speedway City. He raced to a dominating victory in the 360ci Sprintcars portion of the opening round.
PA 305 CHAMPIONS
Tyler Bear and the No. 25 J&J Tyler Bear Motorsports team were the top winners in the Pennsylvania 305 Series this season. He raced to four victories and was also the Path Valley Speedway champion. Bear ended the 2012 campaign with four victories.