Another Top-Ten at Knoxville

From CDR
World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series action headed to Knoxville, Iowa on Saturday as teams had the final opportunity to prepare for the prestigious Knoxville Nationals in August.  For Craig Dollansky and the Eyecon Trail Cameras #7 team they aimed to build on their runner-up performance during the first visit to Knoxville Raceway last month after leading 9 of the 25 feature laps.

With threatening weather looming and the race program pushed back an hour, Dollansky began the night timing in 5th fastest amocraig dollansky racingng the strong 43 car field.  Lining up inside row two of heat one and needing to finish in the top two to earn a spot in the dash, the MobileStar #7 hounded Sam Hafertepe Jr. for the runner-up spot but couldn’t quite find a way around the #15H before the completion of the 8-lap event.

In the 25-lap A-Main the Aggressive Hydraulics Maxim lined up inside row seven.  After losing a spot on the start the Elk River, Minnesota native ran fourteenth before a red flag 9 laps in.  A great double-file restart then saw ‘The Crowd Pleaser’ use the highside to power around four cars and run tenth.  As the main event continued at the historic half-mile, Dollansky raced around Joey Saldana on lap 15 but a charging Danny Lasoski would take the position from the Eaton’s Aeroquip Performance Products backed sprinter the following circuit.  Running ninth before the final caution with 6 laps remaining, action all over the slick, wide racing surface saw Dollansky gain two spots but lose the positions on the final lap and cross the finish line with a top-ten finish in 9th.

“We seemed to be off some with our car throughout the night,” commented Dollansky.  “Things didn’t get a lot better in the feature, we got ourselves in the top-ten and were running 7th on the last lap but I gave two spots up by going to the bottom.  I thought we would at least be able to maintain our position but we lost a lot of ground coming off turn four.  To win at Knoxville you need to be able to run the top and bottom.  We learned some things and will be looking forward to getting back to Knoxville for the Nationals.”

The Eyecon Trail Cameras #7 team will now spend the week at the Windom, Minnesota shop before heading to Grand Forks, North Dakota where racing resumes this Friday, June 21st, at River Cities Speedway.