From Susan Arnold
Edmonton, AB — (Aug. 24, 2013) — World of Outlaws competitors participating at Castrol Raceway in the Oil City Cup finale were hoping for less carnage in tonight’s event. Friday night’s A-Main was packed with drama that was brought to a crescendo with a nine-car tangled mass of 900 horsepower winged sprint cars that brought out a prolonged red flag with seven laps remaining.
“We were fortunate enough to escape being caught up in the ‘big one’ last night. All in all, we had a pretty good night, qualifying second and finishing fifth in the A-Main. We hope to be able to capitalize on some of the set-up knowledge we gained last night,” said Joey Saldana, driver of the Motter Equipment Fatheadz Eyewear 71M Sprint car.
Saturday evening started on a bizarre note when reigning World of Outlaws STP champion Donny Schatz made contact with the wall and flipped violently during hot laps, severely damaging his car. Schatz walked away. The team quickly prepared a backup car for qualifying.
Track conditions tonight were much slower. In qualifying, Saldana captured the No. 5 spot with at 14.038-second run, nearly three-fourths of a second off last night’s pace.
Saldana rolled off third in the second heat race. When the field broke, pole sitter Kerry Madsen jumped into the lead, followed by second place starter Chad Kemenah. Daryn Pittman and Joey Saldana battled for third. Steve Kinser, starting from the third row, was on the move, picking off the competitors one by one, ultimately working his way up to second. At the checkered flag it was Madsen with a wire-to-wire victory, Kinser was second, Kemenah third, Pittman fourth and Saldana fifth.
Saldana earned a spot in the dash and after the inversion draw, he was assigned the fourth starting position.
“We experimented with a different set up in the heat,” said Saldana. “So we hope we made the right changes on the car for the dash.”
Track officials spent a considerable amount of time grooming the slick race track to make it more competitive prior to the dash and their efforts were rewarded with extraordinary racing.
As the green waved to begin the dash, Kerry Madsen drove high into the early lead followed by Schatz and Saldana. With five laps to go, the top three had begun to pull away from the rest of the field. There was no change in the running order among the top three from the green to the checker.
Because the dash finish constitutes the starting lineup for the A-Main, Madsen earned the pole, Schatz would start outside of the front row, and Saldana would roll off third for the 30-lap feature. It was a spectacular start with Madsen on the top, Schatz in the middle and Saldana low, hammer down, three abreast. Saldana grabbed the lead before Madsen drove back around him. Before one lap was completed Marc Duperron brought out the red when he flipped, damaging all four corners of his car. Duperron was okay.
As the field came around for a complete side-by-side restart, it was another three abreast thriller with Madsen working the cushion, Schatz in the middle, and Saldana working the bottom of the track. Madsen took the lead, Saldana was second and Schatz was third. Saldana and Schatz were working the bottom of the track. Saldana held his line, fending off Schatz, and began to battle Madsen for the lead. Saldana and Madsen fought side by side for the lead, first Madsen with the lead, then Saldana, then Madsen.
With four laps complete the yellow came out for an accident involving Casey Adams and Trevor Turnbull. Both drivers were okay.
The restart saw another side -by-side battle between Madsen and second place runner Saldana and right behind them was a side-by-side battle between Schatz and Darrah for third place. Schatz, riding in third, overtook Saldana for second. Saldana, now hugging the bottom of the track was fending off a challenge from Darrah.
With eight laps complete Steve Kinser pulled to the infield. With 10 laps in the books, the leaders were in traffic. Saldana went back after Schatz for second while Schatz and Madsen continued their wheel-to-wheel battle for the lead, trading the lead.
In the last half of the race, Darrah and Sweet maneuvered past Saldana. Madsen and Schatz continued the dogfight for the lead.
With 23 laps complete, the yellow came out when Casey Adams hit the wall and Brad Sweet slightly tagged the wall while trying to avoid Adams.
The restart order was Madsen, Schatz, Darrah, Sweet, Saldana, Dollansky, Pittman.
Back to green. Sweet passed Darrah to take third, while Schatz took the lead from Madsen on lap 24. Then Sweet made a move on Schatz and the two were nose to tail. Sweet led lap 28 but tagged the wall which caused enough of a bobble to enable Schatz to regain the lead on lap 29. On the white flag lap coming out of turn four heading toward the checkered flag, Darrah crashed hard as Schatz took the win. Sweet finished second, Madsen third and Saldana fourth.
It was an impressive victory for Schatz who crashed in warm-ups and drove a backup car all the way to victory lane.
“It’s fun when you know you can race up front and challenge for the lead,” said Saldana.
“That’s three top-5 finishes in a row for our team,” said team owner Dan Motter. “This is a substantial improvement in consistency since changing to the new GF1 chassis and Pro Shocks.”
Next up for the Outlaws is Skagit Speedway in Alger, Wash. Friday and Saturday, Aug. 30-31.