By Susan Arnold
MERCED, Calif. (March 28, 2014) – The World of Outlaws continued their Spring Break tour through California kicking off this weekend’s racing activities at Merced Speedway.
Joey Saldana, driver of the Motter Equipment HE&M Saw Beltline Body Shop 71M, set the 10.823-second track record here last year. In qualifying tonight, Saldana lowered the track record to 10.617 seconds to hold onto quick time until David Gravel went to the head of the class with a track record run of 10.589 seconds around the quarter-mile bullring. Saldana was second at the end of qualifying, bringing his tally to a noteworthy four No. 1 and three No. 2 qualifying efforts in the first 10 events.
Saldana started fourth in the second heat race. With a very narrow track and no passing, the five drivers that transferred to the A-Main finished the 10-lap heat the way they started. Sammy Swindell won, Terry McCarl was second, and Saldana was third, followed by fourth place Donny Schatz and Jason Sides in the final transfer spot.
Outlaws officials introduced a new dash format for tonight’s event. There were six competitors in the dash, rather than the 10 drivers normally competing. The six participants were comprised of the winners of the four heats along with the No. 1 and No. 2 qualifiers (providing they made an A-Main transfer spot, which Gravel and Saldana accomplished).
Following the inversion draw, Saldana was assigned the No. 3 starting berth in the dash. The Brownsburg Bullet finished third following a spirited battle with Sammy Swindell who finished fourth. The winner of the dash and the pole sitter for the A-Main was Kyle Hirst. Saldana and Swindell, who was a three-time and sole winner at Merced Speedway, would start side by side on the second row of the feature.
While the field was beginning to take position for the start of the A-Main, Swindell
pulled into the work area with throttle linkage problems. Swindell’s team got the repairs made prior to the start and Swindell took position at the rear of the field. When the field was unleashed, Kyle Hirst assumed the lead, Kerry Madsen was second and Saldana third. By lap 5, the leaders were in traffic, but maintaining position. Swindell brought out the caution on lap 9 when he stopped on the track.
On the single file restart, the top three retained their positions. On lap 14, Madsen drove around Hirst in turn 4 to take the lead. The red stopped racing action on lap 18 when Madsen flipped upside down as he was collected in an altercation between Steve Kinser and Mason Moore. The lead would revert to Hirst for the restart with Saldana in second position. The track went green and Gravel and Saldana began to battle with Gravel running the middle groove and Saldana on the bottom. Gravel stole second from Saldana and three laps later, took the lead from Hirst. Tim Kaeding was working his way through the field and steamrolled his way around the outside of Saldana and Hirst to take second place. At the checkered flag it was Gravel with the victory, Kaeding second, Hirst third and Saldana fourth.
The Motter team will race at Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico tomorrow night.