NickHolt Posted March 7, 2010 Report Share Posted March 7, 2010 Joey Saldana Scores First Win of 2010 at Thunderbowl Raceway Tulare, CA (March 6, 2010) - For many drivers, picking up the first win of a new season is one of the toughest feats to accomplish in racing. After being victorious 21 times overall last season with the World of Outlaws, Joey Saldana certainly knew the way to the winner s circle heading into 2010. He came close to winning each of the first four races this season, finishing in the runner-up spot in three of those. Saldana broke though in a big way on Saturday night at Groppetti Automotive Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare, California before a huge crowd to score his first A-Feature win of the season to earn $10,000 in the 35-lap contest aboard the Budweiser Maxim. It was the 60th A-Feature triumph of his career with the World of Outlaws. "It was a great effort by my team," said Saldana. "We blew up in the dash and they worked hard to get the motor changed, so we really didn't get to work on our car too much. My car was pretty good for 35 laps and the motor held in there. It was a total team effort by everyone involved." For Saldana, the win was his third at Thunderbowl Raceway with the World of Outlaws, which is the most of any driver dating back to the series debut at the track in 2003. The second generation driver scored his first victory at the track in 2007 and followed that up with a triumph last season at the high-banked 1/3-mile. He used a couple of strong starts to jump to the lead over pole sitter Tim Kaeding. "It's very hard to win out here," shared Saldana. "Last year we won the second race of the season and it just rolled. Once you win one, it seems like it comes easier and easier. It seems like you are not thinking about winning as much and worrying about racing. Now, we can focus on racing and hopefully win some more." In addition to winning on Saturday night, Saldana took over the top spot in the World of Outlaws championship standings after four-time and defending series champion Donny Schatz had some trouble and wound up 20th after making a couple of trips to the work area after earlier contact led to him getting upside down. Schatz was tied with Steve Kinser entering the event. Kinser came all the way from 21st to finish sixth, though fell a couple of spots in the standings to third. Saldana has a seven point lead over Jason Meyers, and is nine markers ahead of Kinser. "When I'm leading in October, then I'd be happy," Saldana stated when asked about leading the points. "This is so early in the year that points don't matter yet. We just want to win races and keep our sponsors happy. As long as we are doing good and keeping everyone happy, I can continue to race and that's my goal." After his win on Friday at his home track, Jason Meyers lined up eighth in the finale and after a first lap tangle involving Craig Dollansky and Jac Haudenschild that led to a complete restart, he took the green flag on the outside of the second row. Meyers got around Donny Schatz early in the race and the pair battled for the fourth spot for a number of laps. He moved into third on the ninth lap getting around Lucas Wolfe and was up to second on the 11th lap after Tim Kaeding's night came to an end while in the runner-up spot. "This team worked hard all night," said Meyers. "D.J. (Lindsey- crew chief) made a few points before we went out and changed the car around a little bit and we had a much better race car. That thing was scary to drive in the dash. To have a weekend like this at home in front of all of my sponsors, family and friends is awesome." On the second restart on the 11th lap, after a yellow and then red flag, Meyers inched ahead of Saldana in turn one down low, but Saldana used the momentum of the top side of the track to blast back around him and quickly opened a comfortable lead. One final restart on the 14th lap after Lucas Wolfe broke a driveshaft while running third, gave Meyers another chance at Saldana on a restart. He looked low in turns one and two, but was not able to get a run on the leader. Meyers wound up second in the GLR Investments KPC. "That may have helped, but the bottom line is that he was getting through traffic as well as we were," shared the native of Clovis, California when asked if heavy lapped traffic would had helped. "We had a good race car tonight and it was good enough for second. We just couldn't get a good enough run on him. Thanks to all of the fans for coming out tonight. It was another great crowd tonight and another great point night tonight. It looks like we are going to have a great year and I am looking forward to it." Fred Rahmer finished a very strong third in just his second career start at Thunderbowl Raceway on Saturday night after making his debut at the bullring on Friday night. He started 14th and moved up a couple of rows after the first lap tangle between Dollansky and Haudenschild. He found himself in the Top-Five by just the 11th lap of the 35-lap affair aboard the C&S Lawn & Landscape machine. "I really enjoyed being out here and meeting some new people," said Rahmer. "We don't have anything like this back in Pennsylvania. I have never seen any place like this. I appreciate everyone for having me out." Rahmer and his team had a helping hand over the weekend, as multi-time King of California and fellow Hall of Famer Brent Kaeding, who has won 20 times over the years at the high-banked bullring, was helping them with their set-up. "It's a lot of pressure, because when you get advice from someone like that, you have to live up to it," Rahmer stated. "Last night my car was better than my finish so I had to try and make up for it tonight. The guys had the car very good and we were very fortunate." Kraig Kinser picked up his best finish of the season on Saturday night coming home fourth in the Quaker State Maxim. Jason Sides continued a very consistent start to the 2010 campaign by finishing fifth in the Wetherington Tractor Service Maxim. He is one of just four drivers that has finished in the Top-10 in every race this season. Steve Kinser was the KSE Race Products Hard Charger after coming all the way from the 21st starting spot to finish sixth in the Bass Pro Shops Maxim. Sam Hafertepe Jr. was seventh in the Lone Star Speedway machine, with Paul McMahan eighth in the Great Clips Maxim. Tommy Tarlton was ninth piloting the Corporate America Lending Eagle, with Daryn Pittman rounding out the Top-10 aboard the Hunter Truck Sales Maxim. The World of Outlaws return to action on Friday, March 12 at Lone Star Speedway in Kilgore, Texas and on Saturday, March 13 at Houston Raceway Park in Baytown as part of the Second Annual Texas Two-Step Weekend. THUNDERBOWL RACEWAY NIGHT #2 NOTES *FAST QUALIFIER: Lucas Wolfe paced the 29 cars that took time with an AMB i.t. timed lap around the high-banked 1/3-mile oval at 12.692 seconds at 94.453 mph. For his qualifying effort, Wolfe earned five bonus points. The next four fastest qualifiers also earned bonus points, including: Craig Dollansky (4), Jonathan Allard (3), Kraig Kinser (2) and Donny Schatz (1). *THUNDERBOWL RACEWAY NIGHT #2 QUALIFYING WINNERS: Tim Kaeding, Jac Haudenschild and Joey Saldana won heat races. Tim Kaeding won the dash. Evan Suggs won the B-Main. * FEATURE WINNERS: There have been five World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series A-Feature events held in 2010. The winners include: Jason Meyers (The Dirt Track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Thunderbowl Raceway), Steve Kinser (Volusia Speedway Park), Joey Saldana (Thunderbowl Raceway) and Donny Schatz (Volusia Speedway Park). *1/3-MILE WINNERS: Thunderbowl Raceway is a high-banked 1/3-mile oval. The World of Outlaws have raced twice this season on a track that size. The winners included: Jason Meyers (Thunderbowl Raceway) and Joey Saldana (Thunderbowl Raceway). World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series Statistical Report; Thunderbowl Raceway; Tulare, CA; March 6, 2010 Qualifying 1) 5W-Lucas Wolfe 12.692 2) 7-Craig Dollansky 12.708 3) O-Jonathan Allard 12.724 4) 11K-Kraig Kinser 12.728 5) 15-Donny Schatz 12.738 6) 9-Joey Saldana 12.796 7) 83-Tim Kaeding 12.831 8) R19-Jac Haudenschild 12.831 9) 91-Paul McMahan 12.845 10) 14-Jason Meyers 12.916 11) 24-Terry McCarl 12.932 12) 7S-Jason Sides 12.954 13) 21-Tommy Tarlton 12.982 14) 6-Danny Lasoski 12.987 15) 51-Fred Rahmer 12.992 16) 33E-Evan Suggs 13.013 17) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr. 13.027 18) 83JR-Tim Shaffer 13.029 19) 2B-Ben Gregg 13.039 20) 94-Zach Zimmerly 13.058 21) OO-Cory Eliason 13.074 22) 44W-Austen Wheatley 13.098 23) 17-Daryn Pittman 13.121 24) 11-Steve Kinser 13.179 25) 63-Chad Kemenah 13.196 26) 4X-Toni Lutar 13.392 27) X-Charlie Louden 13.421 28) 23-Jerry Wise 14.071 29) 10-Anthony Simone 14.315 Heat 1 (10 Laps, top 6 finishers transferred to A-feature) - Starting Position [#] 1) 83-Tim Kaeding [2] 2) 14-Jason Meyers [1] 3) 5W-Lucas Wolfe [4] 4) 11K-Kraig Kinser [3] 5) 2B-Ben Gregg [7] 6) 63-Chad Kemenah[9] 7) 23-Jerry Wise [10] 8) 33E-Evan Suggs [6] 9) 21-Tommy Tarlton [5] 10) 44W-Austen Wheatley[8] Heat 2 (10 Laps, top 6 finishers transferred to A-feature) - Starting Position [#] 1) R19-Jac Haudenschild [2] 2) 24-Terry McCarl [1] 3) 7-Craig Dollansky [4] 4) 15-Donny Schatz [3] 5) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr. [6] 6) 6-Danny Lasoski [5] 7) 17-Daryn Pittman [8] 8) 94-Zach Zimmerly [7] 9) 4X-Toni Lutar [9] 10) 10-Anthony Simone [10] Heat 3 (10 Laps, top 6 finishers transferred to A-feature) - Starting Position [#] 1) 9-Joey Saldana [3] 2) 7S-Jason Sides [1] 3) 91-Paul McMahan [2] 4) 11-Steve Kinser [8] 5) 51-Fred Rahmer [5] 6) OO-Cory Eliason [7] 7) O-Jonathan Allard [4] 8) 83JR-Tim Shaffer [6] 9) X-Charlie Louden [9] Dash (8 laps, finishing order determined first 10 starting positions of A-feature) - Starting Position [#] 1) 83-Tim Kaeding [1] 2) 9-Joey Saldana [2] 3) 15-Donny Schatz [3] 4) 7-Craig Dollansky [5] 5) 5W-Lucas Wolfe [6] 6) R19-Jac Haudenschild [7] 7) 11K-Kraig Kinser [4] 8) 14-Jason Meyers [8] 9) 7S-Jason Sides [10] 10) 24-Terry McCarl [9] B-main (8 laps, top 6 finishers transferred to A-feature) - Starting Position [#] 1) 33E-Evan Suggs [2] 2) 94-Zach Zimmerly [4] 3) 17-Daryn Pittman [3] 4) 21-Tommy Tarlton [1] 5) 4X-Toni Lutar [6] 6) 10-Anthony Simone [7] 7) 23-Jerry Wise [$200] [5] 8) 83JR-Tim Shaffer [$180] [DNS] 9) O-Jonathan Allard [$175] [DNS] 10) 44W-Austen Wheatley [$160] [DNS] 11) X-Charlie Louden [$150] [DNS] A-main (35 laps) - Starting Position [#] 1) 9-Joey Saldana[2] [$10,000] 2) 14-Jason Meyers[8] [$5,000] 3) 51-Fred Rahmer[14] [$3,000] 4) 11K-Kraig Kinser[7] [$2,700] 5) 7S-Jason Sides[9] [$2,500] 6) 11-Steve Kinser[21] [$2,200] 7) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr.[16] [$2,000] 8) 91-Paul McMahan[11] [$1,800] 9) 21-Tommy Tarlton[12] [$1,600] 10) 17-Daryn Pittman[20] [$1,450] 11) 2B-Ben Gregg[17] [$1,300] 12) 24-Terry McCarl[10] [$1,200] 13) 33E-Evan Suggs[15] [$1,100] 14) 94-Zach Zimmerly[18] [$1,000] 15) 6-Danny Lasoski[13] [$950] 16) R19-Jac Haudenschild[6] [$900] 17) 10-Anthony Simone[24] [$850] 18) 63-Chad Kemenah[22] [$750] 19) 5W-Lucas Wolfe[5] [$725] 20) 15-Donny Schatz[3] [$700] 21) OO-Cory Eliason[19] [$700] 22) 83-Tim Kaeding[1] [$700] 23) 4X-Toni Lutar[23] [$700] 24) 7-Craig Dollansky[4] [$700] Lap Leaders: Joey Saldana 1-35 KSE Hard Charger Award: Steve Kinser Penske Power Position Award: Daryn Pittman Notes: Jonathan Allard and Tim Shaffer were both transported to a local hospital for observation after a very hard accident in the third heat race. After a very hard accident on Friday night, Brian Ellenberger sat out the race on Saturday. World of Outlaws Championship Standings through March 6 1. Joey Saldana 733 2. Jason Meyers 726 -7 3. Steve Kinser 724 -9 4. Donny Schatz 697 -36 5. Jason Sides 689 -44 6. Kraig Kinser 661 -72 7. Danny Lasoski 648 -85 8. Jac Haudenschild 640 -93 9. Tim Kaeding 625 -108 10. Lucas Wolfe 617 -116 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickHolt Posted March 8, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2010 Here's the World of Outlaws Wrap-Up from Thunderbowl Raceway. Lots of good info here from Tony Veneziano. Concord, NC (March 8, 2010)- Some special guests: Jason Meyers and the Elite Racing team had a couple of very special guests at Groppetti Automotive Thunderbowl Raceway on Friday night, as 14-time NHRA Funny Car Champion and drag racing legend John Force was on hand, along with his son-in-law, Robert Hight, who is the defending Funny Car titlist. The Elite Racing shop in Brownsburg, Indiana is housed at the state-of-the-art John Force Racing facility. Gary Scelzi, a fellow NHRA champion was also in attendance at Tulare, as he hails from nearby Fresno. "They had a great time," shared Meyers of Force and Hight. "I realized the other day that they would be down in the area, so I gave John (Force) a call and invited him and Robert (Hight) over. It was cool that they were able to make it over. Ever since we moved in with John there and have gotten to know those guys, we've been trying to get them to a race, but they have very busy schedules. It was great that they took time out of their evening, when they could have been home with their families to come over here and see some great short track racing and spend some time up in the grandstands with the fans. They are really great about that. It was great to have them down and of course they come out to the first race to see us and we win. It couldn t be much better. They are great guys and to see them out here supporting our sport is awesome." Winning one for his son: Joey Saldana has a lot of fans around the world, but his biggest two fans are his wife Shannon and his son Reece. He dedicated his win on Saturday night to Reece, who comes to a number of World of Outlaws events each season. Reece was not at Tulare, but rather back home in Indiana taking part in a wrestling tournament, where he ended up finishing second, after making it to the final round. "This one is for my son Reece," said Saldana in Victory Lane on Saturday night. "He lost in wrestling today and was a little upset. This should put a smile on his face." A little wing damage: Jac Haudenschild sustained some significant damage to the top wing on his machine on Friday night, though that did not slow him down as he wound finishing a season-best third. He began the night by turning in the fourth-fastest lap in time trials and followed that up with a second-place effort in the fourth heat race to earn a spot in the dash for the first time this season. He moved up to second near the halfway point of the race and kept pace with the lead duo of Jason Meyers and Joey Saldana late in the contest, despite the crumpled top wing. "It messed it up a little bit, but it wasn't too bad on a short track," shared Haudenschild. "On a half-mile we would have been in trouble." First time visitor: Fred Rahmer made the first two starts of his legendary career in California over the weekend at Thunderbowl Raceway. The Pennsylvania native won the dash on Friday night to earn the pole position in the 35-lap main event and wound up finishing sixth in his debut at the high-banked 1/3-mile bullring. He charged from the 14th starting spot in the finale to finish a very impressive third. The Hall of Famer and his team had a helping hand from a fellow Hall of Famer, as multi-time King of California Brent Kaeding helped them with their set-up both nights. "This is a lot different than any place I have ever driven," noted Rahmer before racing began on Saturday night. "I should have done a little better job driving (on Friday night). The guys had the car good. It was exciting, I ll you that much. Hopefully we ll be ok tonight. I'd be lost if he (Kaeding) was not helping us out. It's a different program here, so we would have been in trouble. He has been a huge help to us." And then there were four: Joey Saldana, Jason Meyers, Steve Kinser and Jason Sides are the only drivers that have finished in the Top-10 in all five of the World of Outlaws events in 2010. Saldana, who took over the point lead after his win on Saturday night, has a win, three runner-up finishes and a sixth-place effort to his credit. Meyers has two wins, a runner-up finish, along with a fourth and sixth. Kinser has a win, a second, a third, a fifth and a sixth. Sides has a fourth, a fifth, two ninth-place finishes and a 10th. A change at the top Joey Saldana moved into the top spot in the World of Outlaws championship standings after his win on Saturday night. He currently leads Jason Meyers by seven points with Steve Kinser third- nine markers out, with Donny Schatz fourth and Jason Sides fifth. The weekend at Tulare opened with Kinser leading Schatz by two points, with Saldana third- 12 points out and Meyers fourth- 16 markers back. After the opener at Tulare, Kinser and Schatz were tied for the point lead with Saldana third, just three points out and Meyers fourth, only six markers behind. Three times in five races so far this season there has been a change at the top of the standings. A new track record: For the second consecutive year the track record at Thunderbowl Raceway was broken during World of Outlaws time trials. Tim Kaeding turned a lap of 12.651 seconds to break the existing mark of 12.713 that Terry McCarl had set in 2009. Kaeding, second fastest qualifier Lucas Wolfe and third quick Joey Saldana all broke the existing track record in the opener at Tulare. It was the first track record established this season after 10 were set last year at World of Outlaws events. Starting the night on a strong note: Lucas Wolfe was quickest in time trials on Saturday night to earn his first fast time honor of the 2010 season. He opened the weekend by turning the second fastest lap on Friday night at Thunderbowl Raceway. Unfortunately bad luck befell the 2008 Kevin Gobrecht Rookie of the Year on Friday night as he was running fourth with just five laps remaining when he lost a rear end. The bad luck plagues him again the next night as he was running third in the finale on the 14th lap when a broken driveshaft ended his night. "A first and a second is our best qualifying of the season," said Wolfe after time trials on Saturday night. "Hopefully that trend will continue. We've had pretty good results in the races this year we just haven t qualified well so we ve started at the back." Gaining momentum: Kraig Kinser picked up his best finish of the season coming home fourth on Saturday night at Tulare after finishing eighth in the opener. The third generation driver is back home in 2010 driving for his father Steve s team, with whom he has had a lot of success in the past including winning the 2005 Knoxville Nationals. The younger Kinser is currently sixth in point and has three Top-10 finishes this season. "We qualified good tonight as opposed to last night," he noted after his Top-Five run on Saturday. "We were good last night (Friday) in the feature and continue to run good here tonight on a track that was tough for a lot of people this weekend and we're fortunate that we got to roll it (the car) into the trailer this weekend." Hard charger: Chad Kemenah, who returned to the road full-time with the World of Outlaws in 2010, scored his best finish of the season on Friday night at Thunderbowl Raceway. The 2006 Kevin Gobrecht Rookie of the Year started 17th and finished seventh to earn the KSE Race Products Hard Charger Award. "It wasn't too bad," stated Kemenah of his run last Friday night. "Some of it was that we had some wrecks in front of us, but we were passing some race cars. Hopefully that will give us a little motivation to keep going a little better every night here. We've been struggling so far, but we ll keep trying." Signing on: Terry McCarl and Big Game Motorsports have signed on to be full-time Platinum Members with the World of Outlaws in 2010. They now will be eligible for series provisionals as well as tow money and other benefits that are accrued to full-time Platinum teams that travel the circuit. McCarl has finished among the Top-10 in the World of Outlaws championship standings three times in his career. He began 2010 with nine career A-Feature wins with the series. Career best finish Ben Gregg, one of the contenders for the Kevin Gobrecht Rookie of the Year Award with the World of Outlaws in 2010, picked up his best-career finish with the series on Saturday night at Thunderbowl Raceway coming home 11th. It was the third consecutive year that the native of Phoenix has competed at the high-banked 1/3-mile bullring. He currently leads Toni Lutar in the chase for the rookie title by 63 markers. Tune in: Steve Kinser will join host Tim Tuttle on the On Track On Radio show this afternoon (Monday, March 8) at 4:45 p.m. Eastern. The show can be heard online at www.racefanradio.com. Tuttle will talk to the 20-time series champion about his strong start to the 2010 campaign driving for Tony Stewart Racing as a teammate to four-time and defending series champion Donny Schatz. Up next: The World of Outlaws head to the Lone Star State for the Second Annual Texas Two-Step Weekend, beginning at Lone Star Speedway in Kilgore on Friday, March 12, followed by a stop at Houston Raceway Park in Baytown on Saturday, March 13. Keep up with all the action: The number of "Followers" keeping up with the World of Outlaws via Twitter online and through text messages on cell phones continues to grow and recently surpassed the 2,900 "Follower" mark. Updates are provided throughout race nights beginning with hot laps and continuing all the way through the final checkered flag of the night. To sign-up visit: http://twitter.com/worldofoutlaws and receive live race updates, anywhere, anytime. 2010 STAT ATTACK There has been five World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series A-Feature events this season. A-Feature winners (5 Different Drivers) Driver, Hometown Wins 1- Jason Meyers, Clovis, California- 2 2- Steve Kinser, Bloomington, Indiana- 1 Joey Saldana, Brownsburg, Indiana- 1 Donny Schatz, Fargo, North Dakota- 1 Lap leaders, Driver, Hometown - Total laps led (6 Different Drivers) 1- Donny Schatz, Fargo, North Dakota- 46 laps 2- Jason Meyers, Clovis, California- 38 laps 3- Joey Saldana, Brownsburg, Indiana 36 laps 4- Steve Kinser, Bloomington, Indiana- 17 laps 5- Tim Kaeding, San Jose, California- 13 laps 6- Tim Shaffer, Aliquippa, Pennsylvania- 10 laps Time trial leaders (4 Different Drivers) Rank - Driver, Hometown - Quick times 1- Jason Sides, Bartlett, Tennessee- 2 2- Tim Kaeding, San Jose, California- 1 Terry McCarl, Altoona, Iowa- 1 Lucas Wolfe, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania -1 Track Records established in 2010 World of Outlaws events (1) *Tim Kaeding, March 5, Thunderbowl Raceway (1/3-mile), Tulare, California, 12.651 seconds at 94.759 mph Dash Winners (4 Different Winners) Rank - Driver, Hometown - Dash Wins 1- Tim Kaeding, San Jose, California- 2 2- Fred Rahmer, Salfordville, Pennsylvania - 1 Donny Schatz, Fargo, North Dakota- 1 Tim Shaffer, Aliquippa, Pennsylvania- 1 Pole Positions (4 Different Drivers) Rank - Driver, Hometown Poles 1- Tim Kaeding, San Jose, California- 2 2- Fred Rahmer, Salfordville, Pennsylvania - 1 Donny Schatz, Fargo, North Dakota- 1 Tim Shaffer, Aliquippa, Pennsylvania- 1 B-main Winners (4 Different Winners) Rank - Driver, Hometown - B-Main Wins 1- Evan Suggs, Scotts Valley, California- 2 2- Dale Blaney, Hartford, Ohio- 1 Cale Conley, Vienna, West Virginia- 1 Danny Lasoski, Dover, Missouri- 1 KSE Racing Products Hard Charger Award 1- Chad Kemenah, Findlay, Ohio- 1 Steve Kinser, Bloomington, Indiana - 1 Danny Lasoski, Dover, Missouri- 1 Jason Meyers, Clovis, California- 1 Lucas Wolfe, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania- 1 Kevin Gobrecht Rookie of the Year Award Standings Ben Gregg 504 Toni Lutar 441 -63 Engine Builder Challenge Speedway Engines 21 Shaver Specialties 19 -2 Don Ott 16 -5 Kistler 14 -7 Chassis Builder Challenge Maxim 24 J&J 19 -5 XXX 17 -7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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