|
World of
Outlaws Wrap-Up: Thunderbowl Raceway
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.
 |
|
|
