( Photos by: www.JohnsRacingPhotos.com)
Jason Meyers grabbed the win on Friday night at Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare, CA to notch his 1st career WoO win which he considers his home track. The win paid 10 grand and also was his 37th career A Feature win with the Outlaws. The win came infront of all his sponsors and fellow co-owners which saw Tim Kaeding break Terry McCarl's year-old track record in time trials with a time of 12.651 around the 1/4 mile. Joey Saldana continued his hot streak to start the year to finish second ahead of Jac Haudenschild and his messed up wing (pictured top left) which saw him finish third somehow. Point leader Donny Schatz came from 13th to finish fourth while Steve Kinser recovered from an early spin to round out the top five. Full results of the night can be found here. Schatz and Kinser found themselves tied atop the point lead following the first night of action.
Joey Saldana got the monkey off his back to grab his first win of the year, and his 60th of his career, with the Outlaws. The win also vaulted him into the point lead as co-point leaders Donny Schatz DNF'd due to a flip with Tim Kaeding and Steve Kinser finished 6th on the night. Jason Meyers followed up Friday's win with a runner-up finish as he and Saldana switched finishing positions from Friday. PA Posse member Fred Rahmer had the drive of the weekend has he came from 14th to finish 3rd due to the help of fellow Hall of Famer Brent Kaeding turning the wrenches on the Clemens #51. Kraig Kinser and Jason Sides rounded out the top five which saw a ton of equipment get torn up on Saturday night. The scariest of which saw Tim Shaffer in the Roth #83JR and Jonathan Allard in the Williams #0 (bottom left up top) get upside down during the third heat in a vicious wreck down the frontstretch. The video was posted today by Dean Mills on Youtube, thanks to him for the great video which saw both drivers checked out from the hospital later that night with no significant injures.
Following Saturday night's race, Saldana inherited the point lead and stretched his lead to 7 points over Meyers, 9 over Kinser, and 36 over Schatz after his skirmish with TK. The top 20 in points are listed on the right side of the blog.
The Outlaws head to Texas this weekend with a stop at Lonestar Speedway, owned by the Hafertepe family, on Friday night and then they head southeast to just east of Houston in Baytown for the finale at Houston Raceway Park. Along with the 18 current full-time WoO drivers there will be a contingent of both Knoxville and Pennsylvania drivers in attendance that include: Rahmer, Daryn Pittman, and Lance Dewease from PA; and Johnny Herrera, Brian Brown, Lynton Jeffrey, and Bronson Maeschen from Knoxville. Tony Bruce Jr. will also be making his 2010 debut with the Outlaws this weekend.
Again, sorry for the lengthy delay but it has been a zoo with Spring Break and trying to get on the computer to update the blog. The points are updated to the right, and will be again following Saturday's race. Should be a great weekend of racing!
Finally, the news of Jackson Speedway landing an Outlaw race for 2010 was leaked today and will be held on Saturday, May 1st. It may be a bit nipply for this race, but this should be a fun outing if we are able to get this guy in. It kinda sucks that this is also the Opening Night at Knoxville as that should take away some quality local cars, but its hard to complain when there is a WoO race to open the year around here!
Friday's A-main (35 laps) - Starting Position [#]
1) 14-Jason Meyers[2] [$10,000]
2) 9-Joey Saldana[5] [$5,000]
3) R19-Jac Haudenschild[3] [$3,000]
4) 15-Donny Schatz[13] [$2,700]
5) 11-Steve Kinser[8] [$2,500]
6) 51-Fred Rahmer[1] [$2,200]
7) 63-Chad Kemenah[17] [$2,000]
8) 11K-Kraig Kinser[15] [$1,800]
9) 7-Craig Dollansky[9] [$1,600]
10) 7S-Jason Sides[21] [$1,450]
11) 6-Danny Lasoski[11] [$1,300]
12) 17-Daryn Pittman[19] [$1,200]
13) 33E-Evan Suggs[14] [$1,100]
14) 55-Brandon Carey[22] [$1,000]
15) 44W-Austen Wheatley[16] [$950]
16) 2B-Ben Gregg[20] [$900]
17) 5W-Lucas Wolfe[4] [$850]
18) 83-Tim Kaeding[6] [$750]
19) 91-Paul McMahan[7] [$725]
20) 24-Terry McCarl[12] [$700]
21) 21-Tommy Tarlton[18] [$700]
22) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr.[24] [$700]
23) OO-Cory Eliason[23] [$700]
24) O-Jonathan Allard[10] [$700]
Lap Leaders: Jason Meyers 1-35
KSE Hard Charger Award: Chad Kemenah
Saturday's 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
