Mother Nature has plagued World of Outlaws action three of the last four events at Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 dating back to early 2011. On Saturday however the weather was much more favorable on a warm mid-October day of racing for the Big Game Treestands #7 team as they prepared for the grueling Ironman 55 feature that was postponed from August and the Spring Classic rained out in April.
As the defending champion of the longest race of the season, ‘The Crowd Pleaser’ entered the Ironman main event with a remarkable first or second place finish in 6 of the previous 7 events at the high-banked, action-packed track.
Taking the green flag from inside row three, Dollansky moved up a spot before the first yellow fifteen laps into the makeup feature. Following a caution on the restart, the Big Game Treestands #7 moved up two spots for the ensuing restart when Cody Darrah suffered a flat tire and Joey Saldana spun. As racing continued Dollansky hounded Kerry Madsen for the lead and nearly took the top spot before a red flag on lap 21.
When the main event resumed ‘The Crowd Pleaser’ gauged the double-file restart perfectly powering to the lead into turn one. After another caution the next go-around, a long stretch of green flag action saw Madsen close just after the halfway point and put on a great battle for the lead through lapped traffic with Madsen reclaiming first on lap 33. Not going down without a fight, Dollansky got his elbows up and closed right up on Madsen’s bumper shortly before the #29 tangled with a lapped car and flipped on lap 46. Back on the top spot, the MobileStar Maxim endured through a final green-white-checkered restart on lap 53 to rocket back out front and cruise to the $20,000 payday.
“Ray and his crew did a great job with that race track having it hold up as good as it did for running an afternoon show,” commented Dollansky who now has nine World of Outlaws victory this season. “Once we got the lead I felt comfortable and was trying to be careful with lapped traffic. We lost the lead to Kerry and then he got over that lapped car which the same type of deal has bit us 2 out of the past 7 races while we were leading.
“I couldn’t be happier for this entire race team, DJ Lindsey works hard along with Sean Michael and my son Luke. We’ve got a great race team with Big Game Treestands which we just put together a new multi-year deal that is going to make this team stronger and I’m looking forward to that. We also have great people behind this team from Aggressive Hydraulics, MobileStar, Aeroquip, Brian Morrison, and a lot of support from people back home.”
Once the track was dug up and prepared for the nightcap, racing got underway with the Spring Classic race program as 32 drivers signed in for time trials. After posting the 3rd fast lap in qualifying around the thrilling high-banked 1/3-mile, the Aggressive Hydraulics backed sprinter started fourth for heat three. In the 10-lap heat Dollansky hounded Lucas Wolfe for second, rim-riding until the last lap when he threw a slide-job going into turn three but couldn’t quite make it stick coming out of the final turn.
Just missing the dash meant the Elk River, Minnesota native would start inside row six for the second feature of the day. After a caution on the initial start of the 40-lap A-Main, the field stormed into turn one before a caution on lap 9 saw Dollansky run ninth. Using a great restart to gain two spots Dollansky started to make a charge but ended up bringing out the caution five circuits later when the fuel nozzle came off the Eaton’s Aeroquip Performance Products #7.
After repairs were made, Dollansky restarted at the tail of the field and charged around the highside before the caution came just after the halfway point on lap 24. Running ninth before another yellow ten laps later, ‘The Crowd Pleaser’ continued to power to the front claiming seventh with two laps remaining. Unfortunately when something punctured a tire on the #7, Dollansky tried to keep air pressure in the right-rear during a lap 39 caution and dropped a few spots on the final restart but still placed 10th, his 51st top-ten of 2012.
The Big Game Treestands #7 team will now return to the race shop in Minnesota and prepare for the PEAK Motor Oil World Finals at The Dirt Track at Charlotte in Concord, North Carolina on November 1-3.
- Craig Dollansky Racing on Oct 15, 2012
- Article Date: 10/15/2012 by Reid VanEck - CDR Public Relations