24 Laps of Domination
Following a heartbreaker on Saturday when Craig Dollansky dominated the competition by opening up a twelve second lead in the first 27 laps of the feature until the motor let loose, the Big Game Treestands #7 team were back to Volusia Speedway Park on Sunday to wrap up the World of Outlaws opening weekend.
With 32 cars taking to the semi-banked half mile oval in qualifying, Dollansky piloted the Aggressive Hydraulics backed sprinter to the 5th fastest time with a lap of 13.589 seconds. In the first two nights of Outlaw action ‘The Crowd Pleaser’ competed in heat race one and cruised to victory both times. Sunday the result was no different but how it was accomplished was a sight to be seen. On lap four, while running fourth, Dollansky threaded the needle between Brad Sweet and the wall in turn two and then closed in on Joey Saldana who he would motor around on the highside a couple laps later.
A double file restart with two laps to go saw Dollansky throw a slidejob on leader Fred Rahmer when the field raced into turn one as the #7 would never look back. In the dash, the Aeroquip Performance Products Maxim started on the outside of row one and raced closely with Steve Kinser but would go on to finish 2nd.
In the 30-lap A-Main, Dollansky and Kinser drag raced down the fronstretch with Dollansky working the highside of the speedway and taking the lead out of turn two. Continuing to work the highside, Dollansky started to open up a bit of a lead over the 20-time champion until Paul McMahan spun with six laps complete. On the double file restart, Dollansky got another great job and maintained his lead until another caution just a couple laps later. Lining up next to Kinser again for the double file restart, Dollansky and Kinser raced down the fronstretch with Kinser taking the lead into turn one but Dollansky slingshot around the highside in turn two to steal the lead back. As laps started to wind down, Dollansky started to work his way through traffic and close in on the first victory of the season. Unfortunately, after leading the most laps of the feature for the second night in a row, a bolt on the left front radius rod came loose and Dollansky lost the lead and fell back to 11th when the checkers flew.
Over the five nights of racing, Dollansky proved that he was one of the fastest cars as he charged from 17th to 2nd on the opening night and nearly captured two of the three World of Outlaws events as he led the most feature laps of anyone, including 51 of 60 on the final two nights. The Big Game Treestands #7 will put Florida behind them and head back to their shop in Princeton, MN for a week and a half before racing continues on February 25th at Pike County Speedway in Magnolia, Mississippi.
