The Oklahoma sprint car fan base was out in full-force on Tuesday at Salina Highbanks Speedway as the World of Outlaws made their lone visit of the season in ‘The Sooner State’ for an inaugural event that was rained out on April 23rd.
As 29 competitors signed into the pit area at the 3/8-mile oval to do battle, Dollansky was the first car out to qualify and stopped the clocks at 12.824 seconds, a time that stood atop the charts throughout qualifying to establish a new track record and give the Big Game Treestands #7 team their first quick-time of the season. In heat race competition, ‘The Crowd Pleaser’ started outside row two in the first heat and finished 4th to earn a spot in the dash race. Being the fast qualifier meant the dash inversion would determine Dollansky’s starting position in the 6-lap event. With the 8 pill inversion drawn, Dollansky had his work cut out but used a great start to rocket the Karavan Trailers Maxim up to fifth after just one lap and also race around Chad Kemenah for 4th before the checkers flew.
Starting from outside the second row in the 30-lap A-Main, Dollansky closed in on Steve Kinser by lap five but lost one position to Jason Sides when a caution came on lap 14. On the double-file restart, Dollansky exchanged fourth with Sides until another stoppage came on lap 22 as the Eaton’s Aeroquip Performance Products #7 still ran in the fifth spot. With the laps winding down, Dollansky used a great restart to race past both Sides and Kinser and come after Daryn Pittman for the runner-up position. The final caution of the evening would come on lap 26 as leader Lucas Wolfe shredded a tire, handing the leader to Pittman and setting up one final double-file restart to determine the winner. Dollansky wasted no time on the restart as he muscled the Aggressive Hydraulics backed sprinter around Pittman and into the lead down the backstretch. ‘The Crowd Pleaser’ would never look back as he led the final four laps en-route to his second victory of the season.
“Anytime you win it’s always a team effort,” commented the Elk River, MN native in victory lane. “We put a fresh Brian Morrison Racing Engine in tonight and to get quick-time and come out on top considering they draw the eight pill inversion in the dash, I couldn’t be happier for our entire race team. The race kind of fell into place towards the end, Lucas did a great job and was running a good race but we had a good car at the end and the last lap is the one that pays the money! This is a great win for Big Game Treestands, Karavan Trailers, Aggressive Hydraulics, Aeroquip, and everyone involved with this team. It was a great show for the fans, I’m glad we got it in and Mother Nature finally cooperated. It was a great race track that you could run where ever you wanted.”
Dollansky and the Big Game Treestands #7 team now trek east to ‘The Big E’, Eldora Speedway in Ohio, for two nights of racing this coming Friday and Saturday, May 6th and 7th.
