SAUK RAPIDS, Minn. (June 17, 2015) – The World of Outlaws inaugural event at Granite City Speedway got underway a day later than originally scheduled. Yesterday,
Mother Nature stepped in and rain forced the one day postponement.
Tonight 27 teams came to Granite City to see who would take home the first trophy.
Joey Saldana was third quick in qualifying, driving the Motter Equipment HE&M Saw Beltline Body Shop Sprint Car to a lap of 10.913 seconds.
In heat racing action, Saldana pushed off fourth on the grid of the third heat. When the green flag waved, Kerry Madsen led the field, followed by Bill Balog and Saldana. The top three maintained their positions for the eight-lap heat. Saldana solidified a starting spot in the dash with his third place heat race finish.
The ‘six’ ping pong ball was pulled in the inversion draw, placing Saldana in the fourth starting spot for the dash.
“This race track is very similar to the Kokomo Speedway where we recently got a win,” said Saldana in a pre dash interview. “It’s a cool little race track and the rain has changed it up a bit. It will be an interesting feature.”
When the eight dash competitors took the green flag, polesitter Danny Lasoski assumed the lead followed by Logan Schuhart, Shane Stewart, Donny Schatz and Saldana.
There were no position changes for the top five during the dash. Saldana would start fifth in the feature.
Following the four-wide salute to the packed house, the field realigned in side-by-side formation for the start of the 30-lap A Main. When the field was unleashed, Lasoski topped the leaderboard, followed by Schuhart, Shane Stewart, Schatz and Saldana.
It took a mere four laps for the leaders to hit traffic. When the caution was displayed on lap 12, the top five had not changed position. The first attempt at returning to green saw a three-car incident which then sent the next restart to single file formation. At the green it was Lasoski, Stewart, Schuhart. Saldana stole fourth driving on the inside of Schatz. Another yellow two laps later, and on this restart, Saldana moved up to third getting by Schuhart. On lap 22, Schatz took third from Saldana. Lasoski continued to lead with Stewart second. With less than five laps to go, Stewart took the lead on lap 27 and Schatz passed him on lap 28 to take command to the checkered flag. Stewart was second, Lasoski third and Saldana fourth.
Thursday is a travel day for the Outlaws. Racing resumes Friday, June 19 at River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, N.D.
# # #
