4/3/2011
Sprint Source
CDR: Low Fuel Steals Victory in Calistoga
A month long stretch of racing in California came to a close on Saturday for the Big Game Treestands #7 team as they took on Calistoga Speedway. With 2011 marking the Outlaws first appearance in the Napa Valley in four years, Dollansky was one of the most recent victors at the facility when he picked up the Harvest Classic victory in 2006.
After posting the fastest time in warmups among the 25 sprinters, 'The Crowd Pleaser' carried that speed into qualifying time trials as he motored the Karavan Trailers Maxim to the 2nd fastest time around the half-mile at 17.610 seconds. In heat race competition, Dollansky started fourth and went on to finish 3rd to earn a spot in the dash by virtue of his strong qualifying effort. An inversion of four was drawn for the dash putting the Eaton's Aeroquip Performance Products backed sprinter inside row two for the start. In the 8-lap dash, Dollansky would finish 4th.
Set to do battle in the 25-lap A-Main, the Aggressive Hydraulics #7 utilized a strong start to motor around Paul McMahan and into third by a lap 3 caution. When a double-file restart brought the field up to speed, Dollansky again used a great restart to get by Chad Kemenah and take second. After a caution on lap 4, Dollansky battled with Jason Sides and found himself running third when another stoppage came on lap 9. Two more cautions would come by lap 14 and the field was stopped for a two minute fuel stop due to the large number of laps run under caution. When racing resumed, Dollansky muscled past Joey Saldana to take second and came after Sides for the lead; unfortunately, another caution before the lap was complete erased the restart. Three more cautions by lap 19 would see Dollansky continue to run third and then put a slidejob on Saldana to take the runner-up position on the ensuing double-file restart.
The last restart of the night came on lap 21 and Dollansky made it a good one as he worked the highside to motor around Sides and lead lap 22. Looking well on his way to the second victory of the early season, 'The Crowd Pleaser' came out of turns 3 & 4 on the final lap but sputtered out of fuel, handing the lead to Sides, and coasted helplessly to the checkers to finish 2nd.
"It’s hard anytime you lose one like that, my car kept getting better as the race wore on and we had a strong car those last few laps," commented Dollansky after the race. "It’s definitely heart-breaking when you start running out of fuel. I knew when I took the white flag we were going to be in trouble. There isn’t much you can do though, you’d like to go back and change it and put more in on that red. We learn and move on but we were close. Jason had a great race car and drove a good race. It’s always a team effort with this entire race team from Big Game Treestands, Aggressive Hydraulics, Karavan Trailers, and Aeroquip. My crew DJ, Luke, and Troy work hard and do a good job every night. We would have loved to get a victory, our Morrison Motors are running good and Maxim cars and everything about our race car is strong and we have to keep digging."
With action in California complete, the Big Game Treestands #7 team now heads east to Paducah International Raceway in Paducah, Kentucky on April 15th and I-55 Raceway in Pevely, Missouri the following night.
Submitted By: Craig Dollansky Racing
