9/17/14
Terre Haute Action Track
Terre Haute, IN
WoO
34 cars
Jimmy Light had something break coming out of turn four in hot laps and slammed into the wall, getting upside down. He was done for the night. Bryan Clauson had a sour sounding engine in the Indy Race Parts machine in hot laps and time trials and scratched for the night. It was the WoO’s first appearance since 2006 at Terre Haute. The track had plenty of moisture and was rough, even in qualifying. The blade was brought out no less than three times during the night.
Joey Saldana (5th car out to time) set quick time at 16.777 seconds on the half-mile. Donny Schatz (22nd car out) was second quick, followed by Brad Sweet (31st), Cody Darrah (10th), Shane Stewart (26th), Kerry Madsen (8th), Steve Kinser (15th), Kraig Kinser (21st), David Gravel (14th) and Daryn Pittman (20th).
Heat one (started): 1. David Gravel 83 (2) 2. Rico Abreu 24 (1) 3. Joey Saldana 71m (4) 4. Shane Stewart 2 (3) 5. Derek Hagar 9w (6) / 6. Dave Blaney 3G (7) 7. Logan Schuchart 1s (5) 8. Kody Kinser 4K (8) DNS – Jimmy Light 23
Gravel torched the rest in this 8-lapper to earn a Dash spot. Due to track conditions, the heats played out mostly single-file after the first lap.
Heat two (started): 1. Kerry Madsen 29 (3) 2. Daryn Pittman 9 (2) 3. Donny Schatz 15 (4) 4. Danny Lasoski 33 (1) 5. Lucas Wolfe 5w (5) / 6. Tim Kaeding 59 (6) 7. Brad Greer 3B (8) 8. Danny Smith 4s (7)
Lasoski was penalized a row for jumping. That handed the pole to K. Madsen, who took off from there. Schatz pulled side by side with Pittman for second at one point, but didn’t have enough room to maneuver by. Smith exited early.
Heat three (started): 1. Brian Brown 21 (2) 2. Brad Sweet 49 (4) 3. Christopher Bell 53 (1) 4. Steve Kinser 11 (3) 5. Paul May 71mx (6) / 6. Greg Wilson w20 (5) 7. Jacob Allen 1a (8) 8. Robert Ballou 12 (7) DNS – Bryan Clauson 71
After a lengthy delay to fix the caution lights and another track blading, Brown led the distance in a mostly single-file affair.
Heat four (started): 1. Paul McMahan 51 (2) 2. Cody Darrah 4 (4) 3. Kraig Kinser 11K (3) 4. Jason Sides 7s (1) 5. Ian Madsen 18 (5) / 6. Randy Hannagan 11N (7) 7. Parker Price-Miller 9P (6) 8. Jacob Wilson 07 (8)
McMahan led early, while Darrah rode to the outside of Sides to take second in turns three and four. He was the first car to use a little higher line, and looked to be reeling in the leader for a possible pass when a caution for debris slowed things three laps in. McMahan chose the outside line in a double-file restart ahead of Darrah, Sides, K. Kinser, Madsen and Price-Miller. A late bid by Hannagan for the final transfer fell short.
Dash (started): 1. Donny Schatz (2) 2. Joey Saldana (1) 3. Brad Sweet (3) 4. Cody Darrah (4) 5. David Gravel (6) 6. Paul McMahan (8) 7. Brian Brown (7) 8. Kerry Madsen (5)
Schatz led the six-lap distance in a blur of a race. The track got faster as the night went on. In the feature, Schatz would actually turn laps faster than Mark Kinser’s 15 year old track record.
B main (started): 1. Logan Schuchart (1) 2. Tim Kaeding (3) 3. Danny Smith (6) 4. Greg Wilson (2) / 5. Parker Price-Miller (4) 6. Dave Blaney (5) 7. Randy Hannagan (8) 8. Kody Kinser (7) 9. Jacob Allen (9) 10. Brad Greer (10) DNS – Robert Ballou, Jacob Wilson, Bryan Clauson, Jimmy Light
Schuchart led the 12-lap distance. Smith jumped from fifth to third on the first lap before being over taken by Wilson. On lap four, Smith proved the track was widening, when he circled Wilson for third coming out of turn four.
A main (started): 1. Donny Schatz (1) 2. Joey Saldana (2) 3. Brian Brown (7) 4. Daryn Pittman (12) 5. Kerry Madsen (8) 6. Shane Stewart (9) 7. Steve Kinser (10) 8. Kraig Kinser (11) 9. Brad Sweet (3) 10. Jason Sides (16) 11. Rico Abreu (13) 12. Ian Madsen (20) 13. Christopher Bell (15) 14. Paul McMahan (6) 15. Paul May (23) 16. Derek Hagar (21) 17. Danny Lasoski (14) 18. Cody Darrah (4) 19. David Gravel (5) 20. Logan Schuchart (17) 21. Lucas Wolfe (18) 22. Tim Kaeding (22) 23. Danny Smith (24) 24. Greg Wilson (19)
Before the event, WoO officials decided to shorten the event to 25 laps from its scheduled 30, and to implement no double-file restarts. Before a lap could be completed, Sweet and McMahan tangled. Both made repairs and restarted at the tail. Schatz took off from the start and was really in a league of his own. Darrah followed in third until lap 14, when he suffered motor issues and stopped on the frontstretch. At the same time, Gravel, who had inherited the third spot, went pitside with a flat right rear. Now Schatz led Saldana, Brown, K. Madsen and Pittman up from 12th. Lasoski brought the last caution when he stopped on lap 17. A lap after the restart, Pittman grabbed fourth from K. Madsen. Schatz pulled away again to win for the second night in a row over Saldana and Brown. Brown broke a steering arm just after taking the checkers. A half lap earlier could have meant a destroyed racecar.