Looking Ahead to Knoxville

Craig Dollansky and the rest of the World of Outlaws ventured to Kansas this past weekend for two of four scheduled events in 2011 in ‘The Sunflower State’.  The first event on Friday marked the series first appearance since 1981 at the ultra-fast Belleville High Banks followed by their annual stop at Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City.

Friday’s program began with ‘The Crowd Pleaser’ turning the 5th fastest lap in time trials and recording the first dash victory of the season for the Big Game Treestands #7 team.  In the feature, Dollansky raced Paul McMahan for the lead but finished a strong 2nd.  Saturday’s program featured the Outlaws second consecutive weekend of racing next to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series who were competing at Kansas Speedway.  Another strong qualifying performance put the Aggressive Hydraulics Maxim 2nd quick and transferred through the heats to finish seventh in the dash.  In the feature Dollansky kept the strong results going by finishing 8th.

Although the team suffered two DNF’s after leading the most laps during the opening weekend back in February, the Big Game Treestands #7 team led by DJ Lindsey and the ‘Dollansky Duo’ of Troy and Luke continue to battle back each night and now climb into the top five in points at the completion of Lakeside and sit just 87 points out of the lead.  The team rides a stretch of finishing eighth or better in the last five events into Knoxville Raceway this coming weekend as the World of Outlaws cap off five straight events at half-mile tracks.

Before action resumes on Friday, Dollansky shared some thoughts on the two races this past weekend in Kansas and the two shows that lie ahead in Knoxville, Iowa.

Belleville
Qualifying: 5th
Heat Race: 4th
Dash: 1st
A-Main: 2nd, start (1)

“Belleville was a solid night all the way through we just struggled getting our motor to take off.  Now that we’re getting into bad air we’re struggling with acceleration on the initial starts so that’s hurting us but fortunately we were able to keep ourselves in the hunt and get a 2nd place finish.  We’ve got some work to do in that regard but that’s what we’re doing right now so we’ll get that sorted out by this coming weekend.”

Lakeside
Qualifying: 2nd
Heat Race: 3rd
Dash: 7th
A-Main: 8th, start (7)

“We dealt with the same issue at Lakeside and had a car that wasn’t real good but we worked with it throughout the night but never got it to where we needed but salvaged a top ten out of it.  We’re back at the shop now for the first time in about five weeks to go to work on some things that were plaguing us at Belleville and Lakeside and work on our car as well.”

“I always look forward to going back to Knoxville.  We haven’t been there since the Nationals and it’s close to home for us and a track I really enjoy racing at.  We needed this week to work on some things and we’re doing that now.  We’ve been running strong and had a couple second place finishes over the last five races so we’ll keep after it and more wins will come.”

Craig Dollansky Racing competes on the World of Outlaws circuit with great sponsors in Big Game Treestands, Karavan Trailers, Aggressive Hydraulics, and Eaton’s Aeroquip Performance Products.  Other supporters of CDR include Snap-on, Schoenfeld Headers, Morrison Racing Engines, Maxim Chassis, Integra Shocks, Winter Rearends, Sander Engineering, Overnight Wraps, Simpson, GATR Volvo, Butler Built Seats, Wings Unlimited, QuickCar Race Products, Saldana Racing Products, FK Rod Ends, KSE Steering Gears, Astro Titanium, Ray’s Autobody, Premier Powder Coating, Spectro Oil, Bob’s Bike Shop, Justice Brothers Products, CarMate Trailers, and R&R Enterprises.