With three World of Outlaws (WoO) Sprint Car Series races in three nights on tap for the weekend, Tony Stewart Racing’s (TSR) Donny Schatz and Steve Kinser headed north of the border looking to score a hat trick. Schatz closed the weekend by racing the TSR No. 15 STP/Armor All/Chevrolet J&J to a flag-to-flag victory Sunday in the series debut at Cornwall (Ontario) Motor Speedway. Kinser started the TSR No. 11 Bass Pro Shops/J.D. Byrider/Chevrolet Maxim 12th Sunday and followed Schatz to the finish line to give TSR a top-two sweep.
The duo’s finish Sunday helped ease the pain of an up-and-down weekend that began Friday with the Outlaws’ debut at Autodrome Granby (Quebec). Kinser started the 25-lap A-Feature second and dropped back to sixth before ultimately racing his way back up to finish third. Schatz started eighth but had to relinquish his top-10 position two laps into the main event when he stopped because of a broken fuel line. He rejoined the field and was able to charge back up to eighth. Things didn’t go his way on the green-white-checkered finish, though, and he would end up 10th.
Saturday night, the WoO made its third appearance at Autodrome Drummond in Drummondville, Quebec. Schatz qualified sixth in the field of 23 cars and finished second in heat three. The four-time WoO champion would pick up a spot in the dash and start the 35-lap feature in the third row. With nine laps complete in the race, Schatz was running fifth but was involved in a first-turn incident with Kinser following a restart. Schatz flipped violently several times into the infield after the two TSR cars made contact. He walked away from the accident but his evening was finished as he was scored 15th. Kinser was trying to make his way to the front after qualifying 10th and starting the race eighth. Kinser’s machine was too damaged after the collision for him to return to the race and he was scored 16th.
The weekend concluded with another first-time visit by the Outlaws to a Canadian dirt track. Schatz didn’t let a sore shoulder slow him down as he timed in eighth in the field of 22 competitors. The Fargo, N.D., racer dominated the night from there, leading every lap of every race he was in. He led all 10 laps of the second heat, eight laps of the dash and 40 in the A-Feature. The victory ended a 33-race winless streak, was his fourth of 2012 and the 117th WoO A-Feature triumph of his career. Kinser qualified 13th and charged from 12th to second in the race, which was slowed only once on lap 32 for Kerry Madsen.
The three-race weekend resulted in a number of changes in the 2012 WoO championship standings. Craig Dollansky overtook Kinser for the top spot while Sammy Swindell, who won Friday at Granby, and Joey Saldana, Saturday’s winner at Drummond, moved ahead of Schatz. With 46 of the 73 scheduled points races in the books, the top-five drivers are separated by only 49 points in the standings.
The eastern Canada tour concludes Tuesday night with a complete program at Ohsweken (Ontario) Speedway. Schatz and Kinser have both competed in all six previous WoO A-Features at the 4/10-mile dirt oval. Schatz won in 2010 and earned second-place finishes in his first three starts at the track. Kinser’s best finish was third on the night Schatz was victorious in 2010. Both drivers will be looking to beat last year’s Ohsweken WoO winner Tony Stewart. The three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion and owner of Schatz and Kinser’s machines earned his first-career WoO A-Feature triumph at the track last July.
