Edmonton, AB
- Steve Kinser has won countless races in the United States
. He also has won in Australia , as well as in the World of
Outlaws lone race in Mexico in 1992. The one place he had
not won, prior to the World of Outlaws inaugural visit to Castrol Raceway on Friday night, was in Canada
. The 20-time World of Outlaws champion is the only driver that has competed in all six World of Outlaws events north of the
border, dating back to 1979.
That all changed on Friday
night, as he was victorious on the first night of the Oil City Cup at Castrol Raceway in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, leading
all 35 laps from start-to-finish. The race was also the kick-off of the 2007 Gold Rush Tour for the World of Outlaws that
will consist of 11 races at six tracks.
“It’s good to win once,”
said Kinser, driver of the Q Oil Maxim. “It’s been a while since we won a race. It all turned out pretty well. Our car felt
really good tonight. We made some adjustments for the feature. In the feature, the car was getting a hold of the track better.”
Kinser started second
and quickly jumped to the lead as he charged down the front straightaway and led into the first turn with pole sitter Tim
Shaffer and Terry McCarl behind.
Kinser opened a healthy
lead over the first five laps of the 35-lap event and hit lapped traffic on the sixth circuit, giving Shaffer a chance to
close in. Shaffer got bottled up in traffic and had to get on the brakes exiting the second turn, allowing Kinser to pull
away again.
McCarl slipped into second
and closed on Kinser, but contact between the leader and a lapped car, left McCarl with nowhere to go and he was forced to
the work area.
Kinser endured four more
cautions as well as a red flag period to earn his ninth A-Feature win of the season and the 542nd of his World of Outlaws
career. Also, Shaffer made a late charge in traffic as the pair saw the white flag.
“It was a long night,”
said the winner. “The track was rough and choppy. It smoothed out a little bit later in the night, but not a lot. We had a
lot of yellows, which I guess was probably good. I had an open track most of the time that way. I was fast and the only way
that I probably would have gotten past would have been in lapped traffic, which would have been easy tonight.”
Despite the cold temperatures
and the number of interruptions in the 35-lap event, Kinser has no problem staying in a rhythm. After finishing second in
the Crane Cams Dash, his crew made a number of changes to his car that were beneficial to him in the A-Feature.
“My car was handling
good enough that I was able to pick it right back up pretty easily,” noted Kinser. “The car was a lot easier to drive than
in the dash. I could run around the top and diamond it down back off to the middle.”
For Shaffer, it was his
second consecutive runner-up finish and 25th Top-1o finish, as he continues to close in on his first win of the season. He
won the Crane Cams Dash by a healthy margin to earn the pole position for the A-Feature.
“We were pretty awesome
most of the night,” said Shaffer, driver of the Casey’s General Store Maxim. “We tried to make the car better for the feature
and probably should have left it alone. We’ll take second. We were pretty good. We had a radiator cap come off with about
15 laps to go and that let a lot of water out of it. The yellow came out right at the right time. When you are running second,
you want to see the yellows. We just couldn’t capitalize on them.”
Shaffer and his team
learned a number of things that they can apply to the second night of the Oil City Cup in the World of Outlaws inaugural visit
to Castrol Raceway. With warm weather expected again during the day and cooler temperatures at night, he knows he will have
his hands full in his second race at the state-of-the-art facility.
“It was a tricky track
for everybody, but my crew worked hard and we are happy,” he noted. “If we can get that car rolling around like we did tonight,
we’ll be fine, but the track will be different tomorrow. That’s the thing about dirt track racing, it changes every night.”
Donny Schatz, the current
World of Outlaws championship point leader made a late charge to finish third after starting 11th. He battled with Jason Meyers
late in the race for the third position.
“We did what we had to,
but we would have liked to have passed two more cars,” said Schatz, driver of the ParkerStore J&J. “We gave it everything
we had, but it tough to do it when you don’t get traffic. We’re glad to be in the Top-three with how the track looked.”
Schatz, who was under
the weather, endured very chilly conditions that saw the mercury drop below 50 degrees by the completion of the feature.
“I’m glad the night is
over with and hopefully I can get rested up for tomorrow and try to get my wind back underneath me,” he said.
Joey Saldana lined up
13th for the A-Feature and steadily worked his way to the front. With the aid of a few cautions, he was able to stay close
to the leaders to record his 46th Top-10 finish of the season as he continues to chase Schatz in the championship standings.
“It was a good night
for us,” said Saldana, driver of the Open Joist JEI. “It was definitely a good run for a track that demanding. We just have
to keep running strong and hanging around the front.”
Saldana was glad that
the leaders did get into long runs in lapped traffic. He felt his car was best on restarts and that gave him ample opportunities
to gain positions, as he used both the high and low side of the track.
“The restarts were good,”
he said. “The track was so hard to pass on and narrow that if you had a good restart you could get around a guy. It seemed
to benefit you. At the end, the track opened up a little better, but it was over.”
Jason Meyers finished
fifth aboard the Primerica Financial Maxim. He had several battles over the course of the night as he ran in the Top-Five
the entire distance.
Jeremy Campbell finished
sixth, driving the RLM Financial Maxim. Craig Dollansky and his team changed engines a couple of times on the night as he
finished seventh after starting 18th. Paul McMahan was eighth in the Bass Pro Shops Eagle, after beginning the night by setting
a new track record in time trials, with KSE Race Products Hard Charger Award winner Jac Haudenschild in ninth in the Wright
One Construction Maxim, and Danny Lasoski rounded out the Top-10 in the Roth Motorsports JEI, after starting 22nd.
The World of Outlaws
return to action on Saturday night with the second night of the Oil City Cup from Castrol Raceway in Edmonton
.
A-main (35 laps)
- Starting Position [#]
1) 11-Steve Kinser[2]
[$10,000]
2) 6-Tim Shaffer[1] [$5,000]
3) 15-Donny Schatz[11]
[$3,000]
4) 9-Joey Saldana[13]
[$2,700]
5) 14-Jason Meyers[7]
[$2,500]
6) 10C-Jeremy Campbell
[6] [$2,200]
7) 7-Craig Dollansky[18]
[$2,000]
8) 20-Paul McMahan[8]
[$1,800]
9) 35-Jac Haudenschild[20]
[$1,600]
10) 83-Danny Lasoski[22]
[$1,450]
11) 5C-Chad Hillier[9]
[$1,300]
12) 21-Daryn Pittman[23]
[$1,200]
13) 24-Terry McCarl[3]
[$1,100]
14) 1X-Randy Hannagan[10]
[$1,000]
15) D1-Justin Henderson
[15] [$950]
16) 7S-Jason Sides[21]
[$900]
17) 18T-Tony Bruce Jr.[25]
[$150]
18) 39C-Travis Rutz[12]
[$750]
19) 57C-Chris Schmelzle[24]
[$725]
20) 4-Tim Gee[19] [$700]
21) R19-Jason Solwold[17]
[$700]
22) 11H-Kerry Madsen[4]
[$700]
23) 15H-Sam Hafertepe
Jr.[5] [$700]
24) 2-Brooke Tatnell[14]
[$700]
25) 11EH-Marc Duperron[16] [$700] SCR
Positions six through 10 went to Kyle Busch, Jimmie Johnson, Denny Hamlin, Clint Bowyer and Mark Martin.