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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
| RACING
SCENE by Tim Kennedy |
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Los Angeles, CA. - WoO at the PAS (Feb. 22): I attended night
two of the 100 night 2003 O'Reilly Auto Parts World of Outlaws 25th
anniversary season on February 22 at Perris Auto Speedway. WoO
will visit tracks in 27 states this season. O'Reilly, which
replaced Pennzoil this year as WoO series sponsor, started in 1957
at Springfield, MO and now has 1,000 stores in the Midwest and
Southeast. After 37 cars participated in the WoO event a night
earlier at Kings Speedway in Hanford, 28 WoO cars raced at Perris.
PAS grandstands appeared about 90% full and many of the fans were
non-PAS regulars. The twilight show (with Lightning winged mini-Sprints as a support show) had sunny 68 degrees at 3:30 and a semi-chilly 52 degrees when racing concluded at 9:28 p.m. After a rain-free week, WoO teams and haulers used the infield, while all Lightnings used the pit parking area beyond turn two. The Lightnings, with self-starting capability, simply drove from their pits and staged on the track at S/F for their races. Staging went off like clockwork. The WoO one-lap PAS track record set by Danny Lasoski is 13.875 (129.730 mph) on 2/23/02 in Tony Stewart's orange & white No. 20. This year Danny, the 13th driver to qualify, used Stewart's No. 20 Eagle to again set quick time, but he did so 14.106 (0.231 slower) thanks to a new WoO minimum weight rule. When the FQ selected the inversion pill his choices were 0, 4 (the 2/21 Hanford pick) and 6. Danny drew 0 (no inversion) as the PAS inversion. The WoO field of 28 included drivers from Canada and 15 states-AZ, CA, IA, IN, MI, MD, MO, MN, MT, ND, NV, OH, OK, PA and TN. Seven (25%) of the drivers call California home. Andy Forsberg, an Auburn, CA driver, intended to compete at Perris, but he was a no show. Andy's emergency appendectomy on February 20 understandably took precedence. Only one driver, Randy Waitman, could be called a PAS regular. WoO heat race winners all started from the pole. Chris Holt used a wireless microphone to interview a fan in the grandstand before each heat race. He had each fan pick the race winner. Fans picked drivers who finished second twice, and then first (Craig Dollansky). The fan/winner received two tickets to the March 1 SCRA/VRA sprint car doubleheader. Northern Californians Art and Carol Malies had their unique push/working vehicle "Work'n Woody" present to push sprinters and assist on engine changes as usual. Friendly Art and Carol are beginning their 16th year traveling around the USA and working every WoO race from February to November. PAS official starter Ed Ramirez started both the WoO and Lightning Sprint races. Ed told me he has started every WoO race at Perris except the first WoO PAS appearance in 1996. The Feb. 22 race was the ninth WoO race in Perris (not Lake Perris, CA). There have been five different feature winners. Mark Kinser won the first four WoO races at PAS. Dollansky, Johnny Herrera, Lasoski, Daryn Pittman and Lasoski again this year followed on the victory podium. The 2000 WoO PAS race was canceled by rain. Mark Kinser and his father Karl have lost the Mopar engine deal they had for several years. It now belongs to the Stewart/Lasoski Home Depot No. 20 team. Mark and his dad are not happy with their post-2002 season (on Dec.10) dismissal by Mopar. They removed Mopar signs from their trailer and are now using Chevy engines built by rural Indianans Jeff Jones and Terry Cummings. Mark told me his team drove from Hanford straight to Perris after the Feb. 21 race as did about half of the WoO teams. The two Kinsers are motivated to succeed this year without Mopar. The Kinsers said Mopar was good in the financial support area, but it was often untimely when it came to supplying engine blocks and needed engine parts. Last season in 67 WoO events, Mark won three "A" features, had five preliminary feature triumphs, 23 top fives and 43 top tens, plus five fast qualifying times. He finished sixth in final points and won $261,830. Yet Mark and Karl know they can and should do better than that. Mark finished second in the 30-lap Feb. 21 season opener at Hanford. The PAS "A" main had Lasoski and Sammy Swindell on the front row; Swindell led the first five laps. A lap six tangle in the fourth turn left Sammy's No. 1 Dennis Roth Beef Packers Spl stopped. He restarted at the back and finished 15th, barely on the lead lap. Twenty-one of the 24 starters finished and 16 drivers ran all 30 laps. Winner Lasoski won by 60-yards over third starter Brad Furr, from Pleasanton, CA. Sixth starter Jac Haudenschild was third, 50 yards behind Furr. Nice guy Brian Paulus, in the "lettuce car" from PA, started and finished fourth for a solid showing. Steve Kinser, the 17-time WoO champion, started eighth and finished fifth at PAS-one of the few tracks where he had never won a feature. |
