Dollansky hits Sprint Winternationals $10K Jackpot at East Bay
DOLLANSKY HITS SPRINT WINTERNATIONALS $10K JACKPOT AT EAST BAY
Tampa, FL….2/03/07…..”We had to make wholesale changes while we waited for the push trucks to run the track in tonight after that rain. Fortunately, after we moved the tires and wheels around, our car ended up the best its been all week,” said Craig Dollansky holding the five foot trophy and the big sign declaring him the $10,000 winner of the 31st Annual Sprint Winternationals at East Bay Raceway Park, Saturday night.
Dollansky had won a preliminary race here four years ago, but joining in the victory lane celebration this time were Scott Boyd and his father Jim, Craig’s car owners for the past nine years and his crew members since the end of last summer, Rob Hart and Craig Stevens.
Missing from the winner’s circle photo were Craig’s wife Julie, sons Luke and Garrett and his daughter Peyton. “Hopefully, they are listening at home and they enjoyed it,” explained the happy winner.
The familiar red No. 7 carried sponsorship from GATR Truck Center, Karavan and Team Race Chick while utilizing a Charlie Fisher engine, Afco shocks and Hoosier 10’s which showed evidence of blistering a bit at the end.
Rain started to fall just as all the Sprints pushed off to start their 40-lap finale at 10:15PM and at 10:26 the cars were directed to the pits to top off their fuel tanks while the push trucks and wrecker continued to roll around the 1/3 clay oval. The effort saved the track and the cars were called back to finally take the green flag at 10:50PM.
With the top six in accumulated points inverted, Dollansky started the event on the pole and there was no doubt about how well his crew had his new Maxim hooked up. He jumped to a full two-second lead over outside pole starter, Lucas Wolfe on the second time past the flagstand.
Danny Lasoski andJason Sides made up the second row and Tim Shaffer and top point man Greg Hodnett comprised row three. It was Lasoski who passed Wolfe early for second and tried his best to keep Dollansky in sight. But, Dollansky never missed a beat as he started to catch the back of the field by lap five and managed to keep a lapped car between himself and Lasoski the whole race.
“That rain made the track a lane and a half narrower, and that made the lapped traffic a definite factor,” explained Lasoski who was proud of his entire Dennis Roth team that brought a new Kistler-powered Eagle for competition. Sponsored by American Compressed Steel and Artic Cat, the No. 83 almost had a second place finish on opening night, but Danny took the blame for a spin on lap 19 that cost him the position.
In his first time ever racing at East Bay, young Lucas Wolfe, who competed in both non-wing and winged cars, was fast all week long. He piloted a Don Ott powered Maxim owned by his father Randy that carried sponsorship by Allebach Racing and the Beer Hill Gang.
The fast pace of the entire field was only slowed once on lap18 when Alan Krimes spun in between turns three and four and then had his front end clipped by fourth running Tim Shaffer who had no where to go. Both cars were done for the night.
The restart line-up showed Dollansky, the lapped car of Mark Smith, then Lasoski, Wolfe, Chad Kemenah, Lance Dewease and Hodnett. But when the green waved, the leader Dollansky had clear sailing around the track and caught the back of the field again by lap 23.
In the closing laps, Lasoski appeared to close a gap slightly, but Dollansky still won by 10 car-lengths. Wolfe held third over Kemenah and Dewease. Rounding out the top ten, it was Sides, Terry McCarl, Hodnett, Randy Hannagan and Jesse Hockett.
The heats went to Dewease, Kemenah, McCarl and Brandon Martin. Michael L. Dehner, Kaley Gharst, Cody Darrah and Lee Stark advanced from the C-Main to the back of the B-Main. Six cars moved from the B-Main to the back of the A-Main and they were Tom Busch, Greg Wilson, Paul McMahan, Mark Smith, Brian Paulus and Krimes.
STATS – 410 SPRINTS - EAST BAY RACEWAY PARK – SATURDAY, 2/3/07
Top 6 Locked into A – Main – 1)Greg Hodnett 2)Tim Shaffer 3)Jason Sides 4)Danny Lasoski 5)Lucas Wolfe 6)Craig Dollansky
1st Heat – 1)Lance Dewease 2)Jesse Hockett 3)Danny Martin, Jr. 4)Alan Krimes 5)Bob Felmlee 6)Greg Wilson 7)Sam Hafertepe, Jr. 8)Lee Stark 9)Danny Holtgraver
3rd Heat – 1)Terry McCarl 2)Danny Smith 3)Fred Rahmer 4)Mark Smith 5)Chad Hillier 6)Michael L. Dehner 7)Jason Martin 8)Jeff Busby 9)Johnny Johnson
4th Heat – 1)Brandon Martin 2)Jason Soldwold 3)Dustin Lindquist 4)Tom Busch 5)Brad Sweet 6)Kaley Gharst 7)Nick Smith 8)Robbie Vaughn 9)Mark T. Cole
C – Main (Top 4 go to B by finish) – 1)Michael L. Dehner 2)Kaley Gharst 3)Cody Darrah 4)Lee Stark 5)Tim Vandervere 6)Johnny Johnson 7)Mark T. Cole 8)Danny Holtgraver DNS
B – Main (Top 6 go to A by finish start no higher than 7th) – 1)Tom Busch 2)Greg Wilson 3)Paul McMahan 4)Mark Smith 5)Brian Paulus 6)Alan Krimes 7)Brad Sweet 8)Steve Buckwalter 9)Chad Hillier 10)Nick Smith 11)Zach Chappell 12)Cody Darrah 13)Sam Hafertepe, Jr. 14)Bob Felmlee 15)Michael L. Dehner 16)Lee Stark 17)Robbie Vaughn 18)Jeff Busby 19)Kaley Gharst 20)Jason Martin DNS
A – Main (Top 6 in points locked in - 40 Laps) – 1)Craig Dollansky 2)Danny Lasoski 3)Lucas Wolfe 4)Chad Kemenah 5)Lance Dewease 6)Jason Sides 7)Terry McCarl 8)Greg Hodnett 9)Randy Hannagan 10)Jesse Hockett 11)Jason Soldwold 12)Fred Rahmer 13)Greg Wilson 14)Danny Martin, Jr. 15)Brandon Martin 16)Danny Smith 17)Jeremy Campbell 18)Tom Busch 19)Mark Smith 20)Dustin Lindquist 21)Paul McMahan 22)Brian Paulus 23)Tim Shaffer 24)Alan Krimes
Florida Mini Sprints – (A Main – 25 laps) – 1)Travis Senter 2)Darryl Wills 3)Kevin Bayer 4)David Gravel 5)Mike Dicely 6)Heath Henly 7)Wesley Gordon 8)Brent Marks 9)Clayton Robertson 10)Lex Burritt 11)Terry Monroe 12)Johnathan Hendrick 13)Harold Matthews 14)Ryan Langston 15)Russ Heider 16)Eddie Moss, Jr. 17)Travis Unglert 18)Steve Craig 19)Cory Spencer 20)Duane Harbaugh 21)Scotty Smith 22)Andrew Griffin 23)Brandon Artibani 24)Leroy Moore 25)Mardy Hardgroder 26)Jimmy Glenn, Jr. DNS
