SALDANA TAKES COTTAGE GROVE WOO CHECKERS

Source: Andrew Kunas
Date: 08/30/2007

The Brownsburg, Ind. driver scored his first win at Cottage Grove Speedway, a track where his car owner had won previously. On top of that, he took advantage of a well-prepared clay oval track and recorded the first sub-10 second lap in the track’s 51-year history.

Saldana’s tenth win of the season puts him now only 32 points behind defending series champion Donny Schatz of North Dakota. Schatz finished second after coming from 14th. Pennsylvania’s Tim Shaffer, who led the first 12 laps of the 40-lap event before being passed by Saldana on a restart, finished third.

“It’s great to get a win here,” Saldana said. “I love coming out here and this race has always been a good track for me. It helps when we come back next year, knowing that we can win at these places. We’re doing everything we need to do right now. We just have to keep doing that.”

After a runner-up finish a week and a half earlier in Edmonton, Alberta, Saldana made comments that angered fans at the track and many more across North America as they were heard on Internet radio as well. Wednesday night, Saldana made sure to praise the track, which pleased one of the largest crowd’s in Cottage Grove Speedway’s history.

“The track was great!” Saldana said in victory lane, pointing out his run from ninth to third in the eight-lap dash race that put him inside the second row for the A-Feature, giving him a reasonable chance at winning. Saldana’s car owner, Kasey Kahne, is from Washington and had previously won sprint car events at Cottage Grove Speedway.

Saldana ran fourth behind Shaffer, Schatz and Jason Solwold during the first few laps. Schatz, the race pole-sitter who leads the series with 14 A-Feature victories this season, lost the second position and fell all the way back to 14th when he slid off the top of the track in turns one and two. Solwold and Saldana each advanced a position. On lap 10, Saldana got around Solwold for second.

On a lap 13 restart following a caution for a spin by Steve Kinser, Saldana made the race winning move, passing Shaffer on the low side exiting turn four. By lap 19 Saldana found himself in traffic, but Shaffer was only able to close in a few times until Saldana got around another slower car and pull away again.

The fifth and final caution of the event came with 37 laps completed when Jonathan Allard of Chico, Calif. came to a stop with a shredded right rear tire. Allard was putting on the run of the night, coming from the 21st starting position to run as high as fifth. The caution turned into a red flag situation as the cars stopped and teams were allowed to refuel their cars for the final three laps.

Schatz, meantime, had been working his way back towards the front. Running fifth with three laps remaining, he picked off both Oklahoma’s Daryn Pittman and California’s Jason Meyers to get into third on the first lap, and just a few moments later on lap 40 he passed Shaffer coming out of turn four to take second place at the finish line. Schatz has only won once at Cottage Grove, but at the time in 1998 it was his first career World of Outlaws victory.

Meyers and Pittman finished fourth and fifth, respectively. Jason Solwold, out of Mount Vernon, Wash. finished sixth in his return to Cottage Grove, where he once competed at regularly with the old Northern Sprint Tour. One driver who has won a lot at Cottage Grove, Medford’s Roger Crockett, finished seventh. Brad Sweet, Paul McMahan and Australia’s Kerry Madsen rounded out the top ten.

Minnesota’s Craig Dollansky, who won four nights earlier at Skagit Speedway in Washington, finished 11th after starting in the 24th and final starting position. B-Main winner Terry McCarl of Iowa finished 13th. Missouri’s Danny Lasoski, who won the last World of Outlaws event at Cottage Grove in 2005, finished 14th while California’s Tim Kaeding, who won last year’s National Sprint Tour event, finished 18th. South Dakota’s Justin Henderson finished 15th in his first visit to Cottage Grove.

Kinser had an eventful night at Cottage Grove. Kinser finished third in his heat after being sent back a row for a false start. During a caution in the next heat race, Kinser then walked onto the track to voice his displeasure. The 20-time series champion then had an uncharacteristically rough A-Feature race, spinning out twice and being involved a multi-car red-flag accident. He finished 19th, one lap down.

McCarl’s victory in the 12-lap B-Main came over Tony Bruce Jr., Dollansky and Sam Hafertepe Jr. Hafertepe, a rookie out of Texas, was also at Cottage Grove for the first time, and made it somewhat memorable as he passed Australia’s Brooke Tatnell on the final lap to take the fourth and final transfer to the A-Feature.

Like he would do in the A-Feature for second, Schatz passed Shaffer for position on the final turn of the eight-lap dash race, only this time it was for the win. Behind those two and Saldana were Solwold, McMahan, Jason Sides, Pittman, Sweet, Crockett and Randy Hannagan. The finish determined the first ten starting positions for the A-Feature. Heat race victories earlier in the evening went to Sweet, Shaffer, Pittman and Solwold.

Saldana paced the 32-car field in qualifying with his history making run of 9.991 seconds around the ¼-mile, high-banked clay oval. Saldana’s time broke Meyer’s record of 10.000 seconds that was set in last year’s National Sprint Tour event. No one else broke the ten-second barrier, the closest being Crockett, who turned a lap of 10.049 seconds.

Saldana’s night at Cottage Grove capped off a very strong Northwest swing for him. Saldana finished seventh and second in two nights at Skagit and then finished second Monday at Grays Harbor Raceway, also in Washington, before his victory at Cottage Grove.

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