HURON — Donny Schatz led just one lap of the All American Shootout presented by American Bank & Trust/American Trust Insurance on Saturday at Dakota State Fair Speedway. It was enough for the eight-time and defending World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Car Series champion from Fargo, N.D., to claim his 13th victory of the season.
Schatz used a run coming out of turn two on the final lap of the feature race to get past Shane Stewart of Bixby, Okla., and secure the victory.
“Come right down to it, we got a run on Shane when that red came out there and they said on the radio they were going to go green and white together and checkered, so that meant I had one more opportunity,” Schatz said. “I had to make it one lap, I gave it my all and it worked. Nine times out of 10 it doesn’t, but tonight it did.
“It boiled down to the tires. We kept having all those restarts because guys were having tire troubles. I tried to be as cautious as I could throughout the whole race,” he said. “I couldn’t see what I had left. I started to slide around a little bit, but I knew I wasn’t to the cords yet.”
Stewart, who started on the outside of the front, proved he had the car to beat from the drop of the green flag as he powered his way to a sizable advantage over Daryn Pittman of Owosso, Okla., who started on the pole after winning the Craftsman Club Dash.
Pittman was able to narrow the gap as the pair reached slower traffic just five laps into the scheduled 30-lap main event. Despite being able catch Stewart he wasn’t able to make a pass before the first caution flag flew on lap 12.
On the restart, Stewart powered away from the rest of the 22-car field again, but it would only be three laps before the pace was slowed again with the second caution.
With Schatz looming back in the third spot, Stewart and Pittman continued to set a torrid pace for the next seven laps, which was ended with the third caution of the race on lap 22. Schatz was able to move past Pittman and claim the second spot just a lap earlier.
“I just wasn’t going to go the pace it took to keep up with those guys. It was just so abrasive and brutal on tires,” Schatz said. “You have to do it by feel, and feel, I think, is what won us the race.
“Sometimes you have to make that call at some point in the race,” he said. “I made that judgement call to only go as hard as it felt good to me, so it worked tonight. Some nights it might not.”
Despite having Schatz on his back bumper, Stewart continued to hold on to the top spot for the next three laps until Pittman suffered a flat right rear tire.
After just two more laps, the field was slowed again as David Gravel of Watertown, Conn., suffered a flat tire with just three laps remaining.
Stewart powered away from Schatz on the restart, but only one more lap was logged before Gravel’s car ended up flipping as it made its way through turns one and two while driving up on slower traffic en route back to the front of the field. Despite flipping, Gravel was set to rejoin the field for the restart, however, damage to his wing wouldn’t allow him to compete.
During the red-flag period, which was brought on by the flip, officials made the call to shorten the feature race by a lap due to the track conditions. Leaving the field to make just one more lap around the 3/8-mile oval.
Schatz and Tim Kaeding of San Jose, Calif., were able to get past Stewart on the final to secure the first and second spots, respectively. Stewart was third, followed by Jason Sides of Bartlett, Tenn., and Sheldon Haudenschild of Wooster, Ohio.
“At the end I was just hanging on, honestly. I knew tires were going to become an issue, obviously, with all the yellows and the flats. I tried my best,” Stewart said. “In hindsight, we probably should’ve picked a little harder tire, but our car was good enough to win the race.The cautions helped me at times and there at the end they didn’t help me. It’s just the way it goes.
“I’m not disappointed,” he said of the third-place finish. “We were pretty fortunate to even finish the race, so it is what it is.”
The victory on Saturday gives Schatz a pair of World of Outlaws wins at DSFS after he won the inaugural event in 2015.
“It feels great to get back-to-back wins at Huron. I got to come around and cut my teeth a little bit on this track 25 years ago,” Schatz said. “It’s close to home, I get to see a lot of people here I know and to me it feels like I’m home.
“It’s awesome. This race track has a lot of history to it,” he said. “It’s the home of the WISSOTA 100. Maybe someday I’ll be able to run that thing again. It is just an awesome facility, awesome place to be with an awesome atmosphere.”
Preluding the World of Outlaws feature race on Saturday was the feature race for the WISSOTA Midwest modifieds, which run at the Huron oval of a regular basis and served as the support class.
After a few fireworks near the start of the race, Scott Hansen of Garden City would find his way to Victory Lane for his first win at Dakota State Fair Speedway in nearly four years. His last win came on July 4th of 2013.
With just two of the scheduled 15 laps in the books the Midwest modified main event was slowed after current points leader Adam Brotherton of Huron road up on the wall in turns three and four before being sent into a complete roll.
On the opening lap of the ensuing restart, Dusty Seitz of Madison, who started on the outside of the row, found himself making hard contact with the outside retaining wall in nearly the same spot after it appeared he suffered a mechanical issue.
Lorin Johnson of Miller, who trailed Brotherton in the point standings heading into Saturday’s program, took over the top spot for the next three laps until the race was slowed for a third and final time for a caution with 10 laps remaining.
Hansen, who started eighth, would move up to challenge Johnson for the top spot on the final restart and held a slim advantage running the high side of the track as the pair reached the flagstand on the first two laps. He was able to grab a more solid handle on the top spot the following lap, but Johnson’s bid to move back to the front was far from over.
With just three laps remaining Johnson was able to catch Hansen and make a strong challenge for the lead, but Hansen was able to hold on to collect the fifth victory of his career at DSFS.
Johnson was second, followed by Brad Kopecky of Miller, defending track champion Brock Hess of Sioux Falls, and polesitter Jayme Peterson of Highmore, who led the first two laps.
Hess, Brian Bachmann of Pierre and Lane Johnson of Miller earned wins in the Midwest modified heat races.
Racing is set to return to DSFS on Saturday, with the WISSOTA late models, super stocks, modifieds, Midwest modifieds, and street stocks back in action starting at 7 p.m.
For more information on Dakota State Fair Speedway, which will host the 2017 Speedway Motors WISSOTA 100 on Sept. 13-16, visit www.dakotapromotions.com.
