|
 PORT
ROYAL,
PA (September 27) -- Pennzoil World of Outlaws driver, Danny Wood,
made it two A-main wins in a row after he took the checkered flag at
Port Royal Speedway on Thursday. Wood also extended Team Hoosier's win
streak to six events in a row in the elite series. The driver of the Pepsi #21W
not only took the 30-lap victory, he also led a bevy of Hoosier-shod
drivers across the finish line in the night's main event in which the
top seven finishers were on USA-made Hoosier tires. A
huge field of 41 cars was at Port Royal's 1/2-mile facility for
preliminary qualifying, many of those were local drivers known as the
"Pennsylvania Posse" looking to test their skills against
those of the Outlaws once again. The last time the Outlaws raced at
Port Royal was back in 1987. But this wasn't the only competition at
Port Royal, as all three tire manufacturers were on hand looking for
an A-main win as well. A total of 28 of the 41 teams elected
to run Hoosier tires, with the remaining 13 drivers choosing one of
the other two competing tire manufacturers. After all 41 times
were posted, amazingly the nine fastest times were posted by drivers
on the Hoosier brand. Mark Kinser set a new track record when
he clocked in at 15.912 seconds. Kinser was followed by Craig
Dollansky, Steve Kinser, Jason Meyers, Greg Hodnett, P.J. Chesson,
Paul McMahan, Todd Hestor and Danny Lasoski for Team Hoosier. Four
O'Reilly heats were needed to narrow the field for the night's A-main
event, with Danny Lasoski, Paul McMahan and Danny Wood each capturing
a heat race victory on Hoosiers. By virtue of the three heat wins
and the top nine qualifying times, Team Hoosier placed nine drivers in
the Channellock Dash which had ten starters. Danny Wood took the
checkered flag in the 8-lap Dash, followed by Paul McMahan, Danny
Lasoski, Craig Dollansky and Mark Kinser second through fifth for
Team Hoosier. The
B-feature, also known as the "last-chance" race, provided
another victory for Team Hoosier after Brad Furr took the win. In
the 30-lap A-main, fully 20 of the 26 competitors were on the Hoosier
brand. At the green flag, Bristol, Indiana's Paul McMahan jumped into
the lead from the outside pole position. McMahan, riding on a Hoosier
D10/D12 combination, maintained the race lead until lap 16, when he
got caught behind lap traffic which gave Danny Wood, also on a D10/D12
combination, the opening he needed to take over the lead. Once in
the lead, Danny Wood would not be denied his second consecutive A-main
win, leading the remaining 15 laps and taking the win by 8-car lengths
over series points leader, Mark Kinser. Kinser was using the new
Hoosier RD12 compound on his right rear, as was third place finisher
Steve Kinser. The newly introduced RD12 helped propel Mark Kinser to
his runner-up finish after starting fifth, while Steve Kinser advanced
even more positions after starting back in seventh en route to his
third place finish. Rounding out the top seven sweep for Team
Hoosier was Paul McMahan, followed by Jason Meyers, Danny Lasoski and
Andy Hillenburg in fourth through seventh. Todd
Shaffer finished tenth and improved Team Hoosier's scorecard to eight
of the top ten finishers on the night. Hoosier sprint tire product
manager, Neil Cowman, attended the race and commented after Wood's
win, "What a night, Danny (Wood) winning twice in a row, Hoosier
sweeping the top nine qualifying times and then following that up by
sweeping the top seven in the A-main,.... I think I picked a good
night to attend." Cowman continued, "I really was
here to talk to the teams about the new RD12 tire that Keith Kauffman
helped us to develop for red dirt surfaces and to monitor it's
performance under race conditions, after finishing second and third
tonight, I would say the RD12 performed very well." Cowman will
remain in Pennsylvania, attending both Friday and Saturday's Pennzoil
World of Outlaws races at Williams Grove Speedway, as Team Hoosier
looks to extend the current win streak to seven. Mark Kinser
extended his slim lead over Danny Lasoski to 32 points heading into
Williams Grove, while Steve Kinser remains solidly in third place in
the elite series' standings. |
