FARGO – After scoring a pair of NLRA victories last week in his family-owned No. 15 Fastlane Car Wash/Petro Stopping Center/DKW Transport/K3 Farms Rocket, Donny Schatz was back home at Red River Valley Speedway in West Fargo on Wednesday night.
The current World of Outlaws (WoO) Craftsman Sprint Car Series championship leader just concluded a tripleheader WoO weekend in his home state of North Dakota and was back in action Wednesday at the 3/8-mile, dirt oval. After racing from fourth to first in the third heat, he started on the front row with four-time Wissota Dirt Late Model National Champion Ricky Weiss. Schatz took the lead with a low move in turns one and two on lap four. He excelled in lapped traffic and pulled a way to score the popular win.
“Ricky Weiss is really good and I thought it would take getting into lapped traffic to get by him,” said Schatz. “We were able to get him in open track. It’s always a good thing when you are able to make a guy move his line when he sees you, which allows you to move yours and do what you need.”
“It’s been a fun last week in this machine. I have to thank everyone that helps make it possible. From my guy Kevin (Weldon), who keeps this thing organized and ready to go whenever we can, to my family and their business that are on this car. People like Doug and Kathy Zuehl from K3 Farms and Shawn Loken from DKW Transport got behind us too. We’re having a blast. Now, we just have to figure out when we can race this thing again. My regular job is pretty right now.”
Schatz won last Thursday’s CAN-AM Challenge at Red River Co-Op Speedway in Winnipeg before doubling up at River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks last Friday night, sweeping both the NLRA feature, after starting fourth, and the WoO Sprint Car Series A-Feature, from fifth.
The quest for his ninth WoO championship continues Friday at Black Hills Speedway in Rapid City, South Dakota before heading west to Montana Saturday night.
Schatz is scheduled to compete in a handful of other Dirt Late Model races this season including the Knoxville Late Model Nationals in September, the World of Outlaws Late Model program at Route 66 Raceway near Chicago and the season-ending World Finals.