Schatz Ends Four Year Grove Winless Streak With 20K Summer Nationals Win

Mechanicsburg – The drought has ended.

After a four-plus year winless streak at Williams Grove Speedway, World of Outlaws champion Donny Schatz roared back to victory at the oval on Saturday night, taking the $20,000 win in the Summer Nationals feature after a flawless drive.

The win was the 20th of Schatz’s career at Williams Grove Speedway but it was his first since May 15, 2015.

After an initial start rollover by Shane Stewart on the frontstretch, the event would go non-stop.

Current World of Outlaws point leader Brad Sweet started second in the 30-lap feature and took the lead when the race began over third starter Schatz, who slipped by polesitter Sheldon Haudenschild in the first turn.

Haudenschild was fast throughout the race on the high cushion with Schatz working well on all sides of the track and when leader Sweet entered traffic on the eighth tour, Schatz was breathing down his neck.

Schatz made a masterful, power move on the 10th lap, driving right through the middle of the race track in the second turn to split a lapped car on the inside and Sweet on the cushion to throttle into control after a three-wide move.

The move served notice just how good Schatz’s car was and just how hard it would be to pass him even if he could be caught.

However Haudenschild had impressive speed on the cushion and after a less than pretty slide job to get by Sweet for second in the first turn on the 13th lap, he set his sights on the leader.

Haudenschild, Sweet, David Gravel and Daryn Pittman trailed Schatz at the halfway point.

With 10 laps to go, Haudenschild had caught Schatz for the first time and the pair crossed the line nose to tail but Haudenschild would miss his mark in the first turn, allowing Schatz to scoot away.

And then again with four laps to go, the Ohio challenger had run down Schatz but passing him proved to be a tall feat as the perennial outlaws champion moved flawlessly through traffic on all sides of the track to hold on to the big payday.

“It’s been a long time since we’ve been standing out here,” Schatz said.

“These guys just made all the right decisions tonight,” he said of his crew.

Sheldon’s really good when it comes to the cushion like that.”

Haudenschild talked about catching the leader.

“Following Donny around there, he don’t make any mistakes so it’s difficult to get around,” he said.

Third finisher Sweet commented on losing the lead saying he felt like he didn’t drive a great race in lapped traffic.

Daryn Pittman and David Gravel rounded out the top five finishers, completeing a top five sweep by the outlaws drivers over the locals.

Sixth through 10th went to Lance Dewease, Danny Dietrich, Ian Madsen, Freddie Rahmer and Carson Macedo.

Schatz’s margin of victory was 1.484 seconds.

Heats went to Gravel, Pittman, Dewease and Schatz with Haudenschild winning the dash to earn the pole for the main event.

The Friday night winner, Tim Shaffer won the B Main after blowing an engine in his heat and making a motor change.

For the second night in a row, Gravel set quick time over the field with a lap of 17.290 seconds.

Keep up to date on all the latest speedway news and information by visiting the oval’s official website located at www.williamsgrove.com or by following the track on Twitter and Facebook.


Feature Finishes

410 sprints, 25 laps: 1. Donny Schatz, 2. Sheldon Haudenschild, 3. Brad Sweet, 4. Daryn Pittman, 5. David Gravel, 6. Lance Dewease, 7. Danny Dietrich, 8. Ian Madsen, 9. Freddie Rahmer, 10. Carson Macedo, 11. Brian Montieth, 12. Brent Marks, 13. Anthony Macri, 14. Robbie Kendall, 15. Logan Schuchart, 16. Shane Stewart, 17. Cory Haas, 18. TJ Stutts, 19. Landon Myers, 20. Kyle Moody, 21. Jeff Halligan, 22. Kody Lehman, 23. Jesse Attard, 24. Jacob Allen, 25. Tim Shaffer, 26. Chad Trout

DNQ: Jason Sides, Adrian Shaffer, Alan Krimes, Nicole Bower, Kraig Kinser, Troy Fraker



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