CAFÉ RACER 76

Schatz Wins Two in Eldora ‘Mother’ Sweep

Schatz Wins Two in Eldora Speedway ‘Mother’ Sweep

Second place finisher Gary Taylor scored his best ever Outlaws finish

ROSSBURG, Ohio - May 9, 2015 - Donny Schatz went six years between wins at Eldora Speedway but proved Saturday night that past is not always prologue as he swept the two-day 'Mother of All Sprint Car Weekends' and took home his eighth World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series victory of the season.

"Great race team, they do a phenomenal job every time we get to the track," Schatz said of his Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing team. "Tonight, thank you fans for sticking with us. I didn't know if we were going to get that in. Hats off to everyone who worked their tails off all day."

Rain dominated much of the day and threatened the night's event. By mid-afternoon though the rain clouds gave way and the track prep began. A slightly delayed event got underway with Rico Abreu scoring his second quick time of the season.

Schatz started on the feature pole with his No. 15 Bad Boy Buggies car and held off Jamie Veal in the opening laps. The first of two cautions in the feature came out on lap five. It proved pivotal for Gary Taylor, who started the night in fourth with his Fausey Farms 1ST team.

Taylor battled past Veal to take over the second position and then held tight to Schatz through the next three laps as he tried to make a run at the lead. Schatz eventually pulled away and by lap 11 he had caught the tail end of the field.

By lap 20 he had steadily built up a sizable lead over Taylor and third place Shane Stewart. While Schatz worked his way through traffic Taylor made up some ground.

Then disaster struck for Stewart and nearly for Taylor. With just two laps to go, Stewart and Logan Schuchart had tires go flat. The caution flag flew. As the field came around, Taylor hit something on track.

"I didn't even notice it happened until all of a sudden I heard a clink and I felt something on the floor pan and I thought, 'oh man!'" Taylor said. "Here we are with a great run going and then we come around the next lap and I see the piece of metal sitting there. We just lucked out I didn't get a tire."

Taylor came into the pits for a check. He was able to retake his position.

With Stewart relegated to the back following his tire change, Paul McMahan shifted forward to third in his No. 51 CJB Motorsports car.

On the single file restart, Taylor tried to take advantage but was not able to close the gap on Schatz.

"To not have the wins at Eldora, we love to win at Eldora - to get two here this weekend is awesome," Schatz said. "The track was so good. It could carry so much speed. The times were way down there. I don't remember the last time you could run around that quick at Eldora in the whole feature."

Schatz extended his championship points lead over Stewart to 55 points.

Taylor's second place finish is, to date, his best ever Outlaws performance.

"I've got to thank my car owner and all the people who make it happen," Taylor said. "We're kind of a small team so to come here and run in the hunt with these guys is a really, really good feeling."

With his third place finish, McMahan capped off a good weekend for his team that saw a fourth place finish the night before. McMahan is currently fourth in the championship points standings, 143 points out of the lead.

The World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series returns to action Wednesday night, May 13, at Lincoln Speedway for the Gettysburg Clash as the Outlaws take on the Posse for the first night in the lead up to the Morgan Cup. Great seats remain. Find out more information about the event and how to buy tickets at http://woosprint.com/gettysburg-clash.

Follow the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series on Twitter at www.twitter.com/WorldofOutlaws, like it on Facebook atwww.facebook.com/WorldofOutlaws, or check out the latest videos on YouTube at www.youtube.com/WorldofOutlaws.

Eldora Speedway Notebook

RACE NOTES: With his win Saturday night, Donny Schatz swept the 'Mother of All Sprint Car Weekends'… Donny Schatz now has eight World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series wins this season… After finishing second, Gary Taylor scored his best ever World of Outlaws finish… Rico Abreu got his second quick time of the season Saturday night after a lap of 12.989… Brad Sweet was the KSE Racing Hard Charger, advancing nine positions to finish in 12th.

World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series Championship Standings

Pos	Car	Driver	Total	Diff	Wins	Top 5's	Top 10's	QT
1	15	Donny Schatz	3239	0	8	15	21	1
2	2	Shane Stewart	3184	-55	3	12	17	4
3	49	Brad Sweet	3124	-115	2	10	17	2
4	51	Paul McMahan	3096	-143	2	12	17	4
5	29	Kerry Madsen	3080	-159	0	8	18	4
6	71M	Joey Saldana	3076	-163	0	8	17	2
7	7s	Jason Sides	2996	-243	0	7	12	0
8	9	Daryn Pittman	2980	-259	2	8	15	0
9	7	David Gravel	2903	-336	0	2	10	1
10	11k	Kraig Kinser	2813	-426	0	2	5	1
11	1S	Logan Schuchart	2655	-584	0	1	6	0
12	41	Jason Johnson	2432	-807	0	1	5	0
13	1A	Jacob Allen	2181	-1058	0	0	0	0
14	7	Craig Dollansky	2145	-1094	0	1	4	0
15	24	Rico Abreu	2102	-1137	2	4	7	2
16	7H	Jojo Helberg	1487	-1752	0	0	0	0
17	24	Terry McCarl	1481	-1758	1	3	6	0
18	83	Kyle Hirst	1334	-1905	0	1	3	0
19	0	Bud Kaeding	1179	-2060	0	2	3	0
20	44W	Austen Wheatley	1168	-2071	0	0	0	0

The World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series is brought to fans across the country by many important sponsors and partners, including: Lincoln Welders (Official Welder), Bad Boy Buggies (Official Side-by-Side Vehicle), Hoosier Racing Tire (Official Tire), VP Racing Fuels (Official Racing Fuel); in addition to contingency sponsors, including: Cometic Gasket, Comp Cams, Edelbrock, JE Pistons, KSE Racing Products, Mobil 1, MSD, Penske Racing Shocks, Sweet Manufacturing, and Superflow Dynos; along with manufacturer sponsors, including: ButlerBuilt, Intercomp, Impact Race Products, Racing Electronics, S&S Volvo and TNT Rescue.

Rags To Riches: Saving a ’57 Oval, Then Slamming It

Rags To Riches:<br />Saving a ’57 Oval, Then Slamming It

words

Brad Lord i

mages Paddy McGrath

The reasons why we choose to build cars are as varied as the makes, models and intended purpose. For some it’s all about extracting the very last drop of performance and testing the the laws of physics, for others it’s the simple satisfaction gained from presenting the fruits of their labour on the static show floor. Regardless of mindset, there’s one aspect of automotive culture that binds us all together: the happiness that cars bring. It’s something we like to call #JoyOfMachine.

For Martijn Groters and his small, close-knit group of friends from Netherlands it always has been, and very likely always will be, about Volkswagens. Together, they’ve been putting their spin on humble commuters from the German manufacturer’s back catalogue ever since they left school, and doing so have created some of the most well-known VW-badged cars in the country under their group banner, VWDepartment.

During that time Martijn has owned his fair share –including a couple of modified water-cooled cars and then a rat-styled and suitably-slammed ’67 Beetle. While the Type 1 provided a first step into the world of air-cooled Volkswagens, he knew it wasn’t the right car to really sink his teeth into. It wasn’t ‘the one’.

T1 panel buses consumed his thoughts for a long while, but given their rarity – and subsequent buy-in price – that idea was eventually put on the back-burner and Martijn went looking for an early oval-windowed Beetle, preferably with a ragtop and within his modest budget.

Ticking off all those boxes was never going to be an easy ask, but Martijn’s patience and perseverance eventually paid off in 2005 when he received a call from his local specialist air-cooled workshop.

There was a car for sale – a restoration project that had only got as far as a partial strip-down. It was a ’57 and therefore the last of the rear oval windowed models, it had a ragtop, and it was parked in a barn in the same spot it had occupied for the last ten years having previously been imported from California in 1990. It was all the encouragement Martijn needed to contact the owner straight away and set up a time to view the car the very next day.

What he found wasn’t that quintessential barn find we all dream of – a totally original, low mileage, one owner car sitting under a thick layer of dust. Instead he came face-to-face with an incomplete Type 1 shell that had been largely ravaged by rot. That might not sound all that appealing, but in an instant Martijn had fallen head over heels for the ‘piece of rust’ and secured the deal.

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