Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

I seen an article where Donny will be racing a late model in the NDRL in Arizona and West Texas next month. Anxious to see how he does against some of the best in the business!

Proudly supports:

Logan Seavey, Brent Marks and "Big Sexy" Brandon Overton

This is no surprise.  He does this quite often and, in most cases, holds his own against the "big boys" of late model dirt racing!

 
I LEARNED ESP FROM MY MOM

"PUT YOUR SWEATER ON: DON'T YOU THINK I KNOW WHEN 
YOU'RE COLD?"

He owns a Late Model and has been running locally around home every chance he gets.  He won at least one local Late Model race somewhere up there last summer but I don't recall if it was Grand Forks or another track.  Those places are five hours from where I'm located but I saw the victory lane photo posted on one of the local Late Model boards.  Late Models and Modifieds are the most popular classes here in the upper Midwest so he could have very easily gone in that direction when he was starting out.

Stan Meissner

He has never ran against the best of the best in Late Models... He ran against weekly guys in the north... You act like he's ran against moyer, bloomquist, mcCreadie and others... Get a clue!

I think I speak for most of us here when I say " relax". Nobody was trying to put your late model "heroes" down. 

The Eldora race with Napscar drivers and a few NHRA drivers is the first time he ever drove a late model. He liked it and this year he drove one a few times in Grand Forks and once in Minot,ND I believe, maybe 5 times thus far.  He actually won the late model feature the night the WoO sprints were in Grand Forks, I saw it and Schatz and two other drivers, think names were Joey Peterson and Brad Seng, both top late model drivers here in upper midwest, you could put a blanket over them at the finish line, lots of back and forth passing.  Will be interesting to see how he does against a crowded field of top drivers.  Seng and Peterson are great drivers, Seng actually won the $9,000 John Seitz Memorial race two years ago against some of the best drivers in the midwest, Wisconsin to Iowa to ND, including WoO and Lucas Oil Late Model winner Brady Smith and the Feger brothers from Wisconsin.  $9,000 brings them out. 

Lawlessness + liberalism = HELL -  NYC, Detroit, Chicago, 
Seattle, LA  Who the H runs those cities. 

I think he raced 8 times last summer. He won in Williston, Minot, and Grand Forks. He also was 4 laps from winning in Ada, MN before tangling with a lapped car. The Grand Forks one was an NLRA tour race held in conjunction with the World of Outlaws Sprint Car race. It was a hard fought battle against very tough NLRA drivers that lasted all of the 25 laps on a very heavy and very fast quarter-mile. Minutes later, he jumped into his Sprint Car and absolutely sped away from the rest of the field in a 40 lap feature on a still very heavy and very fast quarter-mile.

Obviously there is a difference in competition among who he raced against in the NLRA, since most of the drivers work all week and race on the weekend; and those who he will race against in the NDRL, where most of the drivers are professionals that race all the time, and have no job to get back to. That being said, if the set-up is right, and since he has raced professionally in a Sprint Car and knows when and where to go on the track at the right times, I can't imagine he will be too far off from the rest of the drivers.

He has never ran against the best of the best in Late Models... He ran against weekly guys in the north... You act like he's ran against moyer, bloomquist, mcCreadie and others... Get a clue!

First of all, BITE ME!

I did not list any of the names you mentioned.  I think your jockey shorts are a wee bit too tight!

p.s. I am FAR from a Donny Schatz fan, believe me!!!

 
I LEARNED ESP FROM MY MOM

"PUT YOUR SWEATER ON: DON'T YOU THINK I KNOW WHEN 
YOU'RE COLD?"

Donny was also at the Knoxville late model nationals and was interviewed where he said he plans on racin late models more next year... Said it wasn't possible this year but that he loves driving late models and is going to be there for that race in 2114....

Our friend Sponge Bob used to say " Bite me " all the time.  Then he met a cannibal.

I have always been partial to sprints but the late model guys have lots of talent and actually race for more money and have more cars than WOO.The racing isnt as fast but there is more passing and I am sure  Schatz can run with most of them.Real race car drivers can adapt to most any car.Except for more weight they arent that much different and they are safer.Put Bloomquist in a sprint car and He would fiqure it out real quick.Remember T-Mac from late models won the Chili Bowl before the last several years of Swindell dominance.I commend the drivers that step out of their comfort zone and its good for the fans and both venues of racing.

Well said!!  Not used to intelligent posts on this board.....

Sometimes big time racers like to play in the minor leagues for fun or easy prey but Donny would never take a step backwards.  Why would you eat pork when you have steak?

The quality of local Late Model racing in the upper Midwest is top notch and Schatz has made a lot of laps on every kind of track imaginable.  I have seen Moyer, Bloomquist and McCreadie have some great runs at the USA Nationals and a few other places but I've seen them on nights when they couldn't get out of their own way.  Admittedly he hasn't had many Late Model starts but running against the weekly racers up in this part of the country would be a fast learning curve for someone like Schatz.

Stan Meissner

You've never been to Neelys interstate BBQ have you? 

I live 32 miles from Cedar Lake and spent 15 seasons writing for a local racing paper, taking photos, doing interviews, etc.  Part of that time was spent covering Sprints but more than 50% was spent at Late Model races.  I became aquanted with some pretty talented drivers including Tom Nesbitt, Jimmy Mars, Rick Egersdorf, Pat Doar and many others.  I'd stack our local Late Model drivers up against anybody as this has been a hot bed of Late Model racing for many years. 

We used to watch a young kid from Minot in the WISSOTA 360 division.  He drove a black #15 and we could see that he was going to be good some day if he didn't end up wrecking so much stuff that his dad would go broke.  I'm thinking you can guess who that driver was.  Like you said, Donny knows the tracks and what the cars are going to do well enough that he could adapt to Late Models very quickly.  If he had the right equipment he could do well in the Late Mdoels, no question in my mind.  A couple of drivers we used to watch doing double duty in Sprints and Late Models were Jim Bruggeman (was running 360's back when Schatz was starting out) and Rick Aukland.  Both ran well and had wins in both divisions.

Stan Meissner

Mike Balcaen from Winnipeg did double duty (Sprint Car & Late Model) back in the 90's. He did pretty well & won in both divisions.

Now why  do you have to go and stir the pot?? Ive been a fan of both sprints and late models(hell I'll watch toilet bowl races on dirt) but to call late model racing the "minor leagues" is just showing your ignorance. Ive always said the best series to watch is the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars but Ive probably watched more late model racing in my day and have to say Id travel further for a big late model race than a sprint car race because there are more good late model drivers around and more late models in general. My absolute favorite is watching the WoO at I-55 in Pevely but as far as sprint car racing here in Missouri I dont venture out much. I love all dirt track racing and will travel to watch both!

Proudly supports:

Logan Seavey, Brent Marks and "Big Sexy" Brandon Overton

Here's some footage from the Seitz Memorial at Grand Forks last September.  The Late Model racing is very competitive up in this part of the country.  http://youtu.be/90sGOBpJ_Cs

Stan Meissner

P.S.  I know how to make a link but the script for this board isn't very Linux friendly.  I have tried it in both Firefox and Chromium so far with no success.  I think it's got something to do with the version of Java used in the Linux browser but I haven't had time to research that since swithing OS's a couple months ago.  The screen turns gray when I attempt a cut and paste or using some of the icons in the toolbar.  If anyone has used Linux and resolved that glitch please let me know.  I'm using the 32 bit version of Ubuntu Studio. 

Stan Meissner