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

REAL GOOD!

There used to be signs posted at the track saying:"Anyone but Kinser" during Steves domination in the early eighties. I'd say if Donny keeps going as a sprint car driver this won't be his last and he won't be any more liked even though he's becoming one of the greats.

I second that! He was real good tonight!

As of right now he is the best.

Good enough to win two Knoxville Nationals and be well on his way to a second WoO title.

We never imagined this when Schatz used to race 360's at Cedar Lake, Jackson and some of the other tracks in our area. Wissota dropped the Sprints and it's ASCS Northern Plains now but basically the same group of guys. A lot of good drivers have run with our local racers but it's not exactly what I'd call an area that future WoO champions come out of. They're got this "Posse" vs. "Midwest Mafia" thing going but Schatz, Dobmeier, Peters, Swenson, those guys are based in the upper Midwest. Dollansky and now Tatnell are out of Minnesota, Brooke lives just down the road from my place. Craig is about an hour from here. Instead of arguing about Posse Vs. Midwest Mafia (a term mostly applied to Knoxville drivers) people ought to start wondering how these guys came out of an area that don't have much Sprint racing and have done so well.

Stan Meissner

Schatz is in a league of his own this year. I doubted his championship last year. This year he is winning against a much tougher WoO series and will most likely be the champion. There is NO ONE out there even close to him.

Hell, i like to gamble, & i'm not bettin' against him!!!!(yes, i did say that before the Ntls!!!) not even a fan of his, but ya gotta respect it when a guy does what he's doin!!!

Dont get me wrong, he is good but he is lucky too. He by far had the weakest heat race of the week, if not the history of the nationals. If he didnt pass those guys, he should of quit. If he would of had a heat like the rest of the top finishers did, he more than likely would not of started on the pole and would of had to pass some cars like T Mac and Joey did. If TMac would of not had some bad luck had some type of screwed Knoxville rule where a local get his spot back after pulling into the pits, in his heat, I think he would of started ahead of Donny and it would have been a different story of a race. Donny is good but he had some luck too this week. He was actually beatable this week, just didnt happen.

Life's short, race hard!!!

He's closest than anybody ever to being "Kinser-esque" Right now, he has the total package. Experience and confidence every time out as a driver and confidence that he has the best car every night out with what has to be the best crew in the biz...led by Ricky Warner. This season, in the big races, he hasn't just beat the competition, he's destroyed it.

His heat was nowhere near the weakest in Nat'ls history - Dollansky was in it and he's 8th in WoO points - the 1st, 2nd and 3rd heat that night were weaker than the 5th -- only the 4th heat may have been a bit tougher with Lasoski and Sides. On the previous night the 1st and 5th heats were as tough or a bit tougher than the 5th heat on Friday. To say it was the weakest heat in history is way wrong... On Thursday McCarl had an easier heat and didn't transfer out of it. Donny passed 9 cars to win his heat -- Terry passed 4 on his way to fifth.

Phil Taylor

home-theater-systems-advice.com

Yeah Dollansky and thats it. McCarl's heat had more that than that.

Life's short, race hard!!!

just to follow how flitair is smoking something and I am not. Lets see. Schatz's heat NOT a one made the finals A Main except him, only one made the B. McCarl's heat, 3 drivers made the Finals A Main, 3, and 2 more were in the finals B. Yeah sounds like Donny had a tough one. Man, Jack Potter, Mike Deavers, Chris Schmelzlem and others sure did outshine Ed Lynch Jr, Wayne Johnson, Travis Cram, Tony Bruce Jr.and others. WOW!!

Life's short, race hard!!!

opps, thats right Dollansky would be 1. so its 1 and 3... my bad

Life's short, race hard!!!

Duane ... maybe you shouldn't try to drink and type at the same time and get your facts straight before hitting the "reply button"... I like how you left out Mark Dobmeier, Garry Lee Maier, Ryan Farrell and Jeff Mitrisin - I'd put them up against "Whine" Johnson, Ed "on his head" Lynch, and Travis the Retiree. Tony Bruce however is a young, good shoe - in fact there were a lot of good drivers that didn't make the A for one odd reason or another - like Chad Kemenah and Haud and Rahmer - call it luck or blame it on the format. And there were some that were surprises to make the A through luck or the format - Lynch and Cram included there - I believe they were a LOT luckier than Schatz to get into the A-Main. Take the lucky Lynch and Cram out and you're left with Whine Johnson. Then (following your if, if, if pretzel logic) it's Johnson (10th in A) vs Dollansky (4th in A) - then who passed the tougher drivers/A-main makers? I even think it would be a safe bet that Donny would have won Terry's heat too - even if he had to start 11th in it and pass Terry to boot. Schatz is just THAT GOOD right now.

In conclusion - I reiterate that your statement that Schatz's heat was the "weakest heat race of the week, if not in the history of the Nationals" is totally ludicrous and without merit - that was and still is my objection to your original myopic statement. You go ahead and twist your stats however you want - whatever makes you feel better...

Phil Taylor

home-theater-systems-advice.com

Filtair & Duane,

Were you two watching the same race?

Since I wasn't at Knoxville and my husband was, I checked with him on the two different set of facts here. It looks like you got it Filtair by 12 car lengths and going for the win! You can't bury the facts.

How good ??? I never thought he was that good .... Osky (was gonna win it from the back if he didn't break) and the a$$ whippin he put on this year at the Nats. has completely changed my opinion of Schatz. He is in a class by himself right now, can run a heavy track a dry slickie or anything in between and make the rest of the field look like 360's. My hat is off to the 15 and Donnie Schatz .....you da man !!!

R.A.

S.H.S.

He's the man right now, either he's very fast or his mechanic is very good. Obviously both are on their game at the top level. To compare him to Kinser is asinine! Sammy & Wolfgang are still leaps and bounds ahead of Shatz - A Kinser comparison will probably never be achieved in my life time.

Circa 1980: Steve, Doug, Sammy, Donny in the first 2 rows of the Nationals - If your a betting man you better ride with Steve. 27 years later and he's only 3 positions behind him!!!!

Congatulations to the whole Shatz tean - You whooped their asses this year....