American World of Outlaws Sprintcar star Joey Saldana won the 30 Lap Wynns International Sprintcar Classic at Western Springs Speedway on Sunday night (Nov. 29), with Saldana’s two Salter Motorsport teammates, Craig Dollansky and Ryan O’Connor, second and third, completing a Salter team trifecta for the annual event.

Michael Pickens also won his third consecutive Western Springs Midget feature, while Lawrence Baker and Rose Halfpenny won the TQ and F2 Midget features respectively.

Rain after the second Sprintcar heat on Saturday night halted proceedings, with the balance of the meeting having to be completed on the Sunday evening with free entry for those fans who were at The Springs on Saturday.

Coming off a career high twenty World of Outlaws victories this season, Saldana topped the time trials with a flying 12.220 second lap on a still slightly greasy but smooth track, after some light rain earlier on in the night. Saldana had stated that he thought an 11.5 second lap could be possible later on in the night, on a track that would have been near perfect, but that wasn’t possible after the rain finally settled in.

Baypark’s Colin Entwistle timed second, ahead of California’s Jonathan Allard, followed by Dollansky, Jamie McDonald, and 3NZ Greg Pickerill completing the top six.

With the top four finishers from each of the three heats automatically qualifying for the Dash and the Feature, the pressure was on to perform well with the Americans obviously the ones to beat. Alan Wakeling won the first heat from a wheelstanding and charging Saldana, with Dollansky third and Hans Boere fourth.

Mark Browne won heat two with rain threatening, ahead of an impressive Rodney Wood, Entwistle, and Jamie McDonald. McDonald was suffering stomach pains, which would see him miss Sunday night’s action, eventually having to have an appendix removed in hospital! We wish Jamie all the best in his recovery.

At this stage the rain halted the meeting with the balance continuing on Sunday night.

Jeremy Halpin won heat three on Sunday, followed by Pickerill, Allard, and Ryan O’Connor. The track was already drier than Saturday, opening up a couple of different lanes at both ends of the racetrack.

Dollansky streaked ahead to win the dash, followed by Saldana, O’Connor, Wood, Allard and Boere. Dollansky would start from pole for the Main event.

Some top NZ talent had to come out of the ‘B’ Main to qualify, with 1NZ Dean Brindle winning from Daniel Eggleton, Cromwell’s Jason Scott, and Havard Daniels. Former National Champ Carl Wilson was excluded during the race for exceeding the Speedway NZ enforced 95 Db noise limit, and he wouldn’t be the last for the night either. Palmerston North’s Nelson Hartley spun during the race, and was collected by Chris Long, ending both of their nights with damage.

Dollansky jumped into the early lead of the feature with a slide job on Saldana through turns one and two, with Saldana then getting a run down the pit straight, and sliding Dollansky into turn three. The two made contact with Dollansky riding the Town Bend wall, losing second to Rodney Wood. Boere jumped ahead of O’Connor and Allard into fourth. Saldana simply drove away from the field in the early laps, and struck lap traffic as early as lap four. Dollansky got around Wood for second and started hunting down his compatriot. A yellow for Dean Brindle on lap nine saw Wood also removed to the infield for exceeding the SNZ noise limit. Again Saldana drove away from the field from the restart, chased by Dollansky, with O’Connor and Allard having a huge battle for third. Carl Wilson then retired after contact with the wall on lap twelve, bringing out the yellow again. All eyes were on the race for third though after the restart, with Allard making a pass on the young Kiwi. Then on lap twenty-three, Allard was shown a board for exceeding the noise limit as well, with the American showing his disappointment and disapproval like Wood, on the infield to the officials.

Saldana streaked away to the chequered flag for the win in the Wynns International Classic, with Dollansky second, followed by the best placed Kiwi Ryan O’Connor in third for a Salter Motorsport 1-2-3 finish. Wakeling finished a fighting fourth, exploding a left rear tyre on the final corner, just holding off Greg Pickerill. Sixth was Mark Browne, with Eggleton, Boere, Raymond Griffen, and Havard Daniels completing the top ten.

The next meeting at Western Springs Speedway is the traditional Boxing Night Spectacular on December 26, featuring an International double header, with the opening rounds of the Samsung International Midget World Series, and the International Sprintcar Series. The American Midget team is 3-time BMARA Midget Champion Scott Hatton, USAC Legend Tony Elliott, USAC Triple Crown winner Jerry Coons Jnr., and the hard charging Kevin Swindell.

World of Outlaws Sprintcar legend Sammy Swindell will be in one of Ron Salter’s Maxims for the International Sprintcar Series, and will be joined by Jonathan Allard and Ricky Logan.

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