"King of the Outlaws" Rules Tri-City, Exacts $10,000 Tariff!

By Steve Birmingham
 

October 9, 2004; Granite City, IL –  Steve Kinser,"The King of the Outlaws," showed why the title is so, leading all 30 laps Saturday to win his 23rd World of Outlaws A-Main at Tri-City Speedway.

Kinser bolted from his outside front row starting spot and was never challenged on the billiard-table smooth half-mile dirt. Wayne Johnson, Jason Meyers, Joey Saldana, Danny Lasoski and Tim Shaffer gave chase but Kinser at times stretched out to a 20-length lead enroute to his $10,000 payday. Shaffer turned in the drive of the night, starting 22nd on the 24 car field and blasting his way to a fifth place finish. At the checkers it was Kinser, Meyers, Lasoski, Saldana and Shaffer.

The win was Kinser's 17th of the season and 23rd in 48 Tri-City starts that date back to 1979. "We’ve always run good here," Kinser said in victory lane. "I don’t really know why. We’ve run good ever since we started racing here in the late ‘70s. I’ve always enjoyed running here."

Craig Dollansky set fast time in Time Trials with a 16.063 second lap while the qualifying heats were won by Billy Alley, Daryn Pittman, Tim Kaeding and Paul May. The first Dash went to Wayne Johnson with Kinser winning the second. Paul McMahan won the B-Main. It was a rough night for several World of Outlaw drivers, with Kraig Kinser flipping over the turn four wall in hot laps. Kerry Madsen was running 2nd in the B-main when something broke on his car, sending it hard into the turn 2 wall and upside down. Erin Crocker and Mike Kertscher hit Madsen’s car with Kertscher vaulting over the wall and flipping into the parking lot. Brian Paulus also flipped in turn two during the B-main. None of the drivers were injured.

Brad Loyet gave up attending his high school Homecoming festivities to win the companion 600cc Micro-Sprint main, his thrid consecutive win on Tri-City's quarter-mile bullring this season. Loyet started on the outside of the front row but got the drop on pole-sitter Christopher Massey, leading into turn one. Massey reasserted himself down the backstretch and marched on to lead the next 14 laps. With six to go Loyet dove low in turn three and led Massey onto the front stretch by five lengths. Once ahead Loyet raced off to a six-length lead at the checkers with Massey, Andy Malpocker, Derrick King and Jimmy Bridgeman chasing. Kevin Swindell ran in the top five until he spun from contention with two to go.

The heats were won by Massey, Loyet, Tyler Robbins, Chad Kendall and Bridgeman; Zach Barrand Casey Barnhouse won the Semis.