Meyers takes Paul Sawyer Memorial; Long repeats as Victory Lap Late Model feature winner

Jamaica, VA – After two very disappointing events in Pennsylvania Jason Meyers of Clovis, CA rolled into Bill Sawyer’s Virginia Motor Speedway for the NAPA of King William and Tappahannock Paul Sawyer Memorial hoping that a track that has been good to him could turn his fortunes around. At nights end Meyers had beat back his gremlins to pick up his fifth win of the season on the very tough World of Outlaws tour.

Jason Sides and Joey Saldana led the field to green with Sides taking control of the event pulling away from the field from the drop of the green. On lap seven Jason Meyers would work the outside of Saldana taking the spot out of turn 2. Myers then set out to catch Sides who was now working lapped traffic.

On lap 10 Meyers began looking for a way around Sides and on lap 11 powered around the outside of Sides in turn 2 to take the lead.

On lap 16 the battle was for third as defending champion Donny Schatz worked to get inside Saldana for the spot. On lap 19 Saldana and Schatz caught Sides as the trio battled for second. Saldana got inside Sides in turn 4 to take the spot. Sides would hold off Schatz for third until lap 21 when Schatz finally took the spot at the line.

With Meyers working traffic to perfection and Saldana trying to real him in the battle was for seventh between Craig Dollansky and Jac Haudenschild. The two exchanged the spot in each corner before Dollansky wrestled it away for good.

With three laps to go Saldana closed in on Meyers as they both worked heavy traffic. Saldana could not get close enough to take make a challenge as Meyers went on to score his second win in three visits to Virginia Motor Speedway.

“I really love this track, the staff put together a great racing surface and when you have a track you can race on, you get a great race like we had tonight, you could run anywhere on the track,” commented a very excited Meyers in victory lane.

Rounding out the top five were Joey Saldana, Donny Schatz, Steve Kinser and Jason Sides.

In the Victory Lap Late Model 35 portion of the Paul Sawyer Memorial Brandon Long and Scott Adams led the field to green with Adams taking control out of turn 2. It wouldn’t take long for the races first caution would fly as on the next circuit Vaughan Haywood and Walker Arthur would get together in turn 2 sending both to the rear for the restart.

On the restart caution would come out again for the spinning cars of Davis Lipscombe and Matt Marshall in turn 2. On the restart Stevie Long got inside Brandon Long in turn 3 talking the spot as the two came back to the line. Once in second Long set out to run down Adams who had stretched his lead out to twelve car lengths.

By lap 7 Long had caught Adams as was looking to take away the top spot. He finally got under Adams in turn 2 of lap 8 taking the lead he would never relinquish. Long would build as much as a full straight lead as the field battle for position behind him.

The races last caution of the night came out on lap 30 setting up a five lap shootout for the win. On the restart Long jumped to a two car length advantage as Ben Bowie and Walker Arthur battle side by side for second over the remaining five laps. With laps winding down Bowie and Walker waged a side by side duel for the ages with Bowie holding down the bottom and Arthur working the high side. The two swapped the position in every corner. As the two wrestled for the runner up spot it allowed Long to cruise to his second win in a row.

“The car was just flawless, I could run it anywhere on the track, my hats goes off to the speedway staff for such a great racing surface tonight,” commented Long in victory lane.

Following Long to the checkers were Ben Bowie, Walker Arthur, Brandon Long and Scott Adams. Tim Shelton was the Pitts Lumber Rookie of the Race with his eighth place finish.

Bill Sawyer’s Virginia Motor Speedway returns to action Saturday May 29th and will host four divisions of Virginia Army National Guard Dirt Series action. See the Victory Lap Late Model, Truckin Thunder Sportsman, Budweiser Modifies and the Collision One Limited Stock divisions. Come experience the raw, pure excitement that is dirt racing!

Competitor gates for Saturday, May 29th will open at 3pm with spectator gates opening at 4pm. On track activities will begin at 7pm with hot laps. Divisions scheduled to race on Saturday May 29th: Victory Lap Late Models (35 Laps); Truckin Thunder Sportsman (25 Laps); Budweiser Modifieds (25 Laps); and the Collision One Limited Stocks (20 Laps). All divisions will run Hot Lap Time Trials and Features.

Adult admission is just $10, Senior and Military $8, Students 13 –17 yrs old $7, Children 7 – 12 yrs old $4 and Children 6 and under free.

Bill Sawyer’s Virginia Motor Speedway, an ASA Member Track, is a ½ mile dirt oval track is located on U.S. Route 17, eight miles north of Saluda, VA and 25 miles south of Tappahannock, VA in Jamaica, VA. The speedway is just a short drive from Richmond, Fredericksburg, Southern Maryland and the Hampton Roads area.

To learn more about Bill Sawyer’s Virginia Motor Speedway and its 2010 schedule of events, fans may call the Speedway office at (804) 758-1VMS or visit the track’s web site at www.vamotorspeedway.com.

MEDIA CONTACT: DAVE SEAY (804) 758-1867 OR (804) 357-7223

RACE RESULTS FOR PAUL SAWYER MEMORIAL MAY 15, 2010:

WORLD OF OUTLAWS SPRINT CAR 30 LAP FEATURE (23 CARS):

Qualifying
1) 14-Jason Meyers 14.702 2) 9-Joey Saldana 14.917 3) R19-Jac Haudenschild 15.004 4) 7S-Jason Sides 15.021 5) 11K-Kraig Kinser 15.025 6) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr. 15.057 7) 11-Steve Kinser 15.061 8) 91-Paul McMahan 15.067 9) 15-Donny Schatz 15.091 10) 7-Craig Dollansky 15.120 11) 13-Daryn Pittman 15.129 12) 63-Chad Kemenah 15.168 13) 6-Danny Lasoski 15.190 14) 49-Brad Sweet 15.211 15) 5W-Lucas Wolfe 15.219 16) 24-Sammy Swindell 15.285 17) 98-Erin Crocker 15.290 18) 22-Brian Ellenberger 15.325 19) 2B-Ben Gregg 15.411 20) 4X-Toni Lutar 15.450 21) 49H-Bob Howard 16.285 22) 17T-Jeff Taylor 16.390 23) 71C-Jack Helget 16.569

Heat 1 (8 Laps, top 6 finishers transferred to A-feature)
1) 7-Craig Dollansky[1] 2) 11-Steve Kinser[2] 3) 14-Jason Meyers[4] 4) 7S-Jason Sides[3] 5) 6-Danny Lasoski[5] 6) 24-Sammy Swindell[6] 7) 2B-Ben Gregg[7] 8) 17T-Jeff Taylor[8]

Heat 2 (8 Laps, top 6 finishers transferred to A-feature)
1) 13-Daryn Pittman[1] 2) 9-Joey Saldana[4] 3) 91-Paul McMahan[2] 4) 11K-Kraig Kinser[3] 5) 49-Brad Sweet[5] 6) 98-Erin Crocker[6] 7) 71C-Jack Helget[8]

Heat 3 (8 Laps, top 6 finishers transferred to A-feature)
1) 15-Donny Schatz[2] 2) R19-Jac Haudenschild[4] 3) 63-Chad Kemenah[1] 4) 5W-Lucas Wolfe[5] 5) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr.[3] 6) 22-Brian Ellenberger[6] 7) 49H-Bob Howard[7]

Dash (6 laps, finishing order determined first 10 starting positions of A-feature)
1) 7S-Jason Sides[1] 2) 9-Joey Saldana[3] 3) 14-Jason Meyers[4] 4) R19-Jac Haudenschild[2] 5) 15-Donny Schatz[8] 6) 11-Steve Kinser[7] 7) 7-Craig Dollansky[9] 8) 13-Daryn Pittman[10] 9) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr.[6] 10) 11K-Kraig Kinser[5]

A-main (30 laps) – Starting Position [#] 1) 14-Jason Meyers[3] [$10,000] 2) 9-Joey Saldana[2] [$5,500] 3) 15-Donny Schatz[5] [$3,200] 4) 11-Steve Kinser[6] [$2,800] 5) 7S-Jason Sides[1] [$2,500] 6) 49-Brad Sweet[14] [$2,300] 7) 7-Craig Dollansky[7] [$2,200] 8) R19-Jac Haudenschild[4] [$2,100] 9) 63-Chad Kemenah[12] [$2,050] 10) 11K-Kraig Kinser[10] [$2,000] 11) 13-Daryn Pittman[8] [$1,500] 12) 6-Danny Lasoski[13] [$1,200] 13) 24-Sammy Swindell[16] [$1,100] 14) 91-Paul McMahan[11] [$1,050] 15) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr.[9] [$1,000] 16) 5W-Lucas Wolfe[15] [$900] 17) 22-Brian Ellenberger[18] [$800] 18) 2B-Ben Gregg[19] [$800] 19) 98-Erin Crocker[17] [$800] 20) 4X-Toni Lutar[20] [$800] 21) 49H-Bob Howard[21] [$800] 22) 17T-Jeff Taylor[22] [$800] 23) 71C-Jack Helget[23] [$800]

VICTORY LAP LATE MODELS (18 CARS):
A Main:1. Stevie Long (Mechanicsville, MD), 2. Ben Bowie (Brandywine, MD), 3. Walker Arthur (Forest, VA), 4. Brandon Long (Mechanicsville, MD), 5. Scott Adams (Chester, VA), 6. Davis Lipscombe (Mechanicsville, VA), 7. Tim Shelton (Fredericksburg, VA), 8. Anthony Kincaid (Hayes, VA), 9. Tom Cohick (Gloucester, VA), 10. Andy Gregg (Portsmouth, VA), 11. Tyler Bailey (Chesterfield, VA), 12. Alan Anderson (Norfolk, VA), 13. Matt Marshall (Stuarts Draft, VA), 14. Vaughan Haywood (Deltaville, VA), 15. Brett Adkins (Gloucester, VA), 16. Junior Carter (Mechanicsville, VA), 17. David Steele (Newport News, VA), 18. Lou Littlepage Jr. (Mechanicsville, VA),

FAST TIME: Walker Arthur 18.577 seconds; 96.894mph