World of Outlaws – Upset At Skagit!

[media-credit name=”World of Outlaws” align=”alignright” width=”266″][/media-credit]Well Skagit is in the books. It was exciting. It was thrilling. In the end for one  young man it was magical down right fairy tale if you want to be real honest about it. It is a rare thing that a local driver can come to the greatest show on dirt and beat the greatest drivers in the world. Very Very rare. But that is what happened in Skagit on Saturday Night. Travis Jacobson, a local sprint car driver, took on the best in the world and he beat them in their own show. He didn’t beat them by a hair. He didn’t beat them by fluke circumstances. He flat out ran them.

Travis Jacobson has established a successful career at Skagit Speedway. He’s won the last three 360 Nationals titles and earned the 360 track championship last season. Jacobson also captured the 410 track title in 2006. But the dream of beating the best had burned in him for a lifetime. “I’m just in awe,” he said wearing an ear-to-ear smile. “I grew up watching guys like Sammy Swindell and Steve Kinser. To be able to compete with those guys is more than a dream come true. Racing has been my passion since I could turn a car, so it’s very, very special to me.”

Passions run deep but until last night he had never won or even made it into the top 5 in World of Outlaws competition. All that changed in front of a sold out facility, his facility, his fans, his family. For Travis Jacobson taking the cross checkered flags of the Outlaws was a dream come true. He caught a big break on the initial green flag when pole sitter Kerry Madsen jumped the start and was penalized a row, putting Jacobson on the pole for the green flag. When the green flag fell, he never looked back. “That was definitely a big break,” he said. “I hadn’t had a chance to run behind anybody yet, so I don’t know how the dirty air would have affected us. It’s always better to be out front. I want to say I would have been able to do just as good, but you never know.”

4 time World of Outlaws Champion, Donny Schatz would come home second. Oddly enough, Schatz helped Jacobson to get started in sprint car competition with a first car. Fittingly enough he would challenge his young protege several times but couldn’t quite make the pass for the lead. “He made 35 great laps and I’m happy for him,” Schatz said after finishing second. “I threw everything I had at it and I had a great car, it was just a second-place car tonight.”

Coming home in third place was track record holder, and the fastest man in Skagit history and Quick Time setter for the night, Jason Sides. “I don’t think there was anybody that was going to catch him,” Sides said of Jacobson. “He was running his own race and out front. We’re racing kind of each other. Donny’s trying to catch him. I’m trying to catch Donny. It’s just one of those things where he’s got the open track and can kinda go where he needs to go.”

Kerry Madsen would come home 4th after winning the dash for the pole of the main, but jumping the start on the initial green flag. Madsen would take 2nd on the start but lose it when Donny Schatz drove around the outside off turn 4 midway through the race. Points leader Craig Dollansky would come home 5th and maintain the points lead over Schatz by 44 points. That is the largest points lead anyone has had all year. Schatz holds a very slight 1 point advantage over Sammy Swindell.

For the second night in a row, Jac Haudenschild gave his fans something to cheer for by coming home in the top 10. Haudenschild who is one of the old school guard of the World of Outlaws, demonstrated how he got there by starting 13th and finishing 7th. Haudenschild who spreads his season across various sprint car series will be with the tour through the West Coast Swing. His schedule after that has not been published.

The KSE Hard Charger of the race was California’s Tim Kaeding who started the race in the 17th spot and finished in the 10th spot.

Other notables in the race were Sammy Swindell who was running in the 3rd spot when he had a tire go down and restarted at the back of the field. Swindell would rally to finish 12th. Steve Kinser who was in a brand new car after a wild tumble on Friday night, struggled with the new piece all evening. But struggling for the King of the Outlaws means he finished 11th instead of the top 5 or 10. Kraig Kinser was fast and determined after being involved in the crash that took out he and his father the night before, but the night seemed destined from the beginning to be a struggle. Kraig who changed an engine after blowing a motor in the heat race, but holding on to win, would have that new motor let go in a big way early in the Feature.

Dreams and passion are powerful things when they burn inside a determined individual. They can lift you up out of the darkness and they can move the mountains out of the road. For Travis Jacobson, the mountains were huge they were standards of the sport that he loves. They were legends and icons who set the bar high for all those that will follow them. The odds were not in his favor. He knew that. But the thrill of competing against and with his heroes drove him to persevere. And as the saying goes the rest is history. Because in racing, regardless of genre or surface, one constant is always there, on any given day, on given track, anyone can win. Last night was Travis Jacobson’s night. Today is a new day, but the fire of speed burn brighter and hotter with him and where they will lead him only time will tell.

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Qualifying – 1. 7S-Jason Sides, 11.170; 2. 15-Donny Schatz, 11.193; 3. 1-Sammy Swindell, 11.233; 4. 9-Joey Saldana, 11.295; 5. 18-Travis Jacobson, 11.340; 6. 63-Chad Kemenah, 11.399; 7. 4-Cody Darrah, 11.419; 8. 11K-Kraig Kinser, 11.422; 9. 29-Kerry Madsen, 11.437; 10. 7-Craig Dollansky, 11.453; 11. 6-Bill Rose, 11.481; 12. 18H-Jac Haudenschild, 11.492; 13. 57-Shane Stewart, 11.524; 14. 26-Sam Hafertepe Jr, 11.544; 15. 4X-Toni Lutar, 11.554; 16. O-Jonathan Allard, 11.557; 17. 11-Steve Kinser, 11.564; 18. 83-Tim Kaeding, 11.661; 19. 88-Jesse Whitney, 11.705; 20. 39C-Travis Rilat, 11.730; 21. 7X-Kevin Smith, 11.757; 22. 5W-Lucas Wolfe, 11.762; 23. 17J-Jayme Barnes, 11.763; 24. 44-Daniel Anderson, 11.783; 25. 55-Trey Starks, 11.858; 26. 33-Colton Heath, 11.915; 27. 8X-Jonathan Jorgenson, 12.206; 28. 2W-Wheeler Boys, 12.345.

Heat 1 – (10 Laps – Top 6 finishers transfer to the A-feature) – 1. 7-Craig Dollansky [1]; 2. 9-Joey Saldana [3]; 3. 57-Shane Stewart [5]; 4. 4-Cody Darrah [2]; 5. 7S-Jason Sides [4]; 6. O-Jonathan Allard [6]; 7. 88-Jesse Whitney [7]; 8. 55-Trey Starks [9]; 9. 5W-Lucas Wolfe [8]; 10. 2W-Wheeler Boys [10].

Heat 2 – (10 Laps – Top 6 finishers transfer to the A-feature) – 1. 11K-Kraig Kinser [2]; 2. 15-Donny Schatz [4]; 3. 18-Travis Jacobson [3]; 4. 11-Steve Kinser [6]; 5. 39C-Travis Rilat [7]; 6. 26-Sam Hafertepe Jr [5]; 7. 33-Colton Heath [9]; 8. 6-Bill Rose [1]; 9. 17J-Jayme Barnes [8].

Heat 3 – (10 Laps – Top 6 finishers transfer to the A-feature) – 1. 29-Kerry Madsen [2]; 2. 18H-Jac Haudenschild [1]; 3. 1-Sammy Swindell [4]; 4. 63-Chad Kemenah [3]; 5. 83-Tim Kaeding [6]; 6. 4X-Toni Lutar [5]; 7. 8X-Jonathan Jorgenson [9]; 8. 7X-Kevin Smith [7]; 9. 44-Daniel Anderson [8].

Dash – (8 Laps, finishing order determined first 10 starting positions of A-feature) – 1. 29-Kerry Madsen [1]; 2. 11K-Kraig Kinser [2]; 3. 18-Travis Jacobson [4]; 4. 63-Chad Kemenah [3]; 5. 1-Sammy Swindell [6]; 6. 9-Joey Saldana [5]; 7. 7S-Jason Sides [8]; 8. 15-Donny Schatz [7]; 9. 7-Craig Dollansky [9]; 10. 18H-Jac Haudenschild [10].

B-Main – (12 Laps – Top 6 finishers transfer to the A-feature) – 1. 55-Trey Starks [7] [-]; 2. 7X-Kevin Smith [3] [-]; 3. 5W-Lucas Wolfe [4] [-]; 4. 88-Jesse Whitney [2] [-]; 5. 8X-Jonathan Jorgenson [9] [-]; 6. 33-Colton Heath [8] [-]; 7. 6-Bill Rose [1] [$200]; 8. 44-Daniel Anderson [6] [$180]; 9. 2W-Wheeler Boys [10] [$175]; 10. 17J-Jayme Barnes [5] [$160].

A-Main – (35 Laps) – 1. 18-Travis Jacobson [3] [$12,000]; 2. 15-Donny Schatz [8] [$5,700]; 3. 7S-Jason Sides [7] [$3,500]; 4. 29-Kerry Madsen [1] [$3,000]; 5. 7-Craig Dollansky [9] [$2,600]; 6. 4-Cody Darrah [11] [$2,400]; 7. 18H-Jac Haudenschild [10] [$2,300]; 8. 63-Chad Kemenah [4] [$2,200]; 9. 9-Joey Saldana [6] [$2,150]; 10. 83-Tim Kaeding [17] [$2,100]; 11. 11-Steve Kinser [16] [$1,600]; 12. 1-Sammy Swindell [5] [$1,350]; 13. 88-Jesse Whitney [18] [$1,300]; 14. 26-Sam Hafertepe Jr [13] [$1,200]; 15. 5W-Lucas Wolfe [21] [$1,100]; 16. 55-Trey Starks [22] [$1,000]; 17. 39C-Travis Rilat [19] [$900]; 18. 33-Colton Heath [24] [$850]; 19. 8X-Jonathan Jorgenson [23] [$800]; 20. 57-Shane Stewart [12] [$800]; 21. 7X-Kevin Smith [20] [$800]; 22. 4X-Toni Lutar [14] [$800]; 23. 11K-Kraig Kinser [2] [$800]; 24. O-Jonathan Allard [15] [$800]. Lap Leaders: Travis Jacobson 1-35. KSE Hard Charger Award: 83-Tim Kaeding [+7].

World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series Top 20 Championship Standings