PHOENIX, AZ - Donny Schatz and the ParkerStore team kicked off the 2004 World of Outlaws season at Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix, AZ, with a fourth place finish in Friday's preliminary feature and a third place finish in Saturday's
30-lap "A" Feature.

"All in all, I think we had a good first weekend," said Schatz, who drove the #15 ParkerStore J&J. "In Saturday's feature, every time we got into lapped traffic we would close in on Steve (Kinser) and Tyler (Walker), but there would be a yellow. I think we were just as fast as they were, but just never got a chance at them in traffic. We'll take a third and fourth and try to continue the consistency next weekend in Los Angeles."

Schatz opened the season on Friday night in the Inaugural Cactus Classic at the fast half-mile oval by qualifying 17th. He dominated the first heat race leading the 8-lap event from start to finish. He started sixth in the second dash event and finished fifth, which earned the ParkerStores driver the 10th starting position in the 25-lap preliminary feature. Schatz made his move at the start passing three cars in the opening lap to claim seventh. He passed Paul McMahan on a restart a few laps later to claim the fourth position. During the race's final 10 laps, Schatz closed in on third place runner Tim Shaffer a couple of times, but ended up finishing fourth, which locked the team into Saturday's feature.

In Saturday's event, Schatz only had to run the Dash event and the 30-lap "A" feature. He finished third in the dash event and started the feature in third also. The early stages of the race was plagued by yellow flags and each time Schatz closed the gap on leaders Steve Kinser and Friday's winner Tyler Walker the race was slowed for a restart. The top three cars looked to all be running the same pace and ended up in that order with Kinser taking the win, the 498 "A" feature of his career, ahead of Walker and Schatz.

Saturday's race was taped by the Outdoor Channel and will be aired on Wednesday, March 31st at 8 PM (et).

The team will be back in action on Saturday, February 28th at Perris Auto Speedway in Perris, CA.

(Photo by David Allio)