KNOXVILLE, IA (May 2) – The sprint car capital of the world had some of the best sprint car drivers in the world scratching their heads on Saturday night. Donny Schatz and several other World of Outlaws Sprint Series stars had a rough beginning in the rain-shortened Spring Classic at Knoxville Raceway this past weekend. Schatz ended the event in his typical hard-charging style racing his #15 ParkerStore J&J to a seventh place finish in the “A” feature event late Saturday night.

The event was originally scheduled for Friday night and Saturday night shows on the half-mile dirt oval located on the Marion County Fairgrounds in Central Iowa, but persistent rain on Friday night forced the program to be cut in half with all the action taking place on Saturday night.

Schatz was one of 65 sprint cars in the field and after getting his first experience on the new Knoxville surface in hot laps, the team went out for their qualifying lap almost in the middle of the field. The qualifying lap times earned Schatz the 43rd spot on the grid.

With the cards stacked against the Fargo, ND driver, he and his team made some changes on the ParkerStore #15 J&J and raced their way into the 25-lap “A” Feature by charging from his 11th starting position to a third place finish in the eight-lap third heat race.

Schatz started the “A” feature event in 22nd position and wasted little time moving forward. Schatz started behind Steve Kinser, who also struggled in qualifying, and the two along with Tim Shaffer moved their way up in positions. The three worked through traffic and closed in on the top ten when the race reached lap 15, each taking turns at passing the other two. Kinser’s charge was slowed with five laps remaining when he made contact with another competitor. Schatz tried numerous times to pass Shaffer later in the race, to no avail, but he did work his way up to seventh when the checkered flag flew.

Mark Kinser led the feature event from flag-to-flag while the run through his heat race and in the feature gave Schatz and his ParkerStore team something positive to leave Knoxville with.

“It was one of those nights where we got off to a slow start, but my crew stuck with me and made some changes on the car. We kept up with the racetrack and got better as the night went on,” said Schatz, who earned his tenth finish of seventh or better in 15 WoO starts this season. “As far as the qualifying thing goes, it’s kind of like blowing a fuse and just flipping the switch back, instead of resetting it. The track was really choppy when we hot lapped and then it kind of smoothed out during qualifying. We flipped the switch, but just didn’t reset the car. We got through it and learned some things too.”

Schatz and the ParkerStore team returned to Fargo following the race and will spend the week preparing for a pair of one-night races first at Lawrenceburg Speedway in Lawrenceburg, IN, on Thursday followed by a show at Kentucky Lake Motor Speedway, which is just east of Paducah, KY, on Saturday. Schatz remains in fourth position in the WoO point standings, but trails Tim Shaffer, who holds third, but just one point.