Well, my take on the issue between Tommy Armel and J.T. Spence on Saturday at Winchester has seemed to have been agreed with by some on the VA Dirt Lovers board, and disagreed with by others. That's to be expected. Some people are only going to see it one way. I've been a huge Gary Stuhler fan my entire life, but I am seeing this issue Tommy's way. Just my opinion, everyone else has there's, and the hostility I have seen on the VA Dirt Lovers board this week between some of the people on there really isn't needed. Today though, I'm going to tackle the subject of Donny Schatz dominating at Williams Grove. There is no question that for the last 4 or 5 years Schatz has been the man to beat at the Grove. It definitely hasn't been the Pennsylvania cars. On a consistent basis, Schatz is the fastest car every time the WoO come into the Grove to take on the Posse drivers. Years ago, Steve Kinser was the man to beat at the Grove, and today, it's Schatz. For Late Model fans he is the equivalent to Scott Bloomquist. Actually, I would argue that he is a little more successful than Bloomquist on the national Sprint Car scene, but the national Sprint Car scene is not nearly as vast or far reaching as the national Late Model scene. Schatz has absolutely dominated the Knoxville Nationals the last two years, and he has picked up big wins in the Kings Royal, Silver Cup, Williams Grove National Open over those years of domination as well. Not entirely sure, but he has probably won the Gold Cup at Silver Dollar as well. But he has been more dominant at Williams Grove than any other track, which is amazing considering the fact that the Pennsylvania Posse drivers are the best competition the WoO face all season long. Ask any WoO driver and they will tell you the same thing. There are plenty of drivers who do not enjoy facing the likes of Fred Rahmer, Doug Esh, Greg Hodnett, Cody Darrah, Brian Leppo, and Chad Layton. The sad fact though is that there are many Pennsylvania fans that do not believe that Schatz is dominant at the Grove. They always blame the Outlaws for "cheating" for Schatz to win. That's a joke and anyone with any sense would know that the Outlaws are not cheating. Too many PA fans have no clue what the format is for the Outlaw shows, and they just assume that Schatz and the Outlaws are cheating. A friend of mine from PA was irate this past Friday night at the Grove when he found out Schatz was in the dash. Well, I explained it to him. They invert the top 16 time trialers in four heat races meaning that the fast timer starts fourth in the first heat. The top two finishers in the heats, and the top two fastest time trialers that qualified through their heat, but did not run top two also got into the dash. If you did the math you would have found out their are 10 cars in the dash. Schatz timed 13th fastest, won the heat, and thus qualified for the dash. My friend didn't seem to mind though that Brian Leppo was 14th fastest and qualified for the dash the exact same way that Schatz did. They only see things one way and that's for their guys, which is a shame because they are hurting a lot because the WoO guys have owned the PA guys the last couple years. More specifically, Donny Schatz has owned the PA guys at their own race track. I once read where Donny Schatz should be sponsored by Johnson & Johnson baby powder because he spanks so much ass. I couldn't agree more. More people need to start appreciating what Schatz is doing in sprint car racing right now and just watch one of the greats at work. The same way Scott Bloomquist observers need to appreciate what he's doing. Are they going to get beat from time to time, yes, but that doesn't mean the racing can't be good for everyone when they do win. Just a thought.
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