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TKS Motorsports- A Tough Blow!

The TKS Motorsports #2KS team and Craig Dollansky were one of those on the wrong side of the pile-up in turn one Saturday night with the World of Outlaws. The crash was a tough blow to the team, but perseverance and the back-up car will be in full force for a busy week. The team is planning on supporting their partner, Aggressive Hydraulics with the Outlaws in Sauk Rapids, Minnesota Wednesday. The company has been a long-time supporter of Craig’s and will have several representatives at the race. There are also three National Sprint League events this weekend. Friday the series is at Jackson Motorplex in Minnesota, before moving to Knoxville Raceway on Saturday and Mason City Motor Speedway in northern Iowa on Sunday.

In Friday’s Outlaw show at Knoxville, Craig time in 11th quick in his group. A fourth place finish in his heat meant a starting spot outside of row seven. “Things went really well for us on Friday,” says TKS Motorsports crew chief and owner, Troy Renfro. “Craig did a great job getting up through there and getting to sixth. We were passing some good cars there. The car was good and everything was good.”

Troy was also thankful for his nose wing partner for the weekend. “I want to thank Tim Wilkerson, who was our front wing sponsor for last weekend. Tim is a super guy. He hung out with us all weekend. People like Tim mean a lot to us. Those situations where you get help for a weekend is what really helps our team.”

Craig timed in 18th quick Saturday, and qualified for the feature through his heat. “I made a few changes off of Friday night, and they really weren’t the right changes in qualifying,” says Troy. “But we got through until the ‘big one’ in the feature.”

The “big one” saw eleven cars involved in a melee on an early double-file restart. “It’s a tough blow for our team financially,” says Troy. “We aren’t a big operation. I have some great guys here that volunteer their help, but financially, it’s our biggest hit so far.”

The double-file restart saw one of the lead cars start a chain reaction that resulted in the crash. “You take the ‘racing deals’ a little easier,” says Troy. “This one was preventable. No one does anything on purpose, but this was definitely preventable. That’s what was frustrating. There was a time when I would have gotten really upset, but that doesn’t do any good once what’s done has been done. I would like to see someone ‘man up’ in this situation and accept some responsibility for what happened. There was a lot of torn up stuff. I guess I’m ‘old school’ when it comes to that.”

Instead, Troy headed to the shop. “The way I deal with it is to go to work,” he says. “We got everything in the trailer after the race, and I was up until 3 a.m. in the shop working. At that point, my wife said, ‘That’s enough, let’s go to bed.’ So I went to bed and got up at 6 and went back out.”

Troy’s wife Tammy was there the whole time. “My wife was out there too,” he says. “I can’t say enough about my wife. She stands right beside me through everything. She helps me so much and so do my daughters. We have another car, so we got that ready to go for this week.”

Troy salvaged what he could out of the primary car. “There wasn’t much to save on the car, but I spent several hours straightening it out and welding it back together,” he says. “We did that so we have a spare car.”

The crash came at a tough time, with four races planned this week. “It’s devastating, because we are leading the NSL points and we’re up there in the points at Knoxville,” says Troy. “Financially, this was a big hit. It wasn’t the right time, but it never is. You just have to push through it, and we will. If you get into this sport and don’t think you’re going to tear things up, you’re in the wrong sport.”

There are plenty of blessing for the TKS Motorsports team. “Like I said, I can’t say enough about my wife and my family,” says Troy. “It doesn’t pay to get upset about this. I credit a lot of my attitude to Bob Myers and Don Lamberti as well. I’ve learned a lot from those two over the last three years. No one was hurt in the accident, and in the end, that’s the most important thing. All you have to do is watch the news to find out there are those in the world who had a lot worse days this weekend than we did. We’ll get through it. We just need to work a little harder.”

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