There are many things in life that are simply irrefutable, proven beyond all efforts to discredit or challenge them. However, in motorsport there are very few such certainties. Very few things about which everybody agrees. Very few things about which there are sufficient facts to make them undeniable. However, one thing we do know to be true is that Donny Schatz is the greatest Sprintcar driver in the world today. His record of success is simply astonishing and his domination of one of the most competitive forms of motorsport competition is so emphatic that it does seem impossible for one individual to be so good. Sure, there are always the occasional hold-outs who refuse to accept reality despite the overwhelming evidence – such as those who still believe the Earth is flat, for example – but the simple fact of the matter is that all evidence is emphatic in confirming Schatz as the very best in the business.

Over the last nine seasons, Schatz has won the World of Outlaws Sprintcar Series – the unofficial world championship for Sprintcar racing – on six occasions and has finished runner-up three times, winning more than 100 WoO feature races along the way. On top of that, Schatz has also won the most prestigious individual event on the world Sprintcar calendar – the Knoxville Nationals – on eight occasions. Needless to say, he is the defending World of Outlaws and Knoxville Nationals champion following another stellar year of competition and Australian race fans will get an opportunity to see Schatz strut his stuff when he contests a limited schedule of events at Ausdeck Patios Archerfield Speedway over the Christmas/New Year holiday period.

Hailing from Fargo, North Dakota, Schatz started his Sprintcar career as a 15-year-old in 1993 and burst onto the international Sprintcar scene when he won Rookie of the Year in the 1997 World of Outlaws Championship. He made a rapid rise through the ranks, finishing inside the top ten in the WoO standings on six occasions before clinching his first championship in 2006. Since then, Schatz has been all but unstoppable at the top of the Sprintcar hierarchy, winning every major event in his home country and here in Australia. In addition to his domination of the World of Outlaws and Knoxville Nationals, Schatz has also won myriad major races in America, including the King’s Royal, Western World Open, Don Martin Memorial Cup, Gold Cup Race of Champions and the Williamsgrove National Open. In fact, Schatz is the only driver to have won the National Open on five occasions.

In Australia, Schatz has won every major Sprintcar event. He is a two-time winner of Warrnambool’s Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic (our biggest annual event attracting upwards of 100 competitors each year) and has won the $50 000-to-win event in Sydney on no less than five occasions. Although his down under campaign takes place during the American off-season, Schatz has is nothing less than meticulous and professional in his approach to racing in Australia. In fact, Schatz has won at least one feature race in Australia every year since 1999, the year that saw him win an unprecedented six rounds of the World Series Championship in succession. In recent seasons, Schatz has based his Australian racing operation in Brisbane at Ausdeck Patios Archerfield Speedway with remarkable results. He has won the 50-lap Australian Open an unprecedented seven times, lapping the entire field on one occasion and establishing a new track record for the distance.

The first event in Schatz’s 2014/2015 Australian campaign will be round seven of the Supercheap Auto Track Championship on Boxing Night (December 26), followed by appearances at rounds eight and nine on December 27 and January 1 before taking on the local, national and international stars of World Series Sprintcars on January 4. On January 9 and 10, Schatz will wrap up his whirlwind tour with the two-night Crimsafe Australian Open, firmly focussed on again taking out Queensland’s premier Sprintcar event.

Given his credentials and unprecedented level of success, the fact that Donny Schatz continues to compete in Australia each year is testimony of his passion for racing and his love of this country. Schatz is the most accomplished contemporary motorsport champion to compete in Brisbane and hopefully his commitment to making this annual pilgrimage will be rewarded with great crowds supporting his every lap of the Archerfield circuit. If you haven’t had the pleasure of watching Donny Schatz compete, you need to make tracks to Ausdeck Patios Archerfield Speedway from December 26 and see the very best take on local, national and other international stars, including celebrated Californian veteran Brent Kaeding and another American in rising star Davey Heskin, over six spectacular nights of Sprintcar competition.

Of course, there is another indisputable aspect of Donny Schatz’s upcoming tour and that is the fact that Ausdeck Patios Archerfield Speedway is the only track on which he will compete in Australia this season. Make no mistake, if you want to see the world’s best in action, make tracks to Ausdeck Patios Archerfield Speedway for six sensational nights of Sprintcar competition. Tickets for all six shows can be purchased online from the track website – www.brisbanespeedway.com.au – with online purchasers securing early entry to the grounds.