Tampa, FL
1/29/04. ...It was a back and forth
battle for the lead Thursday night in the second preliminary feature of
the 6th Annual King of 360s Winternationals at East Bay Raceway Park. In
the closing laps of the 25-lap A-Main, Shane Stewart, driving the MIN
Motorsports sponsored no. 4m one-year old Maxim powered by a WesMar on Hoosier
tires and Penske shocks, made a groove just inches from the outside wall
work for him to hold off hard-charging Terry McCarl and capture his first
win-ever at East Bay worth $1,500. I owe this one to my crew, Rob and Cathy
Hart, who have been with me for two years. Im just sorry my car owner,
Scott Chillcut, couldnt be here for this win. Stewart said after the hard-fought
race.
Starting outside the front row, he grabbed
the lead immediately and held on through the first yellow for a spin by
Danny Martin after one lap. Stewart had McCarl on his tail with Danny Lasoski
a close third as the green waved. Just two laps later, three cars tangled
in turn one with Curtis Boyer and Johnny Gilbertson flipping and bringing
out the red flag. The drivers were OK. On the lap three restart, McCarl,
in the Eagle owned by wife Lori, executed a slide job on the leader in turn
one and was in front as the two exited turn two. It took Stewart a couple
of laps to settle down and get his rhythm back after the pass.
In his own words, Stewart explained, Once
I settled down after Terry went by and I realized that I could stay with
him, I knew I was going to be alright.
The next dozen laps were fast-paced as the
McCarl no.24 sponsored by Big Game Tree Stands, Country Builders Construction
and Bosma Poultry, diced through lapped traffic, using every inch of the
track. Using a borrowed engine built by Mark Burch, his car also sports
sponsorship from Sander Engineering and Brodix. McCarls low-line choice
through lapped cars in turn four was his downfall as Stewart capitalized
on the situation and went very high to take the lead coming to the flagstand
on lap 17. The yellow came out after that lap was in the books for a spin
by Brian Maddox at the end of the front stretch.
On the ensuing restart, Lasoski who was fourth
behind Stewart, McCarl and Greg Leonard, tried to dive under third place
Greg Leonard in turn one. Lasoski hadnt quite cleared Leonard when he moved
up the track in turn two and Leonard had no where to go except over Lasoskis
right rear wheel. The move flipped Leonard into the outside wall.
The entire field hugged the bottom of the
track on this final restart, but once they cleared the front stretch, the
cars used the entire surface. However, Stewart made his move to the top
groove and hung there lap after lap with McCarl running the same line, but
the winning margin built to 2.75 seconds at the checkered. McCarl and Stewart
were very complimentary of the 24 hour turn-around in track conditions.
It was a great track tonight, you could race anywhere, commented the two
during post-race tech inspection.
Lasoski settled for third ahead of Gary Wright,
and Jeff Shepard. Next came Joey Saldana, Chad Kemenah (who came from the
C and B to the A-Main), Jason Sides, Greg Wilson and Wayne Johnson who completed
the top ten finishers. Heat race winners were Terry Pletch, Sides, Terry
Gray, Shepard, Johnny Gilbertson and Darren Long. Kemenah, Marshall Skinner,
Red Stauffer and Brad Pake transferred up to the B-Main from the C-Main.
Frank Carlsson flipped in a three-car tangle
in turn one during the C-Main, but was uninjured. McCarl, Lasoski, Danny
Martin, Kemenah, Joey Saldana, Jesse Giannetto, Darren Stewart and Kelly
Kinser moved from the B-Main into the A-Main. In the B, Saldana, who started
on pole, was leaking fuel on a first-lap red flag for John Karklins crash
into the turn one wall. He went to the pits for repairs and returned in
time to start last in the 22-car field and finish the 15-laps in a transfer
spot.
The 10-lap Goodson Strawberry Farms Dash was
won by Sport Allen. The 20-lap Open Wheel Modified main showed Joey Jensen
with the win and Bill Howard, Dan Hamstra, Craig Thatcher and Jason Miller
in the top five of the 32-car field.
Thanks, Jean Lynch for East Bay Raceway Park
STATS 360 SPRINTS - EAST BAY RACEWAY PARK
THURSDAY, 1/29/04 Qualifying Results: 1. 2S Joey Saldana 13.060; 2.
20L Danny Lasoski 13.337; 3. 24 Terry McCarl 13.768; 4. 00M Danny Martin
13.772; 5. 4M Shane Stewart 13.830; 6. 94G Greg Leonard 13.852; 7.
97 Kelly Kinser 13.871; 8. 20K Chad Kemenah 13.875; 9. D1 Jesse Giannetto
13.956; 10. 2 Red Stauffer 13.959; 11. 4C Mike Chadd 13.993; 12. 91
Darren Stewart 14.005; 13. 63 Greg Wilson 14.036; 14. 4 Kenny Adams
14.077; 15. 10 Terry Gray 14.082; 16. 167 Jeff Sheppard 14.097; 17.
6R Roger Rager 14.124; 18. 18 Tony Bruce 14.130; 19. 33K John Karklin
14.141; 20. 77 Lance Dewease 14.182; 21. 9 Gary Wright 14.188; 22.
6G Cody Geldart 14.224; 23. 88 Sport Allen 14.227; 24. 64 Brad Pake
14.231; 25. 94J Wayne Johnson 14.265; 26. 7S Jason Sides 14.269; 27.
82 Brian Maddox 14.299; 28. 72 Curtis Boyer 14.338; 29. 21 Johnny Gilbertson
14.376; 30. 0 Glen Styers 14.387; 31. 29P Terry Pletch 14.392; 32.
7A Johnny Anderson 14.424; 33. 3 Daryl Smith 14.462; 34. 50Z Zach Chappell
14.465; 35. 26 Derek Drown 14.476; 36. 7D Darren Long 14.509; 37.
02 Gene Lasker 14.595; 38. 42 Paulie Milum 14.630; 39. 2M Curt Michael
14.634; 40. 2X Dusty Ballenger 14.647; 41. 56R Ryan Myers 14.680;
42. 5M Phill Mott 14.748; 43. 26K Marshall Skinner 14.774; 44. 8 Tighe
Schloss 14.819; 45. 50J Joe Zuczek 14.847; 46. 6X Mark Cole 14.867;
47. 6M Mike Schroeder 14.892; 48. 39 Tim Hogue 14.916; 49. 67 Brian
Thomas 14.952; 50. 00 Wayne Reutimann, Jr. 15.110; 51. 59 Michael Smith
15.129; 52. 50 Rick Byerly 15.260; 53. 20 Frank Carlson 15.298; 54.
72J Roland Johnson 15.314
1st Heat 1)Terry Pletch 2)Wayne Johnson
3)Greg Wilson 4)John Karklin 5)Kelly Kinser 6)Joey Saldana 7)Gene Lasker
8)Marshall Skinner 9)Brian Thomas
2nd Heat 1)Jason Sides 2)Johnny Anderson
3)Lance Dewease 4)Kenny Adams 5)Danny Lasoski 6)Paulie Milum 7)Wayne Reutimann
8)Tighe Schloss 9)Chad Kemenah
3rd Heat 1)Terry Gray 2)Brian Maddox 3)Gary
Wright 4)Terry McCarl 5)Jesse Giannetto 6)Curt Michael 7)Daryl Smith 8)Joe
Zuczek 9)Michael Smith
4th Heat 1)Jeff Shepard 2)Zach Chappel 3)Curtis
Boyer 4)Danny Martin, Jr. 5)Dusty Ballenger 6)Cody Geldart 7)Red Stauffer
8)Mark Cole 9)Rick Byerly
5th Heat 1)Johnny Gilbertson 2)Shane Stewart
3)Derek Drown 4)Roger Rager 5)Sport Allen 6)Mike Chadd 7)Ryan Myers 8)Mike
Schroeder 9)Frank Carlsson
6th Heat 1)Darren Long 2)Glenn Styers 3)Greg
Leonard 4)Darren Stewart 5)Tom Bruce 6)Tim Hogue 7)Roland Johnson 8)Brad
Pake 9)Phill Mott
C Main 1)Chad Kemenah 2)Marshall Skinner
3)Red Stauffer 4)Brad Pake 5)Daryl Smith 6)Joe Zuczek 7)Roland Johnson 8)Gene
Lasker 9)Brian Thomas 10)Phil Mott 11)Mark Cole 12)Rick Byerly 13)Michael
Smith 14)Ryan Myers 15)Tighe Schloss 16)Mike Schroeder 17)Wayne Reutimann,
Jr. 18)Frank Carlsson
B Main 1)Terry McCarl 2)Danny Lasoski
3)Danny Martin 4)Chad Hemenah 5)Joey Saldana 6)Jesse Giannetto 7)Darren
Stewart 8)Kelly Kinser 9)Kenny Adams 10)Roger Rager 11)Sport Allen 12)Mike
Chadd 13)Red Stauffer 14)Tony Bruce 15)Curt Michael 16)Brad Pake 17)Dusty
Ballenger 18)Paulie Milum 19)Marshall Skinner 20)Cody Geldart 21)Tim Hogue
22)John Karklin
A Main (25 Laps) 1)Shane Stewart 2)Terry
McCarl 3)Danny Lasoski 4)Gary Wright 5)Jeff Sheppard 6)Joey Saldana 7)Chad
Kemenah 8)Jason Sides 9)Greg Wilson 10)Wayne Johnson 11)Zach Chappell 12)Jesse
Giannetto 13)Lance Dewease 14)Darren Long 15)Kelly Kinser 16)Brian Maddox
17)Johnny Anderson 18)Terry Pletch 19)Glen Styers 20)Danny Martin 21)Greg
Leonard 22)Terry Gray 23)Darren Stewart 24)Derek Drown 25)Curtis Boyer 26)Johnny
Gilbertson
Time / Temp. in the Rock
