Raceway Video
Jeff Kristensen Productions
The Official Video of USAC/CRA

East Bay Raceway Thursday race report

GIBSONTON, FL - Joey Saldana made it two for two Thursday night at East Bay Raceway in round two of the 25th annual All Star sprint East Bay Nationals. He defeated Danny Lasoski for the second consecutive night, pocketing another $4,000 for the 25 lap contest.

"It was tough to pass tonight," the happy winner said, smiling ear to ear. "It's a good thing I stated up front. Timing sixth quick is what made the difference." He also thanked Hoosier Tires for another great tire. "I ran a 12 (compound) last night and a 10 tonight. I haven't made any changes to the car yet!"

Saldana sat on the pole for the start, with youngster Blake Feese alongside. Rodney Duncan and Louisiana's Jason Johnson made up row two with Jeff Shepard and Lasoski comprising row three. Saldana took off into the lead when the race started with Feese trailing in second. Mike Wagner's spin on lap four slowed the pace, but Saldana kept the lead over Feese, Johnson, Lasoski and Duncan. Lasoski passed Duncan following the restart, and was pressuring Johnson when Terry McCarl lost power for the second caution on lap eight.

Lap 16 was a disaster for Shepard, who was running sixth. He was forced to slow when McCarl, who was lapped, got sideways in front of him. Shepard jammed on his brakes, jumped the cushion and flipped into the outside wall. He emerged unhurt. This made the restart order Saldana, Feese, Johnson, Lasoski, Craig Dollansky (up from 13th starting spot,) Duncan and Todd Gracey, up from 22nd.

Saldana was now dominating, pulling away to as much as a ten car length lead on an open track, with Feese and Johnson able to close in lapped traffic. A flat by Mark Keegan on lap 22 reset the field for a three lap run to the end. Lasoski got past Johnson for third following the restart and a circuit later Feese's excellent run came to an end as he rolled to a stop with rear end problems. This put Lasoski second, but Lasoski did not have anything for the leader and Saldana won with a two second victory margin. Lasoski ended second, followed by Johnson's Lanny Row-owned No. 41, Dollansky's Karavan No. 7, Gracey's Ken Cooper No. 25, Duncan's Harrison Trucking No. 22 and Texan Ronald Laney, up from 18th starting spot. Danny Smith was eighth with 26th starting Gary Wright ninth and Tim Shaffer tenth.

"I wanted to come here and get some laps in," Johnson said of his third place run. "I made a good friend here in Florida, Joey Saldana. He's been helping me a lot."

The K-T Equipment heat went to Dollansky, the JB Enterprise Racing Products heat to Jeff Shepard, the Crown Battery heat to Shaffer, the Engler Machine & Tool heat to McCarl while Ryan Flynn and Laney took the final two heats. Steven King and Wayne Johnson won the twin Georgia Marketing & Promotions C Mains, Lance Dewease the B Main and Jason Johnson captured the Haulmark Dash with Brian Ellenberger the Strawberry Dash $1,000 winner. Lasoski's 12.160 mark was a new track record in qualifying.

Time Trials: 1. Danny Lasoski, Stewart 20, 12.160 (NTR); 2. Jeff Shepard, Daugherty 7, 12.301; 3. Jason Johnson, Row 41, 12.441; 4. Rodney Duncan, Harrison 22, 12.450; 5. Blake Feese, Mulligan 3, 12.450; 6. Joey Saldana, Saldana 17, 12.456; 7. Lance Dewease, Harz 88, 12.473; 8. 8. Mike Wagner, Wagner 55, 12.478; 9. Tim Shaffer, Shaffer 45, 12.526; 10. Brook Weibley, Weibley 32, 12.587; 11. 11. Kenny Jacobs, Jacobs/Honecker 6, 12.617; 12. Danny Smith, Baker 4, 12.642; 13. Craig Dollansky, Karavan 7, 12.667; 14. Paul McMahan, Johnson U2, 12.674; 15. Jim Nier, Nier 00, 12.687; 16. Terry McCarl, Holbrook 8h, 12.715; 17. Ryan Flynn, Flynn F1, 12.723; 18. Ronald Laney, Laney 52, 12.734; 19. Chad Kemenah, Harble 15k, 12.746; 20. Byron Reed, B&S 5, 12.763; 21. Greg Hodnett, Apple 12, 12.783; 22. Todd Gracey, Cooper 25, 12.794; 23. Mark Keegan, Steinbrick 92, 12.795; 24. Sammy Swindell, Swindell 1, 12.796; 25. Kelly Kinser, 12.802; 26. Kurt Winker, Winker 10w, 12.829; 27. Bryan Brown, Smith 2s, 12.833; 28. Sean Michael, Zemaitis 1z, 12.836; 29. Gary Wright, Wright 9, 12.873; 30. Scott Bonnell, Bonnell 3, 12.880; 31. Joe Roe, Roe 61, 12.928; 32. Len Thompson, Thompson 10T, 12.941; 33. Tom Busch, Busch 4B, 12.947; 34. Travis Rilat, Archer U2w, 12.953; 35. Greg Wilson, Hampshire 63, 12.982; 36. Wayne Johnson, Threatt 29J, 13.028; 37. Steven King, King 88, 13.055; 38. Jason Sides, Rhodes 7s, 13.107; 39. Danny Wood, Woodburn 21w, 13.108; 40. Billy Pauch, J&M 55, 13.117; 41. Kevin Huntley, Ashworth 92, 13.123; 42. Mike Walter, Walter 55, 13.147; 43. Ed Lynch Jr., Lynch 2L, 13.158; 44. Terry Pletch, Pletch 29p, 13.174; 45. Brian Ellenberger, Ellenberger 20, 13.201; 46. David Waltman, Waltman 10, 13.221; 47. Curt Trainer, Trainer 29t, 13.222; 48. Raymond Shank, Shank 7x, 13.276; 49. Larry Pinegar, Pinegar 11L, 13.296; 50. Jerrod Hull, Webb 51, 13.337; 51. Tim Montgomery, Montgomery 32, 13.602; 52. Kim Mock, Osburn/Mock 1M, 13.603; 53. Chris Borgman, Borgman 6c, 13.653; 54. Howie Gleason, Gleason 21g, 13.688; 55. Jeremy Campbell, Campbell 10c, 13.712; 56. Dean Jacobs, Elden 22e, 13.714; 57. Doug Day, Day 2d, 14.411; 58. Tommy Thompson, Thompson 3T, 14.425; 59. Spud Gustin, Gustin 10g, 14.777; 60. Kenny Hart, Hart 4h, 14.788; 61. Joe Bustillos, Bustillos 37, 14.880; 62. John Saudermilch Jr., Saudermilch 51, 15.153; 63. Johnny Johnson, Johnson 72j, 15.637. K-T Equipment Rental Heat (8 laps): 1.C.Dollansky 2. D.Lasoski 3. C.Kemenah 4. K.Kinser 5. E.Lynch 6.L.Dewease 7. J.Roe 8. Steven King 9. L.Pinegar 10. 10 Jeremy Campbell 11. J. Bustillos. JB Enterprise Racing Products Heat (8 laps): 1. J.Shepard 2.P.McMahan 3.B.Reed 4. M.Wagner 5. K.Winker6. D.Jacobs 7. L.Thompson 8. J.Hull 9. J.Sides 10. T.Pletch 11. J.Saudermilch. Crown Battery Heat (8 laps): 1.Tim Shaffer 2. G.Hodnett 3. Jason Johnson 4. J.Nier 5.Bryan Brown 6. D.Wood 7. T.Busch 8. B.Ellenberger 9. T.Montgomery 10. D.Day 11. Johnny Johnson. Engler Machine & Tool Heat (8 laps): 1.T.McCarl 2. T.Gracey 3. R.Duncan 4. S.Michael 5. B.Weibley 6. T.Rilat 7. B.Pauch 8. 10 David Waltman 9. K.Mock. Heat (8 laps): 1. Ryan Flynn 2. M.Keegan 3. B.Feese 4. G.Wright 6. K.Jacobs 7. G.Wilson 8. C.Trainer 9. K.Huntley 10. C.Borgman 12. Spud Gustin. Heat (8 laps): 1. Ron Laney 2. S.Swindell 3. J.Saldana 4. D.Smith 5. W.Johnson 6. R.Shank 7. S.Bonnell 8. M.Walter 9. H.Gleason 10. K.Hart. GEORGIA MARKETING & PROMOTIONS C-MAIN 1)88K Steven King 2)21w Danny Wood 3)2L Ed Lynch, Jr. 4)63 Greg Wilson 5)20 Brian Ellenberger 6)29T Curt Trainer 7)11L Larry Pinegar 8)6c Chris Borgman 9)10c Jeremy Campbell 10)32m Tim Montgomery 11)2d Doug Day 12)37 Joe Bustillos 13)10g Spud Gustin 14)72J Johnny Johnson 15)92 Kevin Huntley SECOND GMP C-MAIN 1)29 Wayne Johnson 2)7s Jason Sides 3)29P Terry Pletch 4)10 David Waltman 5)88F Mike Walter 6)7x Raymond Shank 7)51 Jerrod Hull 8)1m Kim Mock 9)3T Tommy Thompson 10)4H Kenny Hart 11)51J John Sauermilch 12)22E Dean Jacobs DNS 55 Billy Pauch 21G Howie Gleason HAULMARK FAST DASH (4 laps): 1)41 Jason Johnson 2)20L Danny Lasoski 3)7R Jeff Shepard 4)22 Rodney Duncan STRAWBERRY DASH (10 laps): 1)20 Brian Ellenberger 2)88K Steve King 3)29P Terry Pletch 4)10T Len Thompson 5)U2w Travis Rilat 6)2L Ed Lynch, Jr. 7)32m Tim Montgomery 8)63 Greg Wilson 9)4B Tom Busch 10)21W Danny Wood 11 Johnny Johnson B-MAIN (12 laps): 1)88 Lance Dewease 2)32W Brook Weibley 3)55W Mike Wagner 4)00 Jim Nier 5)6 Kenny Jacobs 6)4 Danny Wood 7)9 Gary Wright 8)4K Kelly Kinser 9)1 Sean Michael 10)10w Kurt Winker 11)U2w Travis Rilat 12)10T Len Thompson 13)88K Steve King 14)21W Danny Wood 15)3s Scott Bonnell 16)2s Brian Brown 17)7s Jason Sides 18)4B Tom Busch 19)29 Wayne Johnson 20)61 Joe Roe. A-MAIN (25 laps): 1)17 Joey Saldana 2)20L Danny Lasoski 3)41 Jason Johnson 4)7 Craig Dollansky 5)25 Todd Gracey 6)22 Rodney Duncan 7)52 Ronald Laney 8)4 Danny Smith 9)9 Gary Wright 10)45 Tim Shaffer 11)32W Brook Weibley 12)12 Greg Hodnett 13)88 Lance Dewease 14)1s Sammy Swindell 15)5 Byron Reed 16)F1 Ryan Flynn 17)00 Jim Nier 18)15 Chad Kemenah 19)8H Terry McCarl 20)3 Blake Feese 21)4K Kelly Kinser 22)92x Mark Keegan 23)U2 Paul McMahan 24)7R Jeff Shepard 25)55W Mike Wagner 26)6 Kenny Jacobs.