East Bay Raceway Friday race report

GIBSONTON, FL - Friday night at East Bay Raceway in the All Star sprint 25-lap feature, Greg Hodnett led wire-to-wire for a $4,000 payday. It was the first win for the Memphis driver since returning to the wheel of Bob Stewart's Apple Motorsports machine this season for the 25th annual East Bay Raceway Winternationals.

"We changed gears to make sure we got the jump at the start," Hodnett said of his strategy for starting on the front row. But as the victory lane interview continued, a pool of oil emerged from under his machine. "But we pushed the motor a little too hard off turn two after the checkered." His machine, wrenched by Lee Stauffer, utilized Penske shocks and Hoosier Tires.

Joey Saldana, the winner the past two nights, ran second most of the race, losing that spot briefly to Danny Lasoski during the middle portions of the event. "We tried a harder tire tonight, and it cost us," the runner-up revealed as he spoke of testing the tire for tomorrow's 50-lap finale.

Ryan Flynn was on the pole for the start with Hodnett outside and Jeff Shepard and Saldana in row two. Lasoski and Craig Dollansky made up row three. Hodnett gunned into the lead at the drop of the green, followed by Saldana and Flynn. Lapped traffic entered the mix by lap three, with Saldana still on top as the leaders wove their way past the back markers. Lasoski made a move into fifth behind Hodnett, Saldana, Flynn and Dollansky on lap four, while Flynn began to fade, dropping to eighth behind Hodnett, Saldana, Dollansky, Lasoski, Shepard, Jason Johnson and Gary Wright by lap 13.

The first caution slowed action on lap 17 when Mike Walter slowed on the track, ending his race. Hodnett pulled away from Saldana for the restart, but action slowed again two laps later when Kim Mock lost power on the frontstretch. Danny Smith hit the cone on the restart, but was not penalized as a clump of mud hit him and knocked him into the cone. When action finally got underway again, Hodnett pushed his lead out to five car lengths and he ended up in victory lane by three lengths over Saldana and Dollansky's Polydome special.

"Toward the end of the week, we're getting hooked up better," Dollansky said of his third place run.

Lasoski rode home fourth, with Shepard fifth in the Rick Daugherty Racing machine, ahead of Johnson, Wright, Wayne Johnson, who started tenth, Tim Shaffer, up from 18th starting spot, and Flynn.

The K-T Equipment heat went to Rodney Duncan, the JB Enterprise Racing Products heat to Ronald Laney, the Crown Battery heat to Smith, the Engler Machine & Tool heat to Sean Michael, and Travis Rilat and Danny Wood won the other heats. Byron Reed and Todd Gracey won the Georgia Marketing & Promotions C Mains. The B Main fell to Dollansky and Hodnett won $1,000 in the Haulmark Dash. The Strawberry Dash earned $1,000 for Greg Wilson while Brian Ellenberger, who could have pocketed $4,000 by winning the Strawberry Dash (since he won the prior two evenings) finished third. Dollansky's 12.118 time trial mark was a new track record, earning him a $1,000 bonus and snapping Lasoski's day old mark. Dollansky also picked up the $200 Jim Bargo hard luck award after he blew a rear end in his heat.

TIME TRIALS: 1. Craig Dollansky, Karavan 7, 12.118 (NTR); 2. Danny Lasoski, Stewart 20, 12.265; 3. Joey Saldana, Saldana 17, 12.356; 4. Jeff Shepard, Daugherty 7, 12.374; 5. Greg Hodnett, Apple 12, 12.393; 6. Ryan Flynn, Flynn F1, 12.454; 7. Jason Johnson, Row 41, 12.479; 8. Gary Wright, Wright 9, 12.544; 9. Lance Dewease, Harz 88, 12.560; 10. Wayne Johnson, Threatt 92J, 12.574; 11. Jason Sides, Rhodes 7s, 12.579; 12. Terry McCarl, Holbrook 8H, 12.599; 13. Rodney Duncan, Harrison 22, 12.612; 14. Ronald Laney, Laney 52, 12.614; 15. Danny Smith, Baker 4, 12.642; 16. Brook Weibley, Weibley 32, 12.656; 17. Kim Mock, Osburn/Mock 1m, 12.657; 18. Tim Shaffer, Shaffer 45, 12.672; 19. Len Thompson, Thompson 10T, 12.720; 20. Chad Kemenah, Harble 15k, 12.744; 21. Raymond Shank, Shank 7x, 12.769; 22. Sean Michael, Zemaitis 1z, 12.785; 23. Travis Rilat, Archer U2w, 12.790; 24. Danny Wood, Woodburn 21w, 12.799; 25. Kelly Kinser, Kinser 4k, 12.801; 26. Steve King, King 88, 12.820; 27. Brian Ellenberger, Ellenberger 20, 12.836; 28. Joe Roe, Roe 61, 12.843; 29. Brian Brown, Smith 2s, 12.861; 30. Kurt Winker, Winker 10w, 12.888; 31. Jim Nier, Nier 00, 12.891; 32 Sammy Swindell, Swindell 1, 12.936; 33. Scott Bonnell, Bonnell 3, 12.953; 34. Byron Reed, B&S 5, 12.986; 35. Todd Gracey, Cooper 25, 13.014; 36. Mike Wagner, Wagner 55, 13.039; 37. Mike Walter, Walter 88, 13.044; 38. Tom Busch, Busch 4B, 13.085; 39. Greg Wilson, Hampshire 63, 13.094; 40. Larry Pinegar, Pinegar 11, 13.113; 41. Paul McMahan, Johnson U2, 13.214; 42. David Waltman, Waltman 10, 13.240; 43. Mark Keegan, Steinbrick 92, 13.246; 44. Ed Lynch, Jr., Lynch 2L, 13.287; 45. Kenny Jacobs, Jacobs/Honecker 6, 13.323; 46. Blake Feese, Mulligan 3, 13.336; 47. Terry Pletch, Pletch 29p, 13.370; 48. Curt Trainer, Trainer 29T, 13.385; 49. Dean Jacobs, Elden 22e, 13.409; 50. Jerrod Hull, Webb 51, 13.512; 51 Tim Montgomery, Montgomery 32, 13.862; 52. Spud Gustin, Gustin 10, 13.931; 53. Doug Day, Day 2d, 14.605; 54. Jeremy Campbell, Campbell 10c, 13.650; 55. Tommy Thompson, Thompson 3T, 14.699; 56. Joe Bustillos, Bustillos 37, 14.706; 57. John Sauermill, Jr., Sauermill 51, 15.019; 58. Johnny Johnson, Johnson 72j, 15.095; 59. Kenny Hart, Hart 4h, 15.098; 60. Chris Borgman, Borgman 6c, NT.

K-T Equipment Rental Heat #1 1)22 Rodney Duncan 2)41 Jason Johnson 3)88F Mike Walter 4)4K Kelly Kinser 5)00 Jim Nier 6)92x Mark Keegan 7)3T Tommy Thompson 8)10T Len Thompson 9)7 Craig Dollansky 10)22E Dean Jacobs

JB Enterprise Racing Products HEAT #2 1)52 Ronald Laney 2)9 Gary Wright 3)20L Danny Lasoski 4)1s Sammy Swindell 5)2L Ed Lynch, Jr. 6)88K Steve King 7)51 Jerrod Hull 8)4B Tom Busch 9)15 Chad Kemenah 10)37 Joe Bustillos

Crown Battery HEAT #3 1)4 Danny Smith 2)17 Joey Saldana 3)88 Lance Dewease 4)7x Raymond Shank 5)6 Kenny Jacobs 6)20 Brian Ellenberger 7)3s Scott Bonnell 8) 32m Tim Montgomery 9)51J John Sauermill, Jr. 10. 63 Greg Wilson.

Engler Machine & Tool HEAT #4 1)1 Sean Michael 2)32w Brook Weibley 3)7r Jeff Shepard 4)5 Byron Reed 5)29 Wayne Johnson 6)3 Blake Feese 7)61 Joe Roe 8)11L Larry Pinegar 9)72J John Johnson 10)10g Spud Gustin

HEAT #5 1)U2w Travis Rilat 2)12 Greg Hodnett 3)1M Kim Mock 4)7s Jason Sides 5)25 Todd Gracey 6)2s Brian Brown 7)U2 Paul McMahan 8)29P Terry Pletch 9)2d Doug Day 10)4H Kenny Hart

HEAT #6 1)21w Danny Wood 2)45 Tim Shaffer 3)F1 Ryan Flynn 4)55W Mike Wagner 5)8h Dean Jacobs 6)10w Kurt Winker 7)10 David Waltman 8)29T Curt Trainer 9)10c Jeremy Campbell DNS 6c Chris Borgman

Haulmark FAST DASH - 1)12 Greg Hodnett 2)7r Jeff Shepard 3)20L Danny Lasoski 4)Joey Saldana

STRAWBERRY DASH - 1)63 Greg Wilson 2)29P Terry Pletch 3)20 Brian Ellenberger 4)22E Dean Jacobs 5)11L Larry Pinegar 6)32m Tim Montgomery 7)6 Kenny Jacobs 8)4K Kelly Kinser 9)00 Jim Nier 10)3T Tommy Thompson 11)4H Kenny Hart

Georgia Marketing & Promotions FIRST C-MAIN 1)5 Byron Reed 2)55W Mike Wagner 3)U2 Paul McMahan 4)63 Greg Wilson 5)22E Dean Jacobs 6)6 Kenny Jacobs 7)92x Mark Keegan 8)29P Terry Pletch 9)32m Tim Montgomery 10)2d Doug Day 11)3T Tommy Thompson 12)4H Kenny Hart 13)51J John Sauermill, Jr.

Georgia Marketing & Promotions SECOND C-MAIN 1)25 Todd Gracey 2)11L Larry Pinegar 3)29T Curt Trainer 4)10c Jeremy Campbell 5)2L Ed Lynch, Jr. 6)4B Tom Busch 7)51 Jerrod Hull 8)10 David Waltman 9)37 Joe Bustillos 10)3 Blake Feese 11)72J John Johnson DNS 10g Spud Gustin 6c Chris Borgman

B MAIN: 1. Dollansky 2. McCarl 3. W. Johnson 4. Sides 5. L. Thompson 6. Kemenah 7. Ellenberger 8. Swindell 9. Brown 10. King 11. Nier 12. Reed 13. Kinser 14. Wagner 15. Roe 16. Winker 17. Pinegar 18. Shank 19. Gracey 20. Bonnell.