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

East Bay Raceway Saturday race report

GIBSONTON, FL - Joey Saldana flirted with the lead early on, but Gary Wright had the field covered Saturday night at East Bay Raceway in the All Star sprint 50-lap feature. The 25th annual East Bay Raceway Winternationals Championship paid $25,000 to the victorious Texan, who utilized a year old Maxim Chassis, Salina engines and Hoosier tires for the big win.

From victory lane, an elated Wright stated, "We’ll be back in November," referring to the season ending All Star and 360 show scheduled for Nov. 1-2-3 here. "On the red we changed two shocks and the weight on three corners," which improved the handling on his 80-race old Maxim. He then thanked Terry Pannell Trucking for his truck and trailer, his crew consisting of his dad, Ernie Cochran and Fred Winnenburg and also credited Todd Roberg at Salina Engines.

With the top six in week-long points inverted for the start, Wright sat on the pole in his own No. 9 with fellow Texan Ronald Laney outside in his No. 52. Jason Johnson in Lanny Row’s No. 41 was next, alongside Friday winner Greg Hodnett in the Apple Motorsports No. 12. Danny Lasoski in the Tony Stewart Racing No. 20 and two-time winner Saldana made up row three.

Wright led the initial circuit before Saldana powered around outside in turn four to lead lap two. Saldana remained on top strong with Wright second through a lap five spin by Jason Sides and a lap six twin spin by Danny Wood and Len Thompson. Under the second yellow, Saldana lost a muffler and retired to the pits. His crew worked furiously, but could not get the muffler reattached in time to rejoin the race. This put Wright back on top with Laney second, Hodnett third, seventh starting Tim Shaffer fourth and Lasoski fifth. Wright pulled out to a three car length lead, with a lap nine caution for Sides and Kurt Winker again slowing the action. Sammy Swindell flipped on lap 14 for a red, allowing teams to refuel and regroup.

Wright, after the shock and weight change, was still on top over Laney, Hodnett, Johnson (who had to repass Lasoski and Shaffer), Shaffer, Lasoski and Craig Dollansky. Wright again pushed out his lead when the green flew, holding off Laney by 1.5 seconds when another yellow appeared, this for Todd Gracey, who made contact with Lance Dewease and hit the back stretch wall. Wright powered away again from Laney on the restart, and now held a half straightaway advantage when Ryan Flynn spun into the inside wall, smashing his front end on lap 23.

It was still Wright, Laney, Hodnett and Shaffer when action resumed, as the race went green until Kurt Winker lost power on lap 38, with the lead pack consisting of Wright, Laney, Hodnett, Shaffer, Dollansky and Lasoski. Wayne Johnson flipped violently on lap 42, setting up an eight lap dash to the finish.

Wright could not be headed, winning by three quarters of a straightaway over Laney, Hodnett, Shaffer in his own No. 45, Dollansky’s Karavan No. 7 up from tenth starting spot, Lasoski, Jason Johnson, 12th starter Terry McCarl in the Holbrook No. 8H, Jeff Shepard in the Peterbilt No. 7 and Indiana’s Danny Smith.

"If we would have had the green longer, we might have caught him in lapped traffic," Laney lamented from the second place spot on the frontstretch.

Hodnett summarized the event this way, speaking from third place, "The track took rubber and we were all bolting on the hardest rubber we could find. But Saldana had checked out on the field."

The K-T Equipment heat went to Shaffer, the JB Enterprise Racing Products heat to Danny Smith, the Crown Battery heat to Shepard and the Engler Machine & Tool heat to Swindell. Flynn won the fifth heat and Dean Jacobs won the Georgia Marketing & Promotions C Main. Sean Michael was the B Main winner while Lasoski captured the Haulmark Dash and Greg Wilson won the Strawberry Dash. Buddy Griffin of Blue Ribbon Tomatoes gave $100 to each heat race winner and Louis Long awarded $50 each to the last five spots in the Strawberry Dash while Sports Plus Video donated $50 to the highest point man not making the A Main. Dollansky was awarded $1,000 for his new track record on Friday. Bert and Brigitte Emick of the All Stars also awarded track owner Stanley Kolan a special plaque for the 25th anniversary of the East Bay Nationals and praised him for turning East Bay into one of the top facilities in the country.

K-T Equipment Rental Heat : 1)45 Tim Shaffer 2)8H Terry McCarl 3)7s Jason Sides 4)3 Blake Feese 5)1 Sean Michael 6)20 Brian Ellenberger 7)29T Curt Trainer 8)10c Jeremy Campbell 9)88F Mike Walter 10)4H Ken Hart Crown Battery HEAT #2 1)4 Danny Smith 2)88 Lance Dewease 3)29 Wayne Johnson 4)25 Todd Gracey 5)3s Scott Bonnell 6)55w Mike Wagner 7)63 Greg Wilson 8)11L Larry Pinegar 9)2d Doug Day 10)72J John Johnson Engler Machine & Tool HEAT #3 1)7R Jeff Shepard 2)21w Danny Wood 3)10T Len Thompson 4)32w Brook Weibley 5)22E Dean Jacobs 6)32m Tim Montgomery 7)2L Ed Lynch, Jr. 8)51J John Sauermill 9)6 Kenny Jacobs 10)6c Chris Borgman JB ENTERPRISE HEAT #4 1)1S Sammy Swindell 2)7 Craig Dollansky 3)15 Chad Kemenah 4)5 Byron Reed 5)51 Jerrod Hull 6)88K Steve King 7)10w Kirk Winker 8)10 David Waltman 9)7x Raymond Shank 10)4J Jeff Jansma HEAT #5 1)F1 Ryan Flynn 2)22 Rodney Duncan 3)U2w Travis Rilat 4)00 Jim Nier 5)U2 Paul McMahan 6)29P Terry Pletch 7)4B Tom Busch 8)2s Brian Brown 9)37 Tom Bustillos HAULMARK TRAILER DASH (4 laps):1) 20L Danny Lasoski 2)12 Greg Hodnett 3)52 Ronald Laney 4)41 Jason Johnson 5)45 Tim Shaffer 6)4 Danny Smith STRAWBERRY DASH (10 laps): 1) 63 Greg Wilson 2)88K Steve King 3)6 Kenny Jacobs 4)51 Jerrod Hull 5)10c Jeremy Campbell 6)2L Ed Lynch, Jr. 7)2s Brian Brown 8)29P Terry Pletch 9)72J John Johnson 10)37 Joe Bustillos 11)2d Doug Day GEORGIA MARKETING & PROMOTIONS C-MAIN 1)22E Dean Jacobs 2)63 Greg Wilson 3)32m Tim Montgomery 4)11L Larry Pinegar 5)51 Jerrod Hull 6)4B Tom Busch 7)29P Terry Pletch 8)10 David Waltman 9)10c Jeremy Campbell 10)2d Doug Day 11)6c Chris Borgman 12)4H Kenny Hart 13)37 Joe Bustillos 14)7x Raymond Shank 15)4J Jeff Jansma 16)72J John Johnson 17)51J John Sauermilch Jr. 18)29T Curt Trainer B-MAIN 1)1 Sean Michael 2)25 Todd Gracey 3)32W Brook Weibley 4)5 Byron Reed 5)3 Blake Feese 6)U2 Paul McMahan 7)10W Curt Winker 8)6 Kenny Jacobs 9)88K Steve King 10)55W Mike Wagner 11)2L Ed Lynch, Jr. 12)00 Jim Nier 13)32m Tim Montgomery 14)3s Scott Bonnell 15)22E Dean Jacobs 16)20 Brian Ellenberger 17)63 Greg Wilson 18)2s Bryan Brown 19)88F Steve King 20)11L Larry Pinegar A MAIN: 1)9 Gary Wright 2)52 Ronald Laney 3)12 Greg Hodnett 4)45 Tim Shaffer 5)7 Craig Dollansky 6)20L Danny Lasoski 7)41 Jason Johnson 8)8h Terry McCarl 9)7r Jeff Shepard 10)4 Danny Smith 11)88 Lance Dewease 12)22 Rodney Duncan 13)U2 Paul McMahan 14)5 Byron Reed 15)15 Chad Kemenah 16)1 Sean Michael 17)U2w Travis Rilat 18)32w Brook Weibley 19)7s Jason Sides 20)29 Wayne Johnson 21)10W Curt Winker 22)F1 Ryan Flynn 23)25 Todd Gracey 24)1s Sammy Swindell 25)3 Blake Feese 26)17 Joey Saldana 27)10T Len Thompson 28)21w Danny Wood. All Star Points: 1 20L Danny Lasoski 190 2 52 Ronald Laney 190 3 45 Tim Shaffer 186 4 12 Greg Hodnett 178 5 7x Craig Dollansky 158 6 22 Rodney Duncan 156 7 41 Jason Johnson 145 8 U2 Travis Rilat 142 9 88 Lance Dewease 142 10 7 Jeff Shepard 140 -www.allstarsprint.com-