By Jean Lynch
TAMPA, FL……2/18/06…..Coming from 16th starting spot, Devin Dixon topped his winning performance from the previous night, by using a slide job on race-long leader Corey Conley in turn four with five laps to go to take the big Open Wheel Modified 75-lap feature worth $8,000 Saturday night in the finale to the 30th Annual East Bay Raceway Park Winternationals.
“Starting back as far as I did, I was pretty happy with sitting in fifth spot at the fuel stop on lap 35,” explained the local driver who gave the home-town fans a lot to cheer about. “We took on extra fuel so I could get more bite and this Victory chassis by JR Performance was what allowed me to make the same inside move tonight that won the race for me last night.
Sponsors on his car include New Homes of Tampa Bay, Blue Ribbon Tomatoes, Gene Slaughter of Hoosier Tires and D&D Auction. His crew Jimmy and Ronnie gave him a favorable report on his tire wear at the break, so he knew he could go for the win.
With 96 cars on hand for this final night of the four-day series. The top six from points accumulated each preliminary night were locked into the A-Main. The redraw for them put Mike Potosky on the pole with Dan Hamstra outside. Kevin Weaver and Corey Conley made up row two with Steve Arpin and Ray Guss, Jr in row three.
However, before the initial green flag, Hamstra had transmission problems, forcing him to the infield and the outside row moved up, placing Conley in the front row for the start. Conley jumped to an immediate lead and figured the restart after a long run of 25-30 green flag laps did him in because he could feel his right rear going away. “I’m against a fuel stop, but I’m lucky to finish second after the problems we had in hot laps. I picked up a vibration in the rear-end that turned out to be a ring gear….then a muffler blew off.”
Conley is sponsored by the West Virginia Motorsports Counsel and according to him, “My chassis is and OBR (Old Bent Rocket) that D. J. Cline welded a new front end on and Gib Patt is the owner.” Sponsors include Bob Williams Racing, Shadyside Pennzoil, Lucas Oil and Dave Poske.
Just before the lap 35 yellow that turned into a fuel stop, Conley had a straight-away lead, but on the restart for the 16 cars remaining. On lap 44 Kevin Weaver moved past Potosky for second and tried an outside move to threaten Conley. But, by lap 50 Conley had his lead back to three seconds. Lapped traffic entered the picture on lap 55, but did not present a problem for Conley. Dixon used an inside backstretch lane for pull beside Weaver at the same time and set his sights on Conley.
Dixon hounded Conley, trying inside and outside and finally on lap 71 he did a slide job to pull of the winning move coming to the flag stand. Once in the lead, Dixon stayed the course and won over Conley and Potosky in his second East Bay appearance in his Bob Pierce chassis powered by a Jeff Tregler engine. Sponsors on the third place car were Tech Tool and Molded Plastics.
Guss managed a fourth place finish ahead of Matt Mevert to complete the top five. Weaver slipped to sixth followed by Jeff Leka, Wayne Hammond, Brady Short and Buzzie Reutimann.
Ten heats were run and the winners went directly to the A-Main, six cars came from two B-Mains and the two provisionals were the highest East Bay regular from 2005 points (David Schmauss) and Alex Engelstad for farthest tow of 1858 miles from Beltrami MN.
STATS – OPEN WHEEL MODIFIEDS - EAST BAY RACEWAY PARK – SATURDAY, 2/18/06
Top 6 in points locked into A Main – 1)B12 Kevin Weaver 2)707 Corey Conley 3)112 Ray Guss, Jr. 4)00EH Steve Arpin 5)23H Dan Hamstra 6)M20 Mike Potosky – and redraw – Remainder of cars ran heat races
1st Heat – (Winners to A) - 1)Denny Swartz 2)Dave Hess, Jr. 3)Blake Jegtvig 4)Billy Boyd, Sr. 5)Alex Engelstad 6)Kenny Johnson 7)Wess Weinman 8)Roger Crouse 9)Jeff Matthews
2nd Heat – 1)Shane Cottle 2)Bill Howard 3)Bruce Watkins 4)Rob Fuqua 5)Tim Moore 6)Mark Herbert 7)Nate Bregenzer 8)Asa Hovis 9)Scott Carlson 10)Darin Beaner
3rd Heat – 1)Kent Arment 2)Dave Groves 3)Mike Sorensen 4)Leonard Pierce 5)Hank Bradley 6)Stanley Donahoo 7)Rick Hensley 8)Terry Hayes 9)Mike Romaker
4th Heat – 1)Matt Goulden 2)Rick Conoyer 3)Buzzie Reutimann 4)Brandon Carlson 5)Brad Waits 6)William Hampton 7)Mike Wedelstadt 8)Mat McDermid 9)Joey Jensen
5th Heat – 1)Brady Short 2)DJ Cline 3)Robbie Starnes 4)Jamie Burrows 5)Tommy Bailey 6)Ken Myracle 7)Rick Martin 8)Matt Miller 9)Chris Veech
6th Heat – 1)Wayne Hammond 2)John Bradley 3)Tim Donlinger 4)Dick Peterson 5)Randle Sweeney 6)Richard Logan 7)Gary Eicher 8)Charles Phillips 9)Shon Flanary
7th Heat – 1)Randy Hall 2)Craig Thatcher 3)Chad Ogle 4)Rich Gilbert 5)Carlton Jackson 6)Trevor Merrell 7)Dennis Haven 8)Larry Moreland, Sr. 9)Robbie Hagger
8th Heat – 1)Matt Mevert 2)Perry Brown 3)Mark Dotson 4)David Schmauss 5)Julie McDermid 6)Frank Marshall 7)Rusty Dixon 8)Darrell Lowe 9)Ron Burgess
9th Heat – 1)Jeff Leka 2)Jason Miller 3)Junior Nolan 4)Vince Cooper 5)Brian Hollifield 6)Mike Sullivan 7)Terry Haven 8)Greg Reutimann 9)Kevin DeYoung
10th Heat – 1)Devin Dixon 2)Matt Boknecht 3)Ed Shamhart 4)William Harrison 5)Steve Mueller 6)Terry McClintock 7)Aldo Estrada 8)Steve Miller 9)David Boerner
1st C-Main – (2 Qualify to 1st B) – 1)Kenny Johnson 2)Stanley Donahoo 3)Jeff Matthews 4)Rick Hensley 5)Wess Weinman 6)Matt Miller 7)Nate Bregenzer 8)Rick Martin 9)Mike Romaker 10)Asa Hovis 11)Scott Carlson 12)Chris Veech 13)Mark Herbert 14)Joey Jensen 15)Mat McDermid 16)William Hampton 17)Ken Myracle 18)Darin Beaner 19)Terry Hayes 20)Mike Wedelstadt 21)Roger Crouse
2nd C-Main – (2 Qualify to 2nd B) – 1)Trevor Merrell 2)Rusty Dixon 3)Richard Logan 4)Dennis Haven 5)Aldo Estrada 6)Steve Miller 7)Mike Sullivan 8)Robbie Hagger 9)Ron Burgess 10)Larry Moreland, Sr. 11)Frank Marshall 12)Greg Reutimann 13)Gary Eicher 14)David Boerner 15)Charles Phillips 16)Terry McClintock 17)Darrell Lowe 18)Terry Haven 19)Shon Flanary 20)Kevin DeYoung
1st B-Main – (3 Qualify to A) - 1)Dave Hess, Jr. 2)Buzzie Reutimann 3)Bill Howard 4)Dave Groves 5)Rob Fuqua 6)Jamie Burrows 7)Brad Waits 8)Hank Bradley 9)Alex Engelstadt 10)Stanley Donahoo 11)Bruce Watkins 12)Rick Conoyer 13)Billy Boyd, Sr. 14)Mike Sorensen 15)Kenny Johnson 16)Robbie Starnes 17)Jeff Matthews 18)Leonard Pierce 19)Blake Jegtvig 20)Tommy Bailey 21)Brandon Carlson 22)DJ Cline 23)Tim Moore
2nd B-Main – (3 Qualify to A) – 1)John Bradley 2)Perry Brown 3)Jason Miller 4)William Harrison 5)Chad Ogle 6)Matt Bokneckt 7)Tim Donlinger 8)David Schmauss 9)Julie McDermid 10)Vince Cooper 11)Ed Shamhart 12)Steve Hardy 13)Trevor Merrell 14)Mark Dotson 15)Craig Thatcher 16)Carlton Jackson 17)Junior Nolan 18)Rich Gilbert 19)Randle Sweeney 20)Brian Hollifield 21)Steve Mueller 22)Dick Peterson
A – Main (7th Annual Open Wheel Modified Winternationals Race - 75 Laps – $8,000 to win) – 1)Devin Dixon 2)Corey Conley 3)Mike Potosky 4)Ray Guss, Jr. 5)Matt Mevert 6)Kevin Weaver 7)Jeff Leka 8)Wayne Hammond 9)Brady Short 10)Buzzie Reutimann 11)Bill Howard 12)Perry Brown 13)Alex Engelstadt 14)David Schmauss 15)Matt Goulden 16)Shane Cottle 17)Denny Swartz 18)Steve Arpin 19)Kent Arment 20)John Bradley 21)Randy Hall 22)Dave Hess, Jr. 23)Jason Miller 24)Dan Hamstra
TAMPA, FL……2/18/06…..Coming from 16th starting spot, Devin Dixon topped his winning performance from the previous night, by using a slide job on race-long leader Corey Conley in turn four with five laps to go to take the big Open Wheel Modified 75-lap feature worth $8,000 Saturday night in the finale to the 30th Annual East Bay Raceway Park Winternationals.
“Starting back as far as I did, I was pretty happy with sitting in fifth spot at the fuel stop on lap 35,” explained the local driver who gave the home-town fans a lot to cheer about. “We took on extra fuel so I could get more bite and this Victory chassis by JR Performance was what allowed me to make the same inside move tonight that won the race for me last night.
Sponsors on his car include New Homes of Tampa Bay, Blue Ribbon Tomatoes, Gene Slaughter of Hoosier Tires and D&D Auction. His crew Jimmy and Ronnie gave him a favorable report on his tire wear at the break, so he knew he could go for the win.
With 96 cars on hand for this final night of the four-day series. The top six from points accumulated each preliminary night were locked into the A-Main. The redraw for them put Mike Potosky on the pole with Dan Hamstra outside. Kevin Weaver and Corey Conley made up row two with Steve Arpin and Ray Guss, Jr in row three.
However, before the initial green flag, Hamstra had transmission problems, forcing him to the infield and the outside row moved up, placing Conley in the front row for the start. Conley jumped to an immediate lead and figured the restart after a long run of 25-30 green flag laps did him in because he could feel his right rear going away. “I’m against a fuel stop, but I’m lucky to finish second after the problems we had in hot laps. I picked up a vibration in the rear-end that turned out to be a ring gear….then a muffler blew off.”
Conley is sponsored by the West Virginia Motorsports Counsel and according to him, “My chassis is and OBR (Old Bent Rocket) that D. J. Cline welded a new front end on and Gib Patt is the owner.” Sponsors include Bob Williams Racing, Shadyside Pennzoil, Lucas Oil and Dave Poske.
Just before the lap 35 yellow that turned into a fuel stop, Conley had a straight-away lead, but on the restart for the 16 cars remaining. On lap 44 Kevin Weaver moved past Potosky for second and tried an outside move to threaten Conley. But, by lap 50 Conley had his lead back to three seconds. Lapped traffic entered the picture on lap 55, but did not present a problem for Conley. Dixon used an inside backstretch lane for pull beside Weaver at the same time and set his sights on Conley.
Dixon hounded Conley, trying inside and outside and finally on lap 71 he did a slide job to pull of the winning move coming to the flag stand. Once in the lead, Dixon stayed the course and won over Conley and Potosky in his second East Bay appearance in his Bob Pierce chassis powered by a Jeff Tregler engine. Sponsors on the third place car were Tech Tool and Molded Plastics.
Guss managed a fourth place finish ahead of Matt Mevert to complete the top five. Weaver slipped to sixth followed by Jeff Leka, Wayne Hammond, Brady Short and Buzzie Reutimann.
Ten heats were run and the winners went directly to the A-Main, six cars came from two B-Mains and the two provisionals were the highest East Bay regular from 2005 points (David Schmauss) and Alex Engelstad for farthest tow of 1858 miles from Beltrami MN.
STATS – OPEN WHEEL MODIFIEDS - EAST BAY RACEWAY PARK – SATURDAY, 2/18/06
Top 6 in points locked into A Main – 1)B12 Kevin Weaver 2)707 Corey Conley 3)112 Ray Guss, Jr. 4)00EH Steve Arpin 5)23H Dan Hamstra 6)M20 Mike Potosky – and redraw – Remainder of cars ran heat races
1st Heat – (Winners to A) - 1)Denny Swartz 2)Dave Hess, Jr. 3)Blake Jegtvig 4)Billy Boyd, Sr. 5)Alex Engelstad 6)Kenny Johnson 7)Wess Weinman 8)Roger Crouse 9)Jeff Matthews
2nd Heat – 1)Shane Cottle 2)Bill Howard 3)Bruce Watkins 4)Rob Fuqua 5)Tim Moore 6)Mark Herbert 7)Nate Bregenzer 8)Asa Hovis 9)Scott Carlson 10)Darin Beaner
3rd Heat – 1)Kent Arment 2)Dave Groves 3)Mike Sorensen 4)Leonard Pierce 5)Hank Bradley 6)Stanley Donahoo 7)Rick Hensley 8)Terry Hayes 9)Mike Romaker
4th Heat – 1)Matt Goulden 2)Rick Conoyer 3)Buzzie Reutimann 4)Brandon Carlson 5)Brad Waits 6)William Hampton 7)Mike Wedelstadt 8)Mat McDermid 9)Joey Jensen
5th Heat – 1)Brady Short 2)DJ Cline 3)Robbie Starnes 4)Jamie Burrows 5)Tommy Bailey 6)Ken Myracle 7)Rick Martin 8)Matt Miller 9)Chris Veech
6th Heat – 1)Wayne Hammond 2)John Bradley 3)Tim Donlinger 4)Dick Peterson 5)Randle Sweeney 6)Richard Logan 7)Gary Eicher 8)Charles Phillips 9)Shon Flanary
7th Heat – 1)Randy Hall 2)Craig Thatcher 3)Chad Ogle 4)Rich Gilbert 5)Carlton Jackson 6)Trevor Merrell 7)Dennis Haven 8)Larry Moreland, Sr. 9)Robbie Hagger
8th Heat – 1)Matt Mevert 2)Perry Brown 3)Mark Dotson 4)David Schmauss 5)Julie McDermid 6)Frank Marshall 7)Rusty Dixon 8)Darrell Lowe 9)Ron Burgess
9th Heat – 1)Jeff Leka 2)Jason Miller 3)Junior Nolan 4)Vince Cooper 5)Brian Hollifield 6)Mike Sullivan 7)Terry Haven 8)Greg Reutimann 9)Kevin DeYoung
10th Heat – 1)Devin Dixon 2)Matt Boknecht 3)Ed Shamhart 4)William Harrison 5)Steve Mueller 6)Terry McClintock 7)Aldo Estrada 8)Steve Miller 9)David Boerner
1st C-Main – (2 Qualify to 1st B) – 1)Kenny Johnson 2)Stanley Donahoo 3)Jeff Matthews 4)Rick Hensley 5)Wess Weinman 6)Matt Miller 7)Nate Bregenzer 8)Rick Martin 9)Mike Romaker 10)Asa Hovis 11)Scott Carlson 12)Chris Veech 13)Mark Herbert 14)Joey Jensen 15)Mat McDermid 16)William Hampton 17)Ken Myracle 18)Darin Beaner 19)Terry Hayes 20)Mike Wedelstadt 21)Roger Crouse
2nd C-Main – (2 Qualify to 2nd B) – 1)Trevor Merrell 2)Rusty Dixon 3)Richard Logan 4)Dennis Haven 5)Aldo Estrada 6)Steve Miller 7)Mike Sullivan 8)Robbie Hagger 9)Ron Burgess 10)Larry Moreland, Sr. 11)Frank Marshall 12)Greg Reutimann 13)Gary Eicher 14)David Boerner 15)Charles Phillips 16)Terry McClintock 17)Darrell Lowe 18)Terry Haven 19)Shon Flanary 20)Kevin DeYoung
1st B-Main – (3 Qualify to A) - 1)Dave Hess, Jr. 2)Buzzie Reutimann 3)Bill Howard 4)Dave Groves 5)Rob Fuqua 6)Jamie Burrows 7)Brad Waits 8)Hank Bradley 9)Alex Engelstadt 10)Stanley Donahoo 11)Bruce Watkins 12)Rick Conoyer 13)Billy Boyd, Sr. 14)Mike Sorensen 15)Kenny Johnson 16)Robbie Starnes 17)Jeff Matthews 18)Leonard Pierce 19)Blake Jegtvig 20)Tommy Bailey 21)Brandon Carlson 22)DJ Cline 23)Tim Moore
2nd B-Main – (3 Qualify to A) – 1)John Bradley 2)Perry Brown 3)Jason Miller 4)William Harrison 5)Chad Ogle 6)Matt Bokneckt 7)Tim Donlinger 8)David Schmauss 9)Julie McDermid 10)Vince Cooper 11)Ed Shamhart 12)Steve Hardy 13)Trevor Merrell 14)Mark Dotson 15)Craig Thatcher 16)Carlton Jackson 17)Junior Nolan 18)Rich Gilbert 19)Randle Sweeney 20)Brian Hollifield 21)Steve Mueller 22)Dick Peterson
A – Main (7th Annual Open Wheel Modified Winternationals Race - 75 Laps – $8,000 to win) – 1)Devin Dixon 2)Corey Conley 3)Mike Potosky 4)Ray Guss, Jr. 5)Matt Mevert 6)Kevin Weaver 7)Jeff Leka 8)Wayne Hammond 9)Brady Short 10)Buzzie Reutimann 11)Bill Howard 12)Perry Brown 13)Alex Engelstadt 14)David Schmauss 15)Matt Goulden 16)Shane Cottle 17)Denny Swartz 18)Steve Arpin 19)Kent Arment 20)John Bradley 21)Randy Hall 22)Dave Hess, Jr. 23)Jason Miller 24)Dan Hamstra
