February 9, 2012 – Tampa, FL – Night number one for the UMP/EBRP Open Wheel Modifieds took to qualifying with 45 cars on hand representing 14 states. The very first car on the track to qualify was Devin Dixon. Modifieds qualify with one lap, and Dixon broke last year’s old track record of 16.692 and set a time of 16.667 and was also group one’s fast qualifier. In group two, Rodney Wing broke the track record with a 16.527. In group three, out of Brandon, FL., Kyle Bronson, the former track record holder came out and reset the track record with a 16.527. Then came group four, Shelby Miles cracked the old track record and set fast time for the group with a 16.581. Wayne Hammond set fast time for group five and also cracked the old track record with a 16.576. Your final group fast qualifier went to St. Louis, Missouri’s own Kenny Wallace with a time of 16.790.
Next were the Team USA Mod Lites. Twenty one cars from nine states were on hand. Three heat races were ran and your winners were Landis Musser out of Laurel, DE., Brandon Dennis out of Harrington, DE., and Jimmy Wells out of Felton DE.
The heat races were next for the UMP/EBRP Open Wheel Modifieds. Heat race number one went to Bart Hartman with Devin Dixon second. Heat race number two was Rodney Wing and Buzzie Reutimann finished second. Heat race number three went to Kyle Bronson with Shon Flanary coming in second. Heat race four was Brad DeYoung and Dave Baldwin finishing second. Heat race number five top two were Jeff Mathews and Wayne Hammond. And your final heat race top two were Kenny Wallace and Curt Myers.
Next up was the two B-Mains with the top six advancing to the A-Main. B-Main number one went to Kevin Adams. Finishing second was Gary Cook, Jr. with Vic Vena, Stanley Donahoo, Nick Allen and Rob Fuqua rounding out the top six. Your top six in B-Main number two were Matt Cooper, Brad Neiheiser, Paul Miles, Matt Miller, Bobby Regot, Shelby Miles.
Next up was the A-Main for the Team USA Mod Lites. It was Landis Musser and Brandon Dennis bringing the field to the green flag. Dennis out of Harrington, DE led the field when the first caution came out on lap two for Shawn Sliter spinning in turn four. The green flag waved on the restart and on the back stretch, Jason Musser and Sliter tangled. Your outside pole sitter came to rest on the back stretch and had to be pushed off the track ending his night.
Green flagged waved once again on the restart and coming from the third position was Jimmy Wills taking the lead in turn one passing Brandon Dennis on the high side. By lap eight, Wills had gained a straight away lead over second place Dennis. Caution came out as Brett Crowther from Belchertown, MA came to rest in turn two. Wills was first with Dennis second and Ryan Charland in third.
Restart on lap thirteen with Wills still in front with Charland still holding down the second spot was charging on the low side trying to gain the lead over Wills. Several more cautions came out before the field had to restart in single file order on lap sixteen.
With nine laps remaining, Wills continued to lead the field lap after lap until the checkered flag waved giving Wills the win. Wills suffered a separated shoulder last night during practice and had to have it worked on. “My arms are killing me” he said in Victory Lane. “I had to keep it on the high side to hold it out” he also exclaimed. Coming in second was Jeffery Teeters out of Warren, OH and Ryan Charland out of Somers, CT. Doug Williams and Ken Meadows rounded out your top five.
Next up, the 25 Lap A-Main for the UMP/EBRP Open Wheel Modifieds. Jeff Mathews, former track champion and Brad DeYoung made up the front row for the start. Kenny Wallace and two time Winternationals Champion Rodney Wing made up row number two.
After the green flag waved, Mathews and DeYoung battled side by side into turn one, but it was Wing who took over the second spot. Kyle Bronson after winning four out five races so far this year, came to a rest on the front stretch and had to be pushed into the pits ending his night.
The field restarted and on lap four, Wallace had moved up to third behind Wing and Mathews. Caution came out as Neiheiser came to rest on the back stretch.
The green flag waved once again with Mathews over Wing and Wallace with Devon Dixon moving up to the fourth position on lap five.
The caution waved on lap sixteen for Matt Cooper spinning in turn two. Matthew and Wing were battling side by side for several laps and Mathews held the lead by just .030 over Wing as they crossed the line when the caution came out.
The race resumed on lap sixteen with Wing taking over the lead on lap seventeen putting Mathews back to second with Dixon still in third. Wallace was still holding down the fourth position with Bart Hartman in fifth. Caution came out as Shelby Miles slowed on the track bringing out another caution.
On the restart, Mathews slipped back to fifth while Dixon charged up to the second spot with Wallace back to third. Lap nineteen brought out another caution as Curt Myers ended up in the gate over in turn one ending his night.
With just six laps to go, Wing and Dixon put on a show like no other. Battling side by side for several laps, Dixon took over the lead by just a half a car length over Wing on lap twenty one. With just two laps to go, Dixon was still leading Wing with Wallace still in third. When the checkered flag waved, it was Devin Dixon out of Apollo Beach, FL picking up the win. Wing was second, Wallace, Hartman and Adams were your top five.
In Victory Lane, Dixon was quick to thank Steve and Mike Boyd, The Delgado’s, Mathis Farms, Race Life Apparel, his girlfriend Angela, Mom & Dad. “I ran out of tear offs on lap fifteen so I had to wipe my shield clean” he said. “It was all about tire choice tonight” he also stated in Victory Lane. Dixon’s last visit to Victory Lane during the Winternationals was in 2006 and that’s when he won the big race Chris Stepan exclaimed.
ASA Racing continues tomorrow night with night number two of the UMP/EBRP Open Wheel Modifieds as the 36th Annual Winternationals continues with the Team USA Mod Lites. For further information, log on to www.eastbayracewaypark.com for call 813-677-7223 for more information.
STATS – OPEN WHEEL MODIFIEDS – EAST BAY RACEWAY PARK – THURSDAY, 2/9/12
Qualifying Results:
1. 40B Kyle Bronson – 16.527; 2. 33W Rodney Wing – 16.555; 3. 66H Wayne Hammond – 16.576; 4. 76 Shelby Miles – 16.581; 5. 2 Devin Dixon – 16.667; 6. 75 Bart Hartman – 16.782; 7. 36 Kenny Wallace – 16.790; 8. 33 Jeff Mathews – 16.798; 9. D00 Stanley Donahoo – 16.919; 10. 28 Paul Miles – 16.988; 11. 7 Brad DeYoung – 17.002; 12. 01 Vic Vena – 17.007; 13. 64JR Gary Cook, Jr. – 17.029; 14. 07S Scott Harper – 17.083; 15. 99 Nick Allen – 17.088; 16. 98 Shon Flanery – 17.150; 17. 00 Buzzie Reutimann – 17.157; 18. 36L Jamie Lomax – 17.179; 19. 40 Kevin Adams – 17.194; 20. 3F Rob Fuqua – 17.198; 21. 92 Kenny Carmichael – 17.227; 22. 18 Matt Cooper – 17.284; 23. 22 Dale Kelley – 17.303; 24. 72 Todd Neiheiser – 17.308; 25. 47H Bill Howard – 17.377; 26. 64 Austin Sanders – 17.389; 27. 17X Richard Michael, Jr. – 17.416; 28. 91 Curt Myers – 17.489; 29. D4 Dave Johnson – 17.647: 30. 96G David Schmauss – 17.768; 31. 71E Pat Ehlert – 17.823; 32. 6B Dave Baldwin – 17.827: 33. 9M Dale Mathison – 17.857; 34. 55 Scott Honsen – 17.859; 35. 29 Preston Seratt – 17.871; 36. 8M Matt Miller – 17.932; 37. 27N Nate Bregenzer – 18.399; 38. 5L Larry Lambert – 18.893; 39. 4UW Bobby Regot – 18.898; 40. 85S Dylan Shafer – 19.590; 41. 15S Don Scheffler – 19.665; 42. 96 Dennis Haven – 19.748; 43. 10C Chad Olsen – 20.105; 44. 19 Thomas Sigler – 45.219; 45. 47 Colin Thirlby – N/T
1st Heat – 1)Bart Hartman 2)Devin Dixon 3)Vic Vena 4)Jamie Lomax 5)Dale Mathison 6)Thomas Sigler 7)Dave Johnson 8)Don Scheffler
2nd Heat – 1)Rodney Wing 2)Buzzie Reutimann 3)Gary Cook, Jr. 4)Nick Allen 5)Scott Honsen 6)Rob Fuqua 7)Larry Lambert 8)Colin Thirlby
3rd Heat – 1)Kyle Bronson 2)Shon Flanery 3)Kevin Adams 4)Stanley Donahoo 5)Richard Michael, Jr. 6)Austin Sanders 7)Kenny Carmichael
4th Heat – 1)Brad DeYoung 2)Dave Baldwin 3)Todd Neiheiser 4)Dale Kelley 5)Shelby Miles 6)Scott Harper 7)Dennis Haven
5th Heat – 1)Jeff Mathews 2)Wayne Hammond 3)Matt Cooper 4)Preston Seratt 5)Matt Miller 6)Chad Olsen 7)Dylan Shafer
6th Heat – 1)Kenny Wallace 2)Curt Myers 3)Paul Miles 4)Bobby Regot 5)Pat Ehlert 6)David Schmauss 7)Nate Bregenzer 8)Bill Howard DNS
1st B – Main (Top 6 go to back of A inside row) – 1)Kevin Adams 2)Gary Cook, Jr. 3)Vic Vena 4)Stanley Donahoo 5)Nick Allen 6)Rob Fuqua 7)Dave Jamison 8)Larry Lambert 9)Kenny Carmichael 10)Jamie Lomax 11)Austin Sanders 12)Scott Honsen 13)Dale Mathison 14)Richard Michael, Jr. 15)Thomas Sigler 16)Don Scheffler DNS
2nd B – Main (Top 6 go to back of A outside row) – 1)Matt Cooper 2)Todd Neiheiser 3)Paul Miles 4)Matt Miller 5)Bobby Regot 6)Shelby Miles 7)Scott Harper 8)Dale Kelley 9)Preston Seratt 10)Pat Ehlert 11)Nate Bregenzer 12)David Schmauss 13)Chad Olsen 14)Dylan Shafer 15)Dennis Haven 16)Bill Howard DNS
A – Main (25 Laps) – 1)Devin Dixon 2)Rodney Wing 3)Kenny Wallace 4)Bart Hartman 5)Kevin Adams 6)Buzzie Reutimann 7)Wayne Hammond 8)Brad DeYoung 9)Stanley Donahoo 10)Shon Flanery 11)Dave Baldwin 12)Gary Cook, Jr. 13)Paul Miles 14)Vic Vena 15)Rob Fuqua 16)Nick Allen 17)Jeff Mathews 18)Matt Miller 19)Bobby Regot 20)Curt Myers 21)Shelby Miles 22)Matt Cooper 23)Todd Neiheiser 24)Kyle Bronson
TEAM USA MOD LITES A – Main (25 Laps) – 1)Jimmy Wills 2)Jeff Teeters 3)Ryan Charland 4)Doug Williams 5)Kenny Meadows 6)Brandon Dennis 7)Cody Bova 8)Matt Smith 9)Randy Bryan 10)Johnny Murdock 11)Darin Gallagher 12)Josh May 13)Jacob Bova 14)Kevin McKinney 15)Josh Sliter 16)Brett Crowther 17)Landis Musser 18)James May 19)Jason Musser 20)Shawn Sliter 21)Joel Huggins