February 11, 2012 – Tampa, FL – The final event for the UMP/EBRP Open Wheel Modififeds and the Team USA Mod Lites kicked off with heat races for the Modifieds. Four heat races with the winners advancing to the 75 Lap A-Main. Top six were locked in by virtue of points. Top six were Kenny Wallace, Rodney Wing, Bart Hartman, Devin Dixon, Kevin Adams and Wayne Hammond.
First up were the heat races and heat race number one went to Kyle Bronson from Brandon, FL. Heat race number two went to Brad DeYoung out of Wheatfield, IN. Heat race number three’s winner was Matt Cooper from McKenzie, TN. The fourth and final heat went to Vic Vena out of Shinglehouse, PA.
Next in line was the Team USA Mod Lites B-Main. Top ten were locked in by points into the A-Main Feature. Kevin McKinney out of Dover, DE won with Brett Crowther, Randy Bryan, Shawn Sliter, and Matt Smith rounding out the top five.
Next up were the hot laps for the top six locked into the 75 Lap A-Main Feature later on. The drivers all stopped on the front stretch and pulled Hungry Howie Pizza boxes to see where they started. Kenny Wallace would be the first to pick, but elected to go last. So that gave the man second in points, Rodney Wing. Wing picked up a box and opened up to the number two. Next was Hartman and he picked a four. Devin Dixon was next and pulled the number one for the pole position. Next was Kevin Adams and he pulled the six. Wayne Hammond then pulled the third position leaving Wallace with the number five position. Wallace was quick to mention that he was very humbled to be here and among the best of the Modified drivers from around the country.
B-Main number one was next with the top six advancing. Paul Miles took the checkered flag with Jeff Mathews, Shane Cottle, Nick Allen, Jamie Lomax and Colin Thirlby all advancing. B-Main number two, Kenny Carmichael was the winner with Shon Flanary, Buzzie Reutimann, Gary Cook, Jr., Preston Seratt and Matt Miller rounding out the top six. Provisionals went to defending track Champion Austin Sanders and pulling the furthest from Brentford, SD was Dennis Haven.
Next up was the final race for the Team USA Mod Lites as they were set to run their 25 Lap A-Main event. Two time feature winner Jimmy Wills and Doug Williams made up the front row. Wills again showed his muscle as he was walking away from Williams until the first caution came out on lap seven as several cars tangled in turn two.
On the restart, it was Brandon Dennis after starting third, who drove by Wills and Williams to take the lead. Wills in second and Williams in third. Caution came out on lap fourteen as Jason Musser almost flipped but was able to continue.
On the restart on lap fourteen, Wills and Dennis tangled in front of the entire field in turn two with everyone able to miss them. That put them to the rear of the field handing over the lead to Williams. Caution came out on lap sixteen as fifth place runner Johnny Mordock spun in turn four.
The final restart, Williams led the field for the remaining nine laps as he went on to win his first career Winternationals. Second went to Kevin McKinney with Josh May, Jeffery Teeters and Jimmy Wills finishing in the fifth position.
Williams was emotional in Victory Lane as he said that he lost his Dad back in December and this was for him. He also stated that he had been watching since 2003 and trying since 2004. He thanked Eric McKinney for giving him a chance and could check this off his bucket list.
The final event of the night belonged to the 75 Lap A-Main for the UMP/EBRP Open Wheel Modifieds with 2006 Champion and Thursday night’s winner along with 2 time Champion Rodney Wing bringing the field to the green flag. Dixon lead the field on lap one with Wing right behind him. The first caution came out on lap four as Nick Allen’s right front suspension had broken slowing him down and sending him to the pits.
Restart on lap four as the cars started single file. Dixon once again showed the way over Wing, Hartman, Wallace and Adams. On lap seven Hartman passed Wing for the second spot chasing Dixon. Dixon began to come into lap traffic by lap twelve with Hartman still in second. Before the caution came out on lap seventeen, Dixon had a 2.041 second advantage over Hartman.
The green flag waved once again on lap seventeen with Dixon still showing the way. By lap twenty five, Dixon once again came up on lap traffic making his way thru, but on the very next lap, Colin Thirlby got a right rear flat bringing out the caution.
Green resumed and on lap thirty, Wayne Hammond appeared to have mechanical issues and tried to get out of the way and ended up collecting Shane Cottle, Buzzie Reutimann, Jeff Mathews and Kyle Bronson. All cars were able to continue.
The field restarted on lap thirty and the top five were Dixon, Hartman, Adams, Wallace and Brad DeYoung. Caution came out on lap forty for a fuel stop as the entire field stopped single file in turn two as crews came out to put fuel in the cars and add tear offs if they chose to. Drivers were also allowed to head to the pits and change tires, but would have to go to the rear of the field. Several drivers elected to go to the pits and then Kevin Adams, Kenny Wallace and Brad DeYoung, all running third, fourth and fifth, headed to the pits to change tires.
The cars restarted and the top five changed with Dixon still leading, Hartman second with Shane Cottle, Jeff Mathews and Rodney Wing your top five. Vic Vena, Kenny Carmichael, Preston Seratt, Kyle Bronson and Kenny Wallace rounded out the top ten.
The green flag waved once again on lap forty and Dixon led the field. Wallace after changing tires restarted tenth and by lap forty eight when the caution waved for Carmichael spinning on the front stretch had charged up to fifth. Caution came out with just fifteen laps to go as Kyle Bronson slowed on the backstretch and headed out the turn one gate. Top five was Dixon, Hartman, Adams, Cottle and Wallace.
Restart lap sixty and Dixon once again headed into turn one leading the field. By lap sixty six, Dixon had a .348 lead over second place driver Kenny Adams. Adams and Dixon crossed the line side by side on lap sixty seven with Dixon taken over the top spot out of turn two. On lap seventy two, Dixon and Adams made it three wide passing a lapped car with Dixon leading once again.
With just three laps left Adams did everything he could to try and catch Dixon but was not able to as Dixon captured his second Winternationals Championship. Adams crossed the line second with Hartman, Cottle and Wallace rounding out your top five.
In Victory Lane, Dixon once again thanked his sponsors Steve and Mike Boyd, The Delgado’s, Mathis Farms, Race Life Apparel, his girlfriend Angela, Mom & Dad, Gene Slaughter and the good Lord above. Dixon stated that he was thinking on lap sixty five if he saved enough tires. “I had to pace myself because I knew that some of the drivers were going to change tires during that fuel stop.” He also thank Adams for driving him clean on the last few laps.
ASA racing continues Monday night with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series on February 13-18 with a practice session from 6-9 pm which is FREE to the public in the Grandstands only. For further information, log onto www.eastbayracewaypark.com or call 813-677-7223.
STATS – OPEN WHEELMODIFIEDS – EAST BAY RACEWAY PARK – SATURDAY, 2/11/12
Top 6 in Points are Locked into A Main – 1)Kenny Wallace 2)Rodney Wing 3)Bart Hartman 4)Devin Dixon 5)Kevin Adams 6)Wayne Hammond
1st Heat – 1)Kyle Bronson 2)Nick Allen 3)Jeff Mathews 4)Dave Baldwin 5)Shane Cottle 6)Bobby Regot 7)Todd Neiheiser 8)Dave Jamison 9)Bill Howard 10)Jeff Babcock 11)Chad Olsen DNS
2nd Heat – 1)Brad DeYoung 2)Paul Miles 3)Jamie Lomax 4)Stanley Donahoo 5)Dale Kelley 6)Colin Thirlby 7)Scott Hansen 8)Rich Michael, Jr. 9)Dennis Haven 10)Scott Harper
3rd Heat – 1)Matt Cooper 2)Kenny Carmichael 3)Gary Cook, Jr. 4)Preston Seratt 5)Austin Sanders 6)Troy Clark 7)Nate Bregenzer 8)Pat Ehlert 9)Shelby Miles 10)Dale Mathison
4th Heat – 1)Vic Vena 2)Shon Flanary 3)Buzzie Reutimann 4)Rob Fuqua 5)Matt Miller 6)David Schmauss 7)Don Scheffler 8)Larry Lambert 9)Jacob Shafer 10)Thomas Siegler
1st B – Main (Top 6 go to back of A inside row) – 1)Paul Miles 2)Jeff Mathews 3)Shane Cottle 4)Nick Allen 5)Jamie Lomax 6)Colin Thirlby 7)Stanley Donahoo 8)Scott Hansen 9)Rich Michael, Jr. 10)Bobby Regot 11)Dave Jamison 12)Dennis Haven 13)Dave Baldwin 14)Bill Howard 15)Scott Harper 16)Dale Kelley 17)Todd Neiheiser DNS 18)Jeff Babcock DNS 19)Chad Olsen DNS
2nd B – Main (Top 6 go to back of A outside row) – 1)Kenny Carmichael 2)Shon Flanary 3)Buzzie Reutimann 4)Gary Cook, Jr. 5)Preston Seratt 6)Matt Miller 7)Larry Lambert 8)Thomas Siegler 9)Troy Clark 10)Don Scheffler 11)Pat Ehlert 12)Nate Bregenzer 13)Jacob Shafer 14)Austin Sanders 15)Rob Fuqua 16)David Schmauss 17)Shelby Miles DNS 18)Dale Mathison DNS
2 Provisionals – 1)Austin Sanders (Highest in points for East Bay) 2)Dennis Haven (Farthest Tow-Brentford, SD-1791 Miles)
A – Main (75 Laps) – 1)Devin Dixon 2)Kevin Adams 3)Bart Hartman 4)Shane Cottle 5)Kenny Wallace 6)Vic Vena 7)Rodney Wing 8)Brad DeYoung 9)Jeff Mathews 10)Gary Cook, Jr. 11)Matt Cooper 12)Jamie Lomax 13)Austin Sanders 14)Buzzie Reutimann 15)Shon Flanary 16)Preston Seratt 17)Matt Miller 18)Paul Miles 19)Dennis Haven 20)Kyle Bronson 21)Kenny Carmichael 22)Wayne Hammond 23)Colin Thirlby 24)Nick Allen
TEAM USA MOD LITES A – Main (25 Laps) – 1)Doug Williams 2)Kevin McKinney 3)Josh May 4)Jeff Teeters 5)Jimmy Wills 6)Jason Musser 7)Kenny Meadows 8)Josh Sliter 9)Ryan Charland 10)Shawn Sliter 11)Johnny Murdock 12)Cody Bova 13)Jacob Bova 14)Brandon Dennis 15)Randy Bryan 16)Landis Musser 17)Brett Crowther 18)Matt Smith 19)Darin Gallagher DNS