By Jean Lynch
GIBSONTON, FL - “Leading the race is not the place to be here,” explained Chad Kemenah as he posed in victory lane wearing the crown that designated him as the 6th different winner of the King of the 360 Winternationals at East Bay Raceway Park. Since 2002, the $10,000-to-win race has also served as the 4th Annual Ronald Laney Memorial with Ronald’ s Father Mark and Ronald’s boxer dog Checkers in attendance. As a tribute to Ronald the starting field did the sobering Missing Man Formation.
The comment from the “King” came when Kemenah was asked about his winning move under Gary Wright, who had led 36 laps of the 40-lap finale. In those closing laps, Kemenah watched from second spot as leader Wright tried to out-guess two different lapped cars that were struggling to hold their line. When Wright went high to clear Mike Brecht, Kemenah went low and took the lead on lap 37.
“I take my hat off to Al Varnadore and his track crew”, Kemenah remarked, “ because the track was great!” Brother, Brian Kemenah wrenched on the brand new Eagle chassis and confessed, “I never touched the car all night long. We put new Hoosier tires on before the feature and that was it. We’ve been fast all week long, but we didn’t have a good starting spot until tonight.”
The excited car owners, Glenn and Tina Styres posed for pictures and then credited their main sponsor, Ohsweken Speedway, and their associate sponsors Arrow Express, GRE Enterprises, Wahta Water, Village Pizza and ESSO, all from Ohsweken, Ontario, Canada.
Chad’s wife Tracy limped over to get in a picture with her husband, also. On Friday night, she had spilled boiling water on her right foot and leg and had been transported to the hospital for treatment. Her father, Bob Hampshire, had done a fresh re-build on the engine in the winning car.
With Kemenah and Wright on the front row at the start, Greg Wilson and Kenny Adams were in row two, while Danny Martin Jr. and Greg Leonard made up row three of the 24-car field. The final two spots were the Provisionals of Sport Allen as a Past Champion and Frank Carlsson, the highest ranking East Bay regular.
On the initial lap Wright charged into the lead and going down the back stretch, Adams had a brush with the outside wall. By lap three, Wright stretched his lead over Martin by five car lengths, with an equal distance back to third place Kemenah.
Heavy lapped traffic was a factor by lap five, as Wright chose the high groove and put three cars between himself and Martin. On Lap seven, Greg Leonard spun a donut but kept going when he had to checkup to avoid another car. By lap 13, Wright’s lead was huge and he had five lapped cars as a cushion when the first yellow came out on lap 19 for Leonard who had to spin to avoid hitting Paul Sides.
Kemenah was running second but four car-lengths back of Wright on lap 25. On the next lap, Wright bounced out a groove in turn two and Kemenah closed in, but Adams was right there also and actually passed Kemenah for second only to have the pass wiped away when the car of Jesse Giannetto lost power almost in front of Wright, who actually hit the wall in turn two trying to avoid Giannetto.
When racing resumed, it was Wright leading Kemenah and Adams until they caught the back of the field and Kemenah used that traffic to surge to the front on lap 37 relegating Wright to second with Adams in third. Martin held held on for fourth followed by Terry McCarl, Jason Sides (up from 19th) , Zach Chappel, Wayne Johnson (up from 21st), Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Kelly Kinser in the top ten.
With the top six in points locked into the A-Main, heats were won by Chappel, Kinser, McCarl and Paul Sides. The B-Main qualified Cody Geldart, Giannetto, Trevor Lewis and Anderson for the A-Main. Daryl Smith won the Gulf Coast Produce Strawberry Dash which paid $1,000 to win in memory of Donn Goodson.
RESULTS
360 SPRINTS
(Top 6 in points locked into A Main, remainder of cars ran heat races)
1st Heat – 1)Zach Chappell 2)Chad Layton 3)Darren Stewart 4)Trevor Lewis 5)Jesse Giannetto 6)Nick Fratto 7)Glenn Styres 8)Mike Senecal DNS 9)David Kountz DNS.
2nd Heat – 1)Kelly Kinser 2)Mike Chadd 3)Tony Bruce Jr. 4)Frank Carlsson 5)Ryan Myers 6)Daryl Smith 7)Mike Schroeder 8)Kyle Patrick DNS.
3rd Heat – 1)Terry McCarl 2)Ricky Stenhouse 3)Mike Brecht 4)Johnny Anderson 5)Doug Day 6)Danny Jones 7)Jack Pillon 8)Stephen Darvalics DNS.
4th Heat – 1)Paul Sides 2)Wayne Johnson 3)Jason Sides 4)Sport Allen 5)Cody Geldart 6)Bronson Maeschen 7)Lincoln Gatwood 8)Tighe Schloss.
B Main – 1)Cody Geldart 2)Jesse Giannetto 3)Trevor Lewis 4)Johnny Anderson 5)Ryan Myers 6)Bronson Maeschen 7)Kyle Patrick 8)Tighe Schloss 9)Glenn Styres 10)Frank Carlsson 11)Doug Day 12)Nick Fratto 13)David Kountz 14)Jack Pillon 15)Danny Jones 16)Lincoln Gatwood 17)Daryl Smith 18)Mike Schroeder 19)Sport Allen DNS 20)Mike Senecal DNS 21)Steve Darvalics DNS.
A Main (4th Ronald Laney Memorial, 40 laps, $10,000 to win) – 1)Chad Kemenah 2)Gary Wright 3)Kenny Adams 4)Danny Martin Jr. 5)Terry McCarl 6)Jason Sides 7)Zach Chappell 8)Wayne Johnson 9)Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 10)Kelly Kinser 11)Chad Layton 12)Greg Leonard 13)Greg Wilson 14)Mike Becht 15)Paul Sides 16)Johnny Anderson 17)Trevor Lewis 18)Jesse Giannetto 19)Mike Chad 20)Darren Stewart 21)Tony Bruce Jr. 22)Frank Carlsson 23)Cody Geldart 24)Sport Allen.
Gulf Coast Produce Strawberry Dash (Gulf Coast Produce gave $1000 to win in memory of Don Goodson) – 1)Daryl Smith 2)Jack Pillon 3)Glenn Styres 4)Bronson Maeschen 5)David Kauntz 6)Nick Fratto 7)Ryan Myers 8)Danny Jones 9)Tighe Schloss 10)Kyle Patrick.
MINI SPRINTS
1st heat - 1)Ron Taggart.
2nd heat - 1)Michael Dicely.
Feature (25 laps) – 1)Jim Brookens 2)Darryl Wills 3)Dereck King 4)Michael Dicely 5)Ron Taggart 6)Jim Young 7)George Ulmer 8)John Craddock 9)Paul Gottschalk 10)Randy Carrier 11)JC walling 12)Jesse Teed 13)John Paynter 14)Rick Herrero 15)Russ Heider 16)James Fairfield 17)Jason Brown 18)Eddie Moss Jr. 19)Frank Petas 20)Alex Mills 21)Ralf Herrero 22)Harold Matthews 23)Sam Mancuso 24)Gregory Skyta 25)Duane Harbaugh.
GIBSONTON, FL - “Leading the race is not the place to be here,” explained Chad Kemenah as he posed in victory lane wearing the crown that designated him as the 6th different winner of the King of the 360 Winternationals at East Bay Raceway Park. Since 2002, the $10,000-to-win race has also served as the 4th Annual Ronald Laney Memorial with Ronald’ s Father Mark and Ronald’s boxer dog Checkers in attendance. As a tribute to Ronald the starting field did the sobering Missing Man Formation.
The comment from the “King” came when Kemenah was asked about his winning move under Gary Wright, who had led 36 laps of the 40-lap finale. In those closing laps, Kemenah watched from second spot as leader Wright tried to out-guess two different lapped cars that were struggling to hold their line. When Wright went high to clear Mike Brecht, Kemenah went low and took the lead on lap 37.
“I take my hat off to Al Varnadore and his track crew”, Kemenah remarked, “ because the track was great!” Brother, Brian Kemenah wrenched on the brand new Eagle chassis and confessed, “I never touched the car all night long. We put new Hoosier tires on before the feature and that was it. We’ve been fast all week long, but we didn’t have a good starting spot until tonight.”
The excited car owners, Glenn and Tina Styres posed for pictures and then credited their main sponsor, Ohsweken Speedway, and their associate sponsors Arrow Express, GRE Enterprises, Wahta Water, Village Pizza and ESSO, all from Ohsweken, Ontario, Canada.
Chad’s wife Tracy limped over to get in a picture with her husband, also. On Friday night, she had spilled boiling water on her right foot and leg and had been transported to the hospital for treatment. Her father, Bob Hampshire, had done a fresh re-build on the engine in the winning car.
With Kemenah and Wright on the front row at the start, Greg Wilson and Kenny Adams were in row two, while Danny Martin Jr. and Greg Leonard made up row three of the 24-car field. The final two spots were the Provisionals of Sport Allen as a Past Champion and Frank Carlsson, the highest ranking East Bay regular.
On the initial lap Wright charged into the lead and going down the back stretch, Adams had a brush with the outside wall. By lap three, Wright stretched his lead over Martin by five car lengths, with an equal distance back to third place Kemenah.
Heavy lapped traffic was a factor by lap five, as Wright chose the high groove and put three cars between himself and Martin. On Lap seven, Greg Leonard spun a donut but kept going when he had to checkup to avoid another car. By lap 13, Wright’s lead was huge and he had five lapped cars as a cushion when the first yellow came out on lap 19 for Leonard who had to spin to avoid hitting Paul Sides.
Kemenah was running second but four car-lengths back of Wright on lap 25. On the next lap, Wright bounced out a groove in turn two and Kemenah closed in, but Adams was right there also and actually passed Kemenah for second only to have the pass wiped away when the car of Jesse Giannetto lost power almost in front of Wright, who actually hit the wall in turn two trying to avoid Giannetto.
When racing resumed, it was Wright leading Kemenah and Adams until they caught the back of the field and Kemenah used that traffic to surge to the front on lap 37 relegating Wright to second with Adams in third. Martin held held on for fourth followed by Terry McCarl, Jason Sides (up from 19th) , Zach Chappel, Wayne Johnson (up from 21st), Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Kelly Kinser in the top ten.
With the top six in points locked into the A-Main, heats were won by Chappel, Kinser, McCarl and Paul Sides. The B-Main qualified Cody Geldart, Giannetto, Trevor Lewis and Anderson for the A-Main. Daryl Smith won the Gulf Coast Produce Strawberry Dash which paid $1,000 to win in memory of Donn Goodson.
RESULTS
360 SPRINTS
(Top 6 in points locked into A Main, remainder of cars ran heat races)
1st Heat – 1)Zach Chappell 2)Chad Layton 3)Darren Stewart 4)Trevor Lewis 5)Jesse Giannetto 6)Nick Fratto 7)Glenn Styres 8)Mike Senecal DNS 9)David Kountz DNS.
2nd Heat – 1)Kelly Kinser 2)Mike Chadd 3)Tony Bruce Jr. 4)Frank Carlsson 5)Ryan Myers 6)Daryl Smith 7)Mike Schroeder 8)Kyle Patrick DNS.
3rd Heat – 1)Terry McCarl 2)Ricky Stenhouse 3)Mike Brecht 4)Johnny Anderson 5)Doug Day 6)Danny Jones 7)Jack Pillon 8)Stephen Darvalics DNS.
4th Heat – 1)Paul Sides 2)Wayne Johnson 3)Jason Sides 4)Sport Allen 5)Cody Geldart 6)Bronson Maeschen 7)Lincoln Gatwood 8)Tighe Schloss.
B Main – 1)Cody Geldart 2)Jesse Giannetto 3)Trevor Lewis 4)Johnny Anderson 5)Ryan Myers 6)Bronson Maeschen 7)Kyle Patrick 8)Tighe Schloss 9)Glenn Styres 10)Frank Carlsson 11)Doug Day 12)Nick Fratto 13)David Kountz 14)Jack Pillon 15)Danny Jones 16)Lincoln Gatwood 17)Daryl Smith 18)Mike Schroeder 19)Sport Allen DNS 20)Mike Senecal DNS 21)Steve Darvalics DNS.
A Main (4th Ronald Laney Memorial, 40 laps, $10,000 to win) – 1)Chad Kemenah 2)Gary Wright 3)Kenny Adams 4)Danny Martin Jr. 5)Terry McCarl 6)Jason Sides 7)Zach Chappell 8)Wayne Johnson 9)Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 10)Kelly Kinser 11)Chad Layton 12)Greg Leonard 13)Greg Wilson 14)Mike Becht 15)Paul Sides 16)Johnny Anderson 17)Trevor Lewis 18)Jesse Giannetto 19)Mike Chad 20)Darren Stewart 21)Tony Bruce Jr. 22)Frank Carlsson 23)Cody Geldart 24)Sport Allen.
Gulf Coast Produce Strawberry Dash (Gulf Coast Produce gave $1000 to win in memory of Don Goodson) – 1)Daryl Smith 2)Jack Pillon 3)Glenn Styres 4)Bronson Maeschen 5)David Kauntz 6)Nick Fratto 7)Ryan Myers 8)Danny Jones 9)Tighe Schloss 10)Kyle Patrick.
MINI SPRINTS
1st heat - 1)Ron Taggart.
2nd heat - 1)Michael Dicely.
Feature (25 laps) – 1)Jim Brookens 2)Darryl Wills 3)Dereck King 4)Michael Dicely 5)Ron Taggart 6)Jim Young 7)George Ulmer 8)John Craddock 9)Paul Gottschalk 10)Randy Carrier 11)JC walling 12)Jesse Teed 13)John Paynter 14)Rick Herrero 15)Russ Heider 16)James Fairfield 17)Jason Brown 18)Eddie Moss Jr. 19)Frank Petas 20)Alex Mills 21)Ralf Herrero 22)Harold Matthews 23)Sam Mancuso 24)Gregory Skyta 25)Duane Harbaugh.
