By Jean Lynch
GIBSONTON, FL - "Day racing is tough at this track. I went totally opposite from my normal East Bay set-up," said Gary Wright who climbed from his car, dripping with perspiration, after winning the 20-lap make-up 360 Sprint race on Saturday afternoon after Friday night’s entire program rained out at East Bay Raceway Park.
Working hard to hit his marks on this 1/3-mile clay surface that took rubber especially in the feature, the tall Texan stood beside his right rear tire that was down to the cords. Starting 3rd in a field of 24 cars, he took the lead on lap nine and became the third different winner in the 7th Annual King of 360s preliminary events.
Wright’s familiar No. 9 car sported a bright color scheme with prominent display of sponsors – Southwest Express, Richwood Construction, The Shop and Maxim chassis. Using Hoosier tires and PRO shocks, the winner’s hard-working crew of Ron “Scooby” Burkett, Richard and Karry hustled to keep up to the fast-changing track surface.
Normally, the night-time surface at East Bay is not hard on tires, but, the race distance for this afternoon’s feature was shortened from 25 to 20 laps when it was determined that there would not be enough of the harder Hoosier 55 tires for the starting field and Hoosier F-35’s were then required for the right rear.
The starting line-up showed Greg Wilson and Kenny Adams in the front row with Wright starting inside Zach Chappel in row two, while young Trevor Lewis and Chad Kemenah were in row three. On the initial green from flagman Julian Mullis, there was a three car incident involving a flip by Kyle Patrick and Cody Geldart, collecting Ricky Stenhouse. All drivers were OK and only Stenhouse returned on the first caution, one lap down.
With Wilson leading, one lap was recorded when Jesse Gianneto lost power on the back stretch and the field went single file for the restart. Wilson led Wright, Adams, Lewis, Jason Sides and Chappel for the next six laps before catching the back of the field on lap eight.
Wright explained his winning pass on lap nine like this, “I noticed that Wilson started to push just a little and that’s how I got by him inside in turn four.” Then after the last yellow on lap 11 for debris on the front-stretch, Wright’s Wesmar engine had enough stuff to give him a six-car-length lead by lap 13.
Carefully working around lapped cars, Wright then finished four seconds ahead of Wilson. Adams, Sides and Lewis pulled off top five finishes with Chappel, Kemenah, Darren Stewart, Paul Sides and Wayne Johnson rounding out the top ten. Kemenah enjoyed fast time over the 41-car field, collecting $100 from Chub and C&B Mushrooms.
Heats went to Johnson, Geldart, Adams and Kelly Kinser. The 15-lap B-Main sent J. Sides, Stewart, Stenhouse, Paul Sides, Greg Leonard, Bronson Maeschen, Giannetto and Sport Allen to the A-Main. The Gulf Coast Produce Strawberry Dash was scratched from this afternoon’s program, because of time constraints.
Going into Saturday night’s 40-lap, 4th Annual Ronald Laney Memorial, top six in points – Wright, Adams, Kemenah, Wilson, Danny Martin Jr. and Leonard - are locked in and will draw for starting positions.
RESULTS
360 SPRINTS
Qualifying - 1. 15k Chad Kemenah – 13.033; 2. 7S Jason Sides – 13.082; 3. 2 Trevor Lewis – 13.145; 4. 50Z Zach Chappell – 13.161; 5. 11J Paul Sides – 13.187; 6. 9 Gary Wright – 13.207; 7. 4A Kenny Adams – 13.228; 8. 91 Darren Stewart – 13.284; 9. 63 Greg Wilson – 13.299; 10. 4C Mike Chad – 13.326; 11. 18 Tony Bruce Jr. – 13.361; 12. 1M Terry McCarl – 13.397; 13. 7A Johnny Anderson – 13.411; 14. 18JP Jack Pillon – 13.415; 15. 20B Mike Becht – 13.432; 16. 21 Johnny Gilbertson – 13.433; 17. 94 Wayne Johnson – 13.508; 18. 00 Danny Martin Jr. – 13.516; 19. 33K Kyle Patrick – 13.522; 20. 55 Chad Layton – 13.545; 21. 0 Glenn Styres – 13.590; 22. 6G Cody Geldart – 13.607; 23. F1 Nick Fratto – 13.623; 24. 97 Kelly Kinser – 13.641; 25. 40R Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – 13.648; 26. 32 Steve Darvalics – 13.774; 27. 11 Greg Leonard – 13.779; 28. 96 Bronson Maeschon – 13.784; 29. D1 Jesse Giannetto – 13.797; 30. 56R Ryan Myers – 13.800; 31. 4 Mike Senecal – 13.926; 32. 3 Daryl Smith – 14.009; 33. 42X Sport Allen – 14.050; 34. 12K David Kountz – 14.060; 35. 38 Lincoln Gatwood – 14.079; 36. 99 Danny Jones – 14.137; 37. 2D Doug Day – 14.162; 38. 45 Tighe Schloss – 14.209; 39. 20 Frank Carlsson – 14.232; 40. 26 Jim Perricone – 14.584; 41. 6 Mike Schroeder – 14.611
1st Heat – 1)Wayne Johnson 2)Greg Wilson 3)Chad Kemenah 4)Glenn Styres 5)Johnny Anderson 6)Sport Allen 7)Jesse Giannetto 8)Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 9)Paul Sides 10)Doug Day 11)Mike Schroeder
2nd Heat – 1)Cody Geldart 2)Danny Martin Jr. 3)Gary Wright 4)Mike Chad 5)Jason Sides 6)Ryan Myers 7)Steve Darvalics 8)Tighe Schloss 9)David Kountz 10)Jack Pillon
3rd Heat – 1)Kenny Adams 2)Trevor Lewis 3)Tony Bruce Jr. 4)Kyle Patrick 5)Mike Senecal 6)Frank Carlsson 7)Nick Fratto 8)Greg Leonard 9)Lincoln Gatwood 10)Mike Becht
4th Heat – 1)Kelly Kinser 2)Chad Layton 3)Terry McCarl 4)Zach Chappell 5)Darren Stewart 6)Bronson Maeschen 7)Danny Jones 8)Johnny Gilbertson 9)Daryl Smith 10)Jim Perricone
B–Main – 1)Jason Sides 2)Darren Stewart 3)Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 4)Paul Sides 5)Greg Leonard 6)Bronson Maeschen 7)Jesse Giannetto 8)Sport Allen 9)Johnny Anderson 10)Mike Senecal 11)Mike Becht 12)Johnny Gilbertson 13)Doug Day 14)Ryan Myers 15)Nick Fratto 16)Jack Pillon 17)Frank Carlsson 18)David Kountz 19)Tighe Schloss 20)Mike Schroeder 21)Lincoln Gatwood 22)Daryl Smith 23)Danny Jones 24)Steve Darvalics 25)Jim Perricone DNS
A–Main (20 laps) – 1)Gary Wright 2)Greg Wilson 3)Kenny Adams 4)Jason Sides 5)Trevor Lewis 6)Zach Chappell 7)Chad Kemenah 8)Darren Stewart 9)Paul Sides 10)Wayne Johnson 11)Kelly Kinser 12)Tony Bruce Jr. 13)Chad Layton 14)Terry McCarl 15)Mike Chad 16)Jesse Giannetto 17)Greg Leonard 18)Danny Martin Jr. 19)Bronson Maeschen 20)Glenn Styres 21)Sport Allen 22)Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 23)Kyle Patrick 24)Cody Geldart
MINI SPRINTS
1st heat - 1)Michael Dicely
2nd heat - 1)Duane Harbaugh
Feature (20 laps) – 1)Michael Dicely 2)Darryl Wills 3)Dereck King 4)John Craddock 5)Ron Taggart 6)Jim Brookens 7)Jesse Teed 8)Duane Harbaugh 9)George Ulmer 10)Jim Young 11)Eddie Moss Jr. 12)Jason Brown 13)Russ Heider 14)Ralf Herrero 15)James Fairfield 16)Paul Gottschalk 17)Rick Herrero 18)Randy Carrier 19)Harold Matthews 20)Gregory Skyta 21)Race Neely 22)Matt Kurtz 23)John Painter
GIBSONTON, FL - "Day racing is tough at this track. I went totally opposite from my normal East Bay set-up," said Gary Wright who climbed from his car, dripping with perspiration, after winning the 20-lap make-up 360 Sprint race on Saturday afternoon after Friday night’s entire program rained out at East Bay Raceway Park.
Working hard to hit his marks on this 1/3-mile clay surface that took rubber especially in the feature, the tall Texan stood beside his right rear tire that was down to the cords. Starting 3rd in a field of 24 cars, he took the lead on lap nine and became the third different winner in the 7th Annual King of 360s preliminary events.
Wright’s familiar No. 9 car sported a bright color scheme with prominent display of sponsors – Southwest Express, Richwood Construction, The Shop and Maxim chassis. Using Hoosier tires and PRO shocks, the winner’s hard-working crew of Ron “Scooby” Burkett, Richard and Karry hustled to keep up to the fast-changing track surface.
Normally, the night-time surface at East Bay is not hard on tires, but, the race distance for this afternoon’s feature was shortened from 25 to 20 laps when it was determined that there would not be enough of the harder Hoosier 55 tires for the starting field and Hoosier F-35’s were then required for the right rear.
The starting line-up showed Greg Wilson and Kenny Adams in the front row with Wright starting inside Zach Chappel in row two, while young Trevor Lewis and Chad Kemenah were in row three. On the initial green from flagman Julian Mullis, there was a three car incident involving a flip by Kyle Patrick and Cody Geldart, collecting Ricky Stenhouse. All drivers were OK and only Stenhouse returned on the first caution, one lap down.
With Wilson leading, one lap was recorded when Jesse Gianneto lost power on the back stretch and the field went single file for the restart. Wilson led Wright, Adams, Lewis, Jason Sides and Chappel for the next six laps before catching the back of the field on lap eight.
Wright explained his winning pass on lap nine like this, “I noticed that Wilson started to push just a little and that’s how I got by him inside in turn four.” Then after the last yellow on lap 11 for debris on the front-stretch, Wright’s Wesmar engine had enough stuff to give him a six-car-length lead by lap 13.
Carefully working around lapped cars, Wright then finished four seconds ahead of Wilson. Adams, Sides and Lewis pulled off top five finishes with Chappel, Kemenah, Darren Stewart, Paul Sides and Wayne Johnson rounding out the top ten. Kemenah enjoyed fast time over the 41-car field, collecting $100 from Chub and C&B Mushrooms.
Heats went to Johnson, Geldart, Adams and Kelly Kinser. The 15-lap B-Main sent J. Sides, Stewart, Stenhouse, Paul Sides, Greg Leonard, Bronson Maeschen, Giannetto and Sport Allen to the A-Main. The Gulf Coast Produce Strawberry Dash was scratched from this afternoon’s program, because of time constraints.
Going into Saturday night’s 40-lap, 4th Annual Ronald Laney Memorial, top six in points – Wright, Adams, Kemenah, Wilson, Danny Martin Jr. and Leonard - are locked in and will draw for starting positions.
RESULTS
360 SPRINTS
Qualifying - 1. 15k Chad Kemenah – 13.033; 2. 7S Jason Sides – 13.082; 3. 2 Trevor Lewis – 13.145; 4. 50Z Zach Chappell – 13.161; 5. 11J Paul Sides – 13.187; 6. 9 Gary Wright – 13.207; 7. 4A Kenny Adams – 13.228; 8. 91 Darren Stewart – 13.284; 9. 63 Greg Wilson – 13.299; 10. 4C Mike Chad – 13.326; 11. 18 Tony Bruce Jr. – 13.361; 12. 1M Terry McCarl – 13.397; 13. 7A Johnny Anderson – 13.411; 14. 18JP Jack Pillon – 13.415; 15. 20B Mike Becht – 13.432; 16. 21 Johnny Gilbertson – 13.433; 17. 94 Wayne Johnson – 13.508; 18. 00 Danny Martin Jr. – 13.516; 19. 33K Kyle Patrick – 13.522; 20. 55 Chad Layton – 13.545; 21. 0 Glenn Styres – 13.590; 22. 6G Cody Geldart – 13.607; 23. F1 Nick Fratto – 13.623; 24. 97 Kelly Kinser – 13.641; 25. 40R Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – 13.648; 26. 32 Steve Darvalics – 13.774; 27. 11 Greg Leonard – 13.779; 28. 96 Bronson Maeschon – 13.784; 29. D1 Jesse Giannetto – 13.797; 30. 56R Ryan Myers – 13.800; 31. 4 Mike Senecal – 13.926; 32. 3 Daryl Smith – 14.009; 33. 42X Sport Allen – 14.050; 34. 12K David Kountz – 14.060; 35. 38 Lincoln Gatwood – 14.079; 36. 99 Danny Jones – 14.137; 37. 2D Doug Day – 14.162; 38. 45 Tighe Schloss – 14.209; 39. 20 Frank Carlsson – 14.232; 40. 26 Jim Perricone – 14.584; 41. 6 Mike Schroeder – 14.611
1st Heat – 1)Wayne Johnson 2)Greg Wilson 3)Chad Kemenah 4)Glenn Styres 5)Johnny Anderson 6)Sport Allen 7)Jesse Giannetto 8)Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 9)Paul Sides 10)Doug Day 11)Mike Schroeder
2nd Heat – 1)Cody Geldart 2)Danny Martin Jr. 3)Gary Wright 4)Mike Chad 5)Jason Sides 6)Ryan Myers 7)Steve Darvalics 8)Tighe Schloss 9)David Kountz 10)Jack Pillon
3rd Heat – 1)Kenny Adams 2)Trevor Lewis 3)Tony Bruce Jr. 4)Kyle Patrick 5)Mike Senecal 6)Frank Carlsson 7)Nick Fratto 8)Greg Leonard 9)Lincoln Gatwood 10)Mike Becht
4th Heat – 1)Kelly Kinser 2)Chad Layton 3)Terry McCarl 4)Zach Chappell 5)Darren Stewart 6)Bronson Maeschen 7)Danny Jones 8)Johnny Gilbertson 9)Daryl Smith 10)Jim Perricone
B–Main – 1)Jason Sides 2)Darren Stewart 3)Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 4)Paul Sides 5)Greg Leonard 6)Bronson Maeschen 7)Jesse Giannetto 8)Sport Allen 9)Johnny Anderson 10)Mike Senecal 11)Mike Becht 12)Johnny Gilbertson 13)Doug Day 14)Ryan Myers 15)Nick Fratto 16)Jack Pillon 17)Frank Carlsson 18)David Kountz 19)Tighe Schloss 20)Mike Schroeder 21)Lincoln Gatwood 22)Daryl Smith 23)Danny Jones 24)Steve Darvalics 25)Jim Perricone DNS
A–Main (20 laps) – 1)Gary Wright 2)Greg Wilson 3)Kenny Adams 4)Jason Sides 5)Trevor Lewis 6)Zach Chappell 7)Chad Kemenah 8)Darren Stewart 9)Paul Sides 10)Wayne Johnson 11)Kelly Kinser 12)Tony Bruce Jr. 13)Chad Layton 14)Terry McCarl 15)Mike Chad 16)Jesse Giannetto 17)Greg Leonard 18)Danny Martin Jr. 19)Bronson Maeschen 20)Glenn Styres 21)Sport Allen 22)Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 23)Kyle Patrick 24)Cody Geldart
MINI SPRINTS
1st heat - 1)Michael Dicely
2nd heat - 1)Duane Harbaugh
Feature (20 laps) – 1)Michael Dicely 2)Darryl Wills 3)Dereck King 4)John Craddock 5)Ron Taggart 6)Jim Brookens 7)Jesse Teed 8)Duane Harbaugh 9)George Ulmer 10)Jim Young 11)Eddie Moss Jr. 12)Jason Brown 13)Russ Heider 14)Ralf Herrero 15)James Fairfield 16)Paul Gottschalk 17)Rick Herrero 18)Randy Carrier 19)Harold Matthews 20)Gregory Skyta 21)Race Neely 22)Matt Kurtz 23)John Painter
