Mike Wedelstadt takes East Bay Modified Win 1/22/04
By Jean Lynch
TAMPA, FL - I hate caution flags,” said Mike Wedelstadt in his victory lane interview with announcer Bill Green after claiming the $1,500 prize money Thursday night in the 5th Annual Ramada Inn on Tampa Bay Open Wheel Modified three-day series opener of East Bay Raceway Park’s 28th Annual Winternationals.
At least 12 cars tried to win the feature on three attempts to start the 25-lap A-Main, before officials lined the 26 car starting field in single-file fashion and two more waves of the initial green flag were needed to get the race underway. In the first multi-car mishap, Wedelstadt cut a brake line and because of that incident, he changed his driving style and it payed off with a win. “I had to drive easy and come off the corners straight. The Afco Shock people put a set of shocks on my car for last night’s practice that really made a difference.”
The caution Wedelstadt referred to came on lap 18 when it erased a one-half lap lead he had over the field, setting up a seven lap run to the checkered with Bob Pohlman, Jr. giving him a run for his money. Pohlman took advantage of the restart to chase the leader down the back-stretch, move to the outside groove in turn three and come off turn four with the momentum to pull ahead at the flagstand and lead lap 19 by a nose. But, Wedelstadt stayed low and gained ground in turn one and used that to pull ahead down the backstretch to lead the next round.
Pohlman described his strategy, “I planned to try the same outside move in turn three again on the last lap, but the moisture had come in on the track and the car drifted too high and I couldn’t pull it off again.” He ended up a car-length behind at the flag stand with Fowler, who had led the first-four laps, crossing third. Dan Hamstra and Jeff Leka were in the top five. Leka earned a $50 Gift Certificate from Race Car Engineering for his 5th place finish. Rounding out the top ten, it was Bill Howard, Joey Jensen (up from 22nd starting spot), Rick Arms, Dave Groves and Randy Hall.
Turning fast time of the 96 cars on hand, it was Brad Rohloff with an 18.190 who was presented the Bullzilla Graphics Fast Time Award on the front-stretch. Heats went to John Demoss, Brady Short, Kevin Weaver, Hamstra, Wedelstadt, Danny Swartz, Howard, Richard Hedrick, Jeff Leka and Fowler. The Goodson Strawberry Dash was won by Brent Glastetter.
Qualifying Results:
1.03 Brad Rohloff – 18.190; 2. 121 Caley Emerson – 18.260; 3. 1P Bob Pohlman, Jr. – 18.290; 4. 23H Dan Hamstra – 18.290; 5. 77X Mike Wedelstadt – 18.320; 6. 21S Denny Swartz – 18.380; 7. 3 Bill Howard – 18.510; 8. 0X Richard Hedrick – 18.520; 9. 3L Jeff Leka – 18.550; 10. 3F Rob Faqua – 18.570; 11. 14C Rick Conoyer – 18.590; 12. 25 Charles Patrick – 18.590; 13. B12 Kevin Weaver – 18.620; 14. H6 Paul Wilmoth – 18.640; 15. 00S Stanley Donahoo – 18.660; 16. 22F Jason Fitzgerald – 18.670; 17. A Dave Groves – 18.680; 18. 33S Kelly Shryock – 18.680; 19. 22B Matt Boknecht – 18.680; 20. 19 Joe Fowler – 18.710; 21. 707 Corey Conley – 18.720; 22. 36S Brady Short – 18.750; 23. 69 Scott Sugg – 18.800; 24. 11W Wess Weinman – 18.800; 25. 71D Bill Davis – 18.800; 26. 71 Stephen King – 18.810; 27. 2 Devin Dixon – 18.830; 28. 22T Bill Thomas – 18.830; 29. 15 Roger Crouse – 18.830; 30. 12A Tom Moore – 18.840; 31. 79D John Demoss – 18.840; 32. 44H Dave Hess, Jr. – 18.860; 33. P28 Aaron Perritt – 18.890; 34. 01B John Bradley – 18.900; 35. J16 Jason Lakey – 18.910; 36. 28A Bill Arnold – 18.920; 37. 14 Gary Barrow – 18.940; 38. 6 Vic Vandergrift – 18.960; 39. R1 Dan Wheeler – 19.010; 40. 21JR Joey Jensen – 19.010; 41. 11C Adam Colley – 19.010; 42. 4X Rick Arms – 19.040; 43. 5W John Whittington – 19.040; 44. 555 Ryan Ruter – 19.050; 45. 18 Brent Glastetter – 19.050; 46. S8 Curis Stotts – 19.070; 47. 00G Greg Reutimann – 19.070; 48. 105 David Schmauss – 19.100; 49. 4S Thomas Sigler – 19.140; 50. 21C Chris Brown – 19.140; 51. 1M Julie McDermid – 19.180; 52. R3 Rick Martin – 19.190; 53. 1K Ken Riddle – 19.190; 54. CV7 Chris Veech – 19.190; 55. 0H Lee Hobbs – 19.210; 56. 22S Chad Kinder – 19.230; 57. 23 Tim Barrett – 19.230; 58. 2B Mike Null – 19.250; 59. 97 Rusty Dixon – 19.280; 60. 2* Don Gumke – 19.280; 61. 29 Jeff LaBaube – 19.280; 62. 01 Tony DeAlessio – 19.280; 63. 10H Randy Hall – 19.320; 64. 12K Ken Myracle – 19.340; 65. 15W Ralph Withem – 19.340; 66. 17S Scott Duval – 19.350; 67. 35 Dennis Barton – 19.370; 68. S1 Toby Sims – 19.420; 69. 12T Jesse Cramer – 19.430; 70. 11E Ed Roley – 19.430; 71. 6M Terry McClintock – 19.440; 72. 03H Ricky Hensley – 19.470; 73. Richard Logan – 19.490; 74. 12M Jason Miller – 19.490; 75. 32B Robbie Burris – 19.490; 76. 88 Tom Webster – 19.520; 77. 91 Craig Thatcher – 19.550; 78. 4 Jason Lowe – 19.640; 79. 01K Don Kinger – 19.660; 80. 13 Kevyn Terry – 19.660; 81. 47C Carlton Jackson – 19.850; 82. 3X David Boemer – 19.890; 83. 00 Buzzie Reutimann – 19.890; 84. 33 Jeff Matthews – 20.040; 85. 44 Joe Turner – 20.070; 86. 18E Greg Edwards – 20.150; 87. 18 David McWilliams – 20.280; 88. 26 Chris Butler – 20.340; 89. 4DX Jason Nordhougen – 20.580; 90. 96 Tommy Schnader – 20.900; 91. 11B Jason Ball – 20.910; 92. 64 Alan Arnold – 21.150; 93. 17JE JE Stalder – 21.500; 94. 83C Brian Taft – 41.370; 95. 032 Phillip Cobb – NT
1st Heat – 1)John Demoss 2)Corey Conley 3)Brad Rohloff 4)Rick Conoyer 5)Carlton Jackson 6)Jeff LaBaube 7)Adam Colley 8)Julie McDermid 9)Jason Ball 10)Terry McClintock
2nd Heat – 1)Brady Short 2)Rick Arms 3)Charles Patrick 4)Ricky Hensley 5)Dave Hess, Jr. 6)Caley Emerson 7)Tony DeAlessio 8)David Boemer 9)Alan Arnold 10)Rick Martin
3rd Heat – 1)Kevin Weaver 2)Bob Pohlman, Jr. 3)John Whittington 4)Randy Hall 5)Scott Sugg 6)Aaron Perritt 7)Buzzie Reutimann 8)Richard Logan 9)JE Stalder 10)Ken Riddle
4th Heat – 1)Dan Hamstra 2)Paul Wilmoth 3)Wess Weinman 4) Chris Veech 5)John Bradley 6)Ryan Ruter 7)Jeff Matthews 8)Jason Miller 9)Ken Myracle
5th Heat – 1)Mike Wedelstadt 2)Stanley Donahoo 3)Jason Lakey 4)Lee Hobbs 5)Bill Davis 6)Brent Glastetter 7)Ralph Withem 8)Robbie Burris 9)Joe Turner 10)Phillip Cobb
6th Heat – 1)Denny Swartz 2)Jason Fitzgerald 3)Chad Kinder 4)Curis Stotts 5)Scott Duval 6)Bill Arnold 7)Stephen King 8)Tom Webster 9)Greg Edwards
7th Heat – 1)Bill Howard 2)Dave Groves 3)Craig Thatcher 4)Devin Dixon 5)Gary Barrow 6)Greg Reutimann 7)Tim Barrett 8)David McWilliams 9)Dennis Barton 10)Brian Taft
8th Heat – 1)Richard Hedrick 2)Kelly Shryock 3)David Schmauss 4)Mike Null 5)Bill Thomas 6)Jason Lowe 7)Chris Butler 8)Vic Vandergrift 9)Toby Sims
9th Heat – 1)Jeff Leka 2)Matt Boknecht 3)Don Kinger 4)Jesse Cramer 5)Jason Nordhougen 6)Dan Wheeler 7)Thomas Sigler 8)Roger Crouse
10th Heat – 1)Joe Fowler 2)Chris Brown 3)Joey Jensen 4)Rusty Dixon 5)Don Gumke 6)Rob Faqua 7)Ed Roley 8)Tom Moore 9)Kevyn Terry 10)Tommy Schnader
Goodson Farms Strawberry Dash – 1)Brent Glastetter 2)Dave Hess, Jr. 3)Rob Fuqua 4)Chris Veech 5)John Bradley 6)Ryan Rufer 7)Bill Davis 8)Jason Ball 9)Ralph Withem 10)Tim Barrett
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1St C – Main – 1)Jeff Matthews 2)Buzzie Reutimann 3)Ken Riddle 4)Ralph Withem 5)Adam Colley 6)Joe Turner 7)Jason Ball 8)Alan Arnold 9)Julie McDermid 10)JE Stalder 11)Ken Myracle 12)Richard Logan 13)Rick Martin 14)Tony Dalessio 15)David Boemer 16)Jason Miller 17)Robbie Burns DNS 18)Terry McClintock 19)Phillip Cobb
2nd C – Main – 1)Roger Crouse 2)Tim Barrett 3)Tom Moore 4)Ed Roley 5)Robbie Burris 6)Vic Vandergrift 7)Brian Taft 8)Dennis Barton 9)David McWilliams 10)Greg Edwards 11)Tom Webster 12)Tommy Schrader 13)Stephen King 14)Chris Butler 15)Thomas Sigler 16)Toby Sims DNS 17)Kevyn Terry
1st B – Main – 1)Brad Rohloff 2)Jason Lakey 3)Randy Hall 4)Buzzie Reutimann 5)John Whittington 6)Jeff Matthews 7)Bill Davis 8)Dave Hess, Jr. 9)Rick Conoyer 10)Chris Veech 11)Wess Weinman 12)Carlton Jackson 13)Jeff LaBaube 14)John Bradley 15)Lee Hobbs 16)Brent Glastetter 17)Ricky Hensley 18)Ryan Rufer 19)Aaron Perritt 20)Scott Sugg 21)Charles Patrick 22)Caley Emerson
2nd B – Main – 1)Joey Jensen 2)Craig Thatcher 3)Chad Kinder 4)Rusty Dixon 5)Devin Dixon 6)Scott Duval 7)David Schmauss 8)Mike Null 9)Dan Gumke 10)Bill Arnold 11)Rob Fuqua 12)Greg Reutimann 13)Bill Thomas 14)Tim Barrett 15)Roger Crouse 16)Jason Nordhougen 17)Jason Lowe 18)Chris Stotts 19)Don Kiger 20)Gary Barrow 21)Jesse Cramer 22)Dan Wheeler
A – Main (25 Laps) 1)Mike Wedelstadt 2)Bob Pohlman, Jr. 3)Joe Fowler 4)Dan Hamstra 5)Jeff Leka 6)Bill Howard 7)Joey Jensen 8)Rick Arms 9)A Dave Groves 10)Randy Hall 11)Chad Kinder 12)Stanley Donahoo 13)Brad Rohloff 14)Craig Thatcher 15)Kevin Weaver 16)Corey Conley 17)Kelly Shryock 18)Paul Wilmoth 19)Denny Swartz 20)John Demoss 21)Matt Boknecht 22)Richard Hedrick 23)Brady Short 24)Jason Fitzgerald 25)Chris Brown 26)Jason Lakey
By Jean Lynch
TAMPA, FL - I hate caution flags,” said Mike Wedelstadt in his victory lane interview with announcer Bill Green after claiming the $1,500 prize money Thursday night in the 5th Annual Ramada Inn on Tampa Bay Open Wheel Modified three-day series opener of East Bay Raceway Park’s 28th Annual Winternationals.
At least 12 cars tried to win the feature on three attempts to start the 25-lap A-Main, before officials lined the 26 car starting field in single-file fashion and two more waves of the initial green flag were needed to get the race underway. In the first multi-car mishap, Wedelstadt cut a brake line and because of that incident, he changed his driving style and it payed off with a win. “I had to drive easy and come off the corners straight. The Afco Shock people put a set of shocks on my car for last night’s practice that really made a difference.”
The caution Wedelstadt referred to came on lap 18 when it erased a one-half lap lead he had over the field, setting up a seven lap run to the checkered with Bob Pohlman, Jr. giving him a run for his money. Pohlman took advantage of the restart to chase the leader down the back-stretch, move to the outside groove in turn three and come off turn four with the momentum to pull ahead at the flagstand and lead lap 19 by a nose. But, Wedelstadt stayed low and gained ground in turn one and used that to pull ahead down the backstretch to lead the next round.
Pohlman described his strategy, “I planned to try the same outside move in turn three again on the last lap, but the moisture had come in on the track and the car drifted too high and I couldn’t pull it off again.” He ended up a car-length behind at the flag stand with Fowler, who had led the first-four laps, crossing third. Dan Hamstra and Jeff Leka were in the top five. Leka earned a $50 Gift Certificate from Race Car Engineering for his 5th place finish. Rounding out the top ten, it was Bill Howard, Joey Jensen (up from 22nd starting spot), Rick Arms, Dave Groves and Randy Hall.
Turning fast time of the 96 cars on hand, it was Brad Rohloff with an 18.190 who was presented the Bullzilla Graphics Fast Time Award on the front-stretch. Heats went to John Demoss, Brady Short, Kevin Weaver, Hamstra, Wedelstadt, Danny Swartz, Howard, Richard Hedrick, Jeff Leka and Fowler. The Goodson Strawberry Dash was won by Brent Glastetter.
Qualifying Results:
1.03 Brad Rohloff – 18.190; 2. 121 Caley Emerson – 18.260; 3. 1P Bob Pohlman, Jr. – 18.290; 4. 23H Dan Hamstra – 18.290; 5. 77X Mike Wedelstadt – 18.320; 6. 21S Denny Swartz – 18.380; 7. 3 Bill Howard – 18.510; 8. 0X Richard Hedrick – 18.520; 9. 3L Jeff Leka – 18.550; 10. 3F Rob Faqua – 18.570; 11. 14C Rick Conoyer – 18.590; 12. 25 Charles Patrick – 18.590; 13. B12 Kevin Weaver – 18.620; 14. H6 Paul Wilmoth – 18.640; 15. 00S Stanley Donahoo – 18.660; 16. 22F Jason Fitzgerald – 18.670; 17. A Dave Groves – 18.680; 18. 33S Kelly Shryock – 18.680; 19. 22B Matt Boknecht – 18.680; 20. 19 Joe Fowler – 18.710; 21. 707 Corey Conley – 18.720; 22. 36S Brady Short – 18.750; 23. 69 Scott Sugg – 18.800; 24. 11W Wess Weinman – 18.800; 25. 71D Bill Davis – 18.800; 26. 71 Stephen King – 18.810; 27. 2 Devin Dixon – 18.830; 28. 22T Bill Thomas – 18.830; 29. 15 Roger Crouse – 18.830; 30. 12A Tom Moore – 18.840; 31. 79D John Demoss – 18.840; 32. 44H Dave Hess, Jr. – 18.860; 33. P28 Aaron Perritt – 18.890; 34. 01B John Bradley – 18.900; 35. J16 Jason Lakey – 18.910; 36. 28A Bill Arnold – 18.920; 37. 14 Gary Barrow – 18.940; 38. 6 Vic Vandergrift – 18.960; 39. R1 Dan Wheeler – 19.010; 40. 21JR Joey Jensen – 19.010; 41. 11C Adam Colley – 19.010; 42. 4X Rick Arms – 19.040; 43. 5W John Whittington – 19.040; 44. 555 Ryan Ruter – 19.050; 45. 18 Brent Glastetter – 19.050; 46. S8 Curis Stotts – 19.070; 47. 00G Greg Reutimann – 19.070; 48. 105 David Schmauss – 19.100; 49. 4S Thomas Sigler – 19.140; 50. 21C Chris Brown – 19.140; 51. 1M Julie McDermid – 19.180; 52. R3 Rick Martin – 19.190; 53. 1K Ken Riddle – 19.190; 54. CV7 Chris Veech – 19.190; 55. 0H Lee Hobbs – 19.210; 56. 22S Chad Kinder – 19.230; 57. 23 Tim Barrett – 19.230; 58. 2B Mike Null – 19.250; 59. 97 Rusty Dixon – 19.280; 60. 2* Don Gumke – 19.280; 61. 29 Jeff LaBaube – 19.280; 62. 01 Tony DeAlessio – 19.280; 63. 10H Randy Hall – 19.320; 64. 12K Ken Myracle – 19.340; 65. 15W Ralph Withem – 19.340; 66. 17S Scott Duval – 19.350; 67. 35 Dennis Barton – 19.370; 68. S1 Toby Sims – 19.420; 69. 12T Jesse Cramer – 19.430; 70. 11E Ed Roley – 19.430; 71. 6M Terry McClintock – 19.440; 72. 03H Ricky Hensley – 19.470; 73. Richard Logan – 19.490; 74. 12M Jason Miller – 19.490; 75. 32B Robbie Burris – 19.490; 76. 88 Tom Webster – 19.520; 77. 91 Craig Thatcher – 19.550; 78. 4 Jason Lowe – 19.640; 79. 01K Don Kinger – 19.660; 80. 13 Kevyn Terry – 19.660; 81. 47C Carlton Jackson – 19.850; 82. 3X David Boemer – 19.890; 83. 00 Buzzie Reutimann – 19.890; 84. 33 Jeff Matthews – 20.040; 85. 44 Joe Turner – 20.070; 86. 18E Greg Edwards – 20.150; 87. 18 David McWilliams – 20.280; 88. 26 Chris Butler – 20.340; 89. 4DX Jason Nordhougen – 20.580; 90. 96 Tommy Schnader – 20.900; 91. 11B Jason Ball – 20.910; 92. 64 Alan Arnold – 21.150; 93. 17JE JE Stalder – 21.500; 94. 83C Brian Taft – 41.370; 95. 032 Phillip Cobb – NT
1st Heat – 1)John Demoss 2)Corey Conley 3)Brad Rohloff 4)Rick Conoyer 5)Carlton Jackson 6)Jeff LaBaube 7)Adam Colley 8)Julie McDermid 9)Jason Ball 10)Terry McClintock
2nd Heat – 1)Brady Short 2)Rick Arms 3)Charles Patrick 4)Ricky Hensley 5)Dave Hess, Jr. 6)Caley Emerson 7)Tony DeAlessio 8)David Boemer 9)Alan Arnold 10)Rick Martin
3rd Heat – 1)Kevin Weaver 2)Bob Pohlman, Jr. 3)John Whittington 4)Randy Hall 5)Scott Sugg 6)Aaron Perritt 7)Buzzie Reutimann 8)Richard Logan 9)JE Stalder 10)Ken Riddle
4th Heat – 1)Dan Hamstra 2)Paul Wilmoth 3)Wess Weinman 4) Chris Veech 5)John Bradley 6)Ryan Ruter 7)Jeff Matthews 8)Jason Miller 9)Ken Myracle
5th Heat – 1)Mike Wedelstadt 2)Stanley Donahoo 3)Jason Lakey 4)Lee Hobbs 5)Bill Davis 6)Brent Glastetter 7)Ralph Withem 8)Robbie Burris 9)Joe Turner 10)Phillip Cobb
6th Heat – 1)Denny Swartz 2)Jason Fitzgerald 3)Chad Kinder 4)Curis Stotts 5)Scott Duval 6)Bill Arnold 7)Stephen King 8)Tom Webster 9)Greg Edwards
7th Heat – 1)Bill Howard 2)Dave Groves 3)Craig Thatcher 4)Devin Dixon 5)Gary Barrow 6)Greg Reutimann 7)Tim Barrett 8)David McWilliams 9)Dennis Barton 10)Brian Taft
8th Heat – 1)Richard Hedrick 2)Kelly Shryock 3)David Schmauss 4)Mike Null 5)Bill Thomas 6)Jason Lowe 7)Chris Butler 8)Vic Vandergrift 9)Toby Sims
9th Heat – 1)Jeff Leka 2)Matt Boknecht 3)Don Kinger 4)Jesse Cramer 5)Jason Nordhougen 6)Dan Wheeler 7)Thomas Sigler 8)Roger Crouse
10th Heat – 1)Joe Fowler 2)Chris Brown 3)Joey Jensen 4)Rusty Dixon 5)Don Gumke 6)Rob Faqua 7)Ed Roley 8)Tom Moore 9)Kevyn Terry 10)Tommy Schnader
Goodson Farms Strawberry Dash – 1)Brent Glastetter 2)Dave Hess, Jr. 3)Rob Fuqua 4)Chris Veech 5)John Bradley 6)Ryan Rufer 7)Bill Davis 8)Jason Ball 9)Ralph Withem 10)Tim Barrett
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1St C – Main – 1)Jeff Matthews 2)Buzzie Reutimann 3)Ken Riddle 4)Ralph Withem 5)Adam Colley 6)Joe Turner 7)Jason Ball 8)Alan Arnold 9)Julie McDermid 10)JE Stalder 11)Ken Myracle 12)Richard Logan 13)Rick Martin 14)Tony Dalessio 15)David Boemer 16)Jason Miller 17)Robbie Burns DNS 18)Terry McClintock 19)Phillip Cobb
2nd C – Main – 1)Roger Crouse 2)Tim Barrett 3)Tom Moore 4)Ed Roley 5)Robbie Burris 6)Vic Vandergrift 7)Brian Taft 8)Dennis Barton 9)David McWilliams 10)Greg Edwards 11)Tom Webster 12)Tommy Schrader 13)Stephen King 14)Chris Butler 15)Thomas Sigler 16)Toby Sims DNS 17)Kevyn Terry
1st B – Main – 1)Brad Rohloff 2)Jason Lakey 3)Randy Hall 4)Buzzie Reutimann 5)John Whittington 6)Jeff Matthews 7)Bill Davis 8)Dave Hess, Jr. 9)Rick Conoyer 10)Chris Veech 11)Wess Weinman 12)Carlton Jackson 13)Jeff LaBaube 14)John Bradley 15)Lee Hobbs 16)Brent Glastetter 17)Ricky Hensley 18)Ryan Rufer 19)Aaron Perritt 20)Scott Sugg 21)Charles Patrick 22)Caley Emerson
2nd B – Main – 1)Joey Jensen 2)Craig Thatcher 3)Chad Kinder 4)Rusty Dixon 5)Devin Dixon 6)Scott Duval 7)David Schmauss 8)Mike Null 9)Dan Gumke 10)Bill Arnold 11)Rob Fuqua 12)Greg Reutimann 13)Bill Thomas 14)Tim Barrett 15)Roger Crouse 16)Jason Nordhougen 17)Jason Lowe 18)Chris Stotts 19)Don Kiger 20)Gary Barrow 21)Jesse Cramer 22)Dan Wheeler
A – Main (25 Laps) 1)Mike Wedelstadt 2)Bob Pohlman, Jr. 3)Joe Fowler 4)Dan Hamstra 5)Jeff Leka 6)Bill Howard 7)Joey Jensen 8)Rick Arms 9)A Dave Groves 10)Randy Hall 11)Chad Kinder 12)Stanley Donahoo 13)Brad Rohloff 14)Craig Thatcher 15)Kevin Weaver 16)Corey Conley 17)Kelly Shryock 18)Paul Wilmoth 19)Denny Swartz 20)John Demoss 21)Matt Boknecht 22)Richard Hedrick 23)Brady Short 24)Jason Fitzgerald 25)Chris Brown 26)Jason Lakey
