January 27, 2005 Danny Martin Jr. wins Opening Night at East Bay 360 Winternationals by Jean Lynch Tampa, FL -”I’ve always wanted to do well at a big race at my home track,” said an excited Danny Martin, Jr. in victory lane on opening night of the 7th Annual King of 360s Winternationals at East Bay Raceway Park, Wednesday night. Only two cautions waved and there was constant pressure from Darren Stewart, Jason Sides and Gary Wright throughout the race. An unbelievable turn of events gave Martin pole position at the start of the 25-lap feature that paid $1,500 to win, but he earned every penny of the prize money by masterfully working his way through heavy lapped traffic for most of the race. Young Martin, who carries the nick-name “the Hammer”, had timed 12th in the field of 47 cars, but five cars that timed faster, failed to transfer to the A-Main from their heats and the six-inversion rule put Martin on the pole. Using last year’s Schnee chassis and a ZRE Racing Engine that ran four races in 2004, the winner spoke honestly in his track-side interview with Bill Green when he said, “I have to thank my Mom and Dad for all this, we don’t have too many sponsors. The Senior Martin owns Martin Structures that pays most of the bills, but was quick to thank PRO Shocks, Brian and Chad Kemenah from Kears Speed Equipment, Bob Potter’s Milk Movers, Inc. and Food Grade Transporters. He also credited www.estatetrafficschool.com, and McLeod Services. The hard working crew, including Dewey Mixon, the tire man and “do everything” guy on the crew, thrashed most of the night after being “out to lunch” in their heat race. Martin had handling problems and even hit the wall at one point in the heat. This led to changes including the Jacobs ladder, shocks, offset and other suspension parts. They finally got everything right and this second place finisher in Pete Walton’s USCS 2004 standings did his job tonight. Martin and Stewart brought the front row to the original green flag ahead of Zach Chappel and Sides in row two, then Wright and Johnny Anderson in row three. However, it was Martin who instantly pulled to a sizable lead and stretched it to three seconds by lap three. He was on the heels of the back of the field by lap five and had put Johnny Gilbertson down a lap just as the first yellow came out for two problems. In turn one Chappel and Terry McCarl tangled and in turn four Robert Pilon, Gene Lasker and Danny Jones got together with six laps completed. On the restart, Martin continued his dominance, by using the high groove. Later in the race, on lap 18, he was forced to move to the inside in turn four to put another lapped car behind him and that move worked equally well for him. There was a constant battle for third spot between Sides and Wright, but Martin finished with a lapped car between himself and Stewart who finished second. Sides got back around Wright who was held up by the lapped car of Mike Chad. Chad Kemenah, the night’s fast timer worth $100 from Chub of C&B Mushrooms, managed a fifth place finish. Mike Brecht, Greg Leonard, Kenny Adams, Chad Layton and Greg Wilson rounded out the top 10. Heats went to Adams, Wilson, Sport Allen and Wright. The C-Main advanced Chad Layton, Cody Geldart, Frank Carlsson, Branson Maeschen, Nick Fratto and Kyle Patrick to the B. From the B-Main it was Kemenah, McCarl, Layton, Leonard, Kelly Kinser, Mike Brecht, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. and Danny Jones going to the A-Main. Gulf Coast Produce from Plant City sponsored the Strawberry Dash which was won by Cody Gedart worth $200 and a flat of strawberries. The Mini Sprint feature winner was Jim Brookens. STATS – 360 SPRINTS - EAST BAY RACEWAY PARK – WEDNESDAY, 1/26/05 Qualifying Results: 1.15k Chad Kemenah – 13.406; 2. 7A Johnny Anderson – 13.468; 3. 1M Terry McCarl – 13.499; 4. 9 Gary Wright - 13.590; 5. 7S Jason Sides – 13.630; 6. 55 Chad Layton – 13.727; 7. 50Z Zach Chappell – 13.730; 8. 20B Mike Becht – 13.744; 9. 91 Darren Stewart – 13.755; 10. 11 Greg Leonard – 13.845; 11. 00 Danny Martin, Jr. – 13.850; 12. 2 Trevor Lewis – 13.863; 13. 40R Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. – 13.911; 14. 11J Paul Sides – 13.912; 15. 97 Kelly Kinser – 13.954; 16. 4A Kenny Adams – 13.970; 17. 63 Greg Wilson – 13.988; 18. 11T Tom Wingardner – 13.999; 19. 20C Frank Carlsson – 14.067; 20. D1 Jesse Giannetto – 14.076; 21. 32 Steve Darvalics – 14.080; 22. 4C Mike Chad – 14.087; 23. 42X Sport Allen – 14.104; 24. 18JP Robert Pillon – 14.122; 25. 99 Danny Jones – 14.130; 26. 6G Coedy Geldart – 14.139; 27. 42 Paulie Milum – 14.143; 28. 33K Kyle Patrick – 14.148; 29. 94 Wayne Johnson – 14.152; 30. 21 Johnny Gilbertson – 14.191; 31. 56R Ryan Myers – 14.215; 32. 96 Bronson Maeschon – 14.230; 33. 4 Mike Senecal – 14.275; 34. 02 Gene Lasker – 14.321; 35. 18 Tony Bruce, Jr. – 14.356; 36. 24J Josh Higday – 14.376; 37. F1 Nick Fratto – 14.508; 38. 12K David Kountz – 14.541; 39. 0 Glenn Styers – 14.608; 40. 82 Brian Maddox – 14.614; 41. 38 Lincon Gatwood – 14.705; 42. 3 Daryl Smith – 14.861; 43. 6 Mike Schroeder – 15.119; 44. 2D Doug Day – 15.184; 45. 12B Bryan Eckley – 15.603; 46. Terry Pletch – N/T; 47. 8 Tighe Schloss – N/T 1st Heat – 1)Kenny Adams 2)Steve Darvalics 3)Darren Stewart 4)Jason Sides 5)Chad Kemenah 6)Mike Senecal 7)Danny Jones 8)Lincon Gatwood 9)Nick Fratto 10)Trevor Lewis 11)Wayne Johnson DNS 12)Bryan Eckley DNS 2nd Heat – 1)Greg Wilson 2)Mike Chad 3)Johnny Anderson 4)Johnny Gilbertson 5)Daryl Smith 6)Gene Lasker 7)Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. DNS 8)Greg Leonard DNS 9)Chad Layton DNS 10)Cody Geldart DNS 11)Glenn Styers DNS 3rd Heat – 1)Sport Allen 2)Tom Wingardner 3)Paul Sides 4)Zach Chappell 5)Terry McCarl 6)Paulie Milum 7)Ryan Myers 8)Tony Bruce, Jr. 9)Frank Carlsson 10)Mike Schroeder 11)David Kountz 12)Tighe Schloss DNS 4th Heat - 1)Gary Wright 2)Robert Pillon 3)Jesse Giannetto 4)Danny Martin, Jr. 5)Kelly Kinser 6)Mike Becht 7)Josh Higday 8)Brian Maddox 9)Kyle Patrick 10)Branson Maeschen 11)Terry Pletch 12)Doug Day C – Main – 1)Chad Layton 2)Cody Geldart 3)Frank Carlsson 4)Branson Maeschen 5)Nick Fratto 6)Kyle Patrick 7)Doug Day 8)Mike Schroeder 9)Glenn Styers 10)Trevor Lewis DNS 11)Wayne Johnson DNS 12)David Kountz DNS 13)Bryan Eckley DNS 14)Terry Pletch DNS 15)Tighe Schloss DNS B – Main – 1)Chad Kemenah 2)Terry McCarl 3)Chad Layton 4)Greg Leonard 5)Kelly Kinser 6)Mike Becht 7)Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. 8)Danny Jones 9)Paulie Milum 10)Tony Bruce, Jr. 11)Mike Senecal 12)Gene Lasker 13)Frank Carlsson 14)Cody Geldart 15)Ryan Myers 16)Kyle Patrick 17)Bronson Maeschen 18)Lincon Gatwood 19)Nick Fratto 20)Brian Maddox 21)Daryl Smith 22)Josh Higday A – Main (25 Laps) – 1)Danny Martin, Jr. 2)Darren Stewart 3)Jason Sides 4)Gary Wright 5)Chad Kemenah 6)Mike Becht 7)Greg Leonard 8)Kenny Adams 9)Chad Layton 10)Greg Wilson 11)Paul Sides 12)Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. 13)Kelly Kinser 14)Sport Allen 15)Mike Chad 16)Jesse Giannetto 17)Steve Darvalics 18)Johnny Anderson 19)Johnny Gilbertson 20)Robert Pillon 21)Zach Chappell 22)Terry McCarl 23)Danny Jones 24)Tom Wingardner Gulf Coast Produce Strawberry Dash – 1)Cody Geldart 2)Brian Maddox 3)Daryl Smith 4)Gene Lasker 5)Doug Day 6)Kyle Patrick 7)Lincon Gatwood MINI SPRINTS RESULTS: Heat Winners – 1st heat)Eddie Moss, Jr.; 2nd heat)John Craddock Feature (20 Laps) – 1)11J-Jim Brookens 2)1K-Dereck King 3)8U-George Ulmer 4)71-John Craddock 5)87-Duane Harbaugh 6)07-Paul Gottschalk 7)8-Jim Young 8)8M-Eddie Moss, Jr. 9)2T-Ron Taggart 10)1-Harold Matthews 11)47-Ralf Herrero 12)11-Cory Spencer 13)91-Jason Brown 14)14-James Fairfield 15)18-Randy Carrier 16)88-Andy Griffin 17)114-Carroll Spencer 18)7-Jesse Teed 19)81-Ted Filipos 20)74-Rick Herreo DNS Have an opinion on this story? 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