by Jean Lynch
Tampa, Fla - "For two nights, this track was the best
I've ever seenit," said an excited Corey Conley after
his first-ever win on Friday night at East Bay Raceway
Park". It was worth a $1,500 paycheck for the West
Virginian who was definitely in the right place at
the right time to land some valuable points on this
final qualifying night of the Ramada Inn on Tampa Bay
Open Wheel Modified portion of East Bay's 27th Annual
Winternationals.
He spent time in victory lane thanking his crew and
sponsors Tiger Pumps, All American Towing and others.
After starting third, he found his Gilbert Pratt owned
Harris chassis, powered by Performance engine, was
"pretty good". "I usually change a bunch of things
and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't,"
Conley continued with his interview, "but I wasn't
going to catch Jimmy."
In referring to Jimmy....he meant Jimmy Owens, the
winner on the previous night who had been staging a
torrid battle with Randy Hall and had regained the
lead only to fall victim of a flat right front tire
when he ran over a nerf bar on the track on lap 20.
Hall, who had led on lap 16 and was running second,
exploded a right rear almost at the same time. Both
drivers were forced to watch the last five laps from
the infield as Conley held off John Hobson and Rob
Fuqua at the end.
There were two aborted starts to the 26-car feature
field as pole-sitter Jess Hartman spun on two separate
occasions before a lap could be completed and East
Bay's rule states if the yellow comes out before a
lap is completed, everything reverts back to the
original line up. Once, the first lap was in the
books, the cars spread out early, using every inch
of the racetrack. Sometimes they were four-wide,
to the delight of the fans.
Racing was "hot and heavy" until that yellow on lap 20
for the flat tires on the two front-runners who had
three lapped cars behind as a cushion. Conley
inherited the lead at that point and was never seriously
challenged. Mike Wendelstadt turned in a good
performance finishing fourth ahead of Paul Wilmouth,
Kevin Weaver, Shane Cottle, Don Kiger, Tim Hill and
David McWilliams in the top ten.
Heats went to Owne,s Hartman, John Hobson, Bill Davis,
Randy Hall, Fuqua, Timmy Harrett, Conley, Kyle Logue
and Brent Trimple. The two B-Mains each experienced
multiple car pile-ups but David McWilliams and Bill
Howard emerged winners. The two C-Mains went to Lee
Hobbs and Mark Iverson while the Strawberry Dash was
won by Scott Webber.
Ron Pope won the Street Stock A-Main and Chad Rose took
the Mini Stock feature.
FRIDAY NIGHT RESULTS
1ST C-Main - 1) Lee Hobbs, 2) Jason Ball, 3) Terry
McClintock, 4) Bobby Bittle, 5) Rick Conoyer, 6) Matt
Gouldon, 7) Joey Jensen, 8) Jeff Taylor, 9) Jeff LeBaude,
10) Carlton Jackson, 11) Michael Boden, 12) Bruce
Watkins, 13) Dennis Barton, 14) Scott Peterson, 15) Corey
Partin, 16) Ricky Land, 17) Jason Zdroik, 18) Richard
Norden, 19) D.J. Braddock, 20) Terry Hull
2nd C-Main - 1) Mark Iverson, 2) Christopher Cummins, 3)
Russell Childress, 4) Mike Conn, 5) Rick Day, 6) Joey
Fowler, 7) Rich Gilbert, 8) Ronnie Hargrave, 9) Wess
Weinman, 10) Robbie Simpson, 11) Scott Owens, 12) Rick
Strickler, 13) Trey Allen, 14) Ricky White, 15) Reese
Dalton, 16) Larry Yanero, 17) John Bradley, 18) Daryl
Herbert
1st B-Main - 1) David McWilliams, 2) Rich Logan, 3)
David Steele, 4) Ron Jones, 5) Kenny Johnson, 6) Julie
McDermind, 7) Bobby Corter, 8) Ryan Bowman, 9) Jason
Ball, 10) Darrell George, 11) Danny Schwartz, 12) Jeffrey
Bodendorfer, 13) Rickie Hedrick, 14) Lee Hobbs, 15) Jim
Szekacs, 16) J.P. Karpowicz, 17) Nick Gough, 18) Scott
Weber, 19) Clay Galbreath, 20) Robby Perkins, 21) Jason
Lakey, 22) Billy Costello
2nd B-Main - 1) Bill Howard, 2) Tim Isom, 3) Dan Hamstra,
4) Garrett Durrett, 5) Craig Christiansen, 6) Brent
Glastetter, 7) Joel Cryderman, 8) Brady Short, 9) Jeff
Matthews, 10) Mike Mariar, 11) Craig Thatcher, 12) Ken
Riddle, 13) Brent Sutton, 14) Arron Peritt, 15) Mark
Iverson, 16) Christopher Cummins, 17) Bob Pohlman, 18)
Gary Archambault, 19( Jeff Leka, 20) Mike Null, 21)
Brad Roloff, 22) Vic Vandergrif
Strawberry Dash - 1) Scott Weber, 2) Lee Hobbs, 3) Nick
Gough, 4) Rick Strickler, 5) Jason Ball, 6) Bob Pholman
7) Joey Fowler, 8) Julie McDermid, 9) Robbie Simpson
10) Bruce Watkins
A-Main - 25 Laps - 1) Corey Conley, 2) John Hobson, 3)
Rob Fuqua, 4) Mike Wendelstadt, 5) Paul Wilmouth, 6)
Kevin Weaver, 7) Shane Cottle, 8) Don Kiger, 9) Tim
Hill, 10) David McWilliams, 11) Dan Hamstra, 12) Bill
Howard, 13) Tommy Kroll, 14) Todd Neiheiser, 15) Kyle
Logue, 16) Mike Potosky, 17) Tim Isom, 18) Jess Hartman
19) Brent Trimble, 20) Rich Logan, 21) David Steele,
22) Jimmy Owens, 23) Bill Davis, 24) Randy Hall, 25)
Randie Sweeney, 26) Timmy Barrett
Street Stock A-Main - 1) Ron Pope, 2) Chad Smith, 3)
Steven Johnson, 4) Tim Spencer, 5) Paul Gibbs, 6)
Charlie Wilberg, 7) Jason Bronsen, 8) Paul Day, 9)
Jack Rowland, 10) Robert Fleming
Mini Stock A-Main - Chad Rose, Scotty Williams, Brian
Debore, Dorsey Strickland, Jason Cannon, Steve Metzmier
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