IT'S TIME TO RACE!!

January 30, 2004 FSCR Shane Stewart Tastes Victory for the first time on the East Bay Clay by Jean Lynch Tampa, FL……1/29/04…..It was a back and forth battle for the lead Thursday night in the second preliminary feature of the 6th Annual King of 360’s Winternationals at East Bay Raceway Park. In the closing laps of the 25-lap A-Main, Shane Stewart, driving the ‘MIN’ Motorsports sponsored no. 4m one-year old Maxim powered by a WesMar on Hoosier tires and Penske shocks, made a groove just inches from the outside wall work for him to hold off hard-charging Terry McCarl and capture his first win-ever at East Bay worth $1,500. “I owe this one to my crew, Rob and Cathy Hart, who have been with me for two years. I’m just sorry my car owner, Scott Chillcut, couldn’t be here for this win.” Stewart said after the hard-fought race. Starting outside the front row, he grabbed the lead immediately and held on through the first yellow for a spin by Danny Martin after one lap. Stewart had McCarl on his tail with Danny Lasoski a close third as the green waved. Just two laps later, three cars tangled in turn one with Curtis Boyer and Johnny Gilbertson flipping and bringing out the red flag. The drivers were OK. On the lap three restart, McCarl, in the Eagle owned by wife Lori, executed a slide job on the leader in turn one and was in front as the two exited turn two. It took Stewart a couple of laps to settle down and get his rhythm back after the pass. In his own words, Stewart explained, “Once I settled down after Terry went by and I realized that I could stay with him, I knew I was going to be alright.” The next dozen laps were fast-paced as the McCarl no.24 sponsored by Big Game Tree Stands, Country Builders Construction and Bosma Poultry, diced through lapped traffic, using every inch of the track. Using a borrowed engine built by Mark Burch, his car also sports sponsorship from Sander Engineering and Brodix. McCarl’s low-line choice through lapped cars in turn four was his downfall as Stewart capitalized on the situation and went very high to take the lead coming to the flagstand on lap 17. The yellow came out after that lap was in the books for a spin by Brian Maddox at the end of the front stretch. On the ensuing restart, Lasoski who was fourth behind Stewart, McCarl and Greg Leonard, tried to dive under third place Greg Leonard in turn one. Lasoski hadn’t quite cleared Leonard when he moved up the track in turn two and Leonard had no where to go except over Lasoski’s right rear wheel. The move flipped Leonard into the outside wall. The entire field hugged the bottom of the track on this final restart, but once they cleared the front stretch, the cars used the entire surface. However, Stewart made his move to the top groove and hung there lap after lap with McCarl running the same line, but the winning margin built to 2.75 seconds at the checkered. McCarl and Stewart were very complimentary of the 24 hour turn-around in track conditions. “It was a great track tonight, you could race anywhere,” commented the two during post-race tech inspection. Lasoski settled for third ahead of Gary Wright, and Jeff Shepard. Next came Joey Saldana, Chad Kemenah (who came from the C and B to the A-Main), Jason Sides, Greg Wilson and Wayne Johnson who completed the top ten finishers. Heat race winners were Terry Pletch, Sides, Terry Gray, Shepard, Johnny Gilbertson and Darren Long. Kemenah, Marshall Skinner, Red Stauffer and Brad Pake transferred up to the B-Main from the C-Main. Frank Carlsson flipped in a three-car tangle in turn one during the C-Main, but was uninjured. McCarl, Lasoski, Danny Martin, Kemenah, Joey Saldana, Jesse Giannetto, Darren Stewart and Kelly Kinser moved from the B-Main into the A-Main. In the “B”, Saldana, who started on pole, was leaking fuel on a first-lap red flag for John Karklin’s crash into the turn one wall. He went to the pits for repairs and returned in time to start last in the 22-car field and finish the 15-laps in a transfer spot. The 10-lap Goodson Strawberry Farms Dash was won by Sport Allen. The 20-lap Open Wheel Modified main showed Joey Jensen with the win and Bill Howard, Dan Hamstra, Craig Thatcher and Jason Miller in the top five of the 32-car field. STATS – 360 SPRINTS - EAST BAY RACEWAY PARK – THURSDAY, 1/29/04 Qualifying Results: 1. 2S Joey Saldana – 13.060; 2. 20L Danny Lasoski – 13.337; 3. 24 Terry McCarl – 13.768; 4. 00M Danny Martin – 13.772; 5. 4M Shane Stewart – 13.830; 6. 94G Greg Leonard – 13.852; 7. 97 Kelly Kinser – 13.871; 8. 20K Chad Kemenah – 13.875; 9. D1 Jesse Giannetto – 13.956; 10. 2 Red Stauffer – 13.959; 11. 4C Mike Chadd – 13.993; 12. 91 Darren Stewart – 14.005; 13. 63 Greg Wilson – 14.036; 14. 4 Kenny Adams – 14.077; 15. 10 Terry Gray – 14.082; 16. 167 Jeff Sheppard – 14.097; 17. 6R Roger Rager – 14.124; 18. 18 Tony Bruce – 14.130; 19. 33K John Karklin – 14.141; 20. 77 Lance Dewease – 14.182; 21. 9 Gary Wright – 14.188; 22. 6G Cody Geldart – 14.224; 23. 88 Sport Allen – 14.227; 24. 64 Brad Pake – 14.231; 25. 94J Wayne Johnson – 14.265; 26. 7S Jason Sides – 14.269; 27. 82 Brian Maddox – 14.299; 28. 72 Curtis Boyer – 14.338; 29. 21 Johnny Gilbertson – 14.376; 30. 0 Glen Styers – 14.387; 31. 29P Terry Pletch – 14.392; 32. 7A Johnny Anderson – 14.424; 33. 3 Daryl Smith – 14.462; 34. 50Z Zach Chappell – 14.465; 35. 26 Derek Drown – 14.476; 36. 7D Darren Long – 14.509; 37. 02 Gene Lasker – 14.595; 38. 42 Paulie Milum – 14.630; 39. 2M Curt Michael – 14.634; 40. 2X Dusty Ballenger – 14.647; 41. 56R Ryan Myers – 14.680; 42. 5M Phill Mott – 14.748; 43. 26K Marshall Skinner – 14.774; 44. 8 Tighe Schloss – 14.819; 45. 50J Joe Zuczek – 14.847; 46. 6X Mark Cole – 14.867; 47. 6M Mike Schroeder – 14.892; 48. 39 Tim Hogue – 14.916; 49. 67 Brian Thomas – 14.952; 50. 00 Wayne Reutimann, Jr. – 15.110; 51. 59 Michael Smith – 15.129; 52. 50 Rick Byerly – 15.260; 53. 20 Frank Carlson – 15.298; 54. 72J Roland Johnson – 15.314 1st Heat – 1)Terry Pletch 2)Wayne Johnson 3)Greg Wilson 4)John Karklin 5)Kelly Kinser 6)Joey Saldana 7)Gene Lasker 8)Marshall Skinner 9)Brian Thomas 2nd Heat – 1)Jason Sides 2)Johnny Anderson 3)Lance Dewease 4)Kenny Adams 5)Danny Lasoski 6)Paulie Milum 7)Wayne Reutimann 8)Tighe Schloss 9)Chad Kemenah 3rd Heat – 1)Terry Gray 2)Brian Maddox 3)Gary Wright 4)Terry McCarl 5)Jesse Giannetto 6)Curt Michael 7)Daryl Smith 8)Joe Zuczek 9)Michael Smith 4th Heat – 1)Jeff Shepard 2)Zach Chappel 3)Curtis Boyer 4)Danny Martin, Jr. 5)Dusty Ballenger 6)Cody Geldart 7)Red Stauffer 8)Mark Cole 9)Rick Byerly 5th Heat – 1)Johnny Gilbertson 2)Shane Stewart 3)Derek Drown 4)Roger Rager 5)Sport Allen 6)Mike Chadd 7)Ryan Myers 8)Mike Schroeder 9)Frank Carlsson 6th Heat – 1)Darren Long 2)Glenn Styers 3)Greg Leonard 4)Darren Stewart 5)Tom Bruce 6)Tim Hogue 7)Roland Johnson 8)Brad Pake 9)Phill Mott C – Main – 1)Chad Kemenah 2)Marshall Skinner 3)Red Stauffer 4)Brad Pake 5)Daryl Smith 6)Joe Zuczek 7)Roland Johnson 8)Gene Lasker 9)Brian Thomas 10)Phil Mott 11)Mark Cole 12)Rick Byerly 13)Michael Smith 14)Ryan Myers 15)Tighe Schloss 16)Mike Schroeder 17)Wayne Reutimann, Jr. 18)Frank Carlsson B – Main – 1)Terry McCarl 2)Danny Lasoski 3)Danny Martin 4)Chad Hemenah 5)Joey Saldana 6)Jesse Giannetto 7)Darren Stewart 8)Kelly Kinser 9)Kenny Adams 10)Roger Rager 11)Sport Allen 12)Mike Chadd 13)Red Stauffer 14)Tony Bruce 15)Curt Michael 16)Brad Pake 17)Dusty Ballenger 18)Paulie Milum 19)Marshall Skinner 20)Cody Geldart 21)Tim Hogue 22)John Karklin A – Main (25 Laps) – 1)Shane Stewart 2)Terry McCarl 3)Danny Lasoski 4)Gary Wright 5)Jeff Sheppard 6)Joey Saldana 7)Chad Kemenah 8)Jason Sides 9)Greg Wilson 10)Wayne Johnson 11)Zach Chappell 12)Jesse Giannetto 13)Lance Dewease 14)Darren Long 15)Kelly Kinser 16)Brian Maddox 17)Johnny Anderson 18)Terry Pletch 19)Glen Styers 20)Danny Martin 21)Greg Leonard 22)Terry Gray 23)Darren Stewart 24)Derek Drown 25)Curtis Boyer 26)Johnny Gilbertson Goodson Farms Strawberry Dash – 1)Sport Allen 2)Curt Michael 3)Brad Pake 4)Tom Bruce 5)Phill Mott 6)Cody Geldart 7)Roland Johnson 8)Daryl Smith 9)Roger Rager 10)Frank Carlsson MODIFIED RESULTS: Heat Winners – 1st heat)Dan Hamstra; 2nd heat)Jason Miller; 3rd heat)Joey Jensen Feature (20 Laps) – 1)21JR-Joey Jensen 2)3-Bill Howard 3)23H-Dan Hamstra 4)91-Craig Thatcher 5)12M-Jason Miller 6)2-Devin Dixon 7)B2-Mike Null 8)71D-Bill Davis 9)R1-Shawn Peterson 10)15-Roger Crouse 11)01B-John Bradley 12)77X-Mike Wedlestadt 13)44-Joe Turner 14)205-Bobby Dixon 15)36X-Lee Hobbs 16)18-David McWilliams 17)6M-Terry McCintock 18)B12-Kevin Weaver 19)01K-Don Kiger 20)00G-Greg Reutimann, Jr. 21)33-Jeff Matthews 22)13-Kevin Terry 23)1M-Julie McDermid 24)3X-David Boerner 25)97-Rusty Dixon 26)33L-Richard Logan 27)25-Charles Patrick 28)R3-Rick Martin 29)19 Joe Fowler 30)36-Brady Short DQ 31)2*-Don Gumke DNS 32)4-Jason Lowe 33)0H-Don Short Have an opinion on this story? 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