by Bill Green
Tampa, FL (Feb. 21st, 2004) Team USA Mod-Lite drivers made hundreds of fans into believers as they brought 30 cars to the 1st Annual Team-USA Mod-Lite Winter Nationals Championship race. One driver would hit the set up so right that nobody, and I mean nobody, could touch him.
Being crowned Champion is always nice, but when your teammates cross behind you 2nd and 3rd, thats even better.
Thats exactly what Erik McKinny from Laurel, Delaware had happen. First he raced great all week to be 2nd in two preliminary nights of racing. Then he ran a flawless 10-car Dash to determine starting positions, ending up on the outside pole for the weekending main event. Once the feature race got underway he was Mr. Untouchable and end the 30-lap A-main Feature with only 6 cars on the lead lap with him.
"This is fantastic"! stated a jubilant McKinny in Victory Lane. "My crew and sponsors made all this possible. East Bay is a great facility and I'm looking forward to returning in 2005 to defend the Championship."
Those two teammates that followed Erics #1 across the strip were; Ryan Walls in the #14W and Steve White in #21NJ, both, also from Laurel, Delaware. Walls would have to work from the 12th starting spot, while White started inside row-3.
Following the Triple-Team to the podium would be Houston, TX driver Kevin Batterbee in the #9X. He was our preliminary night #1 A-main winner on Thursday Night. Leaving Delawore, OH native Jason Benson to settle for the final top-5 spot.
Classic Mod-Lite cars saw 16 cars take the initial green with Auburn, GAs Robert Ham coming home with the win. Second went to the #77 of Jimmy McDonald from Union Springs, AL. Third place would go to the #18T of Randall Klepper of Chesnee, SC. Fourth finisher was Shannan Dodson, Gardendale, AL. And fifth went to local driver Free-Style Shawn Reutimann out of Dade City, FL.
TQ Late Models would see Jacksonville native Rick Stone dominate the class in his #1X Xtreme Motorsports Racing machine, winning all 3 nights A-main events. Following the Stone freight-train tonight was the #6 of David Rader second, Darryl Graves third, Scott Hughes fourth and the never-say-die Rick Dial big yellow #13 banana, fifth.
The closing of the 2004 Winter Nationals gets East Bay Raceway Park headed into the 2004 regular season on March 6th, opening with 6 classes including; Open Wheel Modifieds, Street Stocks, Mini-Stocks, Limited Late Models, Limited Sprints and the always-awesome Late Models.
TEAM-USA MOD-LITES A-MAIN FINAL RUNDOWN:
A-Main Mod-Lites: 1.)McKinny, 2.)Walls, 3.)White, 4.)Batterbee,Kev. 5.)Benson, 6.)Batterbee,Ken. 7.)Buckingham,S. 8.)Hay,E. 9.)Callaway, 10.)Crutchfield, 11.)Best,Jr. 12.)Buckingham,T. 13.)Harris, 14.)Courtney, 15.)Cronin, 16.)Knepper, 17.)Minner, 18.)Fritter, 19.)Jacobs, 20.)Sikes, 21.)Ham 22.)Leake, 23.)Hay,M. 24.)Curtis, 25.)Mollick, 26.)Vammino, 27.)Glass, 28.)Jester, 29.)Andreson, 30.)McDonald
A-Main Classic Mods: 1.)Ham,R. 2.)McDonald, Jimmy. 3.)Klepper, 4.)Dodson, 5.)Reutimann, 6.)Evans, 7.) Fuller, 8.)Thomas, 9.)Ham,J. 10.)Worley, 11.)DeClerck, 12.)Clevenger, 13.)Schneider, 14.)Baxter, 15.) McDonald, 16.)Murphy
A-Main TQ-Late Models: 1.)Stone, 2.)Rader, 3.)Graves, 4.)Hughes, 5.)Dial, 6.)Dugger, 7.)Mikesell,M. 8.)Tomlinson, 9.)Mikesell,D.
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