IT'S TIME TO RACE!!

June 13, 2004 FSCR Last Lap Lead Changes Decide both Ring Power Twin 20 Features at East Bay by Bill Green Tampa, FL. (June 12th, 2004) Ring Power Cat sponsored the Twin-20’s for the 360 Winged Sprints this past Saturday Night. Returning to the clay-by-the-bay after long lay offs would be past Champion Johnny Gilbertson, early season hard luck driver “Crazy” Joe Melnick and long time Florida standout Mike Senecal. Hot laps would prove to be unfavorable for a couple of the sprinters as Brandon Dover would loose a shock on the left front and struggle for the rest of the night. Matt Stegeman also had engine problems and would never get up to full speed. Ring Power Twin 20 number 1 would be the “Sticks Show.” As Greg Leonard would take the 94G into the lead from his outside row one spot . He’d click off lap after lap in the lead, but Brian Maddox never gave up and stayed in touch, with Paulie Milum and Daryl Smith close behind. Starting 13th in the 8M and working his way toward the front would be fan favorite Joe Melnick. Leonard would be the class of the field, but, and this is one of those BIG, buts, as he took the white flag, the first of tonight’s disasters struck. As the white waved, Leonard took the 94G into the turn-1 wall, a hose had broken and the contact with the wall would produce major chassis damage for“Sticks.” Brian Maddox inherited the win, with Darryl Smith second, “Daisy-Dukes” Paulie Milum third, Johnny Gilbertson fourth and “Crazy” Joe getting to fifth. Limited Late Models rolled out for their feature with Cheryl Cochran on the pole, but it wasn’t Cheryl’s night as David Simpson would come from 7th to Victory in his 23D car, which won last week’s feature piloted by Terry Bronson. Big disaster of the LLM night was the 21 of points leader Forest Gough getting caught up in a spinning Dorsey Strickland and being unable to continue. Second would go to William Hampton, with J.R. Prather, Jr. third, Shane Koperda fourth and Jason Bronson running fifth. Mini Stocks managed a last lap lead change when white flag leader Chad Rose ran into the turn-2 and back stretch wall, leaving Cecil Martin to get to the checkered flag first. He was followed by the Marty Dailey in second, Scotty Williams took third, Ryan Mitchell got forth and fifth went to Rich Livernois. Ring Power Twin-20 number 2 would bring the 360 Winged Sprints to the green with 1st Twin-20 winner Brian Maddox starting outside row-4, after pulling the 8-pill earlier in Victory Lane. The front row had young gun Steven Darvalics on pole and long time Manatee racer Mike Senecal outside. Lap-8 would claim the 8M of Melnick as he was battling for 3rd, Darvalics and Milum would tangle in turn-2. “Crazy” Joe got past both cars on the outside, but had no room to save the car from the wall. Bob Auld would spin twice in this one, with the second spin resulting in a full lazy roll-over and Auld was done for the night. Johnny Gilbertson would use the loss of Darvalics, Milum and Melnick from the top-5 to mount a charge to the lead. Only to loose the lead on the white flag lap coming out of turn-2 as the car seemed to not fire off the corner. Brian Maddox would make it a clean sweep on the night as he out lasted the hard charging 51 of Tim Holston to Victory Lane. The back-to-back wins would send Maddox into the 360 Sprint points Championship lead, as “Superman” Sport Allen fell from the top spot by not running the event. Holston was second, Gilbertson salvaged third, Mike Senecal held on for fourth and Darryl Smith moved to second in the points chase, coming home fifth. Street Stocks saw the “Phantom 309” of Danny Paris in Victory Lane again. “The Col.” Austin Sanders came home second, while Tim Spencer held on for third, Joseph Jones fourth and Mac Kersey fifth. East Bay Raceway Park became the only track in Florida to bring the Contingency Connection rewards package of the Mr. Gasket sponsorship program to the state. With only 62 tracks nationwide taking advantage of the program, East Bay drivers are now part of an elite group. Driver’s will be eligible to win several hundred dollars of cash prizes and products from participating race merchandise distributors. Tonight’s Ring Power Twin-20 number 2 Top-5 will be the first East Bay drivers submitted for the program. To learn more about this great sponsorship program, call 813-677-7223 and start winning today. 360 SPRINT TWIN-20 #1 Winner - 82 BRIAN MADDOX 2nd - 3 Darryl Smith 3rd - 42 Paulie Milum 4th - 21 Johnny Gilbertson 5th - 8M Joe Melnick 6th - 20 Frank Carlson, Jr 7th - 4 Mike Senecal 8th - 32 Steven Darvalics 9th - 83 Bob Auld 10th - 91 Mike Tharpe 11th - 3X Ray Bolin 12th - 77 Danny Curry 13th - 94G Greg Leonard 14th - 50 Rick Byerly 15th - 10S Matt Stegeman 16th - 51 Tim Holston 17th - 23 Brandon Dover 18th - 59 Micheal Smith 360 SPRINT Feature #2 Winner - 82 BRIAN MADDOX 2nd - 51 Tim Holston 3rd - 21 Johnny Gilbertson 4th - 4 Mike Senecal 5th - 3 Darryl Smith 6th - 20 Frank Carlson, Jr 7th - 50 Rick Byerly 8th - 77 Danny Curry 9th - 91 Mike Tharpe 10th - 32 Stephen Darvalics 11th - 3X Ray Bolin 12th - 83 Bob Auld 13th - 42 Paulie Milum 14th - 8M Joe Melnick 15th - 23 Brandon Dover 16th - 59 Micheal Smith 17th - 94G Greg Leonard DNS 18th - 10S Matt Stegeman DNS LIMITED LATE MODEL FEATURE Winner - 23D DAVID SIMPSON 2nd - 29 William Hampton 3rd - 007 J.R. Prather, Jr 4th - 83 Shane Loperda 5th - 25 Jason Bronson 6th - 23 Robert Douglas 7th - 73 Jeremy Simpson 8th - 22 Cheryl Cochran 9th - 104 John Combs 10th - 6 Dorsey Strickland 11th - 66 Ricky Land 12th - 21 Forest Gough 13th - 3 Terry Bronson STREET STOCK FEATURE Winner - 309 DANNY PARIS 2nd - 64 Austin Sanders 3rd - 02 Tim Spencer 4th - 4 Joseph Jones 5th - 03 Mac Kersey 6th - 45 Micheal Cherry 7th - 60 Hollie Smith 8th - 92 Tony Traina 9th - 55 Buck Woodhouse 10th - 91 Mark Alderman 11th - 00B Kyle Bronson 12th - 23 Roger Faivre 13th - 71 Charlie Wilburg 14th - 01S Bob Fleming, Sr 15th - 18 Steve Couchman 16th - 49 Doug Johnson 17th - 36 Sonny Whitsler 18th - 51 Buck Fields 19th - 711 Christie Kidder MINI STOCKS FEATURE Winner - 15 CECIL MARTIN 2nd - 24 Marty Dailey 3rd - 63 Scotty Williams 4th - 5k Ryan Mitchell 5th - 71 Rich Livernois 6th - 65 Greg Pae 7th - 36 Kenny Rutlidge 8th - 06 Kris Douglas 9th - 7JR Chad Rose 10th - 6 Adam Weeks 11th - 46 Brian DeBore 12th - 3 Daniel Bowman, Jr 13th - 31 Mike Gulvin Have an opinion on this story? 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