IT'S TIME TO RACE!!

February 12, 2009 Race Results East Bay 2/11 TAMPA, FL…..2/11/09….”Two weeks ago, I was at an all-time low with no ride,” were the first words that Daryn Pittman told track announcer, Larry Jewett as he repeatedly wiped his brow and pushed his hair back as he tried to let his first win for the new team sink in. “I just wanted to be competitive and on short notice, Pete Postupack put together this team with Kevin, Brian and Jerry for us to come to Florida and put everything to the real test.” The test results were better than expected as Pittman was able to dice through heavy traffic in the closing laps of the non-stop 30-lap finale to the 33rd Annual East Bay Raceway Park 410 Sprint Winternationals on Wednesday night worth $5,000. Pete’s Motorsports No. 25X team had their winning effort sponsored by Wintermyer Auto Salvage, Pete’s Bridge Street Motors, Pikulin Chiropractic, Harrisburg Auto Auction, Jerry Robinson Racing Products, Emory Transmission and Lori, Jim and Jesse Gormley. Utilizing a Maxim chassis and a Rider engine, the car was fast when the race got the second green flag after spins by Aaron Ott and Danny Jones in turn one caused a complete restart. Pittman then led the first seven laps before Dewease hooked up on the bottom groove to drive by on lap eight. Dewease, who has made a full circle in his racing efforts, is now building his own chassis, just as he did his second year of his career. His power plant this year is a Brian Morrison engine and he couldn’t be happier with his combination. Just past the half-way mark, Dewease tried the high line in turns one and two, and had built a four-car length advantage with 10 laps to go. But, with six to go, that lead narrowed to three-car lengths and with four to go, it was just two-car lengths. “We had a tire issue just before the feature. The right rear was leaking air and we had to change it. Then we couldn’t come up with a left that gave us the stagger we wanted. You couldn’t ask for a better track to race on tonight. There was a high, low and middle groove, and 30 laps is a quick race here. We knew we were in trouble when the lapped cars were as fast as we were.” Dewease expressed thanks to his sponsors DMI, Keizer Wheels, Hanks Performance and Catoctin Motorsports. Talk about a ‘blanket finish’ where the crowd was treated to a down-to-the-wire call at the flag stand in which any one of three cars were in position to claim the win. With five laps to go and Lance Dewease leading, Pittman was hot on his tail with Terry McCarl waiting to make a winning move on both of them. But as the trio played the lapped cars spontaneously, it unfolded that Pittman made his winning move on the white flag lap, passing Dewease. Then McCarl found room to sneak into second at the flag stand, dropping Dewease to third. McCarl had to be happy with his second place finish because he fought a fuel problem for most of the race, sometimes just running on seven cylinders. “I never knew when it was going to kick in and run clean, sometimes it wasn’t until half-way down the straightaway.” Terry continued saying, “I never blister tires and tonight I did that, but it was because of the fuel deal.” He is pleased with his new Maxim and this year’s crew consists of Gary Isom, Craig McCormick and Jason Eckard. Sponsorship comes from Big Game Tree Stands, Deberg Concrete and Phil and Vivian Investments. With the top six in times that qualified through their heats inverted, Fred Rahmer put the Chad and Jenn Clemens J&J No. 51 on the pole and Pittman lined up outside. Aaron Ott and Dewease made up the second row with McCarl and Greg Hodnett next. There were three lead changes in the race between two drivers, Pittman then Dewease and back to Pittman. The 1/3 mile clay oval was in top shape all night and 17 of the 20 cars that started the race were running at the end of 30 laps. Behind Pittman, McCarl and Dewease, Danny Smith finished fourth after starting seventh, followed by Greg Hodnett, Jeff Bland, Mark Smith, last night’s winner Wayne Johnson, Rahmer and Gene Lasker were in the top ten. Heats were won by Chad Layton, Greg Wilson and Johnson. Fast time went to Hodnett. The 25-lap Open Wheel Modified race narrowed a field of 69 cars down to 24 and Kevin Weaver, who started third, took the lead on lap nine and was happy to win at East Bay, after sitting out a year. “I wanted to get back down here. It’s the same car I ran two years ago, just a different engine and a different set-up.” Weaver continued, “I thought the bottom was the way to go but I kept seeing Ray Guss, Jr. coming up on me.” Once again, for the Modified event, the double wide, triple wide and one time four-wide racing was the norm. Rodney Wing, who started 12th, drew last for the heat and last for the feature inversion. He said, “ I knew I had my work cut out for me. We’re going to qualify for the three-day show, so I don’t have to worry about the draw.” Wing came up to finish second ahead of Guss, Rob Fuqua, Kent Arment, Buzzie Reutimann, Stormy Scott, Devin Dixon, Jeff Mathews and Mike Harrison. Thursday, Friday and Saturday starts the 10th Annual Open Wheel Modifieds Winternationals. Hot Laps at 5:00, Time Trials at 6:00 and Racing at 7:00. STATS – 410 SPRINTS - EAST BAY RACEWAY PARK – WEDNESDAY, 2/11/09 1. 22 Greg Hodnett – 11.925; 2. 24 Terry McCarl – 11.973; 3. 30C Lance Dewease – 12.053; 4. 25 Aaron Ott – 12.069; 5. 25X Daryn Pittman – 12.127; 6. 51 Fred Rahmer – 12.162; 7. 4 Danny Smith – 12.179; 8. 7M Mark Smith – 12.183; 9. 14AJ Wayne Johnson – 12.217; 10. 55 Chad Layton – 12.239; 11. W20 Greg Wilson – 12.299; 12. 96 Bronson Maeschen – 12.589; 13. 4B Tom Busch – 12.688; 14. 21S Jeff Bland – 12.755; 15. 0 Glenn Styres – 12.872; 16. 1B Brian Maddox – 13.169; 17. 6X Mark Cole – 13.687; 18. 18 Keith Butler – 13.719; 19. 99 Danny Jones – 13.774; 20. 02 Gene Lasker – 17.053 1ST Heat – 1)Chad Layton 2)Greg Hodnett 3)Aaron Ott 4)Tom Busch 5)Danny Smith 6)Brian Maddox 7)Danny Jones 2nd Heat – 1)Greg Wilson 2)Mark Smith 3)Jeff Bland 4)Daryn Pittman 5)Terry McCarl 6)Gene Lasker 7)Mark Cole 3rd Heat – 1)Wayne Johnson 2)Glenn Styres 3)Bronson Maeschen 4)Lance Dewease 5)Fred Rahmer 6)Keith Butler A – Main (30 Laps) – 1)Daryn Pittman 2)Terry McCarl 3)Lance Dewease 4)Danny Smith 5)Greg Hodnett 6)Jeff Bland 7)Mark Smith 8)Wayne Johnson 9)Fred Rahmer 10)Gene Lasker 11)Bronson Maeschen 12)Greg Wilson 13)Chad Layton 14)Tom Busch 15)Brian Maddox 16)Glenn Styres 17)Mark Cole 18)Keith Butler 19)Danny Jones 20)Aaron Ott OPEN WHEEL MODIFIEDS 1st Heat – 1)Todd Neiheiser 2)Randle Sweeney 3)Buzzie Reutimann 4)Joe Carr 5)Les Duellman 6)Jeff Thomas 7)Joey Back 8)Gary Cook, Jr. 9)Kent Robinson 10)Wesley Summers 11)Wayne Hammond 12)Joe Waba 2nd Heat – 1)Steve Lance, Jr. 2)Mike Harrison 3)Shane Burrows 4)Erick Thiesse 5)Matt Goulden 6)Jamie Burrows 7)Aaron Turnbull 8)Dennis Haven 9)Ryan Aho 10)Kelly Lippert 11)Terry McClintock 12)Dana Wellington 3rd Heat – 1)Devin Dixon 2)Curt Gelling 3)Darrell Nelson 4)Eddie Martin 5)Scotty Kincaid 6)David McDonald 7)Mike Hansen 8)Nick Allen 9)Tim Peterson 10)Rich Michael, Jr. 11)Terry Barone 12)Brady Short 4th Heat – 1)Ray Guss, Jr. 2)Rob Fuqua 3)Gary Eicher 4)Dave Baldwin 5)John Bradley 6)Terry Haven 7)Ryan Engels 8)Louie Kruhansky 9)Alex Boerner 10)Austin Sanders 11)Wallace Peacock DNS 5th Heat – 1)Perry Brown 2)Kevin Weaver 3)Ben Stephens 4)Andy Gordon 5)Mark Noble 6)Roger Crouse 7)Thomas Sigler 8)Stanley Donahoo 9)Billy Boyd, Jr. 10)Rich Robinson, Jr. 11)Corey Partin 6th Heat – 1)Stormy Scott 2)Rodney Wing 3)Jeff Mathews 4)Kent Arment 5)Steve Hughes 6)William Pugh 7)Brian Hollifield 8)Bob Gierke 9)Erik Bruce 10)Darrell George 11)Jeremy Simpson 1st B-Main – 1)Buzzie Reutimann 2)Les Dueliman 3)Shane Burrows 4)Ryan Aho 5)Gary Cook, Jr. 6)Erick Thiesse 7)Joe Carr 8)Joe Waba 9)Wayne Hammond 10)Joey Back 11)Aaron Turnbull 12)Jeff Thomas 13)Matt Goulden 14)Wesley Summers 15)Dennis Haven 16)Kent Robinson 17)Jamie Burrows 18)Kelly Lippert DNS 19)Terry McClintock DNS 20)Dana Wellington DNS 2nd B-Main – 1)Darrell Nelson 2)Eddie Martin 3)Gary Eicher 4)Brady Short 5)Dave Baldwin 6)John Bradley 7)David McDonald 8)Mike Hansen 9)Louie Kruhansky 10)Scotty Kincaid 11)Terry Haven 12)Ryan Engels 13)Wallace Peacock 14)Nick Allen 15)Tim Peterson 16)Rich Michael, Jr. 17)Terry Barone 18)Austin Sanders DNS 3rd B-Main – 1)Jeff Mathews 2)Kent Arment 3)Andy Gordon 4)Ben Stephens 5)Roger Crouse 6)Bob Gierke 7)Steve Hughes 8)Mark Noble 9)Brian Hollifield 10)Corey Partin 11)Jeremy Simpson 12)Erik Bruce 13)Billy Boyd, Jr. 14)Darrell George 15)Thomas Sigler 16)Alex Boerner 17)William Pugh 18)Stanley Donahoo 19)Rich Robinson, Jr. DNS A – Main (25 Laps) – 1)Kevin Weaver 2)Rodney Wing 3)Ray Guss, Jr. 4)Rob Fuqua 5)Kent Arment 6)Buzzie Reutimann 7)Stormy Scott 8)Devin Dixon 9)Jeff Mathews 10)Mike Harrison 11)Ryan Aho 12)Eddie Martin 13)Shane Burrows 14)Gary Eicher 15)Curt Gelling 16)Ben Stephens 17)Perry Brown 18)Steve Lance, Jr. 19)Brady Short 20)Randle Sweeney 21)Les Duellman 22)Todd Neiheiser 23)Darrell Nelson 24)Andy Gordon Have an opinion on this story? 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