| Thursday, February 12, 2004 | |
| Saldana Takes 410 East Bay Opener | PERFECT CAR AND ENGINE WIN 410 EAST BAY OPENER FOR SALDANA
by Jean Lynch
Tampa, FL…..2/11/04…."I can’t thank Gary Stanton enough for helping us out with this new Mopar engine,” Joey Saldana said intently from the tech area at East Bay Raceway Park Wednesday night after winning the opening night of the four-day $157,000 28th Annual 410 Sprint Winternationals.
 Joey Saldana
After a shaky start, the 25-lap race went non-stop and the winning move came when pole-sitter Greg Wilson in the Hampshire No. 63 went a little high coming off of turn four to complete lap 11 and third-starting Saldana dove under him to lead at the flag stand. He explained the move like this, “I saw that Greg was getting tight behind lapped cars, so when he checked up a bit, I went for the inside.” When lapped traffic became a factor, Saldana explained, “I wasn’t going to come off the bottom unless I had to. With the track so fast, I figured I’d be coming up on lapped cars pretty quick, so I put 32 tear-offs on and hoped for the best. At the end, I couldn’t get by lapped cars, so I knew someone would be coming up on me and it turned out to be Jim Nier.” Car owner, Red Stauffer said he took delivery of this new Shaw chassis in November. “It’s a split bar car….front and rear….the only one here in Florida,” said Red, “and we just got our fifth win with it!” His crew includes Patrick Ryan and Trevor Lewis and sponsorship came from Milk Movers, C&B Mushrooms and Blue Ribbon Tomato Packing.
Nier had started sixth after the inversion, but was in the top three immediately as the leader Wilson caught the back of the field by lap four. Nier’s number 00, a new JEI chassis built by Barry Jackson was powered by a fresh Kistler and rode on Hoosiers, as were the tires on the cars he was chasing. “I feel like we were the fastest car on the track tonight and the track was good, it’s just the way the cards fell with the lapped cars,” said Jim’s Dad who revealed they only changed two PRO shocks all night and used the same stagger throughout the evening.
Terry McCarl had started his wife Lori’s new Wesmar-powered Eagle, sponsored by Big Game Tree Stands, in the fifth slot. Carrying additional sponsorship from Country Builders and Bosma Poultry, he rode on the same two Hoosier tires all night long. “The track was too good tonight,” he said, “we only changed one PRO shock through the night.” McCarl followed third starting Danny Smith for the first 10 laps while Wilson, Saldana and Nier were the trio in front. After Saldana took the lead on lap 11, Nier used an inside move on lap15 to zip past Wilson on the front stretch for second. With two laps to go, McCarl moved outside Smith to move into third, but two lapped cars separated him from the two front runners at the finish.
Wilson and Smith held on for top five finishes, while rounding out the top ten it was Lance Dewease, Fred Rahmer, Shane Stewart, Sammy Swindell up from last after being involved in a tangle with Jerrod Hull at the start, and Jeff Shepard. Three restarts were necessary before the field settled in for the non-stop feature. Daryn Pitman, scheduled to start outside Wilson in the front row, experienced a flat and Roger Rager had front suspension trouble which sent him off on a wrecker. Next, a five-car skirmish in turn one left Swindell and Hull sitting to bring out the second caution. Greg Hodnett, scheduled to start 14th stopped coming out of turn two with fuel cell and rear bumper problems went off on a wrecker for the final caution before the 25 green flag laps. Heats went to Josh Wells, Shepard, Jesse Giannetto and Kevin Frey while Dewease, Rahmer, Shane Stewart, Chad Hill, Nick Naber and Mark Smith advanced from the B-Main. The Goodson Farms Strawberry Dash went to Tom Busch.
There were two red flags in the 15-lap B-Main. One was on lap seven for Bill Wolf out of Cairo, New York who caught the back stretch wall and the other for Tim VanderVere from Beach Park, Illinois who clipped the turn one wall and did several 360’s in the air and landed on all four wheels on the track. Both drivers were uninjured.
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