By Jean Lynch for East Bay Raceway Park

TAMPA, FL - January 30, 2007 - Jason Sides had the biggest smile on his face when Todd Hutto, one of the East Bay Raceway Park owners, congratulated him in victory lane. Sides couldn't wait to tell him, "I love taking your money!"

Tuesday was opening night of the three-day 410 Sprint Car 31st Annual Winternationals here and a block-buster field of 52 of the best drivers were on hand. But, it was the Bartlett, Tennessee, pony-tailed, Sides that impressed everyone with his mastery of lapped traffic in the first 19 non-stop green flag laps of the 25-lap feature while being hounded by Danny Lasoski.

Although eight other drivers timed ahead of Sides, luck was on his side, because three drivers who timed ahead of him failed to qualify through their heats. With six inverted to start the A-Main, 'lucky' Jason started on the pole.

"The track was really good tonight" Al (Varnadore) did a great job. I made zero changes on my car, except for a tire change for time trials," explained Sides. "Credit goes to my Mom and Dad, my wife Farrah and daughter Skylar for their support. I couldn't do this without my sponsor WTS Tractor Service and my crew Wade Oliver and Sumo."

When asked about the heavy lapped traffic, he admitted, “There were two lapped cars running side by side around lap 14, and that scared me, because I could see someone trying to challenge. I didn’t think I could get through, but I did.�

His Maxim chassis was not new, it was his 'old faithful' and he did get laps on the new Don Ott engine the night before in the Sprint Bandit race. The No. 7S was equipped with Hoosier tires, Weld Wheels, VRP shocks and a FSR radiator.

Sides and Lasoski shared the front row at the start, followed by Lance Dewease and Tim Shaffer in row two with Craig Dollansky and Greg Hodnett in row three. It was Sides who took command and set a fast pace, lapping his first car on lap five. Most of the time, Sides was low and Lasoski tried several times to set him up, pulling equal at times, but never was recorded as leading a lap.

As the two diced their way through traffic, they finally had a bit of clear sailing from lap 16 through lap 19. They were exiting turn four with Lasoski a car length back, when Lasoski lost the handle and spun to the inside to bring out the only yellow flag of the event.

Tim Shaffer was running third at the time and advanced to second with Lasoski's error with Dewease moving to third. They stayed in that order to the finish with Dollansky crossing fourth and Hodnett staying with a top five finish. Rounding out the top 10 it was Chad Kemenah, Zach Chappell. Jason Solwold, Lucas Wolfe (up from 24th) and Terry McCarl finishing tenth after starting 22nd.

Heats went to Randy Hannagan, Tom Busch, Mark Smith and Danny Smith. The last chance race went to Michael Dehner. The C-Main sent Jeff Busby, Brady Short, Robbie Vaugh and Jeff Vandusen to the B-Main. Dustin Lindquist, Jesse Hockett , Kemenah and Wolf found their way to the A-Main by advancing from the B-Main.

Hodnett topped the qualifying efforts with a lap of 12.346, far off the track record of 11.638 set by Kemenah in 2003.

Qualifying Results: 1. 22 Greg Hodnett - 12.346; 2. 87 Alan Krimes - 12.356;
3. 7 Craig Dollansky - 12.445; 4. 6 Tim Shaffer - 12.516; 5. 25 Lance Dewease - 12.527; 6. 83 Danny Lasoski - 12.532; 7. 70 Chad Kemenah - 12.533; 8. 75 Jesse Hockett - 12.540; 9. 7S Jason Sides - 12.583; 10. 11 Brandon Martin - 12.643;
11. 29 Travis Rilat - 12.644; 12. 8K Zach Chappell - 12.644; 13. 5 Dustin Lindquist - 12.648; 14. 6S Brad Sweet - 12.656; 15. 20 Paul McMahan - 12.688; 16. W20 Greg Wilson - 12.735; 17. R19 Jason Solwold - 12.747; 18. 15S Nick Smith - 12.750;
19. 55 Mark Smith - 12.754; 20. 4 Danny Smith - 12.804; 21. 1X Randy Hannagan - 12.815; 22. 4B Tom Busch - 12.823; 23. 10C Jeremy Campbell - 12.828; 24. 32 Justin Barger - 12.835; 25. 15 Sam Hafertepe, Jr. - 12.838; 26. 00 Danny Martin, Jr. - 12.841; 27. 36M Jason Martin - 12.852; 28. 24 Terry McCarl - 12.872; 29. 17B Steve Buckwalter - 12.919; 30. 5W Lucas Wolf - 12.928; 31. 51 Fred Rahmer - 12.941;
32. 18 Tony Bruce, Jr. - 12.963; 33. 6F Bob Felmlee - 13.067; 34. 5C Chad Hillier - 13.105; 35. 28 Brian Paulus - 13.107; 36. 20E Brian Ellenberger - 13.108;
37. 36 Brady Short - 13.111; 38. D12 Jason Meyers - 13.112; 39. 47J Jeff Busby - 13.292; 40. 4R Robbie Vaughn - 13.427; 41. 17 Michael L. Dehner - 13.561;
42. 3 Kaley Gharst - 13.630; 43. 56 Jeff Vandusen - 13.723; 44. 7V Tim Vandervere - 13.908; 45. D4 Danny Holtgraver - 14.002; 46. 89 Cody Darrah - 14.212; 47. 16 Lee Stark - 14.342; 48. 7R Riki Likowski - 14.566; 49. 07H Rob Hartman - 15.562;
50. 72J Johnny Johnson - 16.561; 51. 6X Mark T. Cole - 17.766; 52. 9 Gary Wright - No Time

Last Chance Race (Top 8 tagged back of the heats): 1)Michael L. Dehner 2)Kaley Gharst 3)Jeff Vandusen 4)Cody Darrah 5)Danny Holtgraver 6)Tim VanderVere 7)Lee Stark 8)Riki Likowski 9)Johnny Johnson 10)Rob Hartman DNS 11)Mark T. Cole DNS 12)Gary Wright DNS

1st Heat: 1)Randy Hannagan 2)Jason Soldwold 3)Lance Dewease 4)Jason Sides
5)Greg Hodnett 6)Sam Hafertepe, Jr. 7)Dustin Lindquist 8)Bob Felmlee 9)Steve Buckwalter 10)Brady Short 11)Danny Holtgraver 12)Michael L. Dehner

2nd Heat: 1)Tom Busch 2)Brandon Martin 3)Danny Lasoski 4)Nick Smith 5)Danny Martin, Jr. 6)Lucas Wolf 7)Brad Sweet 8)Jason Meyers 9)Chad Hillier 10)Tim VanderVere 11)Alan Krimes 12)Kaley Gharst

3rd Heat: 1)Mark Smith 2)Travis Rilat 3)Jeremy Campbell 4)Fred Rahmer 5)Craig Dollansky 6)Chad Kemenah 7)Brian Paulus 8)Jason Martin 9)Jeff Vandusen 10)Jeff Busby 11)Lee Stark 12)Paul McMahan

4th Heat: 1)Danny Smith 2)Zach Chappell 3)Greg Wilson 4)Terry McCarl 5)Tim Shaffer 6)Jesse Hockett 7)Justin Barger 8)Brian Ellenbergber 9)Cody Darrah 10)Robbie Vaughn 11)Riki Likowski 12)Tony Bruce, Jr.

'C' Main (Top 4 go to B and get times back): 1)Jeff Busby 2)Brady Short 3)Robbie Vaughn 4)Jeff Vandusen 5)Danny Holtgraver 6)Tim VanderVere 7)Lee Stark 8)Riki Likowski 9)Cody Darrah 10)Kaley Gharst 11)Michael L. Dehner 12)Johnny Johnson 13)Jason Meyers DNS 14)Rob Hartman DNS 15)Mark T. Cole DNS 16)Gary Wright DNS

'B' Main (Top 4 go to A and get times back and can start no higher than 7th):
1)Dustin Lindquist 2)Jesse Hockett 3)Chad Kemenah 4)Lucas Wolf 5)Brad Sweet
6)Jason Martin 7)Brian Paulus 8)Sam Hafertepe, Jr. 9)Bob Felmlee 10)Chad Hillier
11)Brian Ellenberger 12)Jeff Busby 13)Jeff Vandusen 14)Robbie Vaughn 15)Justin Barger 16)Steve Buckwalter 17)Brady Short 18)Alan Krimes DNS 19)Paul McMahan DNS 20)Tony Bruce, Jr. DNS

'A' Main (25 Laps): 1)Jason Sides 2)Tim Shaffer 3)Lance Dewease 4)Craig Dollansky 5)Greg Hodnett 6)Chad Kemenah 7)Zach Chappell 8)Jason Soldwold 9)Lucas Wolf
10)Terry McCarl 11)Greg Wilson 12)Danny Lasoski 13)Randy Hannagan 14)Dustin Lindquist 15)Jesse Hockett 16)Mark Smith 17)Jeremy Campbell 18)Danny Smith 19)Danny Martin, Jr. 20)Brandon Martin 21)Fred Rahmer 22)Nick Smith 23)Tom Busch 24)Travis Rilat



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