By Jean Lynch for East Bay Raceway Park

Tampa, FL - February 1, 2007 - For several years, Randy Hannagan had been trying to get to the Sprint Winternationals at East Bay Raceway Park. Something always seemed to come up to prevent that first appearance….but not this year.

Hannagan, who is the driver of the No. 1X brand new Maxim, family sprint car owned by his brother Terry, admitted, “I’ve had a lot on my mind lately with my Mother fighting cancer, but it sure was nice to be here for the first time and get this win.”

“I’m on my second year with Penthouse Magazine as a sponsor and Brown and Miller, the hose and fitting people, came on board this year,” said Randy who now makes Pittsboro, Indiana his home. He also has help from Sander Engineering, Stage 8 Fasteners and Carbon Kenny.

“This is the first time in a main event I ran a pair of Hoosier 10’s and after talking with my crew, Chris and Steve, I think we will go one step harder for Saturday’s 40-lapper,” revealed the winner.

He proved that he was a quick learner by winning the $3,000 second night preliminary 25-lap feature over a strong field of 46 drivers. After timing eighth, for the second night in a row, two drivers who timed better than Hannagan failed to transfer through their heats, thus starting him on pole with Danny Smith outside.

Danny Lasoski and Paul McMahan made up row two, while Greg Hodnett and fast-timer Lucas Wolfe were in row three. Jason Sides and Alan Krimes timed second and third, but had to go through the B-Main to start in row four.

It was Danny Smith who jumped to an immediate lead and with just one lap in, Mark Smith spun to bring out the only caution just as the field started lap two. In single file formation, Danny Smith continued to lead Hannagan, Lasoski, Wolfe, Hodnett and Tim Shaffer.

While leading, Smith came upon a lapped car on the fifth circuit and jumped the inside curb and got a little sideways, which was just enough for second place Hannagan to power by on the outside and take the lead.

Hannagan never made a mistake and as the race got to the mid-portion, Smith kept the pressure on and was beside the leader several times. Hannagan closed in on the lapped car of Tom Busch, but followed him for several laps because he didn’t see the nose of another car threatening him for the lead.

Finally on lap 20, Hannagan made an inside more on Busch, sending him a lap down. From that point on, Hannagan started to pull away and built a three-second lead over Smith at the finish. Wolfe ran strong third, with Lasoski and Hodnett nailing down the top five spots. Shaffer, McMahan, Sides, Brandon Martin and Krimes rounded out the top ten.

Heats went to Danny Martin, Jr, Chad Kemenah, Jason Solwold and Greg Wilson. The C-Main advanced Kaley Gharst, Robbie Vaughn, Danny Holtgraver and Michael Dehner to the B-Main while the B-Main sent Sides, Jesse Hockett, Krimes and Mark Smith to the A-Main.

Total points from the two Preliminary nights lock in the top six for Saturday night’s $10,000-to-win feature. Those six are Greg Hodnett, Tim Shaffer, Jason Sides, Danny Lasoski, Lucas Wolfe and Craig Dollansky.

Qualifying Results: 1. 5W Lucas Wolfe – 12.627; 2. 7S Jason Sides – 12.634; 3. 87 Alan Krimes – 12.741; 4. 22 Greg Hodnett – 12.759; 5. 20 Paul McMahan – 12.767; 6. 83 Danny Lasoski – 12.791; 7. 4 Danny Smith – 12.816; 8. 1X Randy Hannagan – 12.907; 9. 00 Danny Martin, Jr. – 12.953; 10. 6 Tim Shaffer – 12.980; 11. 25 Lance Dewease – 12.989; 12. 7 Craig Dollansky – 13.000; 13. 10C Jeremy Campbell – 13.019; 14. 11 Brandon Martin – 13.026; 15. 24 Terry McCarl – 13.071; 16. 51 Fred Rahmer – 13.078; 17. 6F Bob Felmlee – 13.085; 18. 70 Chad Kemenah – 13.100;
19. R19 Jason Solwold – 13.142; 20. W20 Greg Wilson – 13.159; 21. 55 Mark Smith – 13.161; 22. 5 Dustin Lindquist – 13.192; 23. 5C Chad Hillier – 13.199; 24. 8K Zach Chappell – 13.199; 25. 4B Tom Busch – 13.239; 26. 75 Jesse Hockett – 13.252;
27. 28 Brian Paulus – 13.285; 28. 17B Steve Buckwalter – 13.287; 29. 20E Brian Ellenberger – 13.290; 30. 6S Brad Sweet – 13.300; 31. 36M Jason Martin – 13.302; 32. 15S Nick Smith – 13.330; 33. 47J Jeff Busby – 13.335; 34. 89 Cody Darrah – 13.338; 35. 15 Sam Hafertepe, Jr. – 13.434; 36. 36 Jason Meyers – 13.650;
37. 2 Todd Rittenhouse – 13.664; 38. 4R Robbie Vaughn – 13.804; 39. 3 Kaley Gharst – 13.827; 40. D4 Danny Holtgraver – 13.877; 41. 16 Lee Stark – 13.951;
42. 17 Michael L. Dehner – 14.045; 43. 7V Tim Vandervere – 14.367; 44. 6X Mark T. Cole – 14.636; 45. 7R Riki Lokowski – 14.730; 46. 72J Johnny Johnson – 16.264

1st Heat – 1)Danny Martin, Jr. 2)Jeremy Campbell 3)Paul McMahan 4)Tom Busch
5)Lucas Wolf 6)Bob Felmlee 7)Jeff Busby 8)Brian Ellenberger 9)Lee Stark 10)Riki Likowski 11)Mark Smith 12)Todd Rittenhouse DNS

2nd Heat – 1)Chad Kemenah 2)Dustin Lindquist 3)Tim Shaffer 4)Danny Lasoski
5)Brandon Martin 6)Jason Sides 7)Jesse Hockett 8)Brad Sweet 9)Cody Darrah
10)Michael L. Dehner 11)Robbie Vaughn 12)Johnny Johnson

3rd Heat – 1)Jason Soldwold 2)Lance Dewease 3)Chad Hillier 4)Terry McCarl
5)Danny Smith 6)Jason Martin 7)Alan Krimes 8)Brian Paulus 9)Sam Hafertepe, Jr.
10)Kaley Gharst 11)Tim Vandervere

4th Heat – 1)Greg Wilson 2)Fred Rahmer 3)Craig Dollansky 4)Randy Hannagan
5)Greg Hodnett 6)Jason Meyers 7)Steve Buckwalter 8)Danny Holtgraver 9)Zach Chappell 10)Nick Smith 11)Mark T. Cole

C – Main (Top 4 go to B and get times back) – 1)Kaley Gharst 2)Robbie Vaughn
3)Danny Holtgraver 4)Michael L. Dehner 5)Lee Stark 6)Mark T. Cole 7)Johnny Johnson 8)Tim Vandervere 9)Riki Likowski 10)Todd Rittenhouse DNS

B – Main (Top 4 go to A and get times back and can start no higher than 7th):
1)Jason Sides 2)Jesse Hockett 3)Alan Krimes 4)Mark Smith 5)Bob Felmlee 6)Brian Paulus 7)Zach Chappell 8)Brad Sweet 9)Jason Martin 10)Steve Buckwalter 11)Jason Meyers 12)Brian Ellenberger 13)Jeff Busby 14)Sam Hafertepe, Jr. 15)Robbie Vaughn 16)Danny Holtgraver 17)Michael L. Dehner 18)Kaley Gharst 19)Cody Darrah 20)Nick Smith

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

Florida Mini Sprints – (A Main – 20 laps) – 1)Heath Henly 2)Duane Harbaugh 3)Travis Senter 4)Wesley Gordon 5)Race Neely 6)Jim Young 7)Darryl Wills 8)Brent Marks 9)Lex Burritt 10)Brittany Frosh 11)Ryan Langston 12)Terry Monroe 13)Eddie Moss, Jr. 14)Steve Craig 15)Andrew Griffin 16)Caleb Armstrong 17)Luke Thomas 18)Jesse Teed 19)Alan Craig 20)Jimmy Glenn, Jr. 21)Kevin Bayer 22)Clayton Robertson 23)David Latour, Jr. 24)David Gravel 25)David Zarski 26)Mike Dicely

410 SPRINTS 2007 WINTER NATIONALS POINTS: 1 #22 Greg Hodnett 321;
2 #6 Tim Shaffer 316; 3 #7S Jason Sides 316; 4 #83 Danny Lasoski 311; 5 #5W Lucas Wolfe 311; 6 #7 Craig Dollansky 309; 7 #25 Lance Dewease 309; 8 #1X Randy Hannagan 308; 9 #4 Danny Smith 302; 10 #R19 Jason Solwold 297; 11 #W20 Greg Wilson 292; 12 #70 Chad Kemenah 291; 13 #24 Terry McCarl 291; 14 #11 Brandon Martin 289; 15 #00 Danny Martin, Jr. 289; 16 #10C Jeremy Campbell 284;
17 #51 Fred Rahmer 283; 18 #5 Dustin Lindquist 282; 19 #75 Jesse Hockett 276; 20 #8K Zach Chappell 276

Have an opinion on this story? E-MAIL KARNAC to send a letter to the editor!