By Jean Lynch

TAMPA, FLA. -January 30, 2009- “It was a last minute thing. I brought the car I ran last year with the same tires on it,” confessed Danny Martin, Jr. in his victory lane interview with Scott McAllister after collecting $l,500 for the kick-off race to the 33rd Anniversary Winternationals at East Bay Raceway Park.

The 11th Annual King of 360’s got underway Friday night with a strong field of 47 cars on hand for the event sanctioned, for the first time, by the ASCS Rebel Region. The first night of the scheduled three-day show was lost to heavy rains that dumped two inches on the Tampa track in 24 hours.

Martin led all 25 laps from his pole position, despite serious challenges in the last 10 laps from Gary Wright who finished second. Gene Lasker had a great run from eighth starting position, utilizing the high groove, to finish a solid third. Tony Bruce, Jr. ranked fourth ahead of 14th place starter Travis Rilat who came all the way up to fifth.

A pill draw determined the lineups for five eight-lap heat races which were won by Tyler Godwin, Jason Sides, R.J. Johnson, Lou Kennedy and Jesse Hockett.

Passing points were awarded and the top 12 in points after heats were locked into the A-Main with the top eight redrawing for positions. Four B-Mains each qualified two more for the feature to make a 20-car field.

Saturday’s 40-lap 8th Ronald Laney Memorial feature will determine who will wear the “King’s” crown and earn $10,000 plus a $2,500 bonus from Ronald’s father Marcus, for a total of $12,500.

RESULTS

STATS – ASCS 360 SPRINTS - EAST BAY RACEWAY PARK – FRIDAY, 1/30/09

1st Heat – 1)Tyler Godwin 2)Cale Conley 3)Gene Lasker 4)Bob Schaeffer 5)Frank Beck 6)Marshall Skinner 7)Keith Butler 8)Glenn Styres 9)Todd Fayard 10)Michael Miller

2nd Heat – 1)Jason Sides 2)Tony Bruce, Jr. 3)Travis Rilat 4)Terry Gray 5)Danny Wood 6)Shane Kriedler 7)Gavin Thomas 8)Wallace Sullivan 9)Brad Wickham 10)Frank Carlsson DNS

3rd Heat – 1)R.J. Johnson 2)Matt Tiffany 3)Danny Martin, Jr. 4)Derek Hager 5)Michael Parent 6)Dakotah Stephens 7)Paulie Milum 8)Scott Bonnell 9)Brock Mayes DQ

4th Heat – 1)Lou Kennedy 2)Greg Leonard 3)T.J. Luedke 4)Ryan Bickett 5)Bryan Grove 6)Matt Krutz 7)Amanda Ferguson 8)Bob Auld 9)TJ Winegardner DNS

5th Heat – 1)Jesse Hockett 2)Gary Wright 3)Brian Maddox 4)Wayne Reutimann 5)Shane Butler 6)Steve Poirier 7)Mike Schroeder 8)Brian Thomas 9)Aubrey Black

1st B – Main (Top 2 transfer to A) – 1)Matt Tiffany 2)Bob Schaeffer 3)Dakotah Stephens 4)Michael Parent 5)Glenn Styres 6)Aubrey Black 7)T.J. Luedke 8)Keith Butler 9)Todd Fayard

2nd B – Main (Top 2 transfer to A) – 1)Travis Rilat 2)Wayne Reutimann 3)Bryan Grove 4)Gavin Thomas 5)Matt Krutz 6)Brad Wickham 7)Danny Wood 8)Bob Auld DNS 9)Michael Miller DNS

3rd B – Main (Top 2 transfer to A) – 1)Terry Gray 2)Marshall Skinner 3)Frank Beck 4)Scott Bonnell 5)Brian Thomas 6)Amanda Ferguson 7)Paulie Milum 8)Shane Butler DNS

4th B – Main (Top 2 transfer to A) – 1)Tyler Godwin 2)Brock Mayes 3)Steve Poirier 4)Mike Schroeder 5)Shane Kreidler 6)Ryan Bickett 7)Wallace Sullivan 8)T.J. Winegardner DNS

A – Main (25 Laps) – 1)Danny Martin, Jr. 2)Gary Wright 3)Gene Lasker 4)Tony Bruce, Jr. 5)Rilat Travis 6)Jason Sides 7)Lou Kennedy 8)Greg Leonard 9)Cale Conley 10)Terry Gray 11)Brock Mayes 12)Marshall Skinner 13)Derek Hager 14)Wayne Reutimann 15)Brian Maddox 16)Bob Schaeffer 17)R.J. Johnson 18)Tyler Godwin 19)Jesse Hockett 20)Matt Tiffany

Florida Mini Sprints

1st Heat – 1)Eddie Moss, Jr. 2)Jesse Teed 3)Tim Buckmalter 4)Luke Thomas 5)Stephen Crabtree 6)Russ Heider 7)James Tsokatos, 8)Eddie Moss 9)Walter Arnold 10)Steve Craig 11)Rick Geiss DNS

2nd Heat – 1)Lex Burritt 2)Harold Matthews 3)Ryan Smith 4)Rick Bavregavye 5)Jason Brown 6)Jesse Hartman 7)Clayton Robertson 8)Eric Garey 9)Kevin McCaleb 10)Andy Detten

3rd Heat – 1)Todd Carmichael 2)Michael Dransfield 3)Marty Hargroder 4)Tim O’Donnell 5)Terri Peters 6)Brock Zearfoss 7)Brett O’Donnell 8)Matt Ebarb 9)Matt Lewis 10)Paul Lanza 11)Scott Green DNS

4th Heat – 1)Travis Senter 2)Ron Bishop 3)RobertEchols 4)Dustin Gates 5)Brian Robinson 6)Billy Vaninwegen 7)Ralph Wren 8)Chip Arnold 9)David Pleaugh 10)Justin Lineman 11)Jim Young 12)Leroy Moore DNS

B Main – 1)David Pleaugh 2)Eric Garey 3)Clayton Robertson 4)Eddie Moss 5)Matt Ebarb 6)Rick Geiss 7)Brett O’Donnell 8)Andy Detten 9)Matt Lewis 10)James Tsokatos 11)Walter Arnold 12)Paul Lanza 13)Steve Craig 14)Kevin McCaleb 15)Ralph Wren 16)Chip Arnold DNS 17)Justin Lineman DNS 18)Scott Green DNS 19)Jim Young DNS 20)Leroy Moore DNS

A Main (25 Laps) – 1)Travis Senter, Jr. 2)Tim Buckmalter 3)Luke Thomas 4)Tim O’Donnell 5)Michael Dransfield 6)Eddie Moss, Jr. 7)Marty Hargroder 8)Terri Peters 9)Stephen Crabtree 10)Jesse Teed 11)Rick Bavregavye 12)Ron Bishop 13)Brian Robinson 14)David Pleaugh 15)Jason Brown 16)Billy Vaninwegen 17)Robert Echols 18)Ryan Smith 19)Dustin Gates 20)Todd Carmichael 21)Brock Zearfoss 22)Jesse Hartman 23)Eric Garey 24)Russ Heider 25)Harold Matthews 26)Lex Burritt

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