”We struggled all week and finally had everything come together tonight,” said a beaming Don O’Neal who became the fourth different winner in as many nights of the 11th Annual Open Wheel Modified Winternationals at East Bay Raceway Park, Friday night. His $l,500 first-place check marks the last of the preliminary nights leading up to Saturday’s championship night paying $5,000 to win.
The O’Neal story this week has been all bad luck. Plagued with engine issues, he failed to make the A-Main on Tuesday, finishing 14th in the B-Main. On Wednesday, he missed qualifying through his heat and then B-Main by just one spot. Thursday night after making the cut in his heat, he was unable to start the feature because of a trailing arm problem.
Finally, it all came together for O’Neal and his car builder Joe Godsey and his new Outlaw chassis creation Friday night. After his crew consisting of Fudgie, John Shelty and the three members of the Godsey clam – Joe, his father Tony and his grandfather Ray spent hours changing engines, oil pumps and oil pans, then going over the entire car, they were rewarded for their hard work with a win.
O’Neal won his heat in convincing style from outside second row and then started fourth in the 25-lap feature after a pill draw for the heat winners. Perry Brown started on pole, but it only took O’Neal three laps to make his pass for the lead outside in turn three. From that point on, O’Neal drove away after each yellow flag. Just before a lap seven restart, he had a 2.5 second lead. Then, it only took another five laps to gain that advantage again, maybe because O’Neal chose a different tire compound from most of the field.
The winner carried sponsorship from John Shelty shocks, Integra Racing Shocks, Budda Transmission, O’Neal Wood Products, P.A. Racing, Premier Racing Suspension, Outlaw Chassis out of Bedford IN, Rightway Construction, Out Pace Rods, Franklin Rear Ends and UB Products. The team utilized two engine builders – SPEC and Bill Tranter.
Brown had tough luck and was disqualified after losing a muffler on lap seven while running third behind Dave Hess, Jr. On lap 18, O’Neal had a close call in turn four when the lapped car of Kyle Bronson spun and almost collected the leader, giving O’Neal lots of damage to his right rear panel and almost got his right rear wheel.
On lap 21 Jeff Mathews got by Hess, but wasn’t able to close on O’Neal, but just three laps later, Jared Landers managed to squeek by Mathews to nail second spot. Landers came two days late with his Mark Martin Ford/Chevy sponsored Shaw by Landers Chassis that he just finished building. Buzzie Reutimann started seventh and finished fourth, while Hess, Jr. held on for a top five finish.
Rounding out the top 10 it was Rodney Wing, Rick Aukland, Vic Vena, Mike Potosky and Kevin Weaver. From the first B-Main Austin Sanders, kStevan Pfeifer, Ting and Stormy Scott advanced, while the second B-Main sent Stanley Donahoo, Dave Dixon, Aukland and J.R. Hotovy to the A-Main. Brady Short won the Strawberry Dash.
STATS – OPEN WHEEL MODIFIEDS – EAST BAY RACEWAY PARK – FRIDAY, 1/29/10
Qualifying Results:
1. 71 Don O’Neal – 16.875; 2. 00D Stanley Donahoo – 17.026; 3. 01 Vic Vena – 17.063; 4. 89 Mike Spatola – 17.147; 5. 36 Brady Short – 17.261; 6. 29 Alan Farley – 17.385; 7. 9 Roger Crouse – 17.409; 8. 40 Kyle Bronson – 17.437; 9. 33X Rodney Wing – 17.447; 10. 44 Dave Hess, Jr. – 17.499; 11. 33 Jeff Mathews – 17.512; 12. 9M Dale Mathison – 17.531; 13. 83B Perry Brown – 17.533; 14. 00X Jesse Stovall – 17.572; 15. 00 Buzzie Reutimann – 17.579; 16. 4 Stormy Scott – 17.601; 17. 64 Austin Sanders – 17.611; 18. 22 Dale Kelley – 17.618; 19. 45 Bob Broking – 17.636; 20. 11 Steven Pfeifer – 17.776; 21. 777 Jared Landers – 17.796; 22. 0 Les Duellman – 17.859; 23. 1 Tommie Seets, Jr. – 17.860; 24. 6M Terry McClintock – 17.877; 25. 27M John McCaul – 17.897; 26. 3F Rob Fuqua – 17.897; 27. 38 Rick Cannata – 17.900; 28. 21S Denny Schwartz – 17.915; 29. K12 Scotty Kincaid – 17.943; 30. 6B Dave Baldwin – 17.945; 31. M20 Mike Potosky – 17.979: 32. 07P Tim Peterson – 18.002; 33. 7A Shane Sabraski – 18.019; 34. B12 Kevin Weaver – 18.045; 35. 2 Devin Dixon – 18.149; 36. 26 Bobby Gierke – 18.178; 37. 10 Tyson Turnbull – 18.206; 38. 02 Glen Underwood – 18.288; 39. 19 Thomas Sigler – 18.302; 40. 27N Nate Bregenzer – 18.325; 41. 62 Jeremy Newberry – 18.349; 42. 23 Terry Haven – 18.365; 43. 96 Curt Gelling – 18.382; 44. 27 John Bradley – 18.382; 45. 13 J.R. Hotovy – 18.384; 46. 88 Darrell George – 18.420; 47. 27H Tom Hagberg – 18.479; 48. 999 Duanne Dale – 18.493; 49. 77 Bruce Bregenzer – 18.563; 50. 25W Allen Weisser – 18.572; 51. 96X Dennis Haven – 18.791; 52. 3K Jeremy Kerzman – 19.133; 53. 40H Wayne Hammond – 19.589; 54. 11X Jason Schill – 19.784; 55. C00L Chris Littrell – 20.234; 56. Z1 Zac Oedewaldt – 23.860; 57. 8 Wesley Summers – N/T; 58. 2A Rick Aukland – N/T
1st Heat – 1)Buzzie Reutimann 2)Vic Vena 3)Steven Pfeifer 4)Stormy Scott 5)Tim Peterson 6)Duanne Dale 7)Brady Short 8)Jesse Stovall DNS
2nd Heat – 1)Don O’Neal 2)Jeff Mathews 3)Austin Sanders 4)Rodney Wing 5)Shane Sabraski 6)Nate Bregenzer 7)Jeremy Kerzman 8)Wesley Summers DNS
3rd Heat – 1)Dale Mathison 2)Bob Broking 3)Dave Baldwin 4)Curt Gelling 5)Terry Haven 6)Darrell George 7)Chris Littrell
4th Heat – 1)Jared Landers 2)Mike Potosky 3)Wayne Hammond 4)Tom Hagberg 5)Jeremy Newberry 6)Glen Underwood 7)Terry McClintock DNS
5th Heat – 1)Kevin Weaver 2)Denny Schwartz 3)Rick Aukland 4)Scotty Kincaid 5)John Bradley 6)Thomas Sigler 7)Jason Schill
6th Heat – 1)Dave Hess, Jr. 2)Les Duellman 3)Stanley Donahoo 4)Mike Spatola 5)Zac Oedewaldt 6)Dennis Haven 7)Bruce Bregenzer
7th Heat – 1)Perry Brown 2)John McCaul 3)Roger Crouse 4)J.R. Hotovy 5)Allen Weisser 6)Rick Cannata 7)Bobby Gierke
8th Heat – 1)Dale Kelley 2)Kyle Bronson 3)Alan Farley 4)Tommie Seets, Jr. 5)Tyson Turnbull 6)Devin Dixon 7)Rob Fuqua
1st B – Main (Top 4 go to back of A inside row) – 1)Austin Sanders 2)Steven Pfeifer 3)Rodney Wing 4)Stormy Scott 5)Wayne Hammond 6)Brady Short 7)Shane Sabraski 8)Curt Gelling 9)Tim Peterson 10)Jeremy Newberry 11)Duanne Dale 12)Terry Haven 13)Glen Underwood 14)Chris Littrell 15)Dave Baldwin 16)Nate Bregenzer 17)Darrell George 18)Tom Hagberg 19)Jeremy Kerzman 20)Jesse Stovall DNS 21)Wesley Summers DNS 22)Terry McClintock DNS
2nd B – Main (Top 4 go to back of A outside row) – 1)Stanley Donahoo 2)Devin Dixon 3)Rick Aukland 4)J.R. Hotovy 5)Tommie Seets, Jr. 6)John Bradley 7)Tyson Turnbull 8)Allen Weisser 9)Mike Spatola 10)Bobby Gierke 11)Bruce Bregenzer 12)Zac Oedewaldt 13)Dennis Haven 14)Thomas Sigler 15)Rob Fuqua 16)Alan Farley 17)Roger Crouse 18)Scotty Kincaid 19)Rick Cannata 20)Jason Schill DNS
A – Main (25 Laps) – 1)Don O’Neal 2)Jared Landers 3)Jeff Mathews 4)Buzzie Reutimann 5)Dave Hess, Jr. 6)Rodney Wing 7)Rick Aukland 8)Vic Vena 9)Mike Potosky 10)Kevin Weaver 11)Austin Sanders 12)Denny Schwartz 13)Stanley Donahoo 14)Dale Kelley 15)Devin Dixon 16)Steven Pfeifer 17)Kyle Bronson 18)Dale Mathison 19)Bob Broking 20)Stormy Scott 21)Les Duellman 22)John McCaul 23)J.R. Hotovy 24)Perry Brown
Strawberry Dash – 1)Brady Short 2)Shane Sabraski 3)Thomas Sigler 4)Jeremy Newberry 5)Dennis Haven 6)Tom Hagberg
