Jeff Mathews showed everybody his winning ways at his home track, Tuesday night in Tampa, Florida by coming from outside second row starting position to lead all 25 laps for a $1,000 prize in the kick-off race of the 11th Annual Open Wheel Modified portion of East Bay Raceway Park’s 34th Annual Winternationals.
“I run here all year and I knew not to come off the bottom,” explained Mathews, the Modified and Late Model ’09 East Bay track champion. Also, winning the Modified Championship at Ocala, the Dover FL driver used his own Shaw chassis, powered by Robert Delgado engines, to build a three-second lead over Dave Hess, Jr. when the first yellow came out on lap 11 for mechanical problems on Shane Sabraski’s No. 7A J-Car.
Following a second caution one lap later, Hess decided to try the top and made a valiant effort to stay with Mathews, but could never pull even. The leader was aware of Hess trying the cushion, but was never tempted to move up. Instead, Mathews continued to stick with the bottom and after the final yellow for last year’s Winternationals’ winner Rodney Wing who lost power high in turn four, Mathews was 2.5 seconds ahead when flagman Ronnie Luckock showed the field ‘five-to-go’.
The brightly colored winner’s car No. 33 showed sponsorship from Bay Gulf Credit Union, Buddy’s Home Furnishings and Mathews own business, Night Hawk Towing.
Second place finisher, Pennsylvania driver Hess, who started second, used the same Clinger-Built car he brought here two years ago and said, “I spent most of the night just trying to get used to the track. Our basic set-up is similar to an ‘old Rocket’ style and we are using Genesis Race Shocks and Craiger Race Engines.” Sponsorship is from Hess’ Garage and Salvage in Waterford PA.
There was a lot of passing during the feature as third place finisher Stormy Scott out of Las Cruces NM, started 17th and utilized every opening in traffic to move to fourth by that first caution on lap 11. Scott claimed, “The night was a tire guessing game for me.” His chassis, a Shaw by Wade Moyer Race Cars, is owned by J.R. Baxter and sponsored by JR Restaurant Equipment. The 20-year old Scott was UMP Champion of the Wild West Region.
Local driver Perry Brown started his C&R Motorsports Harris powered by Jimmy’s Custom Engines in fifth and finished fourth. Meanwhile, Kevin Weaver started his own four-year old Pierce chassis in 21st spot and climbed to 11th by the first caution on lap ll. Announcer Chris Stepan made sure the crowd was watching as Weaver put on a crowd-pleasing drive on the cushion for the last 10 laps which vaulted him to a top five finish.
Rounding out the top 10 it was Tommie Seets, Jr., Mike Potosky, Roger Crouse, John Bradley and Brady Short. Heat winners who redrew for starting spots were Short, Buzzie Reutimann, Mathews, Hess, Jr., Potosky,Brown, Sabraski andJason Schill. From the first B- Main the four cars to advance were Scott, Vic Vena, Weaver and Kyle Bronson. The second B sent Brian Hayden, Scotty Kincaid, John McCaul and Denny Schwartz to the back of the A-Main. Steve Lance won the Strawberry Dash.
Matthews Wins Open Wheel Modifieds Night One Of Winternationals At East Bay Raceway Park!
(Mike Horne Photo)
#B12 Kevin Weaver Started 21st And Finished 5th While #4 Stormy Scott Ended Up 4th In The Open Wheel Modified Action Of Night One At East Bay Raceway Park! (Mike Horne Photo)
STATS – OPEN WHEEL MODIFIEDS – EAST BAY RACEWAY PARK – TUESDAY, 1/26/10
Qualifying Results:
1. 00 Buzzie Reutimann – 17.065; 2. 11X Jason Schill – 17.125; 3. 48 Wayne Hammond – 17.187; 4. 33 Jeff Mathews – 17.206; 5. 2A Rick Aukland – 17.317; 6. 3F Rob Fuqua – 17.328; 7. 2 Devin Dixon – 17.331; 8. 33X Rodney Wing – 17.351; 9. 11 Steven Pfeifer – 17.363; 10. 01 Vic Vena – 17.421; 11. 4 Stormy Scott – 17.445; 12. 44 Dave Hess, Jr. – 17.447; 13. 40 Kyle Bronson – 17.462; 14. 27 John Bradley – 17.507; 15. 2H Brian Hayden – 17.534; 16. K12 Scotty Kincaid – 17.557; 17. 00G Greg Reutimann – 17.614; 18. 7A Shane Sabraski – 17.623; 19. 19 Thomas Sigler – 17.669; 20. 1 Tommie Seets, Jr. – 17.675; 21. M20 Mike Potosky – 17.728; 22. B12 Kevin Weaver – 17.737; 23. 00D Stanley Donahoo – 17.769; 24. 36 Brady Short – 17.793; 25. 9M Dale Mathison – 17.803; 26. 10 Tyson Turnbull – 17.837; 27. 13 J.R. Hotovy – 17.867; 28. 83B Perry Brown – 17.909; 29. 9 Roger Crouse – 17.922; 30. 112 Steve Lance – 18.004; 31. 6M Terry McClintock – 18.013; 32. 29 Alan Farley – 18.013; 33. 21S Denny Schwartz – 18.088; 34. 27M John McCaul – 18.092; 35. 02 Glen Underwood – 18.109; 36. 64 Austin Sanders – 18.268; 37. 07P Tim Peterson – 18.392; 38. 23 Terry Haven – 18.436; 39. 62 Jeremy Newberry – 18.595; 40. 77 Bruce Bregenzer – 18.673; 41. 96X Dennis Haven – 18.751; 42. 71 Don O’Neal – 18.791; 43. 0 Les Duellman – 18.850; 44. 6B Dave Baldwin – 18.922; 45. 25W Allen Weisser – 19.204; 46. Z1 Zac Oedewaldt – 19.389; 47. 96 Curt Gelling – 19.513; 48. 38 Rick Cannata – 21.140; 49. 8 Wesley Summers – 23.588; 50. 27N Nate Bregenzer – 49.195; 51. 999 Duanne Dale – NT; 52. 89 Mike Spatola – NT; 53. 22 Dale Kelley – NT
1st Heat – 1)Brady Short 2)Roger Crouse 3)Stormy Scott 4)Kevin Weaver 5)Austin Sanders 6)Don O’Neal 7)Steve Lance
2nd Heat – 1)Buzzie Reutimann 2)Rob Fuqua 3)Vic Vena 4)Rick Aukland 5)Dale Mathison 6)Dave Baldwin 7)Terry McClintock
3rd Heat – 1)Jeff Mathews 2)Duanne Dale 3)Terry Haven 4)Tim Peterson 5)Nate Bregenzer 6)Zac Oedewaldt 7)Jeremy Newberry
4th Heat – 1)Dave Hess, Jr. 2)Rodney Wing 3)Kyle Bronson 4)Thomas Sigler 5)Devin Dixon 6)Les Duellman
5th Heat – 1)Mike Potosky 2)Tommie Seets, Jr. 3)Mike Spatola 4)Bruce Bregenzer 5)Greg Reutimann 6)Rick Cannata DNS
6th Heat – 1)Perry Brown 2)Stanley Donahoo 3)Scotty Kincaid 4)John McCaul 5)Wesley Summers 6)Dennis Haven
7th Heat – 1)Shane Sabraski 2)Wayne Hammond 3)Denny Schwartz 4)J.R. Hotovy 5)Curt Gelling 6)Steven Pfeifer 7)Alan Farley
8th Heat – 1)Jason Schill 2)John Bradley 3)Brian Hayden 4)Tyson Turnbull 5)Allen Weisser 6)Glen Underwood 7)Dale Kelley DNS
1st B – Main (Top 4 go to back of A inside row) – 1)Stormy Scott 2)Vic Vena 3)Kevin Weaver 4)Kyle Bronson 5)Rick Aukland 6)Dale Mathison 7)Dave Baldwin 8)Thomas Sigler 9)Terry McClintock 10)Jeremy Newberry 11)Tim Peterson 12)Terry Haven 13)Steve Lance 14)Don O’Neal 15)Zac Oedewaldt 16)Nate Bregenzer 17)Devin Dixon 18)Les Duellman 19)Austin Sanders DNS
2nd B – Main (Top 4 go to back of A outside row) – 1)Brian Hayden 2)Scotty Kincaid 3)John McCaul 4)Denny Schwartz 5)Steven Pfeifer 6)Allen Weisser 7)Tyson Turnbull 8)Alan Farley 9)Rick Cannata 10)Glen Underwood 11)Wesley Summers 12)J.R. Hotovy 13)Curt Gelling 14)Dennis Haven 15)Mike Spatola 16)Bruce Bregenzer 17)Greg Reutimann DNS 18)Dale Kelley DNS
A – Main – (25 Laps)
Finish – Driver, Car # (Start)
1. Jeff Mathews, 33 (4)
2. Dave Hess, Jr., 44 (2)
3. Stormy Scott, 4 (17)
4. Perry Brown, 83B (5)
5. Kevin Weaver, B12 (21)
6. Tommie Seets, Jr., 1 (13)
7. Mike Potosky , m20 (1)
8. Roger Crouse, 9 (9)
9. John Bradley, 27 (16)
10. Brady Short, 36 (3)
11. John McCaul, 27M (22)
12. Duanne Dale, 999 (11)
13. Kyle Bronson, 40 (23)
14. Wayne Hammond, 48 (15)
15. Scotty Kincaid, k12 (20)
16. Vic Vena, 01 (19)
17. Brian Hayden, 2H (18)
18. Jason Schill, 11x (6)
19. Rodney Wing, 33x (12)
20. Stanley Donahoo, 00d (14)
21. Buzzie Reutimann, 00 (8)
22. Shane Sabraski, 8 (7)
23. Rob Fuqua, 3F (10)
24. Denny Schwartz, 21 (24)
Strawberry Dash – 1)Steve Lance 2)Allen Weisser 3)Mike Spatola 4)Tim Peterson 5)Glen Underwood 6)Terry McClintock
