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“This is definitely the biggest win I’ve ever had,” said Ryan Aho, a second year Modified driver, who only led one lap of the 25-lap feature on night two of the three-day 10th Annual Open Wheel Modified Winternationals, a part of East Bay Raceway Park’s 33rd Anniversary season.
It was the first time for Aho to visit the ‘clay by the bay’ and his new team of Richard Bell, Eric Anderson, Whitney Aho and John Massingill performed like pros. His brand new Galloper Chassis from Fast Lane Motorsports out of Ashland WI was dialed in perfectly.
The car is owned by Carpenter Motorsports and John Carpenter was not at the track early. He got a phone call after Aho won his heat and hustled over to the track in time to witness the feature event and celebrate with the team. Involved in racing for over 20 years, the owner thanked his sponsors Radko Iron & Supply, Truck & Equipment Repair, Portable John, Carpenter Brothers Tree & Stump Removal.
Using an engine built by Tesar Engineering, a father and son team (Mike
and Gary Tesar) from Long Lake MN, Aho started third and ran there most of the race. The changes he made after his heat included freeing the car up and going to harder tires. But he pointed out after the race that his tire looked like a drag tire with no tread.
Weekly racing for Aho is Wissota sanctioned races at his home track in Hibbing MN. He admitted he learned a lot tonight and had to exercise patience from the half-way on from his third spot as he followed early leader Scott Drake and then Rodney Wing. With the laps winding down, Wing shreaded a tire on lap 22 while leading and Jared Landers inherited the lead. The Batesville, Arkansas driver had enjoyed five wins in Florida before coming to East Bay.
But, Landers’ lead was short lived as his right rear went flat coming for the checkered flag and Aho was right there to squeek out the win over Landers.
The Friday the 13th show proved unlucky for some drivers, with two different race leaders having flat tires. But, third place finisher Kevin Weaver had some luck come his way.
Weaver, who started 13th, was only up to eighth by lap 17. “When the track took rubber later in the race, everybody wanted to run the bottom, so I decided to try a higher groove,” said Weaver who was using the same Bob Pierce chassis he had here three year ago. Although most of his racing is behind the wheel of a Late Model (about 60 times a year), he makes the ten or 12 times he climbs into his Modified count. He assembles his own engines and carries sponsorship from Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches, a nationally known shop based in Charleston IL, that prides itself on the “we deliver” motto.
Ray Guss, Jr. started fifth and finished a close fourth while Rob Fuqua, who put three hard tires on his Pierce chassis, earned a fifth place finish after starting tenth.
Rounding out the top ten it was Tommie Seets, Jr., Shane Burrows, Kent Robinson, then Drake who led the first seven laps and Steven Lance, Jr.
Guss had quick time of the 75 cars on hand and was one of five cars in the 16 second bracket. The eight heat winners were Perry Brown, Buzzie Reutimann, Aho, Lance, Guss, Landers, Wing and Drake.
Stanley Donahoo won the Brandon Farms Strawberry Dash, while two C-Mains sent Kevin Gummere, Chad Evans, Ray Engels, Brandon Short, Steve Hughes, Joe Carr, Donahoo and Todd Neiheiser to the back of two B-Mains.
Transferring to the A-Main from the B’s it was Gary Cook, Jr, Shane Burrows, Darrell Nelson, Mike Hanson, Kent Robinson, Ben Stephens, Mark Noble and Dale Kelley.
Saturday’s show will feature a 75-lapper with $8,000 going to the Open Wheel Modified winner. Warm ups at 6:00 and racing at 7:00PM.
Thanks, Jean Lynch for East Bay Raceway Park
STATS – OPEN WHEEL MODIFIEDS – EAST BAY RACEWAY PARK – FRIDAY, 2/13/09
Qualifying Results:
1. 128 Ray Guss, Jr. – 16.793; 2. 12H Mike Hanson – 16.882; 3. 36 Brady Short – 16.887; 4. 51 Rodney Wing –16.927; 5. 6L Joey Back – 16.965; 6. 777 Jared Landers – 17.003; 7. 182 – Randle Sweeney – 17.015; 8. 40 Wayne Hammond – 17.027; 9. 51X Eddie Martin – 17.054; 10. B12 – Kevin Weaver – 17.057; 11. 112 Steven Lance, Jr. – 17.064; 12. 4 Stormy Scott – 17.068; 13. 2X Grant Junghans – 17.073; 14. 2B Devin Dixon – 17.076; 15. 74 Mark Noble – 17.085; 16. 27 John Bradley – 17.148; 17. 9 Kent Arment – 17.158; 18. 01 Shane Burrows – 17.168; 19. 3F Rob Fuqua – 17.176; 20. 44N Darrell Nelson – 17.178; 21. 7R Kent Robinson – 17.183; 22. 71A Ryan Aho – 17.188; 23. 22 Dale Kelley – 17.194; 24. 83B Perry Brown – 17.220; 25. 0 Les Duellman – 17.228; 26. 64X Gary Cook, Jr. – 17.234; 27. 1 Tommie Seets, Jr. – 17.240; 28. 12D Scott Drake – 17.249 29. 11B Jamie Burrows – 17.255; 30. 96G Curt Gelling – 17.264; 31. 222 Gary Eicher – 17.268; 32. 07P Tim Peterson – 17.271; 33. 64 Austin Sanders – 17.273; 34. 6B Dave Baldwin – 17.277; 35. 33 Jeff Mathews – 17.342; 36. 52X David McDonald – 17.380; 37. 21 Andy Gordon – 17.391; 38. 23L Louie Kurshansky – 17.400; 39. 39 Kevin Gummere – 17.422; 40. 72 Todd Neiheiser – 17.435; 41. 00 Stanley Donahoo – 17.442; 42. 24H Mike Harrison – 17.443; 43. 41G Matt Goulden – 17.445; 44. 18X Chase Junghans – 17.465; 45. 26 Bobby Gierke – 17.471; 46. 34 Ben Stephens – 17.484; 47. 17X Richard Michael, Jr. – 17.520; 48. 99 Corey Partin – 17.530; 49. 141 Mike Sullivan – 17.541; 50. 00B Buzzie Reutimann – 17.545; 51. N59 Chad Evans – 17.547; 52. 20X Steve Hughes – 17.585; 53. 21T Aaron Turnbull – 17.689; 54. 19 Thomas Sigler – 17.689; 55. 3 Alex Boerner – 17.694; 56. 63 Scotty Williams – 17.696; 57. 33X Roger Crouse – 17.701; 58. 83 Joe Waba – 17.705; 59. 13 Ryan Engels – 17.725; 60. 11 Kelly Devall – 17.734; 61. K12 Scotty Kincaid – 17.742; 62. 31 Brian Hollifield – 17.781; 63. C00L Chris Littrell – 17.811; 64. 12 Joe Carr – 17.812; 65. 46 Brandon Short – 17.820; 66. 23T Terry Haven – 17.833; 67. 73 Jeremy Simpson – 17.940; 68. 88 Darrell George – 17.944; 69. 10T Tyson Turnbull – 18.271; 70. 96 Dennis Haven – 18.323; 71. 77 Cory Mann – 18.529; 72. 4B Billy Boyd, Jr. – 19.250; 73. 15T Erick Thiesse – 20.468; 74. 07 Jeff Thomas – 24.431; 75. 79 Dakotah Stephens – N/T
1st Heat – 1)Perry Brown 2)Kent Arment 3)Shane Burrows 4)Richard Michael, Jr. 5)Mike Harrison 6)Grant Junghans 7)Brandon Short 8)Austin Sanders 9)Dave Baldwin 10)Darrell George
2nd Heat – 1)Buzzie Reutimann 2)Rob Fuqua 3)Gary Cook, Jr. 4)Darrell Nelson 5)Joe Waba 6)Matt Goulden 7)Chad Evans 8)Jamie Burrows 9)Chris Littrell 10)Jeremy Simpson
3rd Heat – 1)Ryan Aho 2)Stormy Scott 3)Devin Dixon 4)Chase Junghans 5)Bobby Gierke 6)Thomas Sigler 7)Alex Boerner 8)Aaron Turnbull 9)Dennis Haven 10)Erick Thiesse
4th Heat – 1)Steven Lance, Jr. 2)Wayne Hammond 3)Mike Hanson 4)Roger Crouse 5)Jeff Mathews 6)Les Duellman 7)Kevin Gummere 8)Ryan Engels 9)Randle Sweeney
5th Heat – 1)Ray Guss, Jr. 2)Kevin Weaver 3)Kent Robinson 4)Brady Short 5)Joey Back 6)Jeff Thomas 7)Steve Hughes 8)Tyson Turnbull 9)Terry Haven
6th Heat – 1)Jared Landers 2)Tommie Seets, Jr. 3)Mark Noble 4)Ben Stephens 5)Andy Gordon 6)Tim Peterson 7)Joe Carr 8)Corey Partin 9)Billy Boyd, Jr.
7th Heat – 1)Rodney Wing 2)David McDonald 3)Curt Gelling 4)Louie Krushansky 5)Eddie Martin 6)Kelly Devall 7)Stanley Donahoo 8)Todd Neiheiser 9)Scotty Williams
8th Heat – 1)Scott Drake 2)Gary Eicher 3)Dale Kelley 4)John Bradley 5)Mike Sullivan 6)Brian Hollifield 7)Scotty Kincaid 8)Cory Mann 9)Dakotah Stephens
1st C – Main (Top 4 go to back of 1st B) – 1)Kevin Gummere 2)Chad Evans 3)Ryan Engels 4)Brandon Short 5)Aaron Turnbull 6)Alex Boerner 7)Chris Littrell 8)Dave Baldwin 9)Dennis Haven 10)Randle Sweeney 11)Austin Sanders 12)Darrell George 13)Jeremy Simpson 14)Erick Thiesse 15)Jamie Burrow DNS
2nd C – Main (Top 4 go to back of 2nd B) – 1)Steve Hughes 2)Joe Carr 3)Stanley Donahoo 4)Todd Neiheiser 5)Scotty Kincaid 6)Tyson Turnbull 7)Scotty Williams 8)Terry Haven 9)Billy Boyd, Jr. 10)Corey Partin 11)Cory Mann 12)Dakotah Stephens DNS
1st B – Main (Top 4 go to back of A inside row) – 1)Gary Cook, Jr. 2)Shane Burrows 3)Darrell Nelson 4)Mike Hanson 5)Chase Junghans 6)Jeff Mathews 7)Roger Crouse 8)Devin Dixon 9)Chad Evans 10)Ryan Engels 11)Brandon Short 12)Richard Michael, Jr. 13)Kevin Gummere 14)Thomas Sigler 15)Les Duellman 16)Matt Goulden 17)Mike Harrison 18)Bobby Gierke 19)Joe Waba 20)Grant Junghans DNS
2nd B – Main (Top 4 go to back of A outside row) – 1)Kent Robinson 2)Ben Stephens 3)Mark Noble 4)Dale Kelley 5)Andy Gordon 6)Stanley Donahoo 7)Curt Gelling 8)Todd Neiheiser 9)Joey Back 10)Louie Krushansky 11)Jeff Thomas 12)Brian Hollifield 13)Mike Sullivan 14)Kelly Devall 15)Eddie Martin 16)Brady Short 17)Tim Peterson 18)Steve Hughes 19)Joe Carr 20)John Bradley Brandon Farms Strawberry Dash – 1)Stanley Donahoo 2)Todd Neiheiser 3)Joe Waba 4)Kelly Devall 5)Erick Thiesse 6)Aaron Turnbull 7)Tim Peterson 8)Thomas Sigler 9)Curt Gelling 10)Kevin Gummere
A – Main (25 Laps) – 1)Ryan Aho 2)Jared Landers 3)Kevin Weaver 4)Ray Guss, Jr. 5)Rob Fuqua 6)Tommie Seets, Jr. 7)Shane Burrows 8)Kent Robinson 9)Scott Drake 10)Steven Lance, Jr. 11)Gary Eicher 12)Wayne Hammond 13)Rodney Wing 14)Gary Cook, Jr. 15)Mark Noble 16)Dale Kelley 17)Perry Brown 18)Kent Arment 19)Ben Stephens 20)Buzzie Reutimann 21)Mike Hanson 22)Stormy Scott 23)Darrell Nelson 24)David McDonald
