\u201dWe struggled all week and finally had everything come together tonight,\u201d said a beaming Don O\u2019Neal 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\u2019s championship night paying $5,000 to win.<\/p>\n
The O\u2019Neal 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.<\/p>\n
Finally, it all came together for O\u2019Neal 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 \u2013 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.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Neal 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\u2019Neal three laps to make his pass for the lead outside in turn three. From that point on, O\u2019Neal 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\u2019Neal chose a different tire compound from most of the field.<\/p>\n
The winner carried sponsorship from John Shelty shocks, Integra Racing Shocks, Budda Transmission, O\u2019Neal 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 \u2013 SPEC and Bill Tranter.<\/p>\n
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\u2019Neal had a close call in turn four when the lapped car of Kyle Bronson spun and almost collected the leader, giving O\u2019Neal lots of damage to his right rear panel and almost got his right rear wheel.<\/p>\n
On lap 21 Jeff Mathews got by Hess, but wasn\u2019t able to close on O\u2019Neal, 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
STATS \u2013 OPEN WHEEL MODIFIEDS \u2013 EAST BAY RACEWAY PARK \u2013 FRIDAY, 1\/29\/10<\/p>\n
Qualifying Results:
\n1. 71 Don O\u2019Neal \u2013 16.875; 2. 00D Stanley Donahoo \u2013 17.026; 3. 01 Vic Vena \u2013 17.063; 4. 89 Mike Spatola \u2013 17.147; 5. 36 Brady Short \u2013 17.261; 6. 29 Alan Farley \u2013 17.385; 7. 9 Roger Crouse \u2013 17.409; 8. 40 Kyle Bronson \u2013 17.437; 9. 33X Rodney Wing \u2013 17.447; 10. 44 Dave Hess, Jr. \u2013 17.499; 11. 33 Jeff Mathews \u2013 17.512; 12. 9M Dale Mathison \u2013 17.531; 13. 83B Perry Brown \u2013 17.533; 14. 00X Jesse Stovall \u2013 17.572; 15. 00 Buzzie Reutimann \u2013 17.579; 16. 4 Stormy Scott \u2013 17.601; 17. 64 Austin Sanders \u2013 17.611; 18. 22 Dale Kelley \u2013 17.618; 19. 45 Bob Broking \u2013 17.636; 20. 11 Steven Pfeifer \u2013 17.776; 21. 777 Jared Landers \u2013 17.796; 22. 0 Les Duellman \u2013 17.859; 23. 1 Tommie Seets, Jr. \u2013 17.860; 24. 6M Terry McClintock \u2013 17.877; 25. 27M John McCaul \u2013 17.897; 26. 3F Rob Fuqua \u2013 17.897; 27. 38 Rick Cannata \u2013 17.900; 28. 21S Denny Schwartz \u2013 17.915; 29. K12 Scotty Kincaid \u2013 17.943; 30. 6B Dave Baldwin \u2013 17.945; 31. M20 Mike Potosky \u2013 17.979: 32. 07P Tim Peterson \u2013 18.002; 33. 7A Shane Sabraski \u2013 18.019; 34. B12 Kevin Weaver \u2013 18.045; 35. 2 Devin Dixon \u2013 18.149; 36. 26 Bobby Gierke \u2013 18.178; 37. 10 Tyson Turnbull \u2013 18.206; 38. 02 Glen Underwood \u2013 18.288; 39. 19 Thomas Sigler \u2013 18.302; 40. 27N Nate Bregenzer \u2013 18.325; 41. 62 Jeremy Newberry \u2013 18.349; 42. 23 Terry Haven \u2013 18.365; 43. 96 Curt Gelling \u2013 18.382; 44. 27 John Bradley \u2013 18.382; 45. 13 J.R. Hotovy \u2013 18.384; 46. 88 Darrell George \u2013 18.420; 47. 27H Tom Hagberg \u2013 18.479; 48. 999 Duanne Dale \u2013 18.493; 49. 77 Bruce Bregenzer \u2013 18.563; 50. 25W Allen Weisser \u2013 18.572; 51. 96X Dennis Haven \u2013 18.791; 52. 3K Jeremy Kerzman \u2013 19.133; 53. 40H Wayne Hammond \u2013 19.589; 54. 11X Jason Schill \u2013 19.784; 55. C00L Chris Littrell \u2013 20.234; 56. Z1 Zac Oedewaldt \u2013 23.860; 57. 8 Wesley Summers \u2013 N\/T; 58. 2A Rick Aukland \u2013 N\/T<\/p>\n
1st Heat \u2013 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
\n2nd Heat \u2013 1)Don O\u2019Neal 2)Jeff Mathews 3)Austin Sanders 4)Rodney Wing 5)Shane Sabraski 6)Nate Bregenzer 7)Jeremy Kerzman 8)Wesley Summers DNS
\n3rd Heat \u2013 1)Dale Mathison 2)Bob Broking 3)Dave Baldwin 4)Curt Gelling 5)Terry Haven 6)Darrell George 7)Chris Littrell
\n4th Heat \u2013 1)Jared Landers 2)Mike Potosky 3)Wayne Hammond 4)Tom Hagberg 5)Jeremy Newberry 6)Glen Underwood 7)Terry McClintock DNS
\n5th Heat \u2013 1)Kevin Weaver 2)Denny Schwartz 3)Rick Aukland 4)Scotty Kincaid 5)John Bradley 6)Thomas Sigler 7)Jason Schill
\n6th Heat \u2013 1)Dave Hess, Jr. 2)Les Duellman 3)Stanley Donahoo 4)Mike Spatola 5)Zac Oedewaldt 6)Dennis Haven 7)Bruce Bregenzer
\n7th Heat \u2013 1)Perry Brown 2)John McCaul 3)Roger Crouse 4)J.R. Hotovy 5)Allen Weisser 6)Rick Cannata 7)Bobby Gierke
\n8th Heat \u2013 1)Dale Kelley 2)Kyle Bronson 3)Alan Farley 4)Tommie Seets, Jr. 5)Tyson Turnbull 6)Devin Dixon 7)Rob Fuqua<\/p>\n
1st B \u2013 Main (Top 4 go to back of A inside row) \u2013 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
\n2nd B \u2013 Main (Top 4 go to back of A outside row) \u2013 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<\/p>\n
A \u2013 Main (25 Laps) \u2013 1)Don O\u2019Neal 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<\/p>\n
Strawberry Dash \u2013 1)Brady Short 2)Shane Sabraski 3)Thomas Sigler 4)Jeremy Newberry 5)Dennis Haven 6)Tom Hagberg<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201dWe struggled all week and finally had everything come together tonight,\u201d said a beaming Don O\u2019Neal 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[140,55],"division":[],"series":[],"regions":[],"class_list":["post-5226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ump-modifieds","tag-east-bay-raceway-park","tag-modifieds-2"],"yoast_head":"\n