| Day One - East Bay Raceway WinterNationals | By Bill Green
Amazing!  That's all there is to say about the Opening Day of the "King of the 360s WinterNationals." Seventy-three of the nations fastest and most talented drivers were on hand for what would be an amazing night of open wheeled action.
Qualifying set the pace for the evening when the old track record of 13.070 seconds, was eclipsed by 13 different drivers, and literally shattered by two. First man to punch past the old mark was the 87M driver Curt Michael out of Carlisle, PA. He turned a respectable 12.947. That only lasted until his teammate George Suprick, from the same hometown, burned a 12.827 lap. The next car to assault the new settings was the 31K of young Kelly Kinser, from Bloomington, IN. His 12.817 looked to be a contender for the $1000 bonus for a new track record, but a few cars later, another amazing thing would happen.
Kenny Adams, from lovely Malaber, FL., held the previous track record. In Wednesday's practice my own Casio stopwatch had the 2A driver in the 12.68 to 12.70 range, but the competition appeared well prepared, so maybe he would not repeat as the fastest of the clay. His first qualifying lap was so fast from the stripe to turn 3, it seemed as if the atmospheric pressure had suddenly changed, my ears popped.
Time, 12.488 seconds. The crowd went wild, was this guy human? Second lap, 12.431 seconds. You really had to have been watching all the 13 and 14 second laps that were ground out, to realize the quickness with which this amazing 2A machine moved on the clay. A $1000 richer and paving a path to legendary status, Kenny Adams took it all in stride. Just another day at the 750 horsepower office.
Being over shadowed and upstaged is common news for Adam's teammate, and long time friend, Red Stauffer. Coming out of Winter Park, FL., Red turned the second fastest time of the day, 12.627 seconds, but would scramble through the day and into the feature event with more laps on the day than anyone. For the record, 13 drivers were under the old track record in qualifying.
Lance DeWease would pilot the 88H sprinter from Fayetteville, PA, to a third fastest time on the day, 12.810. Kinser and Suprick round out the top 5, at 4th and 5th respectively, with their earlier track record runs. Ryan Flynn's F1 entry would squeeze a 12.858 out of the longest haul to the East Bay Raceway clay, for 6th on the list. The 63 of Greg Wilson was 7th with a 12.909, and Curt Michael would settle for 8th after holding the track record for 8 minutes. The only regular runner at East Bay to break into the top 10, was young gun Greg Leonard and his new UPS sponsored car, turning a respectable 12.973 for 9th, with the 19W of Mike Woodring being the only car in the 10, with a 13 second lap, of 13.002.
Forty-four winged wonders ran in the 13 second class, so you knew it was going to be a great night of heat, C-main, and B-main action, before the 25 lap feature event.
Coming into the 8 heats, the driver's knew only two cars from each would go forward, with 3 from each of two C-mains going to the B-mains, and 5 from each of the two B-mains going back on qualifying times to the feature event. Heat-1 saw Kenny Adams coast to victory and the feature event over the 7 of Bartlett, TN driver, Jason Sides.
Heat-2 saw the first contact, as Dale Howard, John Bankston, and Red Stauffer are lapping the ill running 11 of Johnny Gilbertson. Gilbertson apparently felt the urge to run with this lead threesome, and in the process collected a hard charging Stauffer, sending him over on his wing. Howard's 47 out of Byhalia, MS took the win, with Bankston's Beaumont, TX ride was second.  Heat-3 saw the 6 of Kenny Jacobs upside down, while the 91 of Tim Crawley, Marblevale, AR, took the win and Joey Saldana, of Brownsburg, OH, put his 17 into the feature.
Heat-4 had Kelly Kinser loose his powerplant as he exited turn 4 with one to go, securing the win for Oklahoma City's 29 of Wayne Johnson, over the U2 of Travis Rilat, Texas City, TX second. Heat-5 was won by the spooky 00 eyes of Michael Dupuy, but only after the runaway 87 of George Suprick made contact with the poor handling 22 of Rick Koehler on the back stretch, but recovered for the second place finish.
Heat-6 got the crowd on it's feet as local hero "Superman" Sport Allen and his St. Petersburg, FL #88 battled lap after lap with the 01 of Shane Morgan, making the final pass for the win in turn 1 as the white flag flew. Heat-7 would see the 41 of Jason Johnson hold off the 63 of Greg Wilson for top honors. Heat-8 had last years King of the 360s Ron Laney and his Humble, TX #52 giving driving lessons on how to be a King, as he muscled his way past the 2D of Doug Day in crowd screaming style, for the win.
The first C-main saw the 2 of Stauffer recover for a B-main opportunity, with the 19 of Woodring second, and young Sheldon Kinser, JR's 22K third. The second C-main would see the 71 of Wayne Pennington and the 42 of local driver Paulie Milum tangle out of turn 2 and lock the cars together for a two car flat spin out of contention. Allowing the F1 with Flynn at the wheel into first, Phil Mott's 5M second, and Jeff Shepard's 31J third.
The B-main's started with some excitement as the ill-fated #11 of Gilbertson bicycled it's way off the track through the turn 3 wall and out of sight. Gilbertson was OK, and soon appeared in, then walked through the new hole and back toward the pits. Lance DeWease would win B-main-1 in his 88H, with the 29 of Wayne Johnson second, the 3M of McCarl third, Woodring's 19W stayed alive in 4th, and the 2 of Stauffer made the main event after all, 5th. B-main-2 had the 4 of top running Mike Chadd on its roof, but the F1 of Flynn would out last 87 of Suprick as he slid to the final transfer spot. Getting the other 3 transfers would be the 31J of Shepard, the 97 of Paul McMahan, and the lady favorite 1A of Christie Passmore.
The 25 lap feature event started off with a miss fire, the Mulligan 3 of McCarl came out of gear and coasted to a stop in turn 3 with one lap in the book. After 7 laps of realignment, DeWease and Adams battled through traffic, often as if it where standing still. It was clear sailing till lap 21 when the 2D of Day slowed out of power on the front stretch. Then the restart frenzy began. The F1 of Flynn got turned around at the top of turn 3 & 4, with Stauffer's #2 popping the left front, as he lead the #88 of Sport Allen through the others spinning to miss Flynn. Next restart saw the 41 of Johnson, 52 of Laney, and 97 of McMahan tangle in turn 1, bringing on restart #3 at lap 22. Next restart saw track record holder Adams burp and not get up to speed, but as he stayed low to keep clear, a back marker collected him and he was left facing the wrong way in turn 2. Finally, restart 5 of laps 22 & 23 finished the feature just short of 1 AM.
The winner Lance DeWease in the 88H was glad that lap 25 came when it did, as the 17 of Saldana finishing second looked to have something for him, as well as the third place finisher Travis Rilat in the U2 machine. Rounding out the first nights top 10 were: Wayne Johnson (29) 4th, Jeff Shepard (31J) 5th, Greg Wilson (63) 6th, Tim Crawley (91) 7th, George Suprick (87) 8th, Mike Woodring (19W) 9th, and Michael Dupuy (00) 10th. The highest finishing local racer was the 12th place of McCarl (3M), followed by Sport Allen (88A) 13th.
When we finally caught up with winner DeWease, he said "I thought we were OK all day. We changed the motor after the heat, but the track was very fast and racy, with a wider groove that helped through traffic. We won't change anything for tomorrow. I'm happy with the results."
On to Day-2 at East Bay Raceway's WinterNationals.
Bill Green
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