By Leo Dougherty
East Bay Raceway, Gibsonton, FL (Thursday, February 14, 2002)-This kid Dewease is still on a tear. Once again he comes up with a win during the Winternationals. He started in third and might not have won if not for Tim Shaffer.

Shaffer led the race until lap 11 when he went high at the end of the front stretch. The car caught the wall and flipped, ending his hopes for winning the nights feature. Shaffer was unhurt.

This left Dewease with the lead and Danny Lasoski running in second. Dewease ran the high line and Lasoski ran the low line until lap 17 when traffic almost let Lasoski get by. On the following lap Dewease dropped down and took Lasoskis line away. From that point on, Lasoski had to contend with traffic and, when it looked like he might catch Dewease, would have had to figure out how to get around him.

"He did a great job and his whole crew has done a great job. I kind of snuck under him there for a second but he did a great job taking the spot back", said Lasoski.

Prior to time trials Jack Miller announced that the track record was 12.118 seconds held by Craig Dollansky. Shortly after time trials began, local driver Johnny Gilbertson smashed the track record with a time of 11.794. Then Chad Kemenah came out and smashed the new record with a time of 11.638. The track was so fast that a number of drivers beat the old record.

Despite setting fast time for the night, Kemenah had to qualify for the A main through the B main. Once he qualified however he got his time back but started in sixth place because the top six cars were inverted.

Former track record holder Craig Dollansky was unable to make the A main through his heat race. He finished second in the B main to qualify.

Jack Hewitt had his two-seater car at East Bay and was on the track with it just prior to the first C main. Hewitt had to hustle to get out of the two-seater and into the 31J to make the C main but just before the race was green flagged, he pulled into the infield and missed the race. Apparently one of his wheels had been put on the car but not tightened.


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