February 22, 2005 East Bay Raceway Park Finishes Week 4 of Winter Nationals by Bill Green "From Behind The MIC!" Tampa, FL (Feb. 20th, 2005) East Bay Raceway park schedules over 20 nights of racing each year to kickoff the new seasons. This year saw 24 nights on the schedule and last week fans saw the very competitive Open Wheeled Modifieds in action for 5 of them. Night one saw Kenny Gaddis from Hallsville, Texas in Victory Lane. "It's my first time at East Bay and I love it here!" explained an excited Gaddis. "I'll be back next year, but hopefully I'm not done for the week." Gaddis qualified 20th and won heat-10 to make the A-Main. The pill draw set him inside row-3, in the 5th starting spot. He was up to second by lap-2, when the first caution flew. Kenny took the lead on the next lap by staying on the bottom and staying smooth through the corners. Only challenged by Kent Arment in the closing laps, Gaddis seemed to cruise to victory. Arment settled for second, Shane Cottle came from 17th starting spot to take third, with Bob Pohlman, Jr. fourth and local Bill Howard fifth. Night two would see a familiar face for Open Wheeled fans in Victory Lane as New Port, Tennessee's Jimmy Ownes used a pole start to go wire-to-wire. "We changed a bunch on the car and the driver changed the errors I made last night," Jimmy stated, "I was getting a good run off the corner, so I knew it would take a really great car to go around the outside." Owens built a 1/2 straight lead before a caution brought him back to the field, but nobody could reel in the #20 of Ownes. Second would go to a last lap move by Corey Conley, over third place finishing Shane Cottle for the second night. Fourth was all Canadian Joel Cryderman's and Bill Howard would finish fifth for the second time in as many nights also. Wednesday night turned into a slugfest with Watts, Oklahoma driver Jason Hughes coming out on top. Another wire-to-wire pole sitter victory had drivers mumbling about starting position, but Hughes said in Victory Lane, "I've always wanted to come to East Bay. This year I got enough help that I could. We put enough drive in the car tonight and finally it paid off for us!" Second went to Chad Kinder, but it was last night's winner, Jimmy Owens who had the crowd on it's feet with 3 to go. Owens jumped to the high groove and stood on the gas, the car held and he passed three cars over the closing laps to take third, while Brady Short settled for fourth and Kent Arment would get a second top-5 in fifth. Night number four demonstrated that used equipment and a fire in the driver's heart could still do good, as Brad Waits of Zumbrota, Minnesota piloted his Skyrocket chassis to Victory. Chassis builder Kelly Shryrock said of Waits, "He's one of the nicest guys and wanted a chassis, so he bought a used one from me, but here at East Bay he has to be considered an underdog. We all couldn't be happier for him." Surprisingly, Waits wife flew in for the Winter Nationals and got to see hubby win his first race in three years and first ever in Nationals competition. Second went to Shane Cottle, continuing his great week, third was local Bill Howard's, fourth went to Chad Kinder and Bob Pohlman, Jr. recovered from a spin early to round out the top-5. The final night of Open Wheel Modified racing would be the prestigious Winter Nationals Championship, paying a solid $8000 dollars. Racers from all over the US and Canada battle for the title, but only one can reign supreme. This 2005 Winter Nationals week would be a fantastic week for the drivers and fans, with Canadian Joel Cryderman making it five different winners on the week a she stood in the final Victory Lane. In East Bay's Victory Lane, Cryderman confessed, but told the truth. "I was just hoping I didn't get wrecked!" he stated, "This is only my fifth time in an Open Wheel car, I usually drive Late Models at Cedar Lake, Wisconsin." Having his best effort in his second visit, 20 year old Dave Hess salvaged second over the hard charging and fan favorite female driver, Julie McDermid. McDirmid made a small step into history as she finished third, "I wanted to stay calm and be smooth." That she was, with veteran drivers like Roger Crouse finishing fourth and the "Q" car of Joey Jensen fifth. Rounding out the top ten would be Greg Thatcher 6th, Chad Kinder 7th, Jeff Leka 8th, Ed Shamhart 9th and 1st night winner Kenny Gaddis. Some 126 different cars signed in on night one and competed. Breaking last weeks record of 117 cars in a single division on one night. During the week an average of 100 cars competed each night. Next week it's the small, but powerful Team USA Mod-Lite Sprints invading East Bay for their 2nd Annual Winter National's Championship run. That will all start Wednesday, February 23rd and ends Saturday Night with the running of the "Mr. Dirt" Championship. For more info on these sprints, call 813-677-RACE (7223). We'll See You At The RACES! Have an opinion on this story? Post a message on our Message Board! <news@karnac.org>or send a letter to the editor!