IT'S TIME TO RACE!!

February 3, 2005 FSCR FIRST CAREER WIN FOR JOSH WELLS IN EAST BAY 410 SPRINT WINTERNATIONALS OPENER By Jean Lynch TAMPA, FL -”I saw the whit myself, you’ve got to be kidding me,” said an elated Josh Wells climbing from his car after his first career win on opening night of the 29th Annual 410 Sprint Winternationals at East Bay Raceway Park, Wednesday night. Talk about being “fast out of the box”?. that tonight. Wells confessed, “We were fast ever since we got the car out of the trailer. This is a Lee chassis. It’s the first one ever built by Jay Krout out of York, Pennsylvania. We only made small adjustments to keep up with the track.” Engine builder Bob Kriner had just completed a re-build on the power plant under the hood of the No. 6W and joined the celebration. Hoosier tires were selected for tonight’s race. Now in his sixth year of racing 410 sprint cars in the Central Pennsylvania mostly at Lincoln and Susquehanna Speedway, the Thomasville (PA) happy winner went through tech, crossed the scales to make his first win official and told everyone within hearing distance, “ I can’t believe I got my first win and did it in the Winternationals at East Bay.” Wells gave thanks to his crew, his parents and grandfather, Bill Beltz, for their help and support. His Dad John Wells, the owner, thanked sponsors, Wells Brothers Transportation Specialties, ProMobil Alignment, Rhino Linings and Utility Trailers. With 42 cars on hand for time trials, Wells drew number one and his time was good enough to hold up for fourth overall at the end behind fast qualifier Chad Kemenah. The fastest six cars that finished in the top five of four heats, were inverted for the 25-lap A-Main. This showed Greg Hodnett and Gary Wright in the front row with Craig Dollansky and Wells in row two. The next row consisted of Zach Chappell and Kemenah. Hodnett led the first lap, but, the one and only pause in the feature came immediately because the red had to come out for a flip by Jack Pillon into the outside wall in turn one. Driver was OK. Hodnett led the second round, but Wells was hooked up and waited for one little mistake and drove into the lead on lap three. Running the high groove around this 1/3 mile clay oval, the leader put two lapped cars between himself and Hodnett by lap six and had a one-half straight away lead by lap seven. By lap 10, the battle was for second and Wright took the spot away from Hodnett with an inside move in turn two, but Wright lost power on lap 13 and pulled to the infield. The race continued with Wells now having a full straight away lead over Hodnett. By lap 19, the battle heated up for second spot as Hodnett, Dollansky and Kemenah all diced for that position. With an inside move, Dollansky passed Hodnett and set sail for Wells with four laps to go. One lap later, Kemenah took sole possession of third ahead of Hodnett as Kelly Kinser and Freddie Rahmer closed in. Just as the tight group of front-runners was approaching the back of the field, the checkered flag waved and Wells was able to claim his first victory over Dollansky, Kemenah, Hodnett and Kelly Kinser. Rahmer, Jason Meyers, Danny Lasoski, Terry McCarl and Lance Dewease ranked next in the top ten. Heats went to Wright, Paul May, Danny Smith and Jeff Shepard. The B-Main advanced Rahmer, Kinser, Nick Naber and Jason Solwold. The Gulf Coast Produce Strawberry Dash was won by Erin Crocker. The Florida Mini Sprint feature went to Michael Dicely. On Tuesday morning, the 8th Annual United Trailers Florida Golf Classic was put on by the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame and Museum in conjunction with East Bay Raceway Park. Once more, the event was held at the Summerfield Crossing Golf Club in Riverview. Museum Marketing Director Craig Agan reported the winning team to be Gary Wright, Richard Woodle, Mike Smith and Bobby Dorsey. Special contests were won by Gary Wright and Curt Aldrich however, Agan reported that no one won the hole in one prize – a new Jaguar from Crown Jaguar in St. Petersburg. STATS - 410 SPRINTS - EAST BAY RACEWAY PARK ? WEDNESDAY, 2/2/05 Qualifying Results: 1. 15K Chad Kemenah ? 12.208; 2. 88H Fred Rahmer ? 12.384; 3. 50Z Zach Chappell ? Wells ? 12.564; 5. 4K Kelly Kinser ? 12.568; 6. 7 Craig Doll Trevor Lewis ? 12.621; 8. 22 Nick Nabor ? 12.655; 9. 9 Gary Wright ? 12.660; 10. 77 Greg Hodnett ? 12.673; 11. 20 Danny Lasoski ? Jason Meyers ? 12.786; 13. 36 Curtis Trainer ? 12.802; 14. 2 12.807; 15. 24 Terry McCarl ? 12.813; 16. 00 Jimmy Nier ? 12 Leppo ? 12.836; 18. 71M Paul May ? 12.854; 19. 4 Danny Smith Sammy Swindell ? 12.893; 21. 0 Gelnn Styres ? 12.996; 22. 4G 13.028; 23. 18JP Jack Pillon ? 13.078; 24. 12 Jeff Shephard ? Jimmy Hurley ? 13.116; 26. 63 Greg Wilson ? 13.166; 27. 18 T 13.170; 28. R19 Jason Solwold ? 13.185; 29. 4B Tom Busch ? 1 Sides ? 13.241; 31. 37 Cameron Dodson ? 13.256; 32. 35 Ron B 11J Paul Sides ? 13.374; 34. 16 Erin Crocker ? 13.498; 35. D 13.556; 36. 6G Cody Geldart ? 13.609; 37. 1 Kevin Swindell ? Terry Pletch ? 13.648; 39. 34 Adam Jones ? 13.699; 40. 56 Je 41. 3 Daryl Smith ? 14.393 42. 72J Johnny Johnson ? N/T 1st Heat – 1)Gary Wright 2)Brian Leppo 3)Chad Kemenah 4)Glenn Styres 5)Curtis Trainer 6)Kevin Swindell 7)Jimmy Hurley 8)Paul Sides 9)Tom Busch 10)Daryl Smith 11)Kelly Kinser 2nd Heat – 1)Paul May 2)Spud Gustin 3)Lance Dewease 4)Greg Hodnett 5)Craig Dollansky 6)Fred Rahmer 7)Jason Sides 8)Erin Crocker 9)Greg Wilson 10)Terry Pletch 11)Johnny Johnson DNS 3rd Heat – 1)Danny Smith 2)Terry McCarl 3)Danny Lasoski 4)Zach Chappell 5)Jack Pillon 6)Trevor Lewis 7)Jesse Giannetto 8)Cameron Dodson 9)Tony Bruce, Jr. 10)Adam Jones 4th Heat – 1)Jeff Shepard 2)Jason Meyers 3)Sammy Swindell 4)Jimmy Nier 5)Josh Wells 6)Jason Solwold 7)Nick Nabor 8)Cody Geldart 9)Jered Fox 10)Ron Blair B – Main – 1)Fred Rahmer 2)Kelly Kinser 3)Nick Naber 4)Jason Solwold 5)Trevor Lewis 6)Jimmy Hurley 7)Greg Wilson 8)Erin Crocker 9)Cameron Dodson 10)Tony Bruce, Jr. 11)Kevin Swindell 12)Tom Busch 13)Paul Sides 14)Jesse Giannetto 15)Cody Geldart 16)Jered Fox 17)Daryl Smith 18)Adam Jones 19)Jason Sides 20)Terry Pletch 21)Ron Blair DNS 22)Johnny Johnson DNS A – Main (25 Laps) ? 1)Josh Wells 2)Craig Dollansky 3)Chad Kemenah 4)Greg Hodnett 5)Kelly Kinser 6)Fred Rahmer 7)Jason Meyers 8)Danny Lasoski 9)Terry McCarl 10)Lance DeWease 11)Danny Smith 12)Paul May 13)Sammy Swindell 14)Brian Leppo 15)Jimmy Nier 16)Jason Solwold 17)Jeff Shepard 18)Glenn Styres 19)Spud Gustin 20)Gary Wright 21)Curtis Trainer 22)Zach Chappell 23)Nick Naber 24)Jack Pillon Gulf Coast Produce Strawberry Dash – 1)Erin Crocker 2)Greg Wilson 3)Jimmy Hurley 4)Terry Pletch 5)Cameron Dodson 6)Paul Sides 7)Trevor Lewis 8)Daryl Smith MINI SPRINTS RESULTS: Heat Winners – 1st heat)Jimmy Glenn; 2nd heat)Gary Linderman; 3rd heat)Christopher Glenn; 4th heat)Michael Dicely B Main – (2 Advanced) ? 1)Larney Johnson 2)Ron Taggart Feature (20 Laps) – 1)Michael Dicely 2)Travis Senter, Jr. 3)Steve Buckwater 4)Jim Brookens 5)George Ulmer 6)Darryl Wills 7)Dereck King 8)Gary Linderman 9)Brett Arndt 10)John Craddock 11)Christopher Glenn 12)Race Neely 13)Jim Young 14)Nathan Hauck 15)Jimmy Glenn 16)Channin Tankersley 17)Jason Brown 18)Brad Loyet 19)John Paynter 20)John Pruitte, Jr. 21)Harold Matthews 22)Duane Harbaugh 23)Eddie Moss 24)Jeff Amaral 25)Larney Johnson 26)Ron Taggart Have an opinion on this story? 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