DON O’NEAL
IS THE 4TH WINNER IN
EAST BAY’S OPEN WHEEL
WINTERNATIONALS
Tampa, FL…..1/29/10……”We
struggled all week and finally had everything come
together tonight,” said a beaming Don O’Neal 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’s
championship night paying $5,000 to win.
The O’Neal 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.
Finally, it all came together for O’Neal 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 – 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.
O’Neal 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’Neal
three laps to make his pass for the lead outside in
turn three. From that point on, O’Neal 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’Neal chose a different tire compound
from most of the field.
The winner carried sponsorship from John Shelty
shocks, Integra Racing Shocks, Budda Transmission,
O’Neal 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 – SPEC and Bill Tranter.
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’Neal had a close
call in turn four when the lapped car of Kyle
Bronson spun and almost collected the leader, giving
O’Neal lots of damage to his right rear panel and
almost got his right rear wheel.
On lap 21 Jeff Mathews got by Hess, but wasn’t able
to close on O’Neal, 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.
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.
STATS – OPEN WHEEL MODIFIEDS – EAST BAY RACEWAY PARK
– FRIDAY, 1/29/10
Qualifying Results:
1. 71 Don O’Neal – 16.875; 2. 00D Stanley Donahoo –
17.026; 3. 01 Vic Vena – 17.063; 4. 89 Mike Spatola
– 17.147; 5. 36 Brady Short – 17.261; 6. 29 Alan
Farley – 17.385; 7. 9 Roger Crouse – 17.409; 8. 40
Kyle Bronson – 17.437; 9. 33X Rodney Wing – 17.447;
10. 44 Dave Hess, Jr. – 17.499; 11. 33 Jeff Mathews
– 17.512; 12. 9M Dale Mathison – 17.531; 13. 83B
Perry Brown – 17.533; 14. 00X Jesse Stovall –
17.572; 15. 00 Buzzie Reutimann – 17.579; 16. 4
Stormy Scott – 17.601; 17. 64 Austin Sanders –
17.611; 18. 22 Dale Kelley – 17.618; 19. 45 Bob
Broking – 17.636; 20. 11 Steven Pfeifer – 17.776;
21. 777 Jared Landers – 17.796; 22. 0 Les Duellman –
17.859; 23. 1 Tommie Seets, Jr. – 17.860; 24. 6M
Terry McClintock – 17.877; 25. 27M John McCaul –
17.897; 26. 3F Rob Fuqua – 17.897; 27. 38 Rick
Cannata – 17.900; 28. 21S Denny Schwartz – 17.915;
29. K12 Scotty Kincaid – 17.943; 30. 6B Dave Baldwin
– 17.945; 31. M20 Mike Potosky – 17.979: 32. 07P Tim
Peterson – 18.002; 33. 7A Shane Sabraski – 18.019;
34. B12 Kevin Weaver – 18.045; 35. 2 Devin Dixon –
18.149; 36. 26 Bobby Gierke – 18.178; 37. 10 Tyson
Turnbull – 18.206; 38. 02 Glen Underwood – 18.288;
39. 19 Thomas Sigler – 18.302; 40. 27N Nate
Bregenzer – 18.325; 41. 62 Jeremy Newberry – 18.349;
42. 23 Terry Haven – 18.365; 43. 96 Curt Gelling –
18.382; 44. 27 John Bradley – 18.382; 45. 13 J.R.
Hotovy – 18.384; 46. 88 Darrell George – 18.420; 47.
27H Tom Hagberg – 18.479; 48. 999 Duanne Dale –
18.493; 49. 77 Bruce Bregenzer – 18.563; 50. 25W
Allen Weisser – 18.572; 51. 96X Dennis Haven –
18.791; 52. 3K Jeremy Kerzman – 19.133; 53. 40H
Wayne Hammond – 19.589; 54. 11X Jason Schill –
19.784; 55. C00L Chris Littrell – 20.234; 56. Z1 Zac
Oedewaldt – 23.860; 57. 8 Wesley Summers – N/T; 58.
2A Rick Aukland – N/T
1st Heat – 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
2nd Heat – 1)Don O’Neal 2)Jeff Mathews 3)Austin
Sanders 4)Rodney Wing 5)Shane Sabraski 6)Nate
Bregenzer 7)Jeremy Kerzman 8)Wesley Summers DNS
3rd Heat – 1)Dale Mathison 2)Bob Broking 3)Dave
Baldwin 4)Curt Gelling 5)Terry Haven 6)Darrell
George 7)Chris Littrell
4th Heat – 1)Jared Landers 2)Mike Potosky 3)Wayne
Hammond 4)Tom Hagberg 5)Jeremy Newberry 6)Glen
Underwood 7)Terry McClintock DNS
5th Heat – 1)Kevin Weaver 2)Denny Schwartz 3)Rick
Aukland 4)Scotty Kincaid 5)John Bradley 6)Thomas
Sigler 7)Jason Schill
6th Heat – 1)Dave Hess, Jr. 2)Les Duellman 3)Stanley
Donahoo 4)Mike Spatola 5)Zac Oedewaldt 6)Dennis
Haven 7)Bruce Bregenzer
7th Heat – 1)Perry Brown 2)John McCaul 3)Roger
Crouse 4)J.R. Hotovy 5)Allen Weisser 6)Rick Cannata
7)Bobby Gierke
8th Heat – 1)Dale Kelley 2)Kyle Bronson 3)Alan
Farley 4)Tommie Seets, Jr. 5)Tyson Turnbull 6)Devin
Dixon 7)Rob Fuqua
1st B – Main (Top 4 go to back of A inside row) –
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
2nd B – Main (Top 4 go to back of A outside row) –
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
A – Main (25 Laps) – 1)Don O’Neal 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
Strawberry Dash – 1)Brady Short 2)Shane Sabraski
3)Thomas Sigler 4)Jeremy Newberry 5)Dennis Haven
6)Tom Hagberg
