RODNEY WING
BECOMES FIRST REPEAT WINNER
IN EAST BAY’S 11TH OPEN WHEEL MODIFIED
WINTERNATIONALS
TAMPA, FL……1/31/10……Rodney
Wing of Meridian, Mississippi broke the string of no
repeat winners in the 11th Annual Open Wheel
Modified Winternationals Championship race, that was
run as a make-up race on Sunday afternoon after the
$5,000-to-win 75-lap finale originally set for
Saturday night was rained out at East Bay Raceway
Park in Tampa, Florida.
This opening act of East Bay’s 34th Anniversary
season of their showcase month of Winternational
events will be hard to top, as 63 different Open
Wheel Modifieds showed four different winners in
preliminary nights before Wing, the defending 09
champion repeated.
After leading from the pole for 66 laps, before
being passed by outside running Jared Landers, Wing
revealed, “There was only one place on the race
track where I was better than he was and that was in
turn three, so I got my chance on lap 72 and I made
a dive for the inside and pulled ahead to lead the
last three laps.”
` Showing a lot of excitement in victory lane, Wing
continued, “Landers is a class act and I could run
with him all day long! I want to especially thank my
car owner Jeff Mathews and his crew for supplying me
his back-up car. Robert Delgado built us great
engines for this Shaw chassis. I promise, I’ll be
back to defend my title next year. Can’t wait to get
home to tell my family all about it.
The front of the field for the 75 laps showed Wing
and Stanley Donahoo in the front row, with Rick
Aukland and Kevin Weaver in row two and Jeff Mathews
inside Mike Potosky in row three. With Wing leading,
there was only one caution on lap 11 for John McCaul
who spun inside turn four, before a lap 38 yellow
for Devin Dixon sitting in turn two which turned
into the mandatory fuel stop.
The drivers had an opportunity to get out of their
cars for tearoffs, water and add fuel to their cars
while checking out the rubber situation on their
right rear tires. The winner determined he had about
another 35 laps of rubber left, if he drove a
conservative race to the end and didn’t abuse his
tires.
Meanwhile 13th starting Jared Landers was up to
eighth at the fuel stop. He said after the race, “I
figured if I had new rubber, I could run it extra
hard. I just can’t run a’ follow the leader race’
and I’d feel guilty if I didn’t get tires. I was
doing alright and picking up spots on the outside
after the break, and after I got in the lead, I made
a mistake and kind of took it easy.” His Shaw by
Landers chassis performed flawlessly with a Mullins
engine under the hood. It carried sponsorship by
Mark Martin Ford/Chevy, TSM Shock package and DV
Products. His crew at East Bay was headed by Mike
and Matt Cooper.
Rick Aukland, who described his right rear tire as
looking like an inner tube , told the crowd that,
“Jared (Landers) woke us up. Obviously there’s
another lane out there, and he showed us all
something. If your car is working well it’s all good
in a 75-lapper, but if it’s not, it can be a
handful. We were tight in hot laps, but OK for the
race.”
Aukland capitalized on the battle for the lead and
at the last minute slipped into second place at the
checkered flag with his Lightning chassis with a
“Big” Rick Twarg powerplant under the hood. Sponsors
on his NO. 2A included Quick Time Performance Parts,
Sweeney Services and Brandon Rental.
Kevin Weaver started fourth and finished fourth,
while Dave Hess, Jr. started seventh and was as high
as fourth, but settled for fifth. Rounding out the
top ten it was Don O’Neal, Stormy Scott, Shane
Sabraski, Brady Short and Dale Mathison.
The top six in points from the week were locked in
and then the eight heat winners advanced followed by
the two B-Main cars of Devin Dixon, Brady Short,
Tommie Seets, Jr, Mike Spatola, Danny Schwartz,
Shane Sabraski, Steven Pfeifer and Curt Gelling. Two
provisional starters were East Bay’s highest point
man that didn’t make the race John Bradley and
farthest tow (2563 miles) Jeremy Newberry from
Brentwood, California.
STATS – OPEN WHEELMODIFIEDS – EAST BAY RACEWAY PARK
– SUNDAY, 1/31/10
(Saturday Nights event was rained out 1/30/10 –
Results for Sunday 1-31-10)
Top 6 in Points are Locked into A Main – 1)Jeff
Mathews 2)Rodney Wing 3)Kevin Weaver 4)Stanley
Donahoo 5)Mike Potosky 6)Rick Aukland
1st Heat – 1)Dave Hess, Jr. 2)Brady Short 3)Tyson
Turnbull 4)Mike Spatola 5)Bobby Gierke 6)Dennis
Haven
2nd Heat – 1)Stormy Scott 2)Devin Dixon 3)Les
Duellman 4)John Bradley 5)Jeremy Kerzman 6)Rick
Cannata
3rd Heat – 1)Roger Crouse 2)Tommie Seets, Jr.
3)Jason Schill 4)Greg Reutimann 5)Scotty Kincaid
6)Tim Peterson
4th Heat – 1)Don O’Neal 2)Jeremy Newberry 3)Thomas
Sigler 4)Buzzie Reutimann 5)Darrell George 6)Rob
Fuqua DNS
5th Heat – 1)Allen Weisser 2)Steven Pfeifer 3)Dave
Baldwin 4)Chris Littrell 5)Kyle Bronson
6th Heat – 1)Dale Mathison 2)Denny Schwartz 3)Austin
Sanders 4)Bruce Bregenzer 5)Duanne Dale
7th Heat – 1)Jared Landers 2)Shane Sabraski 3)Vic
Vena 4)Terry Haven 5)Glen Underwood
8th Heat – 1)John McCaul 2)Curt Gelling 3)Wayne
Hammond 4)Nate Bregenzer DNS 5)Bob Broking DQ
1st B – Main (Top 4 go to back of A inside row) –
1)Devin Dixon 2)Brady Short 3)Tommie Seets, Jr.
4)Mike Spatola 5)Buzzie Reutimann 6)Jason Schill
7)Greg Reutimann 8)Tyson Turnbull 9)Jeremy Kerzman
10)Jeremy Newberry 11)Bobby Geirke 12)Tim Peterson
13)John Bradley 14)Dennis Haven 15)Darrell George
16)Les Duellman 17)Thomas Sigler 18)Rick Cannata
19)Scotty Kincaid 20)Rob Fuqua DNS
2nd B – Main (Top 4 go to back of A outside row) –
1)Denny Schwartz 2)Shane Sabraski 3)Steven Pfeifer
4)Curt Gelling 5)Duanne Dale 6)Austin Sanders
7)Bruce Bregenzer 8)Glen Underwood 9)Chris Littrell
10)Kyle Bronson 11)Dave Baldwin 12)Vic Vena 13)Wayne
Hammond 14)Terry Haven 15)Bob Broking 16)Nate
Bregenzer DNS
2 Provisionals – 1)John Bradley (Highest in points
for East Bay) 2)Jeremy Newberry (Farthest
Tow-Brentwood, CA-2553 Miles)
A – Main (75 Laps) – 1)Rodney Wing 2)Rick Aukland
3)Jared Landers 4)Kevin Weaver 5)Dave Hess, Jr.
6)Don O’Neal 7)Stormy Scott 8)Shane Sabraski 9)Brady
Short 10)Dale Mathison 11)Stanley Donahoo 12)Jeff
Mathews 13)Steven Pfeifer 14)Mike Spatola 15)Denny
Schwartz 16)Allen Weisser 17)Buzzie Reutimann
18)John Bradley 19)Roger Crouse 20)Jeremy Newberry
21)John McCaul 22)Devin Dixon 23)Tommie Seets, Jr.
24)Mike Potosky 25)Curt Gelling DNS
(Mike Horne Photo)
