McCarl Reigns as “King of the 360’s” in East Bay’s Ronald Laney Memorial

Lonnie Wheatley, GIBSONTON, Fla. (January 28, 2006) – Iowa’s Terry McCarl scored a $10,000 payday and earned the title of East Bay Raceway Park’s “King of the 360’s” by topping Saturday night’s O’Reilly American Sprint Cars on Tour presented by Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores 40-lap Ronald Laney Memorial.

McCarl battled past early pacesetter Greg Wilson on the ninth round then fought off a late bid from the persistent Ohio racer to secure the triumph aboard Mark Burch’s Morgan Farms/Engler No. 1m WolfWeld mount.

“Wow, I’ve won a few races here at East Bay before but not ever on the final night, so this is pretty big,” an ecstatic McCarl proclaimed from victory lane as he posed for victory lane photos with the fallen Laney’s dog, Checkers.  “We tried a couple of different things in our hot lap session and were a little bit off.  We changed it after that and the car was great, it was easy to drive.”

With the top six point earners from Thursday and Friday’s preliminary action locked into Saturday’s finale, the front three rows of the 24-car feature were determined via a draw.  Wilson drew the pole position, while high-point man McCarl drew the front row outside.  Tim Montgomery and Nick Smith made up the second row, with Jason Sides and Travis Rilat in the third row.

Wilson outgunned McCarl for the lead at the drop of the green flag, but McCarl wasted little time trying to get the top spot.  Using the high line, McCarl pulled alongside Wilson entering turn one on the fifth lap.  With the pair racing wheel-to-wheel down the backstretch, the red flag suddenly flew when Rilat caught the berm and went for a wild ride in turn two.  Rilat walked away from his mangled machine uninjured.

With the final 36 circuits contested in non-stop fashion, McCarl quickly went to work on Wilson for the lead as action resumed after Rilat’s flip.  McCarl and Wilson diced for the point for several laps before McCarl gained the advantage on the ninth round.

With lapped traffic coming into play two laps later, Wilson soon began to lose ground to McCarl.  But by the 20^th round, Wilson began reeling McCarl back in and had closed to the leader’s rear nerf bar by the 22^nd lap.

McCarl navigated the 1/3-mile dirt oval flawlessly over the final rounds to keep Wilson at bay, ultimately flashing underneath the checkered flag with a four car-length advantage.

“Greg’s a good racer and I knew he wouldn’t give up,” McCarl explained.  “I thought I had him once but then the red flag came out.  We were able to get back by him after we restarted and lucky enough to hold him off the rest of the way.”

After starting fifth, Sides climbed to third by the fifth lap and held the position to the line to record his third show finish in as many nights of “King of the 360’s” racing action.

After starting eighth, Darren Stewart picked off three positions in the final ten rounds to capture fourth at the stripe, with Nick Smith rounding out the top five. 

Tim Shaffer crossed the stripe in sixth in front of Montgomery and 14^th-starter Danny Smith, while Jesse Hockett turned in the night’s top passing performance by charging from 22^nd to claim ninth.  Gary Wright completed the top ten.

Heat race victories were claimed by Shaffer, Stewart, Sport Allen, Wright, Wayne Johnson and Kevin Ramey.

Cody Branchcomb held a commanding lead in the evening’s first 12-lap “C” Main before suffering mechanical woes after eight laps, handing the victory to Luke Hall.  Danny Jones won the second “C” Main, with Mike Brecht and Jesse Giannetto splitting victory honors in the twin 15-lap “B” Mains.

As Stewart took the checkered flag in the evening’s second heat race, Matt Tiffany’s left rear tire exploded in turn two as he fought for third position.  Tiffany looped his mount and collected Johnny Anderson, with both flipping.  At the same time, second-running Chuck Swenson tagged the frontstretch wall and flipped.

Wayne Reutimann, Jr., hopped a tire in turn two and went for a wild ride in the fifth heat race, while Matt Stegeman took a turn four tumble in the First “C” Main.

Tyler Godwin, who was the week’s first flip victim when he got upside down during Wednesday night’s practice session, destroyed his mount when he tagged the turn three wall and flipped wildly in the second “B” Main.  All drivers walked away unscathed.

A total of 83 drivers from 22 different states as well Canada competed in the Eighth Annual “King of the 360’s” National at East Bay Raceway Park.

Ronald Laney Memorial Results:

Heat Races – Top 2 Advance to “A” Main; Third through seventh to Twin “B” Mains; Eighth and below to Twin “C” Mains

First Heat (10 Laps):  1. 1T-Tim Shaffer, 2. 4-Danny Smith, 3. d1-Jesse Giannetto, 4. 4c-Tyler Godwin, 5. 46-Jan Howard, 6. 24-Josh Higday, 7. 36-Jason Martin, 8. 02-Bubba T. Lovesponge, 9. 34-Luke Hall, 10. 12-Mike Schroeder, 11. 57x-Jake Peters, 12. 52-Mark Broughman.

Second Heat (10 Laps):  1. 91-Darren Stewart, 2. 11L-Greg Leonard, 3. 4m-Mike Chadd, 4. 44J-Abe Sherwood, 5. 21T-Johnny Gilbertson, 6. 35-Brad Best, 7. X-Chuck Swenson, 8. 19T-Matt Tiffany, 9. 7a-Johnny Anderson, 10. 32-Steve Darvalics, 11. 47x-Louie Carufel.  DNS: d12-Doc Sloan.

Third Heat (10 Laps):  1. 42x-Sport Allen, 2. 2k-Roger Rager, 3. R19-Scott Winters, 4. 85-Dustin Daggett, 5. 75-Jesse Hockett, 6. 4a-Kenny Adams, 7. 3-Pat Cannon, 8. 94b-Cody Branchcomb, 9. 11T-T.J. Winegardner, 10. 96-Rod Craddock, 11. 10s-Matt Stegeman, 12. 5-Donnie Maxwell.

Fourth Heat (10 Laps):  1. 9w-Gary Wright, 2. 7b-Brock Mayes, 3. 55L-Dustin Lindquist, 4. 15-Sam Hafertepe, Jr., 5. 18-Tony Bruce, Jr., 6. 33z-Jessica Zemken, 7. 12T-Trey Robb, 8. 99-Danny Jones, 9. 33k-Kyle Patrick, 10. 51J-John Sauermilch, 11. 01-John Koller, 12. 12k-David Kountz, 13. 20bg-Gene Lasker.

Fifth Heat (10 Laps):  1. 94s-Wayne Johnson, 2. 50z-Zach Chappell, 3. 20m-Mike Brecht, 4. 94-Jerrod Hull, 5. 88-Steven King, 6. 3x-Brian Maddox, 7. 35R-Ron Blair, 8. 12m-James Mosher, 9. 71-Keith Rauch, 10. 38s-Alex Pettas, 11. 29p-Terry Pletch, 12. 93-Wayne Reutimann, Jr.

Sixth Heat (10 Laps):  1. 7m-Kevin Ramey, 2. 00-Danny Martin, Jr., 3. 14-Becca Anderson, 4. 5c-Dan Carrozza, 5. 3b-Scott Bonnell, 6. 43-Terry Witherspoon, 7. 14w-Sean Walden, 8. 0-Glenn Styres, 9. 88x-Shane Kreidler, 10. 28-Brett Burdette, 11. 51-Bryan Howland.

Twin “C” Mains – Top 3 from each advance to Twin “B” Mains

First “C” Main (12 Laps):  1. 34-Luke Hall, 2. 02-Bubba T. Lovesponge, 3. 32-Steve Darvalics, 4. 33k-Kyle Patrick, 5. 01-John Koller, 6. 47x-Louie Carufel, 7. 38s-Alex Pettas, 8. 94b-Cody Branchcomb, 9. d12-Doc Sloan.  DNS: 19T-Matt Tiffany, 7a-Johnny Anderson, 12-Mike Schroeder, 51-Bryan Howland, 93-Wayne Reutimann, Jr., 5-Donnie Maxwell.

Second “C” Main (12 Laps):  1. 99-Danny Jones, 2. 11T-T.J. Winegardner, 3. 57x-Jake Peters, 4. 71-Keith Rauch, 5. 29p-Terry Pletch, 6. 52-Mark Broughman, 7. 28-Brett Burdette, 8. 88x-Shane Kreidler, 9. 12m-James Mosher, 10. 51J-John Sauermilch, 11. 96-Rod Craddock, 12. 0-Glenn Styres, 13. 10s-Matt Stegeman.  DNS: 12k-David Kountz, 20bg-Gene Lasker.

Twin “B” Mains – Top 3 from each advance to “A” Main

First “B” Main (15 Laps):  1. 20m-Mike Brecht, 2. 4m-Mike Chadd, 3. R19-Scott Winters, 4. 46-Jan Howard, 5. 85-Dustin Daggett, 6. 88-Steven King, 7. 24-Josh Higday, 8. 3b-Scott Bonnell, 9. 4a-Kenny Adams, 10. 35R-Ron Blair, 11. 12T-Trey Robb, 12. 5c-Dan Carrozza, 13. 43-Terry Witherspoon, 14. 34-Luke Hall, 15. 02-Bubba T. Lovesponge, 16. 32-Steve Darvalics, 17. 15-Sam Hafertepe, Jr.  DNS: X-Chuck Swenson.

Second “B” Main (15 Laps):  1. d1-Jesse Giannetto, 2. 75-Jesse Hockett, 3. 94-Jerrod Hull, 4. 14-Becca Anderson, 5. 18-Tony Bruce, Jr., 6. 55L-Dustin Lindquist, 7. 36-Jason Martin, 8. 44J-Abe Sherwood, 9. 21T-Johnny Gilbertson, 10. 3-Pat Cannon, 11. 33z-Jessica Zemken, 12. 57x-Jake Peters, 13. 3x-Brian Maddox, 14. 14w-Sean Walden, 15. 35-Brad Best, 16. 99-Danny Jones, 17. 4c-Tyler Godwin, 18. 11T-T.J. Winegardner.

“King of the 360’s” Ronald Laney Memorial “A” Main