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 PALATKA, FL (February 6) -- Lance Dewease won the All Star Florida
Speedweek opener at Putnam County Speedway on Wednesday, as
Team-Hoosier showed they were once again the brand to beat after
capturing fast time and winning every race contested. Hoosier
Open Wheel Dirt Product Manager Neil Cowman reported from Florida 32 of the
39 cars entered elected to ride atop Hoosier tires. In the 30-lap
feature race, the purple tire brand's presence increased even more
with 22 of the 24 starters carrying the Hoosier banner. Team-Hoosier
provided an early glimpse of what was to come as they swept the ten
fastest times in qualifying. Gary Wright set fast time when he posted
a 14.740 second lap around the 3/8-mile oval as Billy Pauch, Greg
Hodnett, Jason Johnson, Chad Kemenah, Tim Shaffer, Lance Dewease, Dean
Jacobs, Danny Smith and Kenny Jacobs rounded out the list of the ten
fastest qualifiers. Single lap qualifying was one thing, but just
how good would the tires be during multi-lap races. Zach Chappell,
Travis Rilat, Craig Dollansky and Phil Gressman provided the answer as
they each won their respective heat races and kept Team-Hoosier's
perfect night in tact. Up next was the Dash, as Greg Hodnett
was the race winner followed by Tim Shaffer, Kenny Jacobs, Dean
Jacobs, Phil Gressman and Fred Rahmer as all six competitors were
using Hoosier tires. In the B-main, Team-Hoosier put on yet
another display of dirt track domination as all four transfer slots
were garnered by Hoosier-shod drivers when Chad Kemenah, Jason
Johnson, Lance Dewease and Rodney Duncan finished first through
fourth, respectively. The 30-lap A-main field was comprised of 24
drivers, 22 of them used the Hoosier brand. Lance Dewease and Tim
Shaffer started the race on the front row. Shaffer immediately jumped
out to the early race lead as the green flag dropped followed closely
by Dewease. On lap 13, a caution flag came out for a spun
sprinter. On the restart, Dewease used the low line to motor past
Shaffer and move into the lead. Despite another caution on lap 27,
Dewease would not be denied the opening night win as Shaffer took
runner-up honors. All told, the first eight drivers to cross the
finish line were members of Team-Hoosier. Chad Kemenah
finished in third place followed by Dean Jacobs in fourth as the top
four drivers elected to use a pair of Hoosier D10's in the 30-lap
A-main. Defending All Star Champion Kenny Jacobs, using a Hoosier
D10/D12 combination, took fifth place while Phil Gressman, Joey
Saldana and Fred Rahmer completed the sweep of the top eight positions
for Team-Hoosier. Zach Chappell finished in tenth place and enabled
Hoosier to claim nine of the top ten positions in the night's final
race. Hoosier's Neil Cowman commented via telephone after the
event, "I was extremely pleased with the performance of the teams
using our tires throughout the entire opening night of racing."
Cowman continued, "The tires not only proved to be superior in
qualifying, they also displayed a performance advantage in every race
contested." All Star Speedweek continues tonight at Florida's
Volusia Speedway in the first of four consecutive nights of action
followed by four more nights at East Bay (Feb. 13-16), culminating in
Saturday's $26,000 to-win race. |
