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East Goes Wire-To-Wire In Parnelli Jones Classic
Milwaukee, Wis. (August 27, 2005) - After qualifying on the pole with a new
track record, Indiana hotshoe Bobby East set sail and dominated the
“Parnelli Jones Classic” Saturday afternoon at The Milwaukee Mile.
It was the first visit for the USAC Valvoline National Sprint Car Series race
at the historic oval since Parnelli Jones and Don Branson split Twin 50-lap
features on June 26, 1960.
On the start, East quickly put distance between himself and the second place
qualifier, Michael Lewis.
“I wanted to beat Michael down in the corner because I know it’s tough to
pass here, I wanted to get to that first corner first,” said East.
“The motor took off pretty good, I kind of gunned it pretty hard and
sometimes when you do that they won’t take off, but it took off pretty
good.”
Tampa Florida’s Dave Steele passed Michael Lewis on the first lap and the
two of them spent the next 30 laps trying to keep up with East. Even
with the assistance of two mid-race cautions bunching up the field, East was
able to pull away on each restart, allowing the 20 year-old to lead all 30
laps.
“Our hope was that his car went away because ours’ wasn’t going to get
any better, “ said Steele. “He (East) just came off the corners
better. I felt that I could stay with him on entry and through the
middle, but on exit he just pulled away.”
It was somewhat poetic justice for East, aboard the No. 5 Klatt Enterprises
Beast, who finished second to Steele’s dominant charge back in July at The
Milwaukee Mile in a 100-mile USAC Silver Crown event. After numerous
tries, the “Parnelli Jones Classic” was East’s first career win on a
one-mile speedway.
Second-starting Lewis was able to run a solid third to East and Steele, the
defending USAC National Midget Car and Silver Crown Series champions,
respectively.
“It was a pretty good run, it just wasn’t good enough,” said
Lewis. “We had a third place car and that’s where we ended up.”
Parnelli Jones’ 45-year old Sprint Car track record of 34.202 seconds,
105.257 mph quickly fell. East set the new mark in group qualifying
earlier in the day with a scorching lap of 27.264 seconds, 132.042 mph.
As the laps wound down, the best battle of the day was on between Marc Jessup
- subbing for point leader Jay Drake for Tony Stewart Racing - Bud Kaeding and
Ron Gregory. With ten laps to go Kaeding pulled up to the rear of the
fourth place car, Jessup. For the next six laps, Kaeding tried the
inside and outside lines to get past Jessup and finally took over the fourth
position. In the meantime, Gregory caught the battle and was able to
move past Jessup on the white flag lap.
2002 USAC National Sprint Car champion and full-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck
Series driver Tracy Hines pitted from the seventh position to change the right
rear tire under caution near the midpoint of the “Parnelli Jones Classic”
and forged a path back up to tenth at the finish.
There are a total of six divisions of racing this weekend at The Milwaukee
Mile, with three exciting races running back-to-back on Sunday
afternoon. The Governor’s Cup Super Truck 40-lapper gets the green
flag at 1:30pm CST, with Wisconsin racing legend Dick Trickle competing in the
50-lap Governor’s Cup MARS Super Late Model race.
The “Milwaukee 200” NASCAR Autozone Elite Division, Midwest Series main
event rolls at 3:00pm.
Tickets are still available at The Milwaukee Mile Grandstand Avenue ticket
windows.
For complete weekend coverage and information about all the exciting events at
The Milwaukee Mile, visit www.milwaukeemile.com.
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