Day one East Bay Speedway.

2/4/2002

Opening night of the "26th Winter Nationals" at East Bay Speedway finally approached. The track took on a totally different racing surface compared to the last 2 or 3 years. The 1* team got a little behind and continued to fall behind for most of the night. The new team quickly got together and made some changes for his heat race where Chub finished 8th, and the team made a lot more changes for the B Main in which worked out. Chub won the B-Main and that put him in the 19th starting position. When the drivers took the green Chub began his charge thru the field. By lap 33 Chub was clearly a man on a mission as he was now up to seventh and moving to the front. All eyes were on Chub who broke into the top five and one lap later grabbed fourth from Brian Birkhofer. Chub kept up his drive taking third from Mike Balzano on lap 43 and began to pressure  Rick Aukland for the runner-up spot.  Don O'Neal opened up a two-car margin on Aukland after going back to green with Chub all over Aukland for the second spot. But Aukland was up to the task, keeping Chub at bay as O'Neal pulled away to the victory. Chub received the OUTERWEAR'S CO. "Hard Charger of the Race" Award.

1. (2) Don O'Neal
2. (5) Rick Aukland
3. (19) Chub Frank
4. (1) Mike Balzano
5. (7) Billy Moyer