By Rick Anges

East Bay Raceway has been drawing up to fifty Street Stocks a week for the past few years, so owner Stan Kolan and his crew came up with an innovative way to make sure they all got to race. It was called "Double Trouble" night.

They would run double features for double the money and double the points. Even numbers in the points ran in one feature and the odd numbers in the other. Also adding a twist to the race was the double file re-starts all the way to the halfway point.

Twenty-two cars lined up for the first leg of the double feature night. Immediately the #09 of Danny Paris and the #25b of Jason Bronson jumped out to the early lead. The track, which felt tacky early in the evening, was beginning to get slick. Cars were going two and three wide into the turns but most of the time only one car would emerge while he left the others facing the opposite direction. Several racers were taken out by mechanical woes such as engine problems but it seemed the major problems were tires coming off and broken axles in the hard fought race.

The #27 of Bruce Harvey was flying through the field until being involved in a bad looking wreck; Harvey was black flagged to the infield. It was defiantly a battle of survival on the track as body pieces and car parts were being scattered all over the track. Bronson who had been running second to Paris most of the night was one of the unfortunate ones breaking late in the race. When the dust settled it was veteran Street Stock driver Danny Paris taking the first feature checkers followed by the #06 of Chad Smith, John Borders #08 was third, fourth place went to #10 of Rob Roy and rounding out the top five (which was the amount of cars left) was the #85 of Mike Gamache. After a post race interview it was noticed that Paris's left rear tire only had two lug nuts holding it to the car, the stars were definitely shining on Danny tonight.

Nineteen cars lined up for the second of the two Street Stock features and on the drop of green it was back to business as usual as the cars were trading sheet metal from the get go. #22 Bryson Ryker banged his way out to the early lead with the #19 of Jim Greenwood and the #24 of Timmy Bronson hot on his tail. Ryker was flying in the high groove while Greenwood held the low line making for some exciting side by side action for several laps with Bronson also getting into the mix it went three wide. Rykers luck didn't shine for long though as he was the victim of a flat tire forcing him into the infield for a quick change and forcing him to re-start at the rear of the field.

A tense moment came when the #83 of Wayne Hayes broke an axle causing the whole assembly to leave the car and smack into the retaining fence right in front of where this writer was sitting but fortunately it went back onto the track. The rescue workers had a bit of a hard time though as the axle buried itself deep into the clay. On the restart Bronson and the #19 Jim Greenwood pulled away but the battle for third was heated as #9 Tim Hunt and #84 Bruce Ponti mixed it up as the laps counted down. Hunt took a low line but his car came around on him allowing Ponti to pull away, Hunt was able to gather it up and hold the position. Bronson took the win the in the second feature followed by Greenwood and Ponti respectively, Hunt held onto to fourth place followed across the line by #03 Mac Kersey in the fifth spot. Ten cars survived the caution filled race and Flagman Ken Marshall showed a sign of relief when the checkers finally flew.

The Street Stocks weren't the only race where surviving was the name of the game. In the Sprint Car feature event a first lap crash sent #83 Bob Auld sliding across the field on the front stretch collecting in a grinding wreck, #2A of Kenny Adams and the #00 of young Danny Martin jr. Adams and Martin had been involved in a serious wreck several weeks earlier.

After several tense minutes Adams emerged from his twisted wreckage sore but otherwise unscathed. #41 Gene Lasker, an earlier winner in the limited Sprints was Dqed from the race for apparently running into the rear of Auld causing the wreck. After the dust settled 19 year old Greg Leonard #94 grabbed his third victory in a row, #42 Paulie Milum roared across the line in second over third place Red Stauffer #2, fourth went to #6 of Johnny Gilbertson and fifth was Jim Perricone in the #10 machine.

Late Model action saw the #0 of Bobby Alexander working the #105 of David Schmauss with Bobby Sr. #15 on the tails of both drivers, but just when Alexander Jr. got by the Schmauss machine it was again the survivor who maintained as Bobby jr broke on a restart handing the win to Schmauss who held off a late charge by Bobby Alexander sr., Donnie Tanner #88 was third, #95 Steve Mathis fourth and Bill Howard #47 fifth.

#02 Gene Lasker topped the field in the Limited Sprints running away with the feature. Andy Kelley #11 followed Lasker across the stripe in second, Kurt Taylor #4 took the third spot, Clyde Poole in the #85 machine was fourth and rounding out the top five was Timmy George #1.

Jamie Burrows #17 switched gears from asphalt to dirt and made valiant dash in the limited late models, but was unable to hold off long time East Bay racer #21 Forrest Gough.

Gough got under Burrows and was able to take his second win in as many weeks. Third spot was taken by #23 David Simpson, Fourth was the "Pink" #90 of Terry Gay and fifth Jeff Mathews #33.

The last race of the evening went deep into the Gibsonton night. The min-stock feature event eventual winner was #27 Scotty Williams over Devon Dixon #2. Rich Livernois #71 claimed the third spot, William Hampton #29 was fourth and fifth was #36 Kenny Rutledge.

East Bay Double Trouble Gallery One

East Bay Double Trouble Gallery Two

-Rick Anges

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