Gibsonton, FL -October 15, 2005- Action was the attraction at East Bay Raceway Park, Saturday night as a great six division card of racing fully entertained the fans.
With all the qualifying completed the first division out for their feature event was the Street Stocks. Seventeen cars went to green with polesitter Bobby Miller setting the early pace in the 15 lap affair. Miller lost control of his car on lap 3 coming off of turn two and got sideways across the track where he was drilled by, then second place runner, Charlie Wyberg. Both cars veered into the backstretch wall. Neither driver was injured, but the cars were, obviously, done for the night.
When the field was reassembled to go back to green it was now Michael Cherry shown as the leader. Cherry stayed in command through lap 9 when he was passed by Mac Kersey.
Tim Spencer hit the inside wall, before turn one on lap 11, flipping his #02 car. He was able to walk away from the crash. The restart seemed to give Cherry's new hope as he put up a challenge to Kersey in an attempt to regain the lead. It was all in vain as Kersey held off Cherry to get his fifth win of the season. Kyle Bronson was third, Steven Johnson fourth and Matthew Grissom fifth.
The next feature up was the 25 lap Late Model feature. A strong field of 23 cars, announced as the largest of the regular season, were poised on the starting grid.
Ted Erskine jumped into the early lead where he remained withstanding several restarts until lap 6 when Keith Nosbisch blasted by on the inside. Erskine got hung out to dry in the second grove falling back to fifth before he was able to recover.
Roger Crouse had a strong running car and really put the pressure on Keith for the lead. He worked Keith over on both the high side and low sides, but Keith remained unnerved and determined to get the win. In fact, in the closing laps Keith put a little safety cushion between himself and Crouse.
When the checkered flag waved the win was Keith's with Crouse holding off Jack Nosbisch, Jr for second. Marshall Austin and Donnie Tanner rounded out the top five.
It was now time for the Limited Late Model drivers to show their stuff in a 15 lap feature. Shane Koperda and Tom Evonosky, Sr made up the front row with Evonosky showing the way over the first two circuits. Evonosky got out of shape going up high in turn 2 on the third lap. Koperda jumped on the opportunity diving below Evonosky to become the second race leader.
Koperda's stay at the head of the pack was a brief two laps when Timmy Gay motored by on lap five.
William Hampton was beginning to show what he had and by lap 7 he got under and by Gay to become the fourth race leader.
Just when it looked like Hampton would get the win a determined Koperda sprang back into the mix for the win making a great inside move on Hampton for the lead on lap 13. Koperda took it the rest of the way to record his first career victory. A stunned Hampton was second, Timmy Bronson third, Forrest Gough fourth and Ed Hill fifth. For the Outlaw 4's the story was more about what transpired after the race than what happened during it.
Sixteen year old birthday boy, Steven Miller, led lap one of the 15 lap feature before giving way to Wallace Peacock.
Lap five saw division frontrunners Jim Corson and Cecil Martin come together just before turn one. A fire erupted at the rear of Martin's mount with a quickly responding safety crew member dashing out to pull Cecil out of his car. The fire was rapidly doused.
Eddie Mercer was now the driver to watch as he did a masterful job of coming up from his 14th starting position to move into second by the halfway point of the race. Mercer pressured Wallace down to the checkers, but couldn't find the way around. Josh Peacock, Chad Rose and Wayne Williams made up what seemed to be the top five at the time. The finishing order changed when Wallace Peacock, Mercer and Josh Peacock refused to comply with a requested teardown. All were disqualified.
The next three finishers, Rose, Williams and Jeff Conyers consented with their cars proving to be legal. It marked Rose's fourth win of the season.
A superb field of 22 Open-wheel Modifieds came out for the 15 lap feature. Bruce Watkins led the first lap before drifting up high in turn two on the next lap to relinquish the lead to Rusty Dixon. Jeff Mathews thrilled the crowd with a sensational move on lap 3 which saw him drop low coming off of turn four to pass two cars in one shot to move into second.
Rusty continued to lead with Mathews second when David Schmauss took on his, come to be expected, late race charge. He passed Bobby Dixon on lap 10 to move into fourth. While challenging Devon Dixon for third on lap 13 he felt a tire come off the bead and he hit a rut which sent him into the frontstretch wall. Schmauss was uninjured and the car was towed back to the pits.
As the field went back to green for the final two laps Devon managed to get by Mathews for second setting up the eventual one-two Dixon finish with the win going to Rusty and second to Devon. Mathews hung in for third with Trevor Merrill and Wayne Hammond fourth and fifth respectively.
It was a great night for Hammond as he returned to the racing wars after a three year absence. He looked sharp coming on strong in the closing laps to beat out current point leader, Buzzie "The Legend" Reutimann, for fifth. Hammond is a former USAC Silver Crown Series sprint car standout.
The night was brought to a conclusion with the slam-bang action of the Four Cyliner Bombers.
It didn't take long for the first skirmish to take place as before even one lap was completed George Christianson and Brenton Gardner came together between turns 3-4 with Gardner sailing head on into the fourth turn wall. Gardner was OK, but the front end of his #75 was folded up like an accordion. Christianson was able to continue in the race.
On the restart W.B. Hogwaler shot into the lead, but on lap three he was overhauled by Buck Skinner who took over the spot at the helm of the field.
Meanwhile, D.B. Hogwaler (W.B.'s nephew) was threading the needle to the front. On lap 4, after trading some paint with Uncle W.B., he took over second and set his sights on Skinner. A yellow on lap 8 for a spin out by J.L. Morehead bunched the field back up for what would prove to be a torrid battle among the top three down to the checkers.
D.B. was all over Skinner trying the inside as well as the outside roughing up the sheet metal on both cars in the process. Skinner turned it up a notch and began to pull away from D.B. while W.B. was lurking in the wings. It would turn out to be a family feud in the race for second as the two Hogwalers raced it out over the last couple of laps for the runnerup honors and bragging rights.
On the final lap, W.B. gave his nephew a shot near the finish line that put D.B. out of shape, but D.B. was able to get the car back under him to nudge out his uncle for the spot. John Luckadoo and J.L. Morehead completed the top five.
