(Tampa, FL; 9/23/2000) As the season winds down at East Bay, the action picks up with double points, extra laps, and more cash. With a full field of better than 180 cars in the pit area, there was no doubt what was in store for everyone. The track was wet all night making the condition slick and smooth and no dust!

The largest car count of the year, with a 26-car field, for the Sprints made it a night of excitement for the guys with wings. Michael Smith picked up his first main event in the silver #3, but it didn't come easy. We had two red flags, one wreck occurred when the 8T of Tom Winegrandener took a hard hit with his new car he had just gotten from Texas driver, John Bankston, and Mike Love ended up on his roof on lap seven.

The second red came out for a multi-car accident leaving turn two involving Casey Johnson, Johnny Gilbertson, Red Stauffer, Greg Leonard, and Danny Curry. All were able to continue except for Stauffer.

Brady Alvis seemed to have the field covered for the first 23 laps of the 25-lap main event except for Gene Lasker putting pressure on him till mechanical problems sidelined the black 41.The lapped traffic and yellow and red flags erased the large lead Alvis had built on several restarts, which ended up costing him his first feature of the season.

As the white flag flew for Alvis, Michael Smith went low and took the lead down the front stretch heading into turn one. On the last lap, Robbie Smith with his experience got under Alvis and made a last ditch effort to take the win from Smith, but the youngster wasn't going to finish second; Smith went to the bottom but just didn't have enough. Brady Alvis finished in the show position.

An update on 3T of Tommy Thompson - although shaken was OK after a wild flip in his heat race. The car was used up.

The Late Models had a class of the young, the old, and the family, with the family taking the win. The young guns of Roger Crouse and Phillip Cobb were very impressive as they started on the front row. As the green flag flew, Cobb jumped out to the point with Crouse in tow. But again with the yellow flying often, it gave the experienced guys time to save tires and hunt for the fast line. The battle between Crouse and Cobb continued until lap 8 when Crouse took the lead. Crouse seemed to have things covered, but it wasn't to be as the family of Nosbisch's, Keith and Ken, were closing in. Roger Crouse wasn't going to give up his first feature in the Late Model class without a fight, but the 02 found the way around in turn three and four on the last lap to snatch the lead. David Schmauss in the green 105 made a last lap pass as well to pick up third.

The Limited Late Models came to the green with a full field of 24 cars. The wet conditions on the clay proved to be tough on many of the competitors with many spins; Shane Koperda took a hard hit on the driver's side door and had to be back-boarded out. As some new cars were out for the first time, it didn't take Forrest Gough too long take to take his to victory lane. The blue and white 21 took the lead on lap three and never looked back. Due to the time limit, not all of the scheduled 20 laps were completed. Gough was followed by Roger Crouse and Jeff Matthews.

The Mini-Stocks saw another group of young guns with Devin Dixon picking up another feature event in the BC Family Used Car #2. Dixon was kept in check by the 7jr of Dorsey Strickland and the 29 of William Hampton.

-Jay Parrish-

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