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| East Bay Celebrates 25th Opener in Grand Style | (3/3/01; Gibsonton, FL) - A full pit in excess of 150 cars, as well as a capacity spectator crowd, kicked off the 25th Anniversary of East Bay Raceway. Additional cars, money race features, and fans are causing a rebirth at this 3-8-mile dirt oval, home of the Fall and Winter Nationals.
The Late Models opened the night with tight racing action. East Bay's veteran driver, Donnie Tanner out of Brandon, had the field covered, winning his heat race in commanding fashion to place him on the pole for the Strawberry Dash Special Feature race.
The Strawberry Dash, sponsored by local produce owners Buddy Griffin and Donn Goodson, has become a fan favorite. The Dash features "6 For 6 For 6" - the top six cars in the class racing for six laps, with the winner taking home $600. Tanner again proved to have the other five cars covered, as he pocketed the cash.
With Tanner starting on the pole position, it seemed it would be a clean sweep. As he jumped to the front, it was no surprise and there was tight racing action between the #88 Pontiac of Tanner and the #32 of Roger Crouse for a good part of the feature. On the last lap, going into turn 3, the lapped car of K.D. Kelley went high to get out of the way of the dueling Tanner and Crouse.
When Kelly went high, so did Tanner, and suddenly the red and silver #88 wasn't pretty anymore, as he plowed into the back of Kelly. Tanner still managed to pull a third place finish, but received extensive damage with pieces of the 88 car covering the front straight.
Crouse who picked up the win, said he knew Tanner was going to have trouble with the gang of cars in front of him. As it turned out, Crouse picked the right hole Tanner didn't. Bill Howard finished in the runner-up spot.
The Sprint Cars with their huge 35 square foot wings sitting on 900 lb. rockets put on their spectacular show as they do week in and week out. Saturday night saw the return of Paulie Milum in the #42 car as he came back ready to take everything. However, with the increased competition, that was going to be tough, if not impossible.
Thanks to Buddy's Home Furnishings, there was added bonus money for the Sprint driver who could take both his heat and the feature. Kenny Adams and Sport Allen had something to say about that as the '98 and '99 Champions put on the pressure, but were out of the cash since neither had won their heat race.
Allen passed both Adams and Milum on a restart, jumping to a large lead. But, Kenny Adams the #1 rated Sprint Car driver in the country for 360 cubic-inch winged monsters of the dirt proved why, as he worked high and low, finally getting around the Dayton Andrews Dodge #88. Allen finished second, followed by Gene Lasker in the show position.
The Limited Late Models always have tight racing among; their first night of action was no exception with a full field of twenty-four cars. With new looks on shining unbent metal that wouldn't be that way for long as Don Gansner and David Rodgers put a battle on lap after lap with Rodgers putting a metal to metal pass of the flying 0 of Gansner. The finishing order ended up being Rodgers, Jeff Mathews and Gansner.
The Limited Sprint cars continues to grow in car count, with 30 cars registered on opening night. Andy Kelly made sure he got the first win for the 2001 season. Kelly was followed across the line by Tim George and Clyde Poole.
The Street Stock turned out to be a Bronson family affair. Jason Bronson got his first win, followed by Tim Bronson with Jason Johnson taking third.
-Jay Parrish-
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