Triple Fligs Add to East Bay Raceways Park Excitement
by Bill Green “From Behind the MIC”
Easter weekends at your local racetrack are always a great place to be as a kid. Saturday night at East Bay Raceway Park was no exception. Over 250 of the 12 and under junior race fans spilled onto the 1/3-mile clay oval to enjoy a brief Easter Egg Hunt with some of the drivers. But, that did not happen till intermission.
The pit seemed to be filled to capacity as 110 cars entered for the 6 classes to run this Saturday night. The Hill’s Dirt Pit/Pioneer Tire & Auto/Buzbee Aquatics INC Mini-Stocks started off with 15 laps of side-by-side racing. Early leader Josh Peacock would hold on for a 4th place finish as Chad Rose would work some magic and visit Victory Lane first on this Easter Eve. Surviving the two and three wide racing for second was first heat winner Dorsey Strickland, with Brian Debore third, Peacock forth and Robert Douglas coming from 18th starting spot for fifth.
Next up for the Easter celebration would be the Gagel’s Auto Parts Open Wheeled Modifieds. Bruce Watkins would avoid any of the troubled spots for a well deserved win, with Jeff Conyers second, Jeff Mathews coming back to third after going to rear of the field at halfway. Fourth went Greg Reutimann and Bobby “Prime-Time” Dixon was fifth.
Wingless Sprints saw the 92 of John Ratzlaff flip in turn 3 during heat action. John would climb from the injured racecar OK, to the delight of the fans. In the feature it would be Andy “Skeeter” Kelly loosing a rear wheel and flipping in turn 2 to punctuate his return to the track. Skeeter was OK, also, but could not continue. Tim Gorge survived it all and wheeled his way to Victory Lane, with Larry Brazil, Jr. second, Donnie Maxwell third, Clyde Poole forth and David Kelly returning to East Bay Raceway Park for a fifth place finish.
Limited Late Models would see the 3X of David Boerner get upside down off the back stretch wall on lap 11. As his wife nervously awaited his exit from the car, David ask track officials first to the scene, “Is my wife OK? She may not let me keep racing after this one!” After a short delay for the car to be righted, racing resumed with the 21 of veteran Forrest Gough taking the win, Jeff Mathews came from 12th to finish second, Mike Rudder steered the 0 car to third, Timmy Bronson was fourth and David Simpson would fill in for Roger Crouse for the final top-5 spot in the 15 machine.
Late Models continued their amazing run of exciting races with Jeff Choquette fill Roger Crouse’s number 32 seat and coming from 18th to third in the 25-lap feature, behind second place finisher Devin Dixon and race winner Phillip Cobb. Cobb would do a masterful job of working through lapped traffic, to walk away with the win. Behind that trio came the zero of Bobby Alexander, Jr. and the double-zero of K.D. Kelly, forth and fifth.
Finishing off tonight’s 6 Feature “Night-Before-Easter-Event” were the Street Stocks. Twenty-one cars would come to the green flag and what looked like the night they would run green-to-checkered, with no cautions, was ruined on lap 9 as Steve Johnson. Steve would battle for a top-5 spot early, but the spin would leave him at the back of the field, with a lot of ground to make up. Feature winner Jason Bronson would start 15th and use a last lap pass to seal his trip to Victory Lane. Running second would be Bruce Harvey, third went to Mac Kersey, forth to Eric Johnson and the final top-5 of the night went to Jack Roland.
Special thanks to the drivers and crews that supported the Easter Egg Hunt for the junior race fans. And I must add a special thank you to Rev. Don Ralston for filling in for Track-Pastor Natz Peters, who was away at special Easter church programs. Hope everyone has a Happy Easter and we’ll see you next week for the Winged 360 Sprints.
