Jamie Burrows & Bobby Alexander Sr. Return to Victory Lane at East Bay Raceway Park
by Bill Green “From Behind The MIC”
Tampa, FL. (May 15th, 2003)… East Bay Raceway Park has to delicately balance clay and water to make for a good racing surface. Hot temperatures this week have made for a real guessing game for owners and racing surface caretakers.
In the end it was Mother Nature herself that would provide the right amount of water for Saturday Night’s racing program. After a very short shower during the Late Model heats, that would be so small as to leave the cars racing on the track during it, East Bay’s Feature Events would be fantastic. One hundred thirteen racers signed in for tonight’s six classes. East Bay’s great fans signed in too, forgoing the worry over rain, the Winston or any other Saturday Night entertainment to watch some of the best dirt track action offered in a long time.
Gagle's Auto Parts Open Wheeled Modifieds would open the features tonight with Florida Open Wheel Modified veteran Jamie Burrows returning to Victory Lane. Burrows would survive the 23-car field, 7 cautions and 3 late race restarts to win his first East Bay feature as Jamie put it, “In a long, long time!” Following the 11B across the finish was the 33 of Jeff Mathews, who made several great attempts to take the top spot, but had to settled for second. Third went to “Prime-Time” Bobby Dixon, forth was Roger Crouse, filling in for the Prather Race Team in the 007 machine and rounding out the top 5 would be Jim Passino.
The Hill’s Dirt Pit, Pioneer Tire & Auto, Buzbee Aquatics Mini-Stocks brought 21 of the 4 cylinder warriors to the green, with the 00 of Scott Howard taking the win on the track, but loosing it in teach as the car weighted light. That put Dorsey Strickland in the top spot, Scotty Williams into second, Chad Rose third, Rick Partridge fourth and move Rich Livernois into the top 5.
Limited Late Model’s packed 26 cars onto the track for feature number three. Forest Gough takes win number 5 for 2003 from his 13th starting spot. Second went to Mike Rudder, third was Jeff Mathews, with Timmy Bronson fourth and Ricky Land fifth.
Limited Wingless Sprint's saw the field almost double from two weeks ago and Tim Holsten would dazzle the fans with a few quick moves through traffic, taking the win in fine fashion. Going second was the NEW car of Travis Bliemeister, David “Skeeter” Kelly finished third, Larry Brazil, Jr. would take forth and Steve Darvalics was DQ’d in tech for a carburetor infraction, giving fifth to Timmy George.
Late Models came into week 13 with over half of the field still in the hunt for the season Championship. Bobby Alexander, Sr. served notice that his new chassis was state of the art and was the class of the field on this night. In Victory Lane Bobby attributed that to, “Using some old asphalt knowledge on the track as it got slicker. Coming on to finish second was Bobby Alexander, Jr., while third would go to Devon Dixon.
Street Stocks would have 24 cars signed in for the feature. Even though they did not claim the green-to-checkered extra money, they did run from lap 3 to the end under green. The 700 car of “Rock’n” Ronnie Pope would us a front row starting spot to lead from start to finish for his first win of 2003. Second would go to Tim Hunt, followed by Tim Spencer, Jason Bronson and Jack Rowland.
Next week we’ll see the 360 Winged Sprints back on the East Bay clay. And, we want to wish Good Luck to all of our Florida racers traveling north to Indiana for the Little 500, the Hoosier 100 and other sprint events leading up to the Indy 500.
