Sometimes Rain Makes Racing Better at Tampa's Famous Clay Track!
by Bill Green “From Behind The MIC!”
June 7, 2003 - East Bay Raceway Park hosted 116 full size racers for the 16th week of racing. After a late afternoon shower aided crews in track preparations, racers waited to see what the track surface would do this week with the extra water and steady wind. It didn’t take long to find out that it meant “ACTION” with a capital “A.”
Street Stocks showed the crowd that they could go green to checkered in a heat last week, but still have been unable to collect the extra $20 per position. This week’s feature would be the lucky one; the crowd could feel it and the true believers, believed it. The problem was, no one told Tim Hunt and as he took the aggressive outside line, he would hop over the right rear of James Escobar and bury the 9 car into the turn 1 gate on lap one of the feature. Heat-1 went to Steven Johnson, while Don Gansner would take heat-2. Going on to win the feature would be Don Gansner, second would go to Eric Johnson, third would go Bruce Harvey, Paul Gibbs came home forth and last weeks winner Tony Traina was fifth.
Limited Late Models would have 26 cars for tonight’s feature. Mike Rubber won heat-1 and Forest Gough won heat-2. Winning the feature would be more survival of the fittest. Only 15 of 26 starting cars remained on the track for the lap-5 restart. Mulberry’s Steve Black would win a time shortened 7-lap feature, William Hampton would finish second, third place went to Dale Pope coming from 20th, with Ricky Land finishing forth and young Jeremy Simpson over coming several weeks of bad luck to get a top-5 finish.
Gagle’s Auto Parts Open Wheeled Modifieds came into the pits 21 cars strong and entertained the fans with two competitive heats. Joe Wiggins would take the 1st heat, while Jeff Mathews took heat 2. The feature would see the 47H of Bill Howard in Victory Lane after the 11-lap, time shortened event. Going second was last week’s winner, Jerry White. Third would go to Jeff Conyers, with Bobby Dixon sneaking into 4th form 15th and points leader Bruce Watkins rounding out the top-5.
Late Models were fired up to see local legend Keith Nosbisch pulling through the gate last week and he would return this week to battle the field again. Heat-1 was a driving clinic from winner Bobby Alexander, Sr., but J.R. Garcia, III would win heat 2, after K.D. Kelly spun while leading, alone, all by himself, nobody around, you get the picture. Describing the “ACTION” in the Late Model feature was easy this week, as 16-year-old Jeff Choquette worked his magic up top again and drove away with his 4th feature win of 2003. Roger Crouse settled for second, Jack Nosbisch, Jr. took third, forth went to David Schmauss and Bobby Alexander, Sr. over came an early spin for fifth.
The Hills Dirt Pit, Pioneer Tire & Auto, Buzbee Aquatic, Triple Sponsored Mini-Stocks were up next for tonight’s action. Heat-1 went to Brian DeBore, while Rich Livernois won heat-2. The feature event would turn out to be another wild one, with 7 restarts in the first 8 laps. Chad Rose would outlast the field for the win, Scotty Williams second, Josh Peac*ck was third, forth place went to Ken Rutledge and rounding out the top-5 would be “The Purple People Eater” of Greg Pae for the second week in a row.
Limited Wingless Sprints sponsored by Brake Man, brought 11 cars to the track, and the “ACTION” continued with Larry Brazil, Jr. winning heat 1 and David Kelly taking heat 2. The feature would go to Larry Brazil, Jr. with a Clean-Sweep of his heat and the feature. Second was a toss up for most of the race, but Donnie Maxwell would hold off Tim Holsten, with forth going to Andy Kelly, and “Skeeter” Kelly getting fifth by inches at the line.
Next week it’s 360 Winged Sprints, with all of our regular runners.
