IT'S TIME TO RACE!!

March 6, 2005 FSCR East Bay Opens 2005 Season with Six Classes In Action East Bay Opens 2005 Season with Six classes In Action By Bill Green From Behind The MIC! By Bill Green Tampa, FL (Mar.5th, 2005) The kick off to the local racing season and the points Championships started Saturday Night on the world famous clay-by-the-bay. Over 100 cars showed for 5 of the 6 classes on the schedule, but only one of the new up-start 4-Cyl Bombers was ready for action. Young Brenton Gardners car was the talk of the night, as the youngster showed how nice a low budget ride could look. Congratulations, Brenton, nice looking racecar, thanks for showing it off to the fans. First on the track under green would be the Limited Late Models, with Dale Pope taking the very first heat of 2005 and Forest Gough set to tone for his season with the win in heat-2. Feature time would see the straight up heat finishes bring Dale Pope and Forest Gough to the front row, but it would be bill Howard out of row 2 that would visit Victory Lane. Second would go David Simpson, with Dale Pope settling for third. Fourth went to Rich Kessinger, while Jeremy Simpson rounded out the top-5. Street stocks had their crews working through the winter. Thirty plus cars signed in for night one, with Paul Gibbs taking heat-1 and David Strickland heat-2. The Victory Lane visit would go to Steven Johnson to start the season right. Second was Danny Paris, Jr., with The Col. Austin Sanders third, Mac Kersey fourth and Michael Cherry fifth. Gagles Used Auto Parts returns in 2005 to sponsor the Open Wheel Modifieds. They saw Jeff Matthews use his Winter Nationals run to take heat-1 and Bill Howard do the same in heat-2. Feature time would see Jeff Mathews dominate the 15-lap A-Main race, leaving the rest of the field running for 2nd most of this one. Attrition would be the name of the game with only 7 or the 25 starters able to take the checkered flag. Second would go to a very patient Scott Howard. Third was where Scotty Williams would finish after trying to get by Matthews for several laps mid-race. The father & son duo of Bobby and Rusty Dixon would round out the top-5, in 4th and 5th respectively. Late Models came into tonight to see Steve Gillman taking heat-1 and David Schmauss heat-2. They once again prove to the crowd why everyone loves Late Model action at East Bay as David Schmauss and Jackie Nosbisch, Jr. battled for the first two-thirds of the race. But, several cautions caused Roger Crouse to make up some ground and it was a three-car war for the final 7-laps. Schmauss won the battle, but Nosbisch (second) and Crouse (third) hope to win the points war as they all three put on a great show for the crowd. Fourth would go to Ed Hill, with Frank Erskine, Sr. getting fifth. Outlaw 4s brought 16 cars to opening night, as Jimmy Waldrop would get the heat-1 win as he was shown the black flag for smoke trailing the car. Heat-2 went to Ryan Mitchell. The A-Main saw Mitchell get to the front and never look back. Second would go to Chad Rose, with Cecil Martin third, Danny Bowman forth and young Brad Boerners first race would see him in the final top-5 spot. As a special note to next weekend, I will not be at East Bay for week 2, as Karen and I will be getting married on March 11th at 9PM EST. You, our extended racing family are invited to watch the ceremony via web-cam, LIVE from Las Vegas by sending an email request for the info to me at BillyEastBay@aol.com. Thanks for everyones support and well see you on March 19th after the honeymoon. Well See You At The RACES! Have an opinion on this story? Post a message on our Message Board! news@karnac.org or send a letter to the editor!