IT'S TIME TO RACE!!

March 20, 2005 FSCR East Bay Crowns Six Feature Winners More than 100 cars gathered in the pit area for six divisions of exciting racing at East Bay Raceway Park. Ryan Mitchell prevailed in the Outlaw 4 cylinder class with a backstretch pass of early race leader Jeff Conyers. Mitchell, en route to his second win of the season, kept the lead through a pair of restarts in the last five laps en route to the victory. Conyers held on for second as Chad Rose, who had been involved in a mid-race spin and relegated to the back, came home third. Rich Livernois was fourth with Daniel Bowman gathering fifth. Mitchell and Rose scored heat wins to start off the racing night. Forest Gough parlayed his front row starting spot to a ticket to Victory Lane in the 15-lap Able Body Labor Limited Late Models. Gough had a constant challenge from Bill Howard, who was looking for a racing opportunity. The two put on a classic battle, but Gough was able to prevail in the main. Howard held onto second with Dale pope notching his second straight third place finish. Timmy Bronson advanced from his ninth starting spot to finish fourth while Bruce Harvey rounded out the top five. Howard and Rich Kessinger won the preliminaries. The Gagel’s Auto Parts Open Wheel Modifieds brought 22 cars to the starting line for their 15-lap main, but it took three attempts to get the first lap in the scorebook. With each start, Devin Dixon moved from the outside into command of the field, a place he would reside for the whole event. There was no shortage of action in the caution-filled race, including several side-by-side battles. 2004 class champion John Bradley and veteran Buzzie Reutimann raced wheel-to-wheel through several laps. Jeff Mathews and Scotty Williams were locked in battle inside the top five, but Dixon was setting a torrid pass during the green flag action. The race was shortened to 13 laps with Dixon prevailing over Bill Howard, Reutimann, Rusty Dixon and Williams. Mathews and Williams captured their heat races. A field of 16 cars was called to the grid for the 25-lap Late Model race. The first 17 laps were run without caution and during that period, Keith Nosbisch moved alongside early race leader Marshall Austin. Austin had sprung into the lead from the start with J.R. Garcia in pursuit. Keith Nosbisch moved to second inside the first 10 laps. On lap 11, as Austin was facing lapped traffic, Nosbisch made the move that proved to be the winning pass. Austin lost second to heat race winner Jack Nosbisch Jr., but gained it back a lap later. Keith Nosbisch cruised to the win with Austin, Jack Nosbisch Jr., David Schmauss, and Roger Crouse taking their places in the top five. Garcia and Jack Nosbisch Jr. were on top of the heat races. Street Stocks featured plenty of competition. Two-time feature winner Steven Johnson and Austin Sanders got their nights off to a positive start with heat race wins. Johnson and Sanders started in the fourth row, leaving an opportunity for the front starting teams to gain their first win of the season. Paul Gibbs jumped out to an early advantage, but some frontstretch action early on sent Tim Spencer into the water barriers. Spencer was able to continue. Mac Kersey snatched the lead from Gibbs who faced several different challengers. Johnson slipped by on lap 10, but Gibbs came right back to take second on the next circuit. Kersey could not be headed with Gibbs keeping second. Johnson came home third with Michael Cherry fourth and Spencer rallying to fifth after a lap five spin to avoid crashing a competitor. D.B. Hogwaler claimed the 4 Cylinder feature, going wire to wire. Brentan Gardner topped the 4 Cylinder heat. East Bay Raceway Park will see a doubleheader action next weekend. The Go-Kart track will be in action Friday, March 25 after losing last week’s show to weather. The 1/3-mile will see six divisions of action as the early season point battles are developing with the runni Have an opinion on this story? Post a message on our Message Board! news@karnac.org or send a letter to the editor!