IT'S TIME TO RACE!!

September 6, 2009 Varandore Duo Claim Wins in East Bay Go By Larry Jewett 9/5/09 Mother Nature tried, but couldn’t stop racing action at East Bay Raceway Park as a five-division program weathered a slight delay to provide weekly racing thrills. The Outlaw 4 feature saw Mavrick Varnadore go wire-to-wire to claim his second win of the season. The race was halted after one complete when point leader Stephen Hohlbaugh had some mechanical issues take him out of contention. Varnadore and Art Gulvin squared off in side-by-side racing through the early laps until Varnadore could ease his way to the front. Brian Danforth slipped into second as Billy Howard was charging from the rear. No one could catch the leader with Varnadore, Danforth, Howard, Mickey Wright and Gulvin in the top five. Wright’s finish moved her to within 10 points of the division lead. Varnadore also claimed the heat win. Street Stock racing was a slam-bang affair as drivers were working to get a handle on the track conditions during hats. When it was all said and done, Matthew Grissom and James Hook claimed wins. That put the duo in the front row for the feature and it would turn into a classic battle. They were never separated by more than a car length through the first 12 laps of the 15-lap main with hook leading the way. Grissom grabbed the lead on the backstretch as the event ran caution free, giving him the drive to Victory Lane. Hook ran a strong second with Buck Skinner, Buck Woodhouse and Gary Sheffield completing the top five. The South Shore Late Models brought nearly two dozen cars for a regular weekly show, many in anticipation of the Scott Thompson Memorial 50-lapper in two weeks. Shan Smith, Roger Crouse and Ted Erskine won preliminaries. When the field came down for the 25-lap feature, Ted Erskine was first leader of the 22-car field, grabbing the lead ahead of Jimmy Waldrop. A quick caution for Doug Watson and Max Bennett reset the field as cautions started piling up with the field getting one or two laps in before the yellow reappeared. Through the restarts, Erskine held sway, but the action inside the top five was fierce. Smith took second from Waldrop, who came back on lap six. A lap nine spin by Smith collected Waldrop, putting Waldrop out and Smith to the rear. That moved point leader Jeff Mathews to second and Mathews took over the lead just before halfway. Contact between Wallace Peacock and Erskine on lap 16 sent Erskine around who was drilled by Hamp Conley. Both drivers were unhurt, but done for the night. After Daniel Woody spun on lap 17 and Dennis Williams went around on lap 18,, the field was bunched up. Mathews too off on the restart to build a lead, but after taking Ronnie Lucock’s five-to-go signal, Mathews lost the handle in turn two, spinning out of contention. David Pollen and Travis Varnadore had battled for second, but now Varnadore would inherit the point. Watson had rebounded from the earlier spin for third at the restart. Mathews returned to the race and began his chase to the front, but Varnadore, Pollen and Watson would be the cars Mathews couldn’t pass. The point leader settled for fourth with Bennett rounding out the top five. Gene Lasker threw the monkey from his back in East Bay Sprint racing. Lasker backed up his heat win with a dominant performance in the feature that brought 16 cars to the green. Last week’s winner Tim George cruised home second, ahead of Frank Beck, Tony Agin, and Rocky Sullivan. Paulie Milum claimed a heat, but left the feature early with a problem. In the Motorstats.com 4-Cylinder Bombers, Kyle Kruse backed up a heat win with the feature victory. Red Vann claimed second, ahead of Curtis Book, Roberto Morfin Jr., and Kelli Hill. Morfin Jr. and Roberto Morfin Sr. joined Kruse as heat race winners. ASA sanctioned racing resumes at East Bay Raceway Park Saturday, September 12th, 2009 at 6:30pm. The South Shore Auto Sales Late Models, Q Auto & Injury Limited Late Models, Street Stocks, Outlaw 4s, motorstats.com 4 Cylinder Bombers and Florida Old Time Modifieds will all be in action. For more information, call the track office at 813-677-7223 or visit us on the web at www.eastbayracewaypark.com. OFFICIAL RESULTS EAST BAY RACEWAY PARK SEPTEMBER 5, 2009 Late Models - Feature Finish Start Car Driver 1 13 41 Travis Varnadore 2 8 88 David Pollen 3 12 07 Doug Watson 4 6 33 Jeff Matthews 5 20 27 Maxx Bennett 6 7 P1 Wallace Peacock 7 9 105 Dave Schmauss 8 11 24 Dennis Williams 9 18 8M Matt Miller 10 14 3 Alex Boerner 11 10 2 Paul Gibbs 12 16 8S Steve Miller 13 21 29 Daniel Woody 14 2 1X Ted Erskine 15 22 46 Hamp Conley 16 15 311 Kenny Monahan 17 4 17SS Shan Smith 18 1 9W Jimmy Waldrop 19 17 32 Phillip Cobb 20 19 1* John Koller 21 5 21P Josh Peacock 22 3 115 Roger Crouse 23 23 120 Tom Megginson East Bay Sprints - Feature Finish Start Car Driver 1 4 02 Gene Lasker 2 1 1* Tim George 3 2 2 Frank Beck 4 5 38 Tony Agin 5 14 30X Rocky Sullivan 6 10 8 Rich Alexander 7 8 21 Jason Webster 8 11 83 Christine Auld 9 12 X Rick Martin 10 15 27 Troy Knowles 11 16 30 D.J Peebles 12 6 24 Jeff Vandusen 13 13 18 Jeannette Burnett 14 9 55 Kerry Gilbert 15 3 42 Paulie Milum 16 7 50 Rick Byerly Out Law 4 s - Feature Finish Start Car Driver 1 1 14 Mavrick Varnadore 2 4 05 Brian Danforth 3 7 53 Billy Howard 4 5 9 Mickey Wright 5 2 31 Art Gulvin 6 8 39 Larry Stepp 7 9 7JR Jesse Brown 8 6 75R Jason Russell 9 3 75 Stephen Hohlbaugh Street Stocks - Feature Finish Start Car Driver 1 1 7 Matthew Grissom 2 2 53 James Hook 3 4 00B Buck Skinner 4 6 55 Buck Woodhouse 5 3 12 Gary Sheffield 6 5 07 Donnie Reed 7 7 81 Thomas Pratt 8 9 35 Jarod Gay 9 10 20O Steve O'lone 10 8 238 Collin Kruse 11 11 02 Tim Spencer 12 13 17 Danny Hill 13 12 49 Doug Johnson 4 Cylinder Bombers - Feature Finish Start Car Driver 1 1 238 Kyle Kruse 2 12 15J Red Vann 3 4 57 Curtis Book 4 2 7M Roberto Morfin, Jr. 5 11 007 Kelli Hill 6 9 69X Jim Baker 7 3 46 Roberto Morfin, Sr. 8 14 7 Mike Maglio 9 21 0 Darrell Taylor 10 8 91 Anthony Noriega 11 19 27 Jimmy Odell 12 6 69R Eddie Cox 13 22 8 Johnnie Alexander 14 16 21 Cody Decker 15 10 29 Robert Williams 16 13 23 Andre Sheneman 17 5 911 Robert Kissam 18 23 3 Roland Price 19 17 15 Raymond Vann 20 7 22 George Handy 21 15 25 Matthew Odell 22 18 4 Kayla Jones 23 20 222 Troy Dittebrand Have an opinion on this story? 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