| A 'Normal' Night at East Bay Raceway | by Hans Nieborg
 Saturday night at East Bay Raceway was truly a blast. Karnac.com was invited out to the track to see what a "normal" race night is like at East Bay. I personally wanted to visit the track in light of the new weight rule recently handed down for the sprint cars and see what some of the drivers thought about it.
When we arrived at the track, we took a casual stroll through the pits to see what was happening. The first inclination was to make a left just past the track and take a look at the sprint cars parked all the way around the side, but walking straight back turned out to be a better idea. There were many things to be seen, such as slogans on the back of the cars with statements like: "Drive it like you stole it!", "Sorry…Bout Your Luck", and "Stay Back! Vehicle Subject To Spinout". As we continued to make our way towards the back of the pits, you could see a young man working on a mini stock with his legs sticking out the back of the car. Talk about getting into your work! On the other side, three boys were busily making what we thought was a mud castle from clay that had been removed from the racecars. We discovered on the return trip though, that they were building a miniature version of Stonehenge.
About two stalls up from the boys, there was a driver who was obviously a one-man race team. He was working feverishly trying to fix his car after a fairly serious altercation on the track during his heat race. At about the time we noticed him hard at work, he must have discovered something critically wrong with the car because he sat down hard on the ground and held his head between his clenched fists looking extremely forlorn. This scene actually turned out to be a brief thinking session of about a minute or so, because he quickly stood up and pulled the hood off his racer with obvious thoughts of how to fix the situation. He wasn't going to go down without a fight!
We finally did walk around the side of the track and talked with a few of the sprint car drivers and their teams. Although our conversations consisted of a small sample of all of the drivers in attendance, the general consensus seemed to be that things needed to be done to tighten up the sprint car field, make the cars less expensive, and make the racing more competitive. The thing that few drivers agreed upon seemed to be the timing of the ruling. As for East Bay's part in this, they were caught between a rock and a hard place. They had to do something to level things out. This is very reminiscent of NASCAR 'tweaking' the rules in the middle of the season in an effort to balance things out. Hopefully, the new weight rule being phased in around September will do exactly what is anticipated.
 And now, let’s talk about the racing. .
We had heard that East Bay fans are almost rabid in their devotion to their track and favorite drivers. Well, after our Saturday visit, we can see why. The racing was close and the action was hot. The fans would stand up and cheer for their favorites in large groups to a point where it looked like certain drivers in each class had their own personal rooting section all their own in the stands. And this happened during every race, in all of the classes at the track. Even the intermission was great as the flag stand gates were thrown open for an autograph session with the sprint car drivers before their race. Now, that is access! This is one of the few tracks we visited where the fans can actually meet the drivers halfway though the program without having to pay to get into the pits. And the interviews of the drivers during the autograph sessions were a nice touch. It gave the drivers a chance to talk a little bit about themselves and their future plans. For example, Bubba the Love Sponge, who drives the #98 sprint car owned by Gene Lasker, was very congenial and thanked the speedway for the opportunity to race there, then talked about his future plans of possibly moving to the Chicago area.
One thing that also was nice was to see the top three cars line up after the race on the front stretch and receive their trophies. (Trophies for second and third place? No way!) That was a welcome surprise, watching the second and third place drivers being treated with the same honor and respect as the winner of the feature, with the drivers standing there in front of the fans for all to see. That's another nice touch, letting the fans know that the other competitors were an important factor in the winner's outcome that evening. It was just like being at the Olympics.
A touch of class, wouldn't you say? This was definitely an evening well spent, while "Doing It In The Dirt".
For Saturday’s race report click here!
For photos Click Here!
-Hans Nieborg
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