Racing experience came to the forefront as several repeat winners were in East Bay Raceway Park’s Victory Lane on Saturday night during Mother’s Day weekend. More than 110 cars were on hand for the first weekend of May racing.
Timmy Bronson made it back to back with a dominant performance in the Limited Late Models. The 19-car field took the green with Bronson out front at the drop of the green.
Ricky Land shot past Randy Shields to snare second early, but Bronson would have no serious challenge in the early stages. In fact, the leader caught lapped traffic on the fourth lap of the 15-lap main, dispatching them easily in the green flag action. David Simpson moved to second by the 10th lap, but Simpson and company were a half lap behind Bronson.
The last thing the leader needed was to see the yellow, but it happened on lap 12, wiping out the large lead. Bronson had Simpson close behind, but held off the challenges to become the first Limited Late Model driver to score back-to-back victories in 2005. Simpson held onto second with 2004 class champion J.R. Prather Jr. in third. Robert Douglas ran a steady race for fourth with Forest Gough claiming fifth. Heat race wins went to Douglas and Land.
The Outlaw 4-cylinder class brought 15 cars to the starting line with Greg Pae moving out to a quick lead. A quick caution put Pae at the head of the Ybor City restart line. Jeff Conyers was on the move, heading from his 11th starting spot to third before the halfway mark. Conyers ducked inside second running Eddie Mercer and grabbed the lead, but the yellow flew, negating the pass on lap 10.
On the restart, Conyers slipped past Pae and moved away for his second feature win. Pae held on for second with Steve Miller moving from deep in the field to third. Point leader Chad Rose finished fourth with Wallace Peacock coming on for fifth. Peacock and Pae won the preliminary events.
A jam-packed Open Wheel Modified field brought 27 cars out for the 15-lap feature. Jamie Burrows kept the top spot at the start and ran the table on the field by holding the lead throughout. Burrows’ early challenges came from Scott Howard, who made a move for the lead on lap 10. Howard lost the handle, spinning to the infield, keeping the race under green. David Schmauss inherited second, but he couldn’t hunt down Burrows. Trevor Merrill claimed third with Bill Howard coming home fourth. Rusty Dixon notched another top five with a fifth-place run. NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series regular David Reutimann came from the tail of the field to finish seventh. Heat winners in the class were Burrows and Howard.
Heat winner Roger Crouse led the Late Model crowd of 18 cars up to the start of the 25-lap main. Crouse, who had just competed in the Open Wheel Modified feature, was running strong at the head of the pack. A number of cautions bunched the field behind Crouse, who kept the pace up on each restart.
The field behind Crouse was shuffled nearly constantly. Bobby Alexander Sr. provided the first challenges until Keith Nosbisch took over second. The race was red flagged on lap 11 when Jack Nosbisch Jr., K.D. Kelley and Frank Erskine were involved in a mishap that blocked the frontstretch. Nosbisch and Donnie Tanner locked into a strong battle with Tanner grabbing second on the first lap after the restart. Crouse put his C.J. Rayburn chassis on the right line to propel the car to the front and score the win. Tanner kept second with Keith Nosbsich third. Alexander kept fourth with point leader David Schmauss rounding out the top five. Crouse and Alexander Sr. were on top in the heat races.
Street Stock brought 25 cars onto the track, but three were eliminated before a lap was completed. Polesitter Tim Spencer kept the pace from the start, but numerous cautions plagued the event. Daniel Lewis was in contention for a repeat win until a late race incident sidelined his efforts.
Eric Johnson had challenged until a spin and subsequent flat tire put him out of the chase. The cautions hampered the efforts to complete a full race and the curfew was imposed with only six laps completed. A green-white-checkered finish was called and Spencer hung on for his second feature of the year.
Matthew Grissom brought a battered race car to second with Buck Woodhouse coming home third. Wayne Hays battled from the back to claim fourth with Johnson rallying back for fifth. Spencer and Donnie Reed won their heat races.
D.B. Hogwaller kept his win streak alive with wins in the heat and feature. Kristi Ivey took second with Landy Font claiming third. Brentan Gardner experienced engine problems and took fourth with Danny Harrell in fifth.
A match race pitting three Dixons (Devin, Rusty, and Bobby) against three Reutimanns (Buzzie, Greg and David) went six laps with Devin Dixon winning out.
