Gibsonton, FL -September 17, 2005- A full moon and full pits at a racetrack usually spell trouble and that was just the case at East Bay Raceway Park Saturday night. A total of 126 cars were signed into the pits representing six divisions of competition that were part of the night's race card.
With qualifying heats completed for all of the divisions the Limited Late Models started off the run of feature events with their 15 lap feature event. A total of 21 cars lined up to take the green with Ricky Land and J.R. Prather, Jr. leading them around to the initial green.
Prather wasted little time in wrestling the lead away from Land going from start to finish in the #1 spot.
A violent looking crash occurred on a lap 9 restart coming off turn 4. A few cars at the middle back of the pack came together with Rich Kessinger getting the worst of the deal as he flipped end over end coming to rest on his roof near the start-finish line. The tally of competitors involved included Dale Pope; Ricky Land; Cheryl Cochran; Tom Evonosky, Jr.; Ricky Meyer and Tim Gay. Thankfully no one was injured, but there were a lot of tore up race cars. Only Pope and Evonosky, Jr. were able to rejoin the field.
Finishing behind Prather to make up the top five finishers were David Simpson, Jeff Mathews, Forrest Gough, and Tom Evonosky, Sr.
An impressive field of 26 cars ttok part in the 15 Lap Street Stock feature race. Just like the Limited Late Models the Street Stocks had a hair-raising moment of there own. It happened early on when, in the heat of battle, cars came together with Michael Cherry flipping his #45 along the frontstretch. He was not injured.
Tim Spencer, who started on the outside pole was in command from green to checker with Tony Traina up on his Spencer's bumper for second. Buck Woodhouse was a steady third followed by Donnie Reed and Austin Sanders.
The top dog Late Models were next out on the track for the running of their 25 lap feature event. Twenty-one cars made up the starting grid with Al Larson and Ted Erskine bringing the field around for the starting green.
Larson got the jump on Erskine to take the immediate lead. Austin took advantage of a Larson bobble on the second lap to take the top spot as Larson faded back into the pack.
Ted Erskine seemed to be well on his way to his best finish in a long time as he ran very strong in the runnerup spot until mechanical woes struck him down at about the half way mark.
Keith Nosbisch inherited second and chased down Austin to make it an interesting race in the closing laps. Try as he might Keith was unable to get by.
David Schmauss overtook Jeff Mathews for fourth on lap 19 but was unable to advance any further.
At the finish it was Austin in for the win with Keith Nosbisch second, K.D. Kelley third, Schmauss fourth and Mathews fifth.
It was now time for the cars and stars of the open-wheel modifieds. Twenty cars rolled out of the pits for the 15 lap affair with Buddy Wisham and Billy Boyd making up row one.
At the drop of the green it was Wisham shooting into the lead, but an apparently ill handling car was not going to make his stay at the point a long one. Boyd was able to get by for the top spot on the second circuit.
Top runners Devon Dixon, Buzzie Reutimann and David Schmauss were beginning to make their way to the front.
Devon Dixon became the new leader on lap 4. Lady Luck was not with Devon as he fell victim to a coil problem on lap 9 and was out of the race.
This put Boyd back into first followed by Scotty Williams, Reutimann, Jeff Mathews and Schmauss.
Schmauss made an unbelievable late race charge to the front passing cars with relative ease taking over first from Boyd with just two laps to go.
When it was all said and done it was Schmauss in victory lane. Boyd was second at the line followed by Williams and Reutimann. Perry Brown, who started 20th in the field brought the 22B car home fifth.
Alex Boerner took off from his outside pole starting position to seize the early lead in the 15 lap Outlaw 4 main event. Josh Peacock took advantage of Boerner's inexperience when Boerner got loose coming off turn 4 to take away the lead. Boerner shortly dropped out with a broken rack.
Josh received a strong bid from Wayne Williams in the closing laps, but withstood the challenge to take the win. Williams settled for second. Jim Corson ran an impressive race from the back of the pack to take third. Peter Grantham and Rich Livernois rounded out the top five.
The Four Cylinder Bombers closed out the night with a 15 lap feature event which was totally dominated by Buck Skinner. Skinner's margin of victory was a little over a half lap over second place finisher D.B. Hogwaler. J.R. Prather, Sr. claimed third, Wes Livernois was fourth ahead of fifth place finisher Brendon Gardner.
