IT'S TIME TO RACE!!

April 18, 2004 FSCR Tech Shed Gets Hat Trick Plus Some At East Bay Raceway Park by Bill Green Clay-By-The-Bay fans saw six times the action at East Bay Raceway Park on Saturday night. A pit bulging 110 cars signed in for the action, but there was action on and off the track. It didnt take long for the action to start as Steve Burch took Street Stock heat-1 and Wayne Hayes, heat-2. The feature looked to be a one-of-a-kind green to checkered event, but Psycho Dad Jim Greenwood would collect the turn 1 gate, bring out the first red flag of the night on lap-9. Jim would be sore, but OK, as Steve Burch held on to win his 1st Feature event of 2004. Second went to Mac Kersey as he made a great back-stretch move on the white flag lap, third would go to Buck Woodhouse, while Richard Peacock held on for fourth and 23rd starter, Thomas White battled into fifth. Limited Late Model heat action would have point leader Forest Gough collect the turn-3 wall in heat-1. Going on to win heat-1 would be young dirt tracker Ronnie Heard, with David Simpson getting heat-2. The feature would take several restarts to get underway, but the fans would be on their feet as 19th starter Richard Kessinger drove through the field for the win, but post race tech inspection would find an illegal distributor, giving the win to David Simpson. That moved Jeff Mathews to second, J. R. Prather, Jr. to third, Forest Gough fourth and fifth went to Ronnie Heard. Late Models only needed one heat to set the feature. Winning the heat would be The NEW Mayor of Muddville Roger Crouse. Crouse would make a clean sweep of the night visiting Victory Lane, but the battle for second would steal the show. The Master Donnie Tanner would battled Vince Muzzin to win second, with Muzzin settling for third, the last car on the lead lap John Norris got fourth and Frank Erskine, Sr. finished fifth. As the Limited Sprint class took to the track for heats, there were 20 cars signed in for winged action. Heat-1 would go to Donnie Maxwell, while Larry Buzz Brazil, Jr. took heat-2. The biggest field of Limited Sprints in two years would not disappoint, with spins, wall-bangers and rollovers as just part of the action. The winner would be Brian Maddox coming from 17th starting position, but he to would be DQd in tech as he was light on the scales. The Mopar powered Frank Beck III out dueled Daisy-Dukes Paulie Milum for second on the track, but inherits first. That gives Milum second, Big Tim George third, outside pol e-sitter Travis Bliemeister fourth and Dave Surrency fifth. Mini-Stocks saw Daniel Bowman take heat-1 and Ryan Mitchell take heat-2. Hearing-impaired driver Scotty Williams would salvage another victory with a late race pass, making it his FIFTH victory of the young season. Second would be Daniel Bowman, Jr., with Chad Rose third, Josh Peacock forth and Ryan Mitchell fifth. Open Wheel Modified feature action brought us a Hat Trick on the scales in the tech shed, as the winning Jeff Mathews and fifth place finisher Bruce Watkins were both penalized for being light on the scales. That would move John Bradley into Victory Lane, David Schamuss to second, Greg Reutimann to third, Buddy Wishman into forth and Jeff Conyers goes from seventh to fifth. Next week will feature the National Late Model Series (NLMS) in action for two full nights of racing. Along with the NLMS on Friday Night will be East Bay Raceway Parks first ever Stock-Lite Go-Kart money race. Plus, add on the Open Wheel Modifieds, Street Stocks and Mini-Stocks from the normal Saturday Night show and youll have an exciting Friday night of ACTION! Saturday Night we come back with the NLMS again, plus Limited Sprints, Classic Cars and the always-popular Run-What-Ya-Brung Open Fan Participation race. Contact East bay Raceway Park for more details on any of these events. Have an opinion on this story? Post a message on our Message Board! news@karnac.org or send a letter to the editor!