TAMPA, Fla. -- The weather felt more like mid-July than late October as tonight’s racing program got underway at East Bay Raceway Park. And the action on the track was just as hot.
The field of cars in the pit area just topped the 100 mark in the five classes of stock cars racing in tonight’s card.
Twelve heat races were needed to get every driver position set for the main events and the first feature started just before 9 PM.
J.R. Prather Jr. found victory lane after another slam, bang race in the Limited Late Model division. J.R. was able to hold an early lead all the way to the finish in a race slowed by cautions often. Bruce Harvey. Ryan Mitchell, Tommy Evonosky. And Ed Hill rounded out the top five. The three heat race wins went to Mitchell, Austin Sanders. And David Simpson.
The Gagles Open Wheel Modified main started out the Kelly family night. Dale Kelly was able to take the feature win after fighting off challenges on the high and low side of the track. Kelly drove a smart race and managed to hold off repeated runs from Raymond Rogers to take the win. Rogers had to settle for second with Bobby Dixon. Roger Crouse. And Jeff Mathews taking top five honors. Rogers and David Schmauss won the prelims.
The “Odessa Flash” George Christensen racked another one in the win column in Four Cylinder Bomber action. Christensen took the checkers ahead of K.C. Laramee. Tim Albright. Jimmy Alvis. And Calvin Moore. Frank Miller and Danny Bowman Jr. won the heats.
Late Models were out in force tonight requiring three heats to set up their 25 lap main. Marshall Austin, Steve Gillman. And K.D. Kelly took the wins in those. In feature action, Austin jumped to an early lead but had repeated challenges from Josh Peacock, Kelly and several others. Just as the leaders started working lapped traffic Randy Thomas spun right in front of Austin and Marshall had no choice but to jam on the brakes and spin himself to avoid contact. Race officials put Austin back to the top spot and reset the field for the double file restart. Kelly chose the outside line as his car was working well on the top side. Roger Crouse was forced to the inside line for the restart but his car also looked at it’s best in the high groove. When green flag racing resumed the entire front half of the field was picking and choosing lines, as three good grooves were available. The top three cars used all of the racetrack before Kelly powered by for the lead and the win. Austin held on for second ahead of Crouse, David Schmauss, and Josh Peacock. K.D. talked about how proud he was of his son Dale winning the Modified feature. Not too shabby for good old dad either.
Street Stocks capped off tonight’s racing and Tim Spencer claimed another win in feature action. Spencer had to hold off several challenges over a well-run 15-lap race. Tim saw the front end of the cars of Donnie Reed and Paul Gibbs lap after lap but was able to hold on for the win over Reed, Gibbs, Steven Johnson, and Waylon Haynes. Spencer and Buckshot Meixner won the heats.
Next Saturday night will be a night to remember. Six classes of racing plus the ever popular fans races presented by J.R. Prather’s Tampa Bay Paving and “Big” Jim Bargo of Bargo Auto Sales.
You can check us out on the web at www.eastbayracewaypark.com
