Mother’s Day weekend brought nearly 100 cars top the pit area as East Bay Raceway Park hosted a five-division program Saturday night with action that made a racer’s mother proud.
The Outlaw 4 class opened up the action with Shane Burrows and Cecil Martin capturing heat races. They would start deep in the 15-lap feature field as Stephen Hohlbaugh and Michael Gulvin brought the 14-car field up for the start. Gulvin moved to the front with Alex Boerner and Austin Gillman following through. Jim Coursen gained third on lap seven, but a debris caution sent him back to fourth. On the restart, Boerner moved to the high groove and swept by Gulvin for the point.
Gillman and Coursen made their passes to head into the top three, but Boerner was stepping away from the field. Coursen grabbed second with three laps to go, but he had nothing for the young Boerner, who notched another Outlaw 4 victory. Climbing from his car with his mother waiting at the gate, Boerner scaled the fence to reach the flagstand and start the celebration. In Victory Lane, Boerner told the crowd about a rabbit’s foot that had been a good luck of his deceased grandmother. The rabbit’s foot was placed in the car by his mother and the end result was victory. Coursen held second, ahead of Martin, Gillman, and Matt Haynes.
Limited Sprints saw Jimmy Ballew take the early lead in the main, but the car lost power, bringing a caution with one lap complete. Rich Alexander inherited the top spot and Dakotah Stephens pulled past Rick Byerly to take second on the restart. Stephens had the lead by the third lap and the best race in the bunch was developing between Dustin Bertram, 2006 champion Tim George and Michael Smith for fifth. As the trio sparred, Gene Lasker was on the move. He took second with four laps remaining, then lined up behind Stephens for a lap 12 restart.
On that restart, Lasker and Stephens, winners of the preliminaries, made contact off the fourth corner, resulting in Stephens suffering heavy front wing damage and requiring a second push, which is an automatic dispatch to the tail. Lasker held the lead to the end, giving him an unpopular victory, but adding to his points chase. Alexander, George, Byerly and Danny Jones completed the top five.
In Street Stock action, Bob Smith went wire to wire to pick up the win. The victory was not as easy as it may sound as Smith had to fend off a late charge from Donnie Reed. With smoke seeping from his car, Smith kept the car on the bottom of the race track to force competitors to choose a different line for passes.
A couple of late race spins shook up the top five and forced Smith to defend his spot, but that defense was successful. Reed avoided contact with the leader on the last corner to come home second. Buck Skinner bounced back from an earlier spin for third, ahead of Tim Spencer and Jimmy Rowland. Spencer and Buck Woodhouse opened the division with heat wins.
The 360 Sprint field had some sluggish moments, but nothing could keep Brian Maddox out of Victory Lane. Maddox, who had won his heat race earlier, took command of the contest while other experienced problems. Defending champion Daryl Smith moved to second by the eighth lap of the 25-circuit main, but the car couldn’t seem to close of Maddox’s ride.
Maddox was joined in Victory Lane by his car owner, Ray Bolin, who had retired from the event a few laps before. Smith logged second with Gene Lasker scoring his second top-three of the night. Fourth went to Stephen Darvalics with heat winner Danny Curry posted fifth.
The finale saw 26 cars gather for the Convire 4 Cylinder Bomber main. The division featured 30 cars in total for the night and it was a wild race. With action all over the race track, cars were three and four wide on regular intervals.
At the head of the field, Frank Miller snatched the lead in the late stages and appeared to be en route to his fourth win. On the last lap, Miller was forced high by potential lapped cars and that gave Kyle Eash all the opportunity he needed. Eash squeezed between the back markers on the bottom of the track and notched his third win of the season.
Miller protected the point lead with a secion place run. Collin Kruse rallied for third, ahead of early race leader Kever Raulerson and former champion D.B. Hogwaller. The heat wins went to B.J. Harp, Randy Taylor, and K.C. Laramee.
The next ASA-sanctioned racing action will see a five division program with Limited Late Models, Open Wheel Modifieds, Street Stocks, Outlaw 4s and 4 Cylinder Bombers. Complete details can be found at www.eastbayracewaypark.com.
