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| Eckert completes "Hat Trick" in Hav-A-Tampa Late Models | 
On Tuesday evening Rick Eckert was forced to show his hand in a STARS Late Model event he almost missed. The SHOW was on when Eckert made the feature by way of a provisional, leaning on his qualifying time, (fastest of the non-qualifiers). At the drop of the green, the #24 car began a march toward the front from it's 25th starting position. Eckert and Booper Bare in the #00 were moving forward fast in the 26-car field. Performing the dirt ballet of
slide jobs and horsepower turns required to get to the front. On lap 8, as the two cars reached 12th and 13th positions, Bare's 00 slid under, into, and then up onto the Eckert #24. After visiting the infield for crew inspections, both returned to the rear of field, with Eckert looking closer to open wheeled modified, than Bare. Driving with the heart of a little kid's hero, Rick Eckert works through the field like a master for a second time. By lap 35 he is 8th and he makes it as high as 3rd before the sprit of the crowd would be broken again. On lap 66 of the scheduled 75, as every fan looked on in disbelief, the #28 of Dennis Erb got a flat and Eckert was collected by
the #30 of Steve Shaver, as they both tried to miss the slow moving Erb. This left Eckert frustrated, but still driving his heart out as he once again dropped to the rear of the field, and with only 9 laps left, came from the
rear a third time to claim the 11th spot.
On Wednesday Rick Eckert would complete the "Hav-A-Tampa Hat Trick," winning a third straight Hav-A-Tampa Feature in 2000. Qualifying an unlucky 13th, out of 87 cars, Eckert started the 1st heat from inside row 3. With a slight push
in the middle of the corners, Rick held on for a 2nd place finish, and an automatic starting spot of inside row 4. At the drop of the green for the 40 lap Feature, Eckert fell into a good rhythm in the bottom groove and slowly passed several cars and was in the top 5 before the first caution came out on lap 14 for a disabled 2j of Mike Johnson. On lap 22 the caution would fly again for the 17m of Dale McDowell. Eckert would somehow begin to find faster
lap times in the same groove, as he challenged the 12a of Rick Aukland and the 79j Davey Johnston, for 3rd and 2nd respectively as they all chased Moran's #99 car. By the time caution out for the 70j of DJ Myers visiting the
front stretch wall, the York, PA driver had assumed the top spot and would never look back.
The Hav-A-Tampa Late Models will be in action again tomorrow, (Thursday) at East Bay Raceway. Then the STARS return to battle the 3/8's clay on Friday with a Speedvision tape delayed race and the week ends with the Hav-A-Tampa 100 Lap, $10,000 to win special bonus purse race. The special bonus will be for the driver whom can win all three Hav-A-Tampa races.
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