By:  Larry Jewett

5/15/2010

Photos Courtesy of RicksDarkRoom.com

The annual Scott Thompson Memorial presented by Airgas brought 32 Racecar Engineering Late Models to the East Bay Raceway Park pit area for the Saturday night racing action. Doug Horton of Bruceton Mills, West Virginia, jumped behind the wheel of the Ken & Diane Nosbisch Late Model and went wire-to-wire to pick up the prestigious win.

Horton started from outside the front row, grabbing the lead from Mark Whitener. Horton led a torrid pace, catching lapped traffic by lap 12, but a caution spared him the traffic hassle. Behind Horton, Shan Smith and Devin Dixon were locked up in a battle for second place, trying to outgun each other on restarts. Horton got back into lapped traffic by lap 23, but the caution came out again when 2009 track champion Jeff Mathews blew an engine. On lap 30, Dixon and Smith tangled on a restart, jamming the whole field and eliminating six cars from competition. Ivedent Lloyd, who had qualified through the consy after failing post-race tech after a heat win, charged into the top five from the 23rd starting spot. Lloyd’s run ended when the car stopped in turn one. On the restart, Smith slowed with a flat right rear, jamming Dixon and Philip Cobb, who kept their spots for the lap 40 restart. David Schmauss moved into the top five and Whitener slowed on the next lap for a caution. On the restart, Horton disappeared, stretching out the lead to 1/3 of the track at the checkered. Dixon crossed in second, but was too light at the scale. That gave the runner-up to Schmauss with Josh Peacock, Bryan Bernhardt and Doug Watson rounding out the top five. Whitener, Horton, Cobb and Bernhardt won heats while Alex Boerner crossed first in the consolation.

Matthew Haynes notched his fourth feature win in the Outlaw 4 class. His badly-beaten car weathered the competition, keeping Haynes in the point lead. Billy Howard, Cecil Martin, Keith Heard and Stephen Hohlbaugh rounded out the top five. Martin and Chris Zimmerman claimed preliminaries.

The Precision Kia Street Stocks saw point leader Donnie Reed claim his fourth feature win and enhance his point advantage. His nearest competitor in the points, Thomas Pratt, claimed second in the feature, ahead of Eric Moon, Garry Sheffield, and Clarence Pratt. Heat wins went to Jeff Rodgers, Reed and Thomas Pratt.

The motorstats.com 4 Cylinder Bombers had a field of 30 cars presented for their 15-lap main. Johnnie Alexander made a last lap pass on Roberto Morfin Sr. to claim his first win. In fact, it was Alexander’s first-ever win. Morfin Sr. lost second in tech, giving up the runner-up spot to Raymond Vann, who started deep in the field. Third went to Mathew Odell, ahead of Robert Purcell and George Handy. Morfin Sr., Odell and Alexander were heat winners.

ASA sanctioned racing returns to East Bay Raceway Park on Saturday, May 22, 2010.  Double features for East Bay Sprints will headline the card with Limited Late Models, Precision Kia Street Stocks, Outlaw 4s, motorstats.com 4 Cylinder Bombers and Florida Old Time Modifieds. For more information, go to www.eastbayracewaypark.com or call the track office.