By:  Larry Jewett

3/27/2010

There are plenty of drivers who would be happy with 26 feature wins in a career, but imagine winning features in 26 consecutive seasons. For Roger Crouse, it’s a reality as Crouse picked up the Gagel’s Auto Parts Open Wheel Modified main to add to his personal streak.

Crouse had to make his way past Austin Sanders to grab the lead for the prestigious win. The pass came late after Crouse slipped past for second just before the halfway mark. Three laps later, Crouse made his move and pulled away from the field. With the win coming so early in the season, the pressure is off to keep the streak alive. Sanders kept second ahead of Bruce Harvey who rebounded from an early race incident. John Bradley and Shane Burrows collected top five finishes. Heats went to Buzzie Reutimann and Bradley.

“We put a hard tire on the left rear tonight,” said Crouse. “We don’t usually do that and the track was coming in for us.”

The Outlaw 4s started the night with heats going to Amanda Rogers and Billy Howard. Bo Howard had the early lead, but spun in turn two to jam up the crowd. The race had trouble getting going with few laps completed after 15 minutes, due to several cautions. Billy Howard caught the lead, but saw Matt Haynes blast by on lap 8. A lap later, Billy Howard was back in front. Haynes and Rogers tangled on the frontstretch, slipping Rogers back to fourth. Billy Howard picked up his first win of the year, ahead of Haynes, Brian Danforth, Rogers and Travis Staats. “I wish my dad had been here to see this,” said the winner. “ I want to thank the 2 for racing me clean.”

James Hook, Thomas Pratt and Buck Woodhouse won heats in the Street stocks, who saw wild action in their 15-lap feature. A 21-car feature saw Jarod Gay grab the early lead and hold off Donnie Reed, the division point leader. Deeper in the field, Mike Wilson and Gary Sheffield made contact on the frontstretch with Sheffield ending up on his roof. The driver was not injured. On the restart, Reed managed to slip past Gay. Defending feature winner Thomas Pratt was the car on the move in the late stages, but Pratt ran out of laps. Reed picked up his second feature win of the year, ahead of Pratt, Gay, Buck Woodhouse and Ed Hill

In the Racecar Engineering Late Models, the Peacock name stayed in Victory Lane, but this time it was Wallace Peacock. Two-time feature winner Josh Peacock could do no better than second. Bryan Bernhardt charged to third after a visit to the tail. Fourth went to Travis Varnadore while Jimmy Waldrop claimed fifth. Bernhardt, Steve Mathis and Jack Nosbisch Jr. won preliminaries.

The Limited Late Models saw Forrest Gough and J.R. Prather Jr. as heat winners. Only one caution permeated the 15-lap main. John Bradley shot to the lead to go wire-to-wire for his first feature win of the season. The defending champ of the division was chased to the line by Phillip Cobb, who matched his second place from last week. Gough, Jason Pope and Tommy Evonosky completed the top five.

The Florida Old Time Modifieds heat was taken by Lars Amundsen with the feature going to Tommy Zwally.

ASA sanctioned racing returns to East Bay Raceway Park on Saturday, April 3, 2010.  The Racecar Engineering Late Models, East Bay Sprints, Street Stocks, Outlaw 4s and motorstats.com 4 Cylinder Bombers are in action. To commemorate Easter, fans aged 12 and under will take part in an Easter candy giveaway. For more information go to www.eastbayracewaypark.com or call the track office.