The East Bay Raceway Park in Gibsonton Florida opened up the Modified portion of their 46th annual Winter Nationals on Wednesday night, January 26th with local driver Bryan Bernhardt racing into victory lane over a big field of cars. The opener was delayed one day by an all day, Florida soaker that threatened to postpone the opening action by a second day except for an outstanding effort by track owner Al Varnadore and his staff to turn a muddy mess of a facility into a working race track.
Wednesday would dawn cloudy, cool and misty after over twenty four hours straight of rain that pounded down on occasion and otherwise provided a soaking mist. The pits and track were completely soaked and those that braved driving into the pits before the heavy equipment was broken out were getting stuck one after another.
However, even before all the precipitation stopped, Varnadore and his crew were at work, first opening up the pit roads and then eventually working on the track after it was allowed to sit as long as possible. And granted, it was never an easy walk through the pits even by the end of the night and puddles and mud were everywhere to be found, the race cars were all packed with mud by the end of the night, but the track stayed smooth, the groove gradually widened out and all those from far points of the country got to do what they came here for and that was to race while much of the country either shoveled out or shivered in extreme Winter weather. It was no walk in the park here either, with heavy coats necessary against the wind and dampness but all those that braved the conditions saw a good opening night program of Modified racing.
A stout field of sixty Modified drivers from fifteen states were present for opening night racing action. Along with the Florida regulars, big fields of drivers were on hand representing the UMP hot bed states like Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia as this series, as it has for many years, is being run under UMP rules with UMP officials from the home office officiating the action.
A quick glance at the race cars would be telling as the new UMP rules to perhaps bring their Modified class back to a point of more sanity seem to already be in effect. While I was told they are now holding to their new rules fully quite yet, as they were announced late and many teams already had their cars put together, any radical looking cars are being asked to get their house in order.
One noticeable thing immediately was that the cars have a spoiler for the first time in quite a few years. If they have a deck that does not rise more than three inches front to back, they are allowed a three inch spoiler while those that have a higher deck increase than that get no spoiler. It would appear that most have made the change as nearly everyone is running spoilers this week. The cars are also much straighter than they used to be with the distinctive "banana bend" no longer allowed. They still run giant motors and reports of the size and horsepower of some of the power plants this week are impressive.
Opening night action would consist of time trials, heats and B Features and a twenty five lap main event. This program format would be repeated for the first three nights of this series with Saturday night's seventy five lap feature paying five grand to win giving the top six in points in the first three nights the front three rows with everyone else fighting through races to join those six.
This is UMP so of course there would be time trials. The "kicker" is that after qualifying the fast timer draws a pill which could result in a one, two or four car inversion for the heats with only three out of each heat moving to the main. Of course, on this night the draw was one resulting in straight up start.
Combine that with a "hammer down" track that started with a pretty narrow groove and the heats were pretty easy to predict with all six winners coming from the front rows of their races. This is to be expected and I guess anyone that goes to a time trial show and has other expectations than this is jusst not being realistic. Only when more cars are in the mix and the starting order more shuffled like in the B Features and main events does more passing take place. That's just the way it is.
There was drama early however, as defending champion of the Saturday night, seventy five lapper, Kevin Adams from Wisconsin, was nailed at the scale before time trials with a deck height too high and his time trial effort was nullified. This would result in him starting on the tail of a heat, not the thing you want when the fast cars are way in front of you and the groove narrow. This would require Adams to then put on a show as he came from tenth to fourth in a heat, won a B Feature and then roared from twenty first to fifth in the feature, still gaining positions when the checkered flag flew.
Illinois driver Ray Bollinger also had to do some work as his car had opera windows and window openings are not allowed in UMP so he had to hastily fashion some sail panels to cover up the holes before he could run his heat race.
Kentucky driver Tyler Nicely is always among the fastest drivers at this event and he turned quick time, won a heat and then redrew the outside pole among the heat winners for the feature race. It seemed just a mere formality that he would lead from wire to wire.
However, one never knows for sure and I guess that's part of the fun. Nicely would take the lead for the first two laps and just when it seemed he would be home free, suddenly out of the blue, all by himself in front in turn two, he spun out with no help and was forced to tail back the field. It would turn out to not be his night at all as later he would spin again, get clobbered and call it a night, thus damaging his points total toward Saturday.
This would turn the lead over to another Kentucky driver, Chris Wilson who was also being chased hard by Bernhardt, who started eighth, and Lucas Lee, another stout runner every year here. Those three would have a close battle, interrupted several times by yellows for spins as the slippery conditions continued.
One laps past halfway, Wilson hit some water on the back chute, the car got sideways and Bernhardt shot past him to take over the lead. Bryan would lead the rest of the way, with still three more yellows to endure but he showed speed as he pulled away by a few car lengths each time and was never really challenged the rest of the way as the two time East Bay point champion would score the win, the first for the locals here in several years. The battle for second would be good the rest of the race with Wilson edging out Lee for second.
The local drivers gave one of their best showings in quite some time as along with Bernhardt, Travis Varnadore would come from fifteenth to finish fourth and Dale Kelley had a strong run too until he looped on the front chute. Seven cars would not finish the race and all cars were still on the lead lap at the finish. As usual, East Bay proved to be a tricky track with the outside line coming in and then fading just as quickly and no one seemingly able to get a decent run off turn four as the changing tides always make for a challenging to figure out surface here. Each year the track seems to get just a bit flatter but the outside line still works for some as the timeline for the existence of East Bay grows shorter and shorter. The venerable facility is showing its age for sure but there is no incentive to upgrade and modernize any further when it will all come tumbling down in too short a time.
Sharing the announcer duties with local track announcer Larry Jewitt was Summer Nationals announcer Ruben Mireles and they made a good team on opening night. Jewitt is originally from Ohio and I heard him announce many years ago in that area. He was also a contributor to a number of racing papers from the Midwest, all long gone by now.
This year I believe for the first time, the Modifieds will not run as a sole class for this series as they will be joined by the local Top Gun Sprints for the final three nights of the series. I presume this is an attempt to get a few more local and open wheel fans to come out and join the racing action but selfishly, I look at it from the perspective that it takes a quick, one division program that has always gotten done early, into a possible longer night with the pushing starting of the Sprints etc to take into account. I guess we will see who is right in this regard in the upcoming nights. Quite frankly, this has always been a more for tv event than a live spectator attraction anyway.
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