Sometimes, you just never quite know what will happen when you get rolling for the day. Such was the case on Friday night, February 4th. My plan was to attend the Lucas Oil Late Model Series event at All-Tech Raceway. However, the forecast for the Lake City area was not good so I felt the need to keep my options open.
Repeated weather forecasts called for a certainty of rain by 5 pm and then rain to continue for several hours after that. However, I continued to hold out hope that they would drop the ball on the forecast and decided to hang tight, hoping I wouldn't have to make a banzai run at the last minute to another track unless it was absolutely necessary to make the evening complete.
However, breaking news came in the form of a phone call from friend "Super" Dave Wohnoutka who had been at the track and reported to me that at just past 2:30 pm Lucas had decided to cancel due to impending rain, which the radar seemed more than likely to agree with.
My best option was to head South where it appeared that the rains wouldn't reach for a number of hours and I was all prepared to make such a sprint on a moment's notice. After mulling it over for thirty seconds, I decided to make a sprint to Tampa for a race program at East Bay Raceway Park where the folks have been mighty accommodating to me this year.
Now, a trip to Tampa on a Friday afternoon on a busy I-75 is not just exactly a walk in the park, especially for a country boy like me where at home I may have five cars pass my house on a busy day. Nevertheless, I clinched up my seat belt and decided to join those folks in the fast lane that were either in a hurry to get back home or on their way to a hard earned vacation. In any event, I was motoring down the freeway at what seemed warp speed and not giving an inch to anyone trying to cut me off.
My back was damp and my palms clammy when I arrived at East Bay, but otherwise the trip proved to be uneventful and I managed to avoid the worst of the traffic jams and arrive at East Bay in a timely manner.
On tap this night at "The Clay By The Bay" was round two of the Crate Racing USA Winter Shootout at East Bay featuring the 604 Crate Late Models and the 602 Crate Late Models. I only had time to make one high speed tour of the pits as they were starting earlier on Friday after having produced a long show on Thursday night. So my view of the pits was pretty cursory but they had a lot of cars on hand, mostly from Florida, and a number of the Southeastern states where Crate racing is really big. As I would learn later, there would be a number of drivers on hand that also race open Late Models and quite a few that I had either seem race in other forms of Late Models or had read about.
In the pits were seventy six 604 Crates and 21 602 Crates, a large field that challenged Al Varnadore to find parking places for everyone but somehow they all found a landing space, even though they were spread all over the grounds.
It was good that they rolled in the track early as the qualifying process was a lengthy one, as you might expect with that many cars and of course, we had to time trial everyone. 602 Crate would be split into three groups for qualifying while the 604's were split into eight groups, half of each group going on the track at a time so there were always four or five cars taking time. They gave them four laps for each group and despite doing it as smoothly as possible, it still takes time to do all this plus march the cars in and out of the pits by group.
Doug Horton would get quick lap as the track got better and better with him turning a lap of 15,809. Later however, circumstances would probably negate that quick time. Seth Wimpey was not not wimpy about qualifying as he topped the 602's with a lap of 16.650.
The format would see eight heats and four B Features to set the running order for the 604 feature while the 602's would run three heats with everyone advancing. It appeared that a redraw took place among the top finishers in the heats so winning the first heat etc. did not guarantee the pole.
The competition was strong in the 604 class with ten cars racing for two spots and larger B Features again racing for two spots. As it turned out, the winner on Thursday night didn't even make the show on Friday and Friday night's winner didn't even make the show on Thursday, so that says something.
The East Bay track remained slick and confusing with drivers in this class sometimes struggling to make their cars turn, just as the Modifieds did last week. The straight up starts would however, make the finishes somewhat predictable as all eleven heats were won right off the front row. The redraw for the feature would mix things up somewhat though.
With so many cars and so many drivers unfamiliar with East Bay, I had visions of a yellow flag marathon but I have to give the drivers credit for some smooth heat races and B Features with a minimum of yellow flags and crashing as we progressed through them quite nicely.
There is always going to be one "stinker" though it seems and on this night it was the 602 feature which was a marathon, testing the patience of all in attendance. Twenty one cars started the feature and only five didn't finish but in between the start and the shortened checkered flag, the yellow flew nine times for a variety of spins and minor collisions. Five yellows in the first five laps set the pattern and it didn't get any better and after six yellows in seven laps, officials went to a single file restart to try and smooth things out. That didn't help much and finally, after the ninth yellow of lap thirteen, they decided to shorten the race and go green, white and checkered to give a total of fifteen racing laps.
Richie Stephens was the dominant driver as he led all fifteen laps and won for the second straight night. He started in the second row but beat Wimpey to the line on lap one and would lead through all the slow downs that would occur. Wimpey was looking for a hamburger but instead would settle for second for the second straight night as he was one of the few that ran a higher line and while and while John-Wayne Haynes would try several times, he could never get past Wimpey for second, even though he promised to pay for it on Tuesday
After that race, the 604 feature was looked upon with trepidation as they would start twenty eight cars including four provisional entries and we all expected the worst. But credit to this group as they raced a smooth event only two yellow flags and a lot of good racing. Doug Horton, the former big block Modified racer from New York and now living in Florida, would start on the pole and would lead all the way for the win, or at least that's what we all thought.
He was chased hard early by another Florida driver in Keith Nosbisch until Keith suddenly dove into the infield with mechanical issues. Once Nosbisch was out, it would be Logan Roberson pushing Horton and several times he got close as Horton struggled a bit with lapped traffic.
At one point, it looked like Roberson would get past but Horton made a good move to split two slower cars and than was the big move. Roberson would settle for second with Alabama's Jeremy Shaw third followed by the always exciting Travis Varnadore and Jason Welshan who came up from eighteenth
It was long after the fact and all the spectators were on their way home before Horton ran into problems at the tech shed and he was disqualified, handing the win to Roberson. It must be kind of embarrassing to have your track champion from 2021 win the feature and then find him to be illegal but that is what happened to East Bay on this night. However, the Florida drivers proved to be very tough with three out of the top five before Horton's DQ plus Nosbisch all running very well. Perhaps that is the reason that the stands seemed the fullest that they have been for a Winter Nationals event here so far this year.
For Iowa fans, there was one entrant from the Hawkeye State and that was IMCA Late Model hotshoe Andy Nezworski from Blue Grass. After not making the show on Thursday night, he finished third in his heat and made the feature which was then followed by high fives from his large crowd of fans in the bleachers. He would then go on to finish tenth in the main event. I can't say for sure, but I could have sworn that when I flew through the pits, helping him work on his car was Hall of Famer Brian Birkhofer, but don't quote me.
With the time trials, the program never starts on time and it was 8 pm before the first green flag waved. However, much credit must be give to the track officials and the drivers for putting on a smooth show, save the 602 feature after that. They ran off a seventeen event program including two feature races in three hours flat, which a lot of weekly shows can't claim.
In retrospect, I was happy I chose to make the banzai run to East Bay as I saw more than my money's worth plus got to see a lot of drivers that I hadn't and perhaps wouldn't have had the opportunity to see otherwise. Thanks to the Crate Racing USA folks and all the folks from East Bay for a good job. .
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