The Late Models are starting to get into a pattern here at East Bay Raceway Park with the third installment of the Lucas Oil Dirt Late Model Series presented here tonight on Thursday, February 10th as a part of the Forty Sixth Winter Nationals here at East Bay. It was the first back to back of the year for the Late Models here with no interruptions from the weather and Brandon Sheppard earned the first back to back wins by any driver here in Florida as he beat Earl Pearson Jr to the line in a stirring forth lap thriller that had the gigantic crowd on their feet as one.
Using a line on the race track that Stuart announcer Tony Paris would call the "High Side Hustle", the Illinois native and driver of the Rocket house car, would carve out a determined but challenging drive racing against the fast but choppy cushion as he stormed up from the fourth row to drive past Brandon Overton and Brian Shirley and then hold off Pearson Jr in a two lap sprint to the finish.
With some consistent weather, the track prep crew finally got the East Bay Raceway Park track in the shape that many of us were hoping for and with a few of the drivers venturing to the top side of the third mile, the top side groove opened up for those with the "nuts" to handle the bumps and humps as it worked for drivers like Sheppard, Kyle Bronson and Hudson O'Neal.
A tour of the pits found the biggest field of the week so far on hand and ready to race as seventy five drivers signed in to run on this finally sunny and warm February night. Jeff Mathews finally got behind the wheel of his own car after two nights of inactivity while Brian Nuttall Jr and Chase Osterhoff also joined the field. Boom Briggs brought his two car team also but Josh Richards didn't join him tonight after a scary camper fire overnight on Wednesday kept them from attending.
Brennon Willard and Larry Greer took the night off while Jason Miles was back in action after missing on Wednesday night for one of the strangest reasons I have ever heard. He is supportive and uses a certain racing gas and brought two barrels with him from Arkansas. Unfortunately, the simply couldn't find any more of that brand of fuel in the pits and they had to sit out because they had no fuel for the race car. Also, they use synthetic oil in the car's motor and there was none to be had on hand either, as apparently all the other racers use regular oil or had no extras on hand. Supply chain problems in force once again.
Much more water had been put down on the race track for Thursday night's show and all cars were required to help wheel pack but that proved to be a great thing as the result was so much better than we had seen earlier in the week in terns of racing and passing which is what we are all here for. The fast and tacky track produced some different cars up front for the heats and also more passing than we had seen in the heats earlier this week. Highlighted was a spectacular heat where Sheppard was passed in the late going by Brandon Overton which would then give Overton the outside pole for the main. However, Sheppard would get his revenge later.
Young Garrett Smith would shock everyone by recording fast time in group one and then taking the first heat race would should have been for the pole. However, word came in later that he was disqualified for having a one inch too tall spoiler and he was parked for the night, an infraction that was somehow missed earlier as I doubt that he changed spoilers during the night.
Three B Features were again run on Thursday night and with two provisional starters added, twenty six drivers would take the green flag for the forty lapper paying seven thousand on this night.
Overton and Pearson Jr would best pole starter Max Blair to the lead and that would be the running order in the early going. Most drivers were still hugging the bottom line but Sheppard, from outside row four, quickly jumped to the cushion and behind him, Bronson would also go to the top early. Sheppard didn't gain much ground early but he stayed with the top side, which was key as near the halfway point of the race, he started to gain some momentum. Pearson Jr was giving Overton a stiff challenge for the lead and Brian Shirley had moved past Blair for third when the yellow flew for a spinning Ross Robinson. And then things got very busy and exciting.
Overton just didn't take off well and suddenly they were three wide for the lead. Shirley moved to the outside and would storm past Overton to take over the top spot but then Sheppard would come flying off the berm in turn four, squeeze past Shirley down the front stretch up against the wall and take over the lead. It was a mad scramble for several laps and when things settled down again with another yellow three laps later, Sheppard would be in the lead over Pearson and Shirley with Bronson up into the top five and Overton, stunned as he had dropped from the lead all the way back to seventh and would never be heard from again during the race, eventually pulling off when he got lapped near the end.
Shirley would then be in control as he pulled away by a considerable distance over Pearson Jr. However, his line was tenuous as an occasional slip in the very tricky turn four berm would on several occasions find him careening in a direction he preferred not to be as he "horsed" his car around the track.
Just when it looked like things were settled, a late race yellow set up a two lap sprint to the finish. I guessed that Sheppard would drop to the bottom and protect that line against the "bottom feeding" Pearson Jr with Bronson, a cushion pounder too, just too far behind to change things in two laps. Of course, I was totally wrong as Brandon went right up to the top side again and this time it bit him big time as he bobbled bad off turn four and by the time he got straightened out, Pearson was underneath him as they raced to the white flag. Sheppard pushed hard down the back chute and was able to beat Pearson to the corner and would hold on by a car length to score an exciting victory that saw the crowd on their feet in excitement. Bronson would finish third after starting sixteenth, Devin Moran for fourth after starting ninth and O'Neal would round out the top five from seventeenth as this clearly shows how much passing was going on. This was the East Bay that we had driven so far to see and all were glad it had finally showed up. Only six drivers failed to finish the event but those running the top side had a hand full of car to control, even though that groove worked.
Victory lane interviews were tough to catch through the squeaking and squawking of the pa system but Sheppard was clearly pleased with his run. The pa system, which worked fine for the Modifieds and crates last week, has somehow been botched up by the MAV TV people, just another irritant that they bring when they are on hand. Announcers that play to a tv audience and talk about replays while all of us on hand sit in the dark, extended yellow flags while we wait for tv to come back from a commercial are all a part of the new world of racing. It must be frustrating for series announcer James Essex, who is ten times the announcer that Bob Dillner is, to have to sit back and play second fiddle while Dillner continues to bore us with his simplistic and uninformed comments. Oh well, at least the race was good.
Friday night the ante goes up with more money on hand for the drivers and another ten laps of hopefully exciting racing for the fans.
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