Tyler Erb Drives By Overton Late For East Bay Five Grand Win

 Night number two of the annual Winter Nationals at East Bay Raceway Park in Gibsonton Florida took place on Tuesday night, January 26th. Again it was the Lucas Oil Racing Series Late Models that were featured as the only division running this week here at East Bay. Once again, it was a wild night of racing on the always challenging East Bay bull ring and on Tuesday, a late race pass with only two laps left gave Tyler Erb the victory over Brandon Overton in what was a highly competitive event that saw at least three different leaders during its thirty lap event. 

Tuesday's weather was just a bit different than it had been on Monday with not as much sun and wind as for the Monday event and it also appeared the slightly more water had been applied to the racing surface. It ended up producing a faster surface and perhaps a bit more treacherous as what had been a relatively benign event on Monday changed on Tuesday with much more in the way of damage to racing cars and certainly a lot more work to be done on Wednesday to get them all back on the track. 

Two new entrants on Tuesday, Manny Falcon and Joel Callahan, pushed the total number of Late Models that have run up to seventy eight and with Kerry King on the grounds by the night's conclusion and Bobby Pierce reported to be on the way along with waiting for Tim Dohm to unload and race, a record going back to 2008 just waits to be broken. 

Stuart Friesen took the night off to run his big block Modified up the road in Ocala on Tuesday while Adam Elliott, Adam Boyd and Devin Dixon all opted not to race on this night. Boyd actually blew a motor during practice on Monday, didn't race last night and has reportedly headed home. Josh Putnam pulled the motor out of his car, then changed cars and while he pulled a number to race, he never made it to the track. Matt Lux also changed cars for Tuesday. 

The format for Tuesday night's show was changed somewhat with the heat races cut to eight laps for some reason, quite unknown to me. And apparently because Lucas officials wanted to upset Jeff Broeg, they made three B Features instead of two as they had done on Monday night. However, all three were still scheduled to contain around eighteen cars but again for some reason cut the laps in these events to just ten. Perhaps this is to compact the event for live tv, since it ran a bit long on Monday night but if that is the case, this is an example of the "tail wagging the dog" with the competitors and the paying live crowd knuckling under to tv once again. 

The first big wreck of the week happened in the first heat race when Jeff Mathews got into the wall on the back chute with Freddie Carpenter clipping Mathews and going for several barrel rolls. It was wicked looking crash but everyone was OK and Mathews actually pulled out a back up car to run a B Feature. Carpenter, with only one car, looking healthy enough as he helped strip the car in the pits with it down to the bare chassis by the time the show was over. I suspect Freddie's Speed Weeks is also over but the Kryptonite care held up well. 

The feature race also had its share of calamities with a first lap wreck taking out Shane Clanton, Dennis Erb, Tim McCreadie and Gregg Satterlee. Then a later crash ended the night for Jimmy Owens, Earl Pearson and Kyle Strickler. 

Thirty cars started the main event after the multitude of provisionals were added to those that raced their way into a spot. Track officials quickly hustled the main event cars out when the fog started to roll in and it got quite dense just as the race began. Perhaps even the mist in the air changed the track somewhat also and made it a bit slippery on the bottom groove. 

Tanner English drew the pole but it was Brian Shirley that used the outside line to take the early lead. He was chased by Brandon Sheppard, Kyle Bronson, Overton and a charging Tyler Erb who started ninth. Just like last night's show, the feature cars are having trouble racing clean so far this week and again on Tuesday the yellow flag got quite a workout. Six times it waved including the last one when the leaders were coming for the checkered. 

Shirley was eventually overtaken by Overton for the lead and he looked good out front but Erb continued to press and work his way to the front. Near the end of the contest, Overton lose some momentum as he fought through a few slower cars and the always aggressive Erb found an opening and took over the top spot with only three to go. 

He was stretching his lead but as he came out of the final corner expecting the checkered, instead he saw the yellow as Sheppard had blown a tire and was slow on the track. Half the spectators never saw the yellow themselves and started to beat a hasty retreat to the parking lot to beat the crowd and get out quickly as this is a tough place to get out of once the final checkered waves. 

The drivers did however, all remain on the track and the final one lap sprint to the finish didn't change the running order as Erb pulled away to take the win over Overton, Shirley, twenty third starting Josh Richards and Bronson. 

Much of the racing during the first couple of nights as not been as it might have been scripted to be and such big names as Jonathan Davenport, Billy Moyer Jr, Ricky Thornton Jr, Strickler, Pearson, Clanton, Owens, Mike Marlar and McCreadie have struggled so far. A quick tour of the pits after the show found many cars in a torn up and stripped mode and there will be plenty of work done before the next show on Wednesday night. With it being so important to come out of Speed Weeks with some good finishes and positive momentum, the pressure increases as the purses and laps run go up the rest of the week.