Saturday night, February 6th saw storms move in the central Florida. Several tracks were scheduled to host events but it was a crapshoot just who, if any track, might be lucky enough to get a show completed as the forecast was dire for all the tracks.
I took a "flyer" that East Bay Raceway Park, located near Tampa, would have the best chance of getting their show in and for once in a lifetime, perhaps, I actually made the right call! While they did get a couple of small showers around noon that dampened things down a bit and made for a little mud in the pits, overall they remained high and dry despite my hitting a few sprinkles on the way West. Meanwhile, all the other tracks I considered would be stormed out.
On the docket at East Bay on Saturday was the finale of the three night run for the Crate Racin' USA series for Crate Late Models along with the Top Gun 360 Sprints running a full program. The Crates had a huge car count early in the weekend for their three night series and while a number of cars had either expired in earlier action or had left due to the rain(they thought it was going to rain out too!) or because of challenging travel conditions expected on the trip back North, there were still fifty four Late Models in the pits, plenty to put on a good show. There were also twenty three of the Sprints with the Top Gun series based out of the Tampa area.
I did miss out on visiting with most of the Iowa delegation on hand as all but Andy Nezworski had left to head back home and I also missed seeing Minnesota's Jeff Provinzino in action too. I did get to talk to Nezworski who was enjoying his racing weekend away from the cold in Iowa. He was debuting a new Rocket chassis and after quizzing him I found out that his IMCA legal car had to just change tires and make some very minor changes to be legal for the Crate Racin' so in essence he was getting some practice laps on his new car if nothing else. Bad luck had kept him out of the first two nights' features and unfortunately I wasn't able to help him in that regard as he would come up two positions short of making the show both through his heat and a B Feature. However, he was still upbeat about the trip and his wife got a nice happy birthday announcement over the pa system!
The Late Models group qualified and than ran six heats, straight up unfortunately, which resulted in all six heats being won from the front row as passing was at a premium on the tricky East Bay surface with many of the drivers in still third night of racing here still trying to figure out how to make their cars turn in the corners. Three B Features wrapped up the qualifying with twenty six cars starting the main event with local driver Kyle Bronson getting the final provisional.
The fifty lap feature would see track owner Al Varnadore's son Travis lead the opening three laps before he was overtaken by quick qualifier Phillip Cobb. Meanwhile, Hardy and the opening two night's winner Mark Whitener were both on the move. Hardy moved in to challenge Cobb quickly while Whitener, who had not qualified well, was working his way up from the eighth starting spot.
Hardy was finally able to get under Cobb on lap fourteen to take over the lead as the front running cars started to hit lapped traffic. Whitener continued to charge and he got under Cobb for second and started to pressure Hardy for the lead. With the first thirty two laps going green, the event started to get close to the end with Whitener increasing putting the pressure on Hardy. He tried several times to get under the leader but just couldn't quite get the job done.
The last five laps would prove to be significant though as Whitener made one last all out charge for the lead. He got under Hardy and the lapped car that both were trying to get past down the back stretch and all three pushed up the track in turn three. Whitener and Hardy made some contact and then Whitener also collected the slower car who spun, triggering the yellow.
The lapped car would go to the tail for the restart but Whitener came out the big loser as the contact messed up the right front on his car and although he tried to restart, the problem with steering saw him fade in the last four laps.
Hardy would go on for the win over Cobb and Bronson, who started twenty fourth, would edge out Whitener for the third spot. Hardy would take home five grand for his win.
Top Gun Sprints would draw for their starting positions and then use passing points to line up their main event(what a novel idea!). However, on this night that format didn't help improve the show as pole sitter Justin Webster would lead all twenty five laps in a nonstop main event. He disappeared into the East Bay mist and his only challenges were the plethora of lapped cars he had to deal with as with eighteen cars still running at the end, there were only five on the lead lap!
To say that he dominated would be a mild understatement. Shane Butler would start sixth and finish second as he had a good battle for that sport with third finishing Robby Hoffman. Garrett Green and Kyle Connery would round out the top five after apparent fifth place finisher A.J. Maddox was DQ'd for a technical issue.
East Bay staff should be congratulated for both running off the show when they probably could have easily pulled the plug early in the afternoon and then when the racing actually began, right on time by the way, they really pushed the program along to beat the weather. A familiar voice to me, Chris Stepan from FYE Motorsports Promotions, was brought in at the last minute to call the Late Model action when the local track announcer came down with COVID and he did his usual stout job.
Thanks to all the staff at EBRP for welcoming me as a last minute visitor.
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