Wednesday, February 7, 2024

Hudson O'Neal Tops East Bay Opener

 The final Winternationals at East Bay Raceway Park for the Lucas Oil Late Model Series kicked off on Tuesday night, February 6th after a twenty four hour rain delay. However, no shows will be lost as using a rather unique make up formula that I have never heard of being used before and certainly have never witnessed first hand, the rained out Monday night show will be made up in three parts with the time trials being run on Tuesday after the regular show is completed, the heat races being run on Wednesday night after that show has been completed and double feature races as a part of the Thursday night show. 

There was no threat of a rain out for Tuesday night however, as sunny but cool weather greeted the fans and competitors for the Tuesday night show. Seventy five drivers were on hand to participate as a part of the last ever Winternationals here at "The Clay By The Bay" with a number of drivers making their first appearances here in a number of years, obviously to be a part of this last Winternationals. The car count was up significantly, as many anticipated as the number of cars on hand greatly exceeded last year's sixty that were racing on night number two last year. Included in that number were the top eleven in current Lucas Oil point standings and twenty three of the top twenty five currently listed. And the two missing were both in the pits and unloaded but chose to pass on the opening night action. 

Perhaps part of this unwillingness of a few to race was due in part to the fact that this would be a non point race for Lucas and "only" paying five grand to win so it was used as a test session by many for the point receiving races that start on Thursday night. 

However, for others that aren't chasing Lucas points, it was just another full blown night of racing which made for an interesting mix. The format would be the tried and true one used by Lucas with qualifying followed by six heat races, three B Features due to the size of the field and a thirty lap main event to conclude the evening. Because this was a non point night, no provisional starters, whether emergency or otherwise, would be added to the field so in one of the rare instances for Lucas, all drivers would actually have to race their way into the field with only twenty four starters to take the green flag. The field was split into groups A and B for qualifying and heats with O'Neal and Tyler Erb being the quickest in their groups with Hudson quickest overall at 14.666 seconds. 

It would be tough sledding tonight to even get into the main as the heats contained twelve or thirteen drivers with only three moving on while the B Features had sixteen to eighteen cars in them, went only ten laps and only two would again move on. For this reason, a lot of top notch cars were left sitting in the pits when the green flag flew. 

As it the norm at East Bay, once the racing started the track was not touched again, except to roll the cushion just a bit before the main event. The track appeared dry and seemed like it would be a one groove deal on the bottom and ultimately that's the way it turned out but early on I thought the drivers made much out of what was offered them. 

The two quick qualifiers would start in row one, side by side after the redraw was executed with O'Neal breaking into the early lead. Erb, as he often does, would try the top side and by working hard he was able to gain some momentum and would ease past O'Neal on the outside to take the lead on lap four. Tyler would then try to work the outside but when realizing the O'Neal was gaining back on him by running the bottom. Erb would try to move back down there for a block.

Erb, however, couldn't hold the bottom lane tight enough and on lap eleven, he slipped off the bottom just a bit in turn one and O'Neal was right there to slip under him and out fight him for the inside down the back chute. And once in front, Hudson would gradually pull away as Erb continued to lose positions. 

At the halfway point, Erb was still running second with Jonathan Davenport, Daulton Wilson and Ashton Winger in the top five. Wilson would put on a charge as he got past Davenport and then also would take Erb as Tyler struggled to hold the bottom lane. 

Wilson would drive hard in an effort to catch O'Neal but Hudson was strong, worked the lapped traffic well and would not be caught. He maintained a comfortable edge and would drive on for the win. Wilson would settle for second over Davenport and Winger. Devin Moran, who put himself behind the eight ball by qualifying poorly, kept digging all night, coming from eighth to qualify in a heat and then charging from eighteenth to round out the top five. Keep in mind this was even more impressive given that the thirty lap main went green to checkered without a single yellow. 

Twenty two of the twenty four starters would finish the race with seventeen still on the lead lap. Only Kyle Bronson and Jimmy Owens pulled off, both into the infield early to likely save their equipment for another night. 

Dale McDowell joined the announcers to provide color for the night's action and I'm told that the tv audience enjoyed his work. For those of us stuck live at the track, we had no idea what he was saying as the p.a. system at East Bay is the worst anywhere with no one able to hear a word said by Dustin, James or anyone else that might wish to communicate with the crowd. I only hope that Al doesn't try and pawn the p.a. system off on another track when they strip down this one because any purchaser would be getting ripped off. 

Normally the night would be concluded at this point but with the extra bonus action, the cars would then take a few minutes to get adjusted and then return to the track for qualifying for the Monday night show that will be fed to us in portions over the next two nights. With the track plenty rubbered up by this point, some different faces would appear at the top of the leader board in qualifying with Jason Riggs and Ross Bailes turning quick qualifying times. There were also some other surprises toward the front and this set of heat races should provide some action when they are raced on Wednesday night. 

One nice thing about the bonus action is that it thinned out the crowd. As expected, a very large Tuesday night crowd was on hand for the races with later arriving folks having to park nearly a mile away from the track and then hoof it to the grandstands but many bailed after the feature so when the time trials for Monday night were completed, I jumped right in my vehicle and wheeled right out of the grounds. There was no risk for me about stepping on a gator while navigating some of the back roads around the track here. 

Another full non point show is set for Wednesday night followed by bonus action in heat races from Monday. 

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