Friday, February 13, 2015

Moyer A Familair Face In Victory Lane At East Bay; Pittman Takes A Thriller At Volusia

Billy Moyer scored feature win number 791 of his storied career Thursday night and now 24 of those victories have come at East Bay Raceway south of Tampa. Moyer swapped the lead with young Brandon Sheppard in the early going before pulling away to take the $7,000 top prize. Fifty-year-old Mike Benedum out of Bristol, West Virginia, worked his way up from a third row start to finish second, Sheppard was third, Steve Casebolt finished fourth and Dennis "Rambo" Franklin took fifth.

Some different names in the top five? Several of those that you might expect were involved in a mid-race tangle sending Dennis Erb Jr., Don O'Neal, Earl Pearson Jr. and Steve Francis to the back of the pack or completly out of the race. Erb's 18th-place paycheck was the best of that crew who will now all re-group as tonight's (Friday) program will also count for points in the Lucas Oil Dirt Late Model Series.

One would have to think that Steve Casebolt will be making the trip up Interstate 4 either today or Saturday as the World of Outlaws have a non-points event at Bubba Raceway in Ocala tonight before a points-paying doubleheader on Saturday and Sunday. Casebolt is the unlikely point leader of the Outlaws heading into the weekend.

Missouri's Mark "Fluffy" Dotson joined the field at East Bay for the first time this week, but could not transfer to the A-Main.

Over at the Voluisa County Speedway near Barberville the All Star Circuit of Champion sprint cars sent the crowd home in a frenzy as Donny Schatz worked his way up from an eighth row starting spot to challenge Daryn Pittman for the lead over the final five laps. The two ran side-by-side down the back stretch and into turns three and four on the final circuit and it was Pittman holding on at the checkers to take the win. Brad Sweet and Greg Hodnett were next in line while Kerry Madsen continued his strong Florida campaign with another top-five finish.

Another driver with NASCAR ties went to victory lane in the UMP Modified division with David Stremme taking the win. Austin Dillon, Nick Hoffman and Ty Dillon followed while Kyle Strickler came from the tenth row to finish fifth. Kewanee's Ray Bollinger was seventh.

Speedweeks ramps up to full swing tonight as the World Series of Asphalt starts its nine night run at the New Smyrna Speedway just south of Daytona. Dirt fans will have some interest in how both Rico Abreu and Bobby Pierce perform on the pavement there. Plus the superspeedway action gets underway with the ARCA race on Saturday.

Wish I was there although it sounds like another chilly week ahead in Florida!

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