In the 1980's and 90's I would spend at least one week in Florida during February. On the years that I brought my family we would do the beaches or theme parks during the day and I would slip out for a couple of nights of short track racing depending upon the weather and the schedule. When I would come down by myself or with racing friends I would do my best to be at a race each night even making the trip across the state if my original destination was rained out. But when the kids got into junior high and high school, sports, band, choir, etc. would take precedent and even though they have long since graduated I just have not been able to make the trip until this year. And frankly it was motivated by the fact that East Bay Raceway has been set for a Winter Nationals finale in 2024. You hear rumors to the contrary, but if this track is now in its final three Speed Weeks, I did not want to miss one final chance for me to see some racing at a track that I have long considered one of my "five favorites".
Flying in to Tampa early afternoon on Wednesday I was quickly reminded of just how much traffic there is getting through the historic city even well before rush hour. What would normally be a forty minute drive to our VRBO in Riverview took well over an hour so after a quick check in and the adding of some clothes for what would be a chilly evening we were off to East Bay Raceway.
I did make it here for one night of racing about ten years ago and the man made mountain off the back stretch has expanded in size ten times over since my last visit. My understanding is that it will be this mountain that will soon swallow up the property leaving the gulf coast with no remaining dirt tracks and that inevitable demise not only brought my group of five this year, but several other race fans as the crowd looked like the Saturday night finale rather than just the second show of the week.
Parking is a mess here and even though we had arrived just before 5 p.m. we had to wedge in next to the BMX track being careful to make sure that there would not be a possibility of getting boxed in. To our surprise though when we made our way in, there were plenty of seats available showing that there is nowhere near enough parking for the number of fans that can be seated. This also made us change our "arrival plans" for the remainder of the week as we later found that our manufactured parking spot would take us a good half hour before we could leave the place on Wednesday.
East Bay is no gem, definitely not a diamond of the dirt tracks, but I have always found the racing here to be entertaining simply due to the ever changing track conditions as the night plays out. Just when it looks like the bottom is the place to be, someone goes up and rips the top with success and suddenly they are all over the place. This scenario definitely played out on Wednesday, perhaps no more evident than the first of three B-Mains where only two drivers would transfer. The ten lap event turned into a marathon as drivers shuffled for position and made some of their own mistakes.
Seventeen cars started and by the end only six remained with drivers such as Garrett Smith and Pierce McCarter spinning out of qualifying spots while Ryan King was also in the mix before dropping out late. In the end it was Chase Junghans and, unknown to me Clinton Hersh making the transfer.
In the forty lap main event pole-sitter Brandon Sheppard rocketed to the lead and it soon looked as though this would be a creep around the bottom race just like it was on Monday when Dennis Erb Jr. took the win. When Sheppard caught the back of the field on lap seven, Brandon Overton stepped out of line and was able to drive by Sheppard for the lead on lap eight only to have Sheppard come charging back on the bottom the next trip around.
That pass would be negated though when the caution waved for Devin Moran who had slowed to make a pit stop, so it would be Overton that would bring the field back to green. The caution would wave again two laps later for Lucas Rookie-of-the-Year contender Spencer Hughes and once back to green Sheppard would drive under Overton to regain the lead exiting turn two on lap thirteen. As the two drivers swapped the lead chants of "Let's Go Brandon" would have been socially acceptable, but as Sheppard drove away, Ashton Winger would move to second and Ricky Thornton Jr. would then challenge Overton for third.
With eleven laps remaining the caution would wave with Overton facing the wrong direction in turn two. Did I mention that here at the rustic old speedway the speakers were not working on the turn four end of the grandstands? That would be why many of the fans on our end questioned why Overton would return to the third spot for the restart and it would take until the next morning when I read Ed Reichert's story from the evening to learn that the caution was actually thrown for debris just before Overton's spin.
Damage from the tangle with Thornton would cause Overton to fade and with four laps remaining he would slow on the track to bring out the final caution of the event. Sheppard was in command and he would close out the impressive victory while the large crowd cheered on the high riding efforts of both Hudson O'Neal and Kyle Bronson. Ashton Winger would drive the G.R. Smith owned #89 to the runner-up finish with Tyler Erb coming from eleventh to third. Bronson would make it up to fourth at the checkers coming from an eighth row start while Thornton would continue his steady Speed Weeks performance to this point by rounding out the top five.
The temperature went up a couple of degrees on Thursday and we were back at the track by 4:30 in order to find a parking spot on the grounds as once again a huge crowd filed in. We spoke to a few people around us and, just like us, they wanted to get to East Bay once, or one more time before it is scheduled to go away in 2024. If this place is this full in 2022 I can't even imagine what it will be like over the final two years.
Before the action got underway Danny chatted up one of the 50-50 girls and found out that the reason that the speakers are not working on the turn four half of the grandstand is because they had to be disabled so that the MavTv crew could get enough power to do their broadcast through the week. Those of you who read this column on a regular basis will know how I feel about that and I couldn't help but chuckle a bit as that young lady walked back and forth in front of the grandstand later that night carrying a white board that had the winning 50-50 ticket number written on it.
With this being the second consecutive day of nice weather Al Varnadore and his crew were able to prepare the track in a "normal" fashion and the Thursday night action was spectacular from start to finish with the typical multi-grooves and changing conditions keeping the drivers and crews guessing. The fun started in qualifying when several lesser known drivers posted quick times in Group A led by eighteen-year-old Georgian Garrett Smith. The young speedster later thrilled the crowd by taking the win in heat race number one to earn the apparent pole position for the night's forty-lap main event, but it was soon announced that he had been disqualified for the rest of the night due to running a spoiler that was a three quarters of an inch too tall. Ignorance of the rule, or a blatant attempt to cheat? Series officials voiced their opinion with the decision to park him for the night and it will be interesting to see how he performs over the final two nights.
Heat races produced plenty of action including a head-to-head duel between Brandon Overton and Brandon Sheppard for the right to start on the outside of the front row in the main event. I could try to cleverly imbed another political joke here, but I will let you do that on your own as Sheppard raced out to the lead only to have Overton battle back. The two raced side by side for nearly a full lap mid-race before Overton prevailed with a big approval from the appreciative crowd.
With the feature to be aired live on MavTv there was about a twenty-five minute break following the qualifying races and it would be Max Blair that would bring the field to green for forty laps. Overton would storm to the front though and frankly he looked unstoppable early on. Earl Pearson Jr. was able to keep him honest though, even slipping the nose under him following a lap three restart, but Overton would fight him off and start to pull away as the race stayed green until lap twenty.
Pearson and Brian Shirley would line up behind the leader and when the green flag waved Overton did not find the bite as Pearson went low and Shirley went high making it three-wide coming back to the flag. Shirley would take the lead and then drive to the bottom entering turn one leaving the top wide open for Brandon Sheppard who had lined up fifth for that restart. Lap twenty-two would belong to Sheppard and he would continue to ride the top as it had brought him to the front after starting eighth.
The caution would wave a lap later as Spencer Hughes slowed after contact with Ashton Winger and for the restart Overton, once the leader, was now mired in seventh. His fall from grace would continue as he dropped all the way to the back of the field going a lap down to Sheppard on lap thirty-three before pulling to the infield in frustration.
Sheppard appeared to have this one well in hand only to have the caution wave with two laps remaining when Jimmy Owens spun in turn four. This would bring Pearson back into contention for the single file restart and his presence would force a mistake from Sheppard who after getting a big jump on the restart went to the bottom in turns three and four knowing that would be where a challenge would come from Pearson. Exiting turn four coming to the white, Sheppard slid so high that he slapped the front stretch wall allowing Pearson to erase the lead. Brandon was able to recover though and was back to being flawless on the final circuit to win for the second night in a row. EPJ would run the distance in second followed by Kyle Bronson who again raced his way into the top five after starting sixteenth. Devin Moran continued his strong Speed Weeks with a ninth to fourth effort and Hudson O'Neal ripped the top to come from seventeenth to fifth.
Sunny skies with a temperature approaching 80 brought out a standing room only crowd for Friday's show leaving us wonder how they are going to handle Saturday's demand. Qualifying for the 74 cars on hand was somewhat predictable again as Brandon Sheppard was quickest in Group A while Brandon Overton was the best of Group B with the overall fastest lap of the night. How many tracks will you see a driver in the second half of the order in a field this big still be able to lay down the best lap? Parity throughout qualifying has always been evident during my trips to East Bay.
Garrett Smith came back strong from his Thursday disqualification going third fastest in Group B and the high school senior then dominated his heat race to earn the sixth starting spot in the main event. His night did not end the way he had hoped for though, more on that later.
Qualifying events wrapped up around 8:25 and the feature was scheduled for shortly after 9:00 to accommodate the live TV audience and just before the drivers were to begin their pace laps, the call went out to delay the action when a young lady had an accident in the stands and needed medical attention.
Tonight's distance would be fifty laps and once again it was the two Brandons, Sheppard and Overton bringing the field to green. The first twenty-five laps of this race was nothing short of spectacular as there were no cautions and with thirty cars starting there was plenty of lapped traffic for the leaders to deal with. Sheppard would control the first eleven laps before Chase Junghans swept around him on the outside of turn two to take the point. That would last for just one lap though as Sheppard rallied back, but with traffic now in Brandon's lower line, Junghans would again get to the front using the fast but treacherous cushion.
This was just the beginning of the fun as now you could throw a blanket over the top five cars and you would catch a couple of lappers as well as the battled raged on for the lead and on lap twenty-two it would be Brandon Overton getting the advantage. Sheppard who had faded back a few positions in that five car tussle was now back to second and on lap twenty-four he would climb back to the top of the scoreboard.
The first caution would finally fly on lap twenty-nine when Devin Moran and Frank Heckenast Jr. tangled on the back stretch and while Frankie slid into the infield, Moran continued on and then spun in turn three. Four more laps would be scored before Max Blair stuffed it into the turn two wall and then collected a high riding Tyler Erb who could not get off the cushion in time to avoid contact. On the restart Ashton Winger was able to take second away from Overton, but another caution before the lap was scored scratched that effort and once back to green the front half of the field settled into single file formation with Sheppard leading the way.
The driver to watch was Moran as he was one of the few ripping the top in an effort to get back to the front and with two laps to go he was back up to fifth. After the white flag waved Garrett Smith would jump the cushion in turn one and came to an abrupt halt after hitting the wall. Spencer Hughes was unable to avoid and Overton would even sustain left side body damage as he glanced off of Hughes.
This would setup a one lap dash after a single file restart with Sheppard holding off Overton to take his third straight win here at East Bay. Overton would put together a full race to finish second, Winger was again impressive in third and Moran thrilled the crowd with his charge back to fourth nipping Tim McCreadie at the finish.
The weather was perfect during the day on Saturday with sunny skies and temps in the 80's, but as race time approached the clouds rolled in ahead of a front that was forecast to bring overnight showers. Perhaps it was that late overcast that caused the track to be very slimy as the first few sets of hot laps were run and that meant that those cars had to be cycled through for a second set of hot laps. Brandon Overton was once again the fast qualifier of the night while West Virginia's Colton Burdette shocked the stars by topping the Group B list.
The storylines would develop with the running of the first heat with the winner set to earn the pole position for the fifty-lap finale. Dale Hollidge would start to the outside of Overton and would get the jump into turn one. Overton would get a nose under the leader early, but Hollidge would not only close the door, he would also pull away by five car lengths. Overton would not go down easy though as he came charging back to take the lead on the final lap to score the win. I'm glad he made that pass as Hollidge's car would then be found to have a deck height rule violation disqualifying his second place finish. By earning the win, Overton would sit on the pole where without the last lap pass he would have just inherited it.
The saga of young Garrett Smith would continue tonight as the Georgia driver would finish third in his heat race to qualify him for the feature, but when he failed to go immediately to the scales following the race he was disqualified as well. After the penalty was announced my Positively Racing colleague Danny Rosencrans pointed out that all of these underdogs that I was pulling for were cheating. All of them except for Burdette who held on to win the fourth heat race. And he passed tech, putting him outside of Overton on the front row for the main event.
The B-Mains were completed around 8:35 p.m. and once again we were forced to wait until after nine o'clock for the live audience on MavTV to join us for the start of the feature. The problem here was that those predicted showers were arriving earlier than scheduled and as the field assembled on the back stretch it started to rain. Okay, so assuming that track officials had been watching the radar, even if they would have rushed the feature onto the track it would not have taken the green until 8:45 or 8:50 at the earliest so the full race would not have been completed without this same rain delay. But when you have a full house on hand that paid $45 to get in thinking that the folks sitting at home watching it for free have possibly pushed you into a rainout.......well, that's not a good thing.
Thankfully the rain subsided and after several laps of wheel packing the race went green with Overton taking the lead and running the rain slickened bottom. Meanwhile fourth starting Brandon Sheppard went to the top and with the cushion to lean on he would sail around Overton to take the point on lap three. The rain would start to fall again around lap twenty and by then Sheppard had a full straightaway on an entertaining race for third featuring Overton, Tyler Erb, Devin Moran, Kyle Bronson and others.
At the halfway mark you knew that if the rain picked up that this one would be called complete and while it didn't seem to be getting too slick yet the caution would wave for the rain on lap twenty-eight. The field would then circle the track for several minutes to save the track and series Tech Director Steve Francis looked for a thumbs up, or thumbs down on the conditions. Finally with the rain still falling the race would go back to green for five more laps until Boom Briggs spun on the back stretch. This caution was short and as the green waved again Devin Moran would get the drive off the bottom coming to green to make the move of the night and take the lead away from Sheppard. As Brandon tried to counter in turns three and four he would jump the cushion, catch the wall and drop all the way back to twelfth as lap thirty-four was scored.
The caution would wave again though as Hudson O'Neal slowed on the front stretch looking to make a pit stop and even the popular O'Neal would draw some boos for deliberately pulling the caution as the fans wanted to see this one go the distance. The caution would fly again before another lap could be scored when Garrett Alberson spun in turn four collecting both Sheppard and Johnny Scott. What looked like the fourth win in a row just a few minutes earlier for Sheppard as the damage would force him to the infield.
Once back to green it was now obvious that one line had rubbered up in the persistent light rain and even after one more caution on lap forty-four this one was now decided with Moran taking the win. Tyler Erb followed him home in second while Florida's own Mark Whitener took third. Tanner English picked up the fourth spot after earlier fading a bit from his sixth starting position while Overton capped off what he would likely consider to be a frustrating week by finishing fifth.
And that was it. As we hustled out to the parking lot to try to get a jump on the inevitable traffic jam I realized that I have likely seen my last race at East Bay Raceway. Yes, it is scheduled for two more Winter Nationals before closing in the middle of 2024, but my guess is that there will be even more race fans who will be trying to get one last look at the ol' facility the next two years making it even more of a zoo than it was this week. My recommendations to those fans are as follows:
- Buy reserved seats so that you don't have to be one of the blanket brigade
- Pay for the preferred parking area, or be prepared for a good long walk each night
- Bring your goggles and wear a brimmed hat to keep the falling dust out of your eyes. There was quite a bit of the Clay by the Bay that went home with crowd each night.
- Treat yourself to a strawberry shortcake. Perhaps one each night if you skipped the Paid parking as you will walk off the calories in no time.
And in those final two years, if weather comes into play, know that I will be one of those freebies sitting at home watching on live TV.
Farewell East Bay, you will always be included in my "top five"!
No comments:
Post a Comment