DATE: February 27, 2010

SERIES: Florida Mini Sprint Association

TRACK: East Bay Raceway Park

ADMISSION PRICE: $40 for a pit pass. What can you do? Those 360 guys were there too.

FOOD ORDERED: Boneless buffalo wings and cheese fries.

FOOD GRADE: B. I was so excited to see something on the menu with the word “buffalo” I just had to get it. It was alright, just a couple of chicken tenders with some buffalo sauce thrown on. I was cold, it worked. The cheese fries were an A+. Good fries and lots of cheese. I enjoyed them way more than the buffalo offering. I was half-tempted to go with the shrimp basket but it was pricy and I’ve yet to have good seafood at any track. I still think East Bay has the best food midway.

DRINKS ORDERED: None. Well, I did have two Yuenglings back in the trailer and “The Ladies Choice” Josh did have the sweet tea, which he raved about.

DRINKS GRADE: A. Josh loved the tea.

CROWD GRADE: D. I haven’t seen a crowd this weak since any sprint car show at Bithlo Falls Speedway (Orlando Speed World) and that was just sad. I get that it rained a bunch and was cold, but still, this was the King of the 360s and there were tons of empty seats. I’m sure the weather kept a bunch of people away, but maybe the high admission ticket price did too? Not sure, but damn that was a sad showing.

NUMBER OF SPRINT CARS: Since this is a FMSA report – I heard 43, 41 and 47. I can’t say I went and counted them all because we had all sorts of issues to work on for our Editor at Speed. But there were a ton.

SERIES GRADE: A+. I’ve been giving a lot of good grades to the FMSA lately and quite frankly there were more out of state cars than our guys and gals, but man alive, you want to talk about a ton of quality cars. Holy wow. These Pennsylvania teams are nothing to sneeze at. I saw one hauler so big I think all of the FMSA drivers could live in it comfortably for at least a month. Some of these teams had haulers bigger than anybody has in the Top Gun Sprint Series or the TBARA.

TRACK GRADE: A. Given the amount of rain that hit the track in the morning and afternoon, East Bay gets an “attaboy award” for keeping the race on the books but also having a good racing surface.

FSCF.COM DRIVER OF THE RACE: Our FMSA guys and gals brought a knife to a gun fight this SpeedWeeks, but a few of the FMSA faithful need to be applauded. First is Rhea Lynn Moss. Short on experience, she got herself into the A Main without having to run the B Main. She may have got lapped a lot but I’m sure she learned a lot out there. Four other FMSA drivers made the A Main – Tim O’Donnell, Jody McKenzie, David Pleaugh and Brett O’Donnell. Now Tim and Brett both finished on the lead lap, and Brett was the top Florida finisher…but I liked how David got lapped but then hung with the leader the rest of the race and I swear I saw him banging on the leader under caution one time, which I loved…but I’m going with Jody McKenzie. Why? He raced his way into a transfer spot in the B Main, which was no easy chore and even though he got a lap down in the A Main, my man was out there slicing and dicing. I admire your spunk Jody McKenzie; you are our Driver of the Race.

OTHER FMSA NOTES: Let’s get down to the obvious – the whole mini sprint week was swept by one driver, Luke Thomas. And if you were at any of the races, you know why. Let’s put it this way, after the feature a very agitated older gentleman walked down past the grandstands and loudly proclaimed, “if any of you people think that number two car is legal you are all fools.” I didn’t see anyone disagree with him.

Other points:

• The #22 car of Travis Senter was fast all night and put on a nice charge through the field.
• The same can be said about the #1T ride of Bill Jackson.
• By lap five the #2 car had half-a-lap on the field. Enough said.
• If you throw out the #2 car, this was actually a great race with tons of driving.
• Tim O’Donnell was making the bottom work down in one when hardly anyone else was. Tim gets it done at East Bay.
• Darren Hasty had a big flip on Lap 1. Darren is from North Carolina and had a new chassis, so that sucked, but he was alright.
• Brett O’Donnell did a very nice job all night long in the #11. Well done.
• We never did get our Editor at Speed comfortable out there and we had to thrash a little due to having a new motor in the car, but nothing did break or vibrate on the car we’re happy to report, and bless his heart he never pulled off the track. Big thanks to our own “The Ladies Choice” Josh Wichers and also “The Bushnell Bullet” Shane Butler for helping out.
• Why does any mini sprint team need a stacker hauler? Seriously.

OTHER RACING NOTES:

• I was fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time and got an autographed Steve Heisler Racing koozie from none other than Steve Heisler himself. I had to stand in line, but it was worth it.
• The King of the 360s is Wayne Johnson, who put on a great charge in the feature and held off “The Rocket” Jesse Hockett to win.
• Looked like “The Texas Dreamweaver” Gary Wright was the man to beat but a left rear let go while leading and did him in.
• Then it looked like “The Steel City Outlaw” Tim Shaffer would take home the glory, but his engine threw a rod (so we heard) and that ended his night while leading.
• In our contest for the best David Hobbs impression while saying, “the motor she done blowed up,” after Mark Smith blew up, “The Bushnell Bullet” Shane Butler was the winner.
• “The Flying Mullet” Gene Lasker dusted himself off and made it back out Saturday night, but his night was over early in the B Main, breaking on the first lap.
• Sport F’ing Allen! The only Florida driver to make the A Main every night this week. And the only Florida driver to make the A Main Saturday night. Don’t ever doubt Sport Allen, kids.
• Sadly, we didn’t see any Greg Wilson t-shirts being modeled in the pits.

RACE REPORTER: Todd