TGSS Race Report – 05.08.10

If you want something done right you have to do it yourself, so here we go…

DATE: May 8, 2010

SERIES: Top Gun Sprint Series

TRACK: East Bay Raceway Park

ADMISSION: $25 for a pit pass. $12 for general admission. You can’t beat that with a stick. Though here is an amusing aside – one of our Factory Driver’s crew showed up a tad late and they were out of wrist bands for the pits. This turned out to be quite a conundrum that took a while to sort out…

FOOD ORDERED: I may have very well found my new favorite track food in the whole state of Florida. Wait…my new favorite track food that is not a chili cheese dog. But I DID order a cheese dog, which was slightly above average. To be fair, the chili cheese dog at Ocala Speedway really wrecks the curve for everybody else, it’s that good. After eating my cheese dog I saw many race fans ordering the deviled crab, so I decided on that instead of the chocolate dipped cheesecake at the stand behind me. Well. I really didn’t expect that much crab in a trackside consumable, but man alive was it good. You must get this.

FOOD GRADE: A. Had I simply ordered the deviled crab this would have been an A+, but the cheese dog suffered the grade a tad. But I do think that East Bay might have the all around best food offerings at a track from top to bottom and the staff runs that place like no one’s business.

DRINKS ORDERED: None from the concession stand, but our Factory Driver had plenty of Orange Crush on hand…

DRINK GRADE: Sorry, I just can’t bring myself to drink Anheuser Busch products.

CROWD GRADE: A. I thought this was a really good crowd for East Bay. The parking lot was pretty darn full when I pulled in and the stands were pretty darn packed. It’s great to see the East Bay faithful back out in droves.

NUMBER OF CARS: I saw 27, but the official count was 28. Still, 27 cars! The plan was to run three heats of nine, take seven from each and run a consi but mechanical woes sidelined some competitors so everyone got to run the feature.

SERIES GRADE: A+. 27 cars! I’ve heard some grumbling about the tire rule, but again…27 cars…and there was some top quality pieces out there.

RACE WINNER: Danny “The Hammer” Martin, Jr. This was Gene Lasker’s race to lose and unfortunately, he did. Gene literally had the checkers in sight and the rear end broke and he ended up coasting across the finish line.

RACE GRADE: D. I’m kind of morally opposed to giving a race an F, especially one that had this many cars, and hey, drivers showed up to race and I hate to give them an F, so I won’t. But my god, I lost track of the cautions. In the first 7 laps there were five cautions. And that wasn’t the end of them either. There was only one real honest-to-god long (and using the term “long” is a bit of a stretch) green flag run, but it was a good one as Danny Martin Jr. put a wicked slide job on Gene Lasker for the lead and then John Crowder spun right in front of them. Then Shawn Murray threaded the needle with inches to spare on Martin. How he made it through there, I still don’t know. But because it was a caution, and Martin got tagged by Crowder, the lead went back to Lasker.

FSCF.com DRIVER OF THE RACE: This is a tough one. Danny Martin Jr. certainly put one wicked slide job on Gene Lasker (see above) and did win, but I have a track record of not going with the winner unless they pass a ton of cars or do something earth shattering. And certainly Gene Lasker deserves some sort of “tough luck award,” but that’s not what this award is called. I’m going with Keith Butler. Why? Keith was involved in a spin on lap one, restarted at the tail and then worked the high side like no one’s business, racing his way into the top five before getting collected in another spin. Up until that point Keith passed more cars than anyone else, and that’s what I like to see.

OTHER NOTES: In no particular order….

• Big ups to East Bay and the Top Gun Sprint Series for the driver autograph session. This doesn’t happen enough, so thank you, thank you, thank you!
• I’m quite sure John Crowder would like to forget Saturday ever happened. I like John because he’s a hell of a nice guy, but man alive, what a rough night…
• I’m thinking “The Human Highlight Reel” Shane Kreidler is keeping his nickname for a while. God bless him, Shane seems to have his nights end quick so far this season.
• Sadly Mark Ruel Jr. had a short night of it as a broken pinion gear did him in. Look for a 10 Questions profile in the near future…
• Darrin Miller had a quick night too, sadly. You might see both Mark and Darrin in Georgia for a few Otto’s Sprint Car Association races.
• Looking to buy a racecar? I’m pretty sure I saw a For Sale sign on the car of Kyle Welchance.
• It was nice to see Rich Pratt out there even though he too had a short night.
• Sport Allen was a surprise entry (at least to me) and he was a threat all night, but came up a few pounds short on the scales and got disqualified, despite an excellent run.
• Give a shout out to Clint Reynolds on bringing home a well deserved top five. Same goes for sixth place runner Kerry Gilbert.
• I was aggravated with all of the cautions, but I was even more aggravated with the lapped cars. Seriously, if you’re lap(s) down, why are you banging on the cars on the lead lap?
• Tim George and Ryan Partin followed each other home in third and fourth, and only four points separate them in the TGSS points.
• Amanda Ferguson had her night end on lap one, getting caught up in a spin just in front of her. East Bay and Amanda seem to not mix well.
  
• For those of you that don’t run modern safety gear, think twice. Jeanette Burnett walked away with only some bumps and soreness, but that crash had people gasping and running toward her car, it was that bad. Jeanette runs good safety gear and you should too.
• Heat wins went to Ryan Partin, Gene Lasker and Tim George.

RACE REPORTER: Todd