And now, the same race, as seen through the eyes of our currently on probation staff reporter, Josh “The Man Formerly Known as The Ladies Choice” Wichers.

Date : 09.04.2010

Track : East Bay Raceway Park ( Tampa, FL )

Series : East Bay Sprints

Admission :
Grandstand : Adult – $12, Senior – $10, Teens 13-17 – $7, Kids
12 and under – FREE
Pit Pass : $25

# of Sprint Cars : 19

Who Won :
Heat 1 – Travis Bliemeister
Heat 2 – Tim George
Feature – KURT TAYLOR

Crowd Grade : A+. This was definitely the best crowd that I’ve seen at East Bay in a very long time. It was nearly a full house in the grandstands. I’m not sure what they did for promotion, but it worked. It was Sunshine Speedway Alumni Night and also double features in all of the other classes, including two Late Model features.

Track Grade : B. The track was fairly smooth throughout the night, but started taking a lot of rubber before the sprints rolled out. It was dry, but not too dusty as we characteristically see at East Bay. The surface made for good racing in all of the classes.

Food Orderered : Deviled Crab

Food Grade : B. I was really looking forward to enjoying the best deviled crab in the Tampa area. After spending a long day on the road and in the sun, I skipped lunch so that the crab roll would be just that much better. I guess that I should have got a hot dog while I was at the UF game. The crab roll was good, but nothing like the ones that I’ve had in previous trips to the Clay by the Bay.

Drinks Ordered : Sweet Tea (of course ), and Coke Zero ( bottle ).

Drinks Grade : A. The sweet tea at the pit side concession was as good as any that I’ve had. And that says a lot. But the sweet tea at the grandstand concession was far from sweet. Thankfully, they had ice cold coke zero in a bottle to quench our thirst. And speaking of drinks, while at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville earlier that day, I noticed that their only choice of Gatorade flavor was red Fruit Punch. No orange, no blue. I’m just saying.

Series ( Class ) Grade : B+. The East Bay Sprints came out swinging with a very strong car count. It was unfortunate to see two of the heavy hitters go out early. Rich Pratt didn’t make the call for the feature after pulling off during the heat race. And “Outlaw” Gene Lasker pulled his 02 to the pit area early in the feature after his fuell cell brackets broke as the result of early contact. It was good to see Top Gun Sprints
points leader Ryan Partin bring out his hot rod to do battle with the East Bay rowdies. Also in the house were Keith Butler, Billy Boyd Jr, and Dakotah Stephens. It was a very uncharacteristic night with very few cautions. I would still like to see the EBS’s race for more than a 15 lap feature.

FSCF.com Driver of the Race : Danny Jones. Danny took the gloves off and came from nearly the back of the field to finish a strong 2nd. It was great to see Kurt Taylor get his second victory of the season with the EBS. But to watch Jones come from the back and quietly and meticulously pick off opponents was fun to watch. Jones’ checkers are right around the corner. Rounding out the top five were Tim George, Keith Butler, and Rocky Sullivan.

Other Notes :
- It was Sunshine Speedway Alumni Night . Not sure what that means, but if it helps get the “Action Track” reopened, we need more of them. Gotta miss Sunshine Speedway !!

- Racing starts at 6:30 at the Clay by the Bay, get there early.

- I ran into Sport Allen wearing a shirt that read, “The Legend Has Retired” . I hope this isn’t true, and look forward to seeing Sport back in the seat soon. Possibly in a pavement sprint car in the TBARA or as a teammate to our Editor at Speed in the Penrose Racing entry in the Florida Mini Sprint Association.

- Other notable hot shoes in attendance that I saw were ; Stan “The Legend” Butler, Shane “the Bushnell Bullet” Butler, Tyler “OTG” Godwin, Brian “The Flyin’ Hotfoot” Penrose, and Wendy Mathis.

Race Reporter: Josh Wichers