Archive for Race Reports
Sep
08
East Bay Sprints Race Report – 09.04.10 Part 2
Posted by: | CommentsAnd 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
Sep
06
East Bay Sprints Race Report – 09.04.10 Part 1
Posted by: | CommentsAnd now for something completely different…two race reporters dispatched to one race, both turning in race reports. Up first is our (vastly more reliable) Editor at Speed “The Hot Foot” Brian Penrose with his take on the action. Without further ado…
After watching this year’s Knoxville Nationals replay for about the fifth time, I just had to take in a dirt sprint car race. Thank you East Bay Raceway for filling that need.
DATE: September 4th, 2010.
SERIES: East Bay Sprints
ADMISSION PRICE: $25 Pit Pass
FOOD ORDERED: Cheeseburger & Hot dog
FOOD GRADE: A. The pit side cheeseburger was average but the hot dog more than made up for cheeseburger. The hot dog had good size and flavor.
DRINKS ORDERED: Water & Sweet Tea.
DRINKS GRADE: A. The sweet tea was full blown sweet.
CROWD GRADE: A. The place was packed. I would like to think it was for the return of the sprint cars after a more than a month lay off.
NUMBER OF SPRINT CARS: 19
FSCF.COM DRIVER OF THE RACE: Plain and simple answer, Danny Jones. He started deep in the field and worked his way to a second place finish in the feature.
SERIES GRADE: B. Nice car count but I know there are more cars out there that have run at East Bay.
TRACK GRADE: B-. The surface blacked off a little but cars could run both the bottom and the top.
REST OF THE RACING GRADE: D. For the late model feature I watched after the sprint feature, it was painful to watch.
OTHER NOTES:
* Keith Butler continues to impress with his diverse driving talents from dirt to asphalt, both winged and non winged.
* It’s a shame to know that three sprint car hot shoes (Sport Allen, Greg Leonard & Tyler Godwin) were sitting in the stands and not racing. Plus Danny Martin.
* Lots of pavement racers in the house. Good to see Stan & Shane Butler, David Slawiak and retired racer Wendy Mathis.
* The Top Gun Sprints Series points championship between Ryan Partin & Tim George will be decided on the final race night. Mark my words. Tim George put in another strong and consistent run with a third place finish in the feature. Its looking like Tim will win the East Bay track championship.
* Great to see just about all the drivers tie ribbons on their top wings in honor of longtime East Bay car owner Bob Long. Bob passed away recently from his battle with cancer. Our condolences to the Long Family.
* Good to see some East Bay weekly lower division team members getting their “minds right” out behind their pick up truck. Just remember when the police ask about it, it was for medicinal purposes.
* I can honestly report that “Roller Derby” Josh “The Ladies Choice” Wichers was really in the house last night. Even sported a bit of a sunburn from his trip to Gainesville for the Gator game earlier in the day. Welcome back to the track Josh!
RACE REPORTER: “The Hot Foot” Brian Penrose
Also, our crack pits photog Gary “Walk Quietly But Carry A Big” Johnson snapped some photos. Our apologies for a few of the blurry ones, particularly the one of Mean Gene and Crew, which would have been a nice one. We’ll get a better one next time guys.
Aug
01
TBARA Race Report – 07.31.10
Posted by: | Comments
After collecting my seventh consecutive Employee of the Month award, (thanks Josh) this past Friday at the FSCF.com corporate headquarters (a.k.a. Todd’s garage), I was dispatched to the TBARA race Saturday night at New Smyrna Speedway. I wasn’t sure if it was a reward or a punishment. I took it as a reward.
DATE: July 31, 2010
SERIES: TBARA
TRACK: New Smyrna Speedway
ADMISSION PRICE: $25 Pit Pass
FOOD ORDERED: Hamburger
FOOD GRADE: A. The actual track hamburger was overpriced and average at best. The reason the food grade is A is one reason. Mrs. Butler’s BBQ sandwich Friday night at Orlando and the meatball sub Saturday at New Smyrna. Thank you Mrs. Butler for keeping me from starving to death. It is much appreciated.
DRINKS ORDERED: N/A I had plenty of water at the Butler hauler due to the extreme heat. Thanks again!
DRINKS GRADE: N/A However, our man John from Red Fox Run did have a sweet tea at the pit concession and said it was acceptable.
CROWD GRADE: C. NSS advertised heavily on Brighthouse Networks. I’ve seen better crowds for a TBARA show at NSS.
NUMBER OF SPRINT CARS: 17
WHO WON: Dude Teate
FSCF.COM DRIVER OF THE RACE: I was all ready to give the honor to Shane Butler after the primary car would not crank for hot laps and blowing the engine in the #81 backup car during hot laps. Shane was working his way towards the front during the feature in the #18 car after the crew thrashed to get it to the starting grid. But Shane pulled the #18 car in during the only caution (Bryan Riddle broke a shock and came to rest on the track) for overheating. So with no further adieu, Driver of the Race is race winner Dude Teate. Dude was taken out leading the heat race by a lapped car that pinched him into the wall. The accident sent Teate to the pits with a broken front axle. After the restart for the Riddle caution, Teate brought the crowd to its feet with a high side pass of then leader Troy DeCaire.
SERIES GRADE: C+. This is the premiere asphalt series in Florida and only 17 cars show up. As a fan it was very disappointing to see only 9 cars running at the end of the race. I gave the C+ because the teams that did show made every effort to put all the cars on the track. A tip of the cap to those teams.
TRACK GRADE: B
REST OF THE RACING GRADE: B. The Pro Truck race feature had a dramatic three wide finish at the flagstand. Karnac legend Rex “Boneman” Hollinger competed as well.
OTHER NOTES:
* It was a Diablo kind of night. The Dave Steele built chassis came home 1 & 2 with DeCaire chasing Teate to the finish line. DeCaire led the first half of the race going away until he had what felt like two shocks fail late in the feature. However, he did an outstanding job to hang on and close on Teate (after laying his wing back all the way) in the final couple of laps.
* The Butler crew continued to show why they are having a championship type of season. On a day when the primary car had problems they kept working to get the car on the track.
* Larry Brazil Jr. showed great maturity. After hurting the engine in his primary car, he jumped into the 28B typically run by his father. Noticing the engine had a bit of a miss and was running on the warm side, he stayed out and collected valuable points.
* FSCF.com’s favorite graphics man Mickey Kempgens had a very solid run in the Terry DeCaire owned Dirt Devil’s Speedway #41 car.
* Once again Ben Fritz was fast, but hard luck struck again. Ben was running in the top three during the feature, when the front wing blew off and basically into the cockpit.
RACE REPORTER: “The Hot Foot” Brian Penrose