East Bay Raceway Park
Rainout sets up pair of East Bay doubleheaders
GIBSONTON, Fla. (Feb. 10) — Ready for back-to-back doubleheaders at East Bay Raceway Park? That is what is on tap Friday and Saturday at the third-mile oval for the 35th Dart Winternationals by Magnaflow.
Steady rain that begin just before scheduled hot laps Thursday gave the Winternationals its second rainout of the week, forcing the track to cram four shows into a 36-hour time frame. | Complete Speedweeks coverage
Friday's action begins with 11 a.m. hot laps for a $5,000-to-win event (the makeup of Monday's show). Friday's regularly scheduled $10,000-to-win event will begin with 5 p.m. hot laps.
Saturday's action begins at 11 a.m. with hot laps for a $10,000-to-win event (the makeup of Thursday's show). Saturday's regularly schedule $12,000-to-win event will begin with 5 p.m. hot laps.
The four-race stretch over two days will mark a first for East Bay's Winternationals.
Pre-race notes
It will mark the third consecutive year East Bay has run a doubleheader. ... In 2009, Josh Richards swept an East Bay doubleheader giving him three straight victories on Feb. 5-6. ... The track used an airboat towed on the back of a trailer to help blow water off the frontstretch before the rains came. ... Among new entries Thursday at East Bay: Brian Birkhofer of Muscatine, Iowa (in a MasterSbilt car owned by Blankenship Racing); Jack Nosbisch Jr. of Riverview, Fla. (driving the No. 01 driven by Tim Fuller of Watertown, N.Y.; Davey Johnson of Latrobe, Pa., and Billy Moyer of Batesville, Ark., the winningest driver in Winternationals history with 20 victories. ... Dennis Erb Jr., who planned to field his Rayburn Race car at six East Bay events, unloaded his Bloomquist Race Car and took it through tech. He'd originally planned to save the Bloomquist chassis until next week's action at Volusia, but Bloomquist cars have won the first two events at East Bay, where Erb is a two-time Winternationals champion driving a Rayburn. ... Lucas Oil Series announcer James Essex flew back home Thursday to attend his grandmother's funeral; joining him was brother-in-law A.J. Bingham, the chief tech inspector for the series. They were scheduled to return Thursday night. ... Michael Chilton is going to his backup Rayburn Race Car, a car formerly owned by ARCA champion Patrick Sheltra. ... Tim Isenberg unloaded his backup MB2 Customs machine Thursday.
