Friday, February 5 - A major snow storm was scheduled to hit the Mid-Atlantic states and we were scheduled to leave for our annual Florida vacation on the same day. Luckily our flight was leaving at 8:45 in the morning from the Philadelphia Arport and the storm was not supposed to start until the afternoon. Our flight took off on time and by noon on Saturday 2 feet of snow blanketed the closed airport. As for us we not only landed as scheduled but were actually 15 minutes early. Unfortunately we did not arrive in the sunshine in the Sunshine State. It was warm, 77 degrees, but the skies were overcast and within two hours of exiting the Tampa Airport it was raining and it did not stop for the remainder of the evening. Our first night of racing at East Bay Raceway Park was a wash. Luckily we met up with Allan and Nancy Brown, retired publishers of the National Speedway Directory and we ate a late lunch together, sat around in the lounge area of the hotel catching up on the events since we last were together and finally topped it off with a pizza at 9:00. It was a good salvage of what could have been lost night.

Saturday, February 6 - Even though we lost the race on Friday night we had the ability to pick it up on Saturday afternoon. They were running the Friday night show at 2:00 Saturday afternoon and then would run the regular scheduled show later that evening. This was fine with us as we were planning to attend the Saturday night also.

It was 12:15 when we pulled into or should I say tried to pull into the parking lot at East Bay. What we found was a sea of mud and in some area just a sea. We were lucky to be there early and were able to secure a spot right along the dirt road that runs by the track. The mud was unbelieveable and many of the motorhomes across the road found themselves surrounded. Today the skies were clear but there was a constant stiff breeze blowing and the temperatures might have reached the mid 60’s although it was definitely not warm. This was now the final day of the Dart Winternationals for the Lucas Oil Late Models. The field of late models was smaller then in the past but there were stil 50 plus cars in the pit area. Time trials started at 12:40 and 40 minutes later they were complete. Steve Francis set fast time and then pulled the number 2 pill which meant the top two times were inverted in the heat races. The four heat races started at 2:10 and considering we were running on a dirt track in the afternoon on a sunny breezy day the track surface was in pretty good shape and there was minimal dust. Also to our advantage was the fact that the wind was blowing from behind us keeping any dust there was blowing back into the infield.

The first heat saw Brandon Thirlby take a hard hit in turn one which left the crowd holding their breath. Brandon finally exited the car under his own power to the relief of those in attendance. Later in heat three leader Tim Dohm went from winning the heat and starting on the outside pole to spinning all by himself in turn four. All four heats were run off in 35 minutes and they were quite competitive. Immediately following the heats the two 12 lap B mains came out onto the track. They were moving this show along at a fast pace. The Strawberry Dash was next but was scrapped and a fan picked the winner from names in a box.

At 3:42 the green dropped on the 50 lap main event that paid $10,000 to win. For an afternoon show on dirt it wasn’t bad. Of course if you are not a Scott Bloomquist fan, and I am not, it was not the ending you preferred. Bloomquist lead all 50 laps. There was some good racing behind the leaders and Billy Moyer came from 13th to finish 4th. When the checkered fell at 4:05 after only three cautions, it was a Bloomquist chassie sweep. Scott Bloomquist won followed by Jimmy Owens and Eric Jacobsen. Billy Moyer and Denis Erb Jr. rounded out the top five. At this time the stands were cleared and the track was reworked prior to the start of the evening time trials at 6:00. It was a well run show on a good daytime surface.