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      After dodging the big ice storm on the way down to Tampa Florida for the 2009 East Bay Raceway Speedweeks, we were finally able to get a race in. The first night got rained out due to heavy rains. The second night started good, but a damp race track and cool temperatures made finding traction difficult. I drew a 50 out of 50 during the pill draw and this put me dead last in the 4th heat. I started 11th and worked my way through the field and managed to snag the lead away from Ralph Wren near the end of the race by running around the top of the race track avoiding the rough lower portion. Winning the 4th heat means I started 4th in the feature race. I managed to dodge a very close incident by the front row cars of Harold Matthews and Jesse Teed. I'm not really sure how I squeaked by, but it was just enoughh. On the restart, with Matthews out, I got bumped up to the outside front row and lead the first half of the race and sliced my way through heavy lap traffic. After a caution I knew running the top would leave me a setting duck, but I held out going to bottom to avoid the rough. Tim Buckwalter managed to squeak by on the inside and followed him for a few laps until a caution came out. I knew I had to get a good slingshot down the back straight in order to pass. I set it up good keeping just close enough and on the last lap ran the top in turns 1 and 2 and got enough momentum to dive under Buckwalter in turn 3 and go on to take the win. It was close, but you only have to lead one lap to make it count.

 The final race starts tonight at 7:00pm.

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