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Jay Vaquer
PHENIX CITY, Ala. (March 15) - The 2008 racing season at East Alabama Motor Speedway got off with an impressive start. The high car count and nearly filled grandstands promises a successful year.
The Late Model feature was very exciting with intense racing all around the track and thrilling lead changes. The Master of Faster, local legend Dana Eiland, proved he is still the man to beat. A very talented rookie, Richie Stephens, placed his #00 on the outside pole for the feature. When the green flag dropped Stephens and Eiland raced into turn one and Stephens emerged with the lead and began to run away from the pack. Eiland had a strong push in turns one and two and lost momentum as Larry Eldridge slid under him to take over the second position. Larry Harrod was running strong and offered the fans a thrill as he sparred with another strong competitor, Jeff Mills over fourth place.
On the restart of the lap 7 caution, Harrod made a swift and clean pass on Mills and went after Eiland in third. When he got back to turn two something broke on his left front suspension and he spun right in front of Mickey Benton who had no other option except to t-bone Harrod.
Unfortunately both former Late Model champions went to the pits for DNF's. When the green came back Dana Eiland was running very high on the track and Eldridge was running the apron. When they exited the corners they would run door to door down the straight-aways. Suddenly, Eiland switched grooves and caught Eldridge off guard and took over second place. Eiland picked up nearly a second on the apron and was there for the lead. Eiland and Stephens swapped positions, which had the fans on their feet to see these lead changes. Finally Eiland got a jump in momentum and pulled to a five car-length lead from Stephens. Pat Wall began to break and lost speed in the center groove to bring out the lap 15 caution. The restart order was Eiland, Stephens, Eldridge, and somehow Matt Woodson had found himself running fourth ahead of Stephen Pearson JR in fifth. When the green came back Eiland's K-9 had dialed in his set-up and he blasted off to run several car lengths ahead of Stephens who was busy with an ever charging Eldridge. Woodson in fourth had his own space on the track running several car-lengths behind Eldridge and several car-lengths ahead of the rest of the pack. When Eiland ran up on the lap traffic Stephens came flying out of turn 4 wide open and closed on the rear of Eiland.
Stephens pushed Eiland in front of the flag stand and while the K-9 wiggled off his line, Eiland maintained control and again sped away from Stephens. The white flag was out and the K-9 sensed another victory as he sped to the checkers to win yet another Late Model victory to add to his prolific legacy. Richie Stephens finished second and was very strong which ensures that he will see Victory Lane this season. Larry Eldridge finished third, Matt Woodson collected his first top five finish in fourth and he did not even scratch his shiny new racecar. Gordy Scarborough finished fifth, Jeff Mills sixth, Richard Mills seventh, Stephen Pearson JR eighth, Pat Wall ninth, and Greg Gatlin rounded out the top ten in tenth.
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