What could be better than Florida in January?? Racing in Florida in January!! That’s what Julie and teammate Mike Wedelstadt did. On Tuesday, January 20, 2004 Julie, Mike, and crew headed to East Bay Raceway Park in Tampa. They raced on five different days and had a great time (see results). Here are Julies comments about the trip.
Thursday was warm during the day and it cooled off at night. We washed the cars to get ready for time qualifying. The stands were really empty. I think because fans thought it was so cold, but it was warm to us. I ended up in the C main and Mike ended up wining the A main. That was really exciting! That was the best that he has ever done in Florida. They interviewed him and took lots of pictures.
Friday warmed up a little bit. We had our free meal that the track puts on every year for the racers. The stands were filled with more fans. The night was filled with some good racing action. I made the feature for the first time at East Bay. Mike’s care got destroyed in the heat but he managed to go onto the B main. He started in the back and couldn't get the car going in time to transfer to the A main event.
On Saturday, it was the warmest of all, everyone had shorts on. I had to start in the C main because of the points standings. I was confident that the car was fast enough to move on, but came up short of the transfer position. Mike was in the B main and transferred to the A main. He finished 4th. There were more pictures taken after the 75 lap race for the top five cars. The excitement continued for our crew and fans. Then the following Wednesday we both made the A main and finished 5th and 6th. The cars were really fast, but got caught up in racing incidents that held us back. Thursday night the track was totally different. It was slimy and hard to drive on. We survived the race anyway.

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