Personally i think this is something that you have to figure out yourself. I usually do Soup Plantation the night before a long race to treat myself to something good. I dont eat too much right before a race because it upsets my stomach to run on a ton of food. You however might be different so I always suggest try to eat a little bit and work up from there.

How long is your short race? A 5K? I say, do what you do when you train. Don't do anything new on race day. Do you usually eat before you run when you train?

Personally, I wake up an hour before I have to leave for a race, have a half a cup of coffee and a piece of toast, and then I bring a banana and a pop tart for after if it's a race that doesn't have goodie bags at the end. When I get home, I eat protein (yogurt with walnuts & berries or maybe eggs if it was a longer race).

As for the night before, if it's not 8 or 10K or longer, just eat normally (but don't overdue it, of course). Carbo-loading is very effective for longer runs and will give you extra energy in the shorter race too, but isn't necessary. Ever since I discovered carbo-loading, I usually have a pasta dinner even before short races for the symbolic pleasure of it. Gets me in the mood.

Judging by the date of your original post, I'd say you probably already ran the race by now. What did you do, and did it work?