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There were several WISSOTA-area racers on hand for the final Winternationals event at East Bay Raceway Park, outside of Tampa, Florida. They included Monttana’s Michael Leach (09), and Minnesota’s Ryan Gierke (26G) and Joseph Thomas (not pictured). The track property will no longer host races after 2024. (Tyler Carr Photo)

Thomas tops area racers with second at East Bay Monday

From Jordan DeLucia, DIRTcar Racing and
All The Dirt! Racing News Staff Reports

TAMPA, FL (January 29) - The final edition of East Bay Raceway Park’s famed Winternationals event for the DIRTcar UMP Modifieds kicked off Monday night with three separate 25-lap main events, putting three drivers from three different states in victory lane.

Jason Garver (Florida), Rodney Wing (Mississippi) and Austin Holcombe (North Carolina) took the checkered flag in each of the triple-25s, starting their six-day race week off with a boost of momentum in a field of the 76 cars on hand.

Two WISSOTA-area locals were down in Florida for the first night at East Bay, including Minnesota’s Joseph Thomas and Ryan Gierke. Thomas had the best finish of the two, with runner-up honors in the second feature.

Feature 1

For the first time in his career, Jason Garver is a UMP Modified Winternationals feature winner at East Bay.

The 47-year-old veteran racer from Starke, FL, lined up fourth on the starting grid and wasted little time with his efforts to get the lead. He took advantage of the top lane on a lap four restart and driving around polesitter Lucas Lee to take the top spot.

“I just tried to hit my marks, that’s the main thing,” Garver said. “Just not worrying about who’s behind me; I never know who’s behind me.”

From there, Garver dominated. Through multiple caution periods and lapped traffic, Garver held strong out front, gapping the field on nearly every restart and driving away. He led the final 21 laps unchallenged to claim victory and not once was worried about anyone coming up from behind him.

“I felt like if I could run my line every time with the way I was able to come through there, nobody would be able to get around me, and it worked out,” Garver said.

Feature 2

It’s been nearly 14 years, but Rodney Wing has found his way back to UMP Modified Winternationals victory lane at East Bay.

The 2009 and 2010 Winternationals champion from Meridian, MS, took the lead from the outside pole on lap one and never looked back en route to his fifth career Winternationals feature win and first in the division since January 31, 2010.

Villard, Minnesota’s Ryan Gierke started the feature in fifth, while Glyndon, Minnesota’s Joseph Thomas started ninth. Multiple early cautions marred the start of the feature, making it impossible for anyone to race a consistent lap. It continued to be a start-and-stop first six laps, during which Thomas was able to move into sixth, while Gierke fell back through the field to 10th.

Two laps later, Gierke moved back into eighth, with Thomas holding onto sixth.

Another bout of cautions didn’t deter Thomas from advancing to fourth, while Gierke had a trouble himself and parked it in the infield the next lap, with 15 laps remaining on the board.

Following the restart, Thomas was under pressure from Mike Potosky for fifth. Out front, Wing was comfortably in the lead, Will Krup was second, Bryan Bernhardt was third, and David Pollen was fourth.

With nine to go, Wing began to catch the back of the field. Bernhardt closed in quickly, vying for the lead down the backstretch with six laps to go; Thomas was in fifth. Wing continued to hold on out front, as a spin with four to go halted action on the track.

With the green in the air, and just two handfuls of race cars left on the track, Wing led the restart, followed by Krup in the low line, Bernhardt up top, and Thomas now in fourth.

With two to go, Bernhardt spun Krup going into turn one and the caution fell. With the field regrouped, Thomas moved from third to runner-up honors into turn one. Wing drove out to a healthy lead and garnered the checkered flag, ahead of Thomas, Bernhardt, Potosky, and Pollen in the top five.

Feature 3

Austin Holcombe made the trip out from his home in North Carolina to take part in the final East Bay Winternationals and is going home with a piece of history as victor of the third feature contested Monday night.

The 28-year-old from Elm City, NC, was able to get the job done, but very easily could have had it ripped from him after discovering some mechanical issues as he rolled on-track for the feature.

An issue with the carburetor prompted Holcombe to have to idle the engine faster under each caution period to keep it running. However, he was able to finesse the car through the entirety of the race to collect his first career win in the famed event.

“It was definitely eventful; I had to keep changing gears from high-low to get it to take off on restarts,” Holcombe said. “A couple times, it died on me — that’s what got the quarter panel all wadded-up. I’m just glad we were able to survive, the car’s not torn up too bad, and we got a win‚ that’s all that counts.

“The restarts were the trickiest part. Once I got going, I could keep fuel going to the carburetor and it was fine.”

Holcombe was solid on the restarts, never letting his competition get in position to make a move. In the end, he led all 25 laps and was able to hold off late-race pressure from Chris Wilson and Jeremy Rayburn to secure the win.

“Anytime you can win at one of these staple tracks down here in Florida — they’re such big events, especially anywhere in the Speedweeks deal,” Holcombe said. “I’m just thankful to have my name up there on the list now.”

SUMMARY

UMP Modifieds:

A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 27G-Jason Garver[4]; 2. 12L-Lucas Lee[1]; 3. 20-Brian Skaggs[2]; 4. 77-Ray Bollinger[10]; 5. S21-Seth Daniels[7]; 6. 75R-Jason Russell[11]; 7. 3F-Rob Fuqua[9]; 8. 24-Zeke McKenzie[8]; 9. 87Z-George Zieman[17]; 10. 16H-Justin Hart[18]; 11. 4SA-Kevin DeYoung[19]; 12. 7-Brad Deyoung[3]; 13. 47-Billy Howard[15]; 14. 8S-Kyle Strickler[5]; 15. 1H-Ben Harmon[13]; 16. 1W-Brian Wilburn[12]; 17. A85-Brandon Hutchinson[16]; 18. 14L-Dalton Lane[20]; 19. 15K-Chris Kittle[23]; 20. 97G-Jason Crose[25]; 21. 16C-John Clippinger[6]; 22. 21CZ-Cole Czarneski[14]; 23. 9-Cory Balkey[22]; 24. 14-Skyler Douglas[21]; 25. 119-Josh Sigler[24]; 26. (DNS) 98-Shawn Vaughn

A Feature 2 (25 Laps): 1. 33W-Rodney Wing[2]; 2. 6ST-Joseph Thomas[9]; 3. B69-Bryan Bernhardt[1]; 4. M20-Mike Potosky[8]; 5. 88-David Pollen[3]; 6. K9-Will Krup[4]; 7. 8C-Corey Bevard[14]; 8. 77C-Jason Cox[23]; 9. 11-Tyler Morehouse[19]; 10. 72-Todd Neiheiser[10]; 11. 14M-Mavrick Varnadore[17]; 12. 26G-Ryan Gierke[5]; 13. 8-Jimmy Lennex[7]; 14. 19A-Thomas Sigler[24]; 15. 10X-Billy Uptegraff[18]; 16. 14C-Rick Conoyer[16]; 17. 64M-Tim McCafferty[20]; 18. 23B-Scott Bane[6]; 19. 25-Josh Lolmaugh[21]; 20. 101-Hunter Feltner[11]; 21. 21S-Denny Schwartz[12]; 22. 12-Jeff Parsons[13]; 23. 05-Dave Wietholder[15]; 24. 333-Wade Rookard[22]; 25. 99-Wade Olmsted[25]

A Feature 3 (25 Laps): 1. 8A-Austin Holcombe[2]; 2. 17-Chris Wilson[9]; 3. 11R-Jeremy Rayburn[7]; 4. 99J-Treb Jacoby[1]; 5. 205-Travis Varnadore[19]; 6. 54H-Zachary Hawk[11]; 7. 37-Devin Wright[15]; 8. 6B-Dave Baldwin[13]; 9. 23Z-Austin Self[16]; 10. 4-Mike Halliday[21]; 11. 1XX-Oscar McCown[6]; 12. 82-Gary Dillon[4]; 13. 27-Beau DeYoung[18]; 14. 43J-Jacob Hall[14]; 15. 27T-Michael Turner[5]; 16. 18C-Miles Cook II[12]; 17. 0-Damian Kiefer[20]; 18. 0L-Mason Love[23]; 19. 0NO-Jamie Layton[22]; 20. E85-Jesse Strange[3]; 21. 81-Jeremy Owens[17]; 22. 64-Austin Sanders[8]; 23. 25W-Allen Weisser[10]; 24. (DNS) 15R-Paul Rivall; 25. (DNS) 33-Jeff Mathews