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Leach is top East Bay performer during night three in 6th; Gierke gathers another top-10

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

TAMPA, FL (January 31) - Lucas Lee has been one of the most dominant forces at East Bay Raceway Park’s UMP Modified Winternationals over the past few seasons, and Wednesday night put on another strong display with a sixth career victory in the famed event.

Lee, 36, of Paris, TN, has won a Winternationals Feature event in four of the last five years, including the 75-lap Championship Features in 2019 and 2023. He extended that streak to five of the last six years with a win in one of the triple-25s Tuesday night and backed that up Wednesday in the first single-feature program of the week.

For the WISSOTA-area regulars on hand at East Bay, Michael Leach was the top-performer. The Montana native finished sixth from his 10th starting spot, while Villard, Minnesota’s Ryan Gierke turned up the wick as he raced from 19th to finish in the top 10. Glyndon, Minnesota’s Joseph Thomas came up short of qualifying for the feature, finishing third in his B feature.

Lee earned the outside pole for the 25-lap main event and wasted little time, taking the top spot from teammate Michael Turner on the opening lap. From there, it was smooth sailing for the veteran Modified racer for the next 20 laps as he proceeded to build up an advantage in traffic of over six seconds.

With five laps left, the race’s first caution flag was displayed for a slowing Austin Sanders in turn two. This erased Lee’s large gap and put Austin Holcombe — winner of features on Monday and Tuesday night — on his bumper for the restart.

The green flag dropped and Lee paced the field into turn one. However, when he hit turn two, Lee stumbled and pushed up the track just enough for Holcombe to sneak by underneath.

“I went in there and got tight I guess,” Lee said. “I wasn’t really worried about it and then [Holcombe] nosed in there, and when he did, he kinda backed to my left-front going down the back-straightaway and I turned underneath him. He kinda tightened-up getting into [turn] three and slid, and when he did I went back underneath him.”

Holcombe went through the open door out of turn two to take the lead momentarily, but Lee drove with speed into turn three, got underneath Holcombe and took the lead back out of turn four. Then, another caution flag appeared.

Though Lee was able to regain the lead, the lap was not counted as the yellow was thrown before the lap was complete, reverting to the last restart order of which Lee was the leader. Five more times Lee was forced to restart at the head of the field in the last five laps, including three with only one lap remaining, but he maintained composure and held off all challengers.

“Just stay on the bottom, back-up the corner, get down and don’t move up,” Lee said of his last-lap strategy. “I wasn’t getting off the bottom again so, if they were gonna pass me, they were gonna pass me on the outside.”

Crossing the stripe right behind Lee was Brad DeYoung, who took the original green flag from inside row two and slipped back as far as fifth in the running order, but was able to make the passes he needed in the final 10 laps to get back to a best-career Winternationals finish.

Finishing the podium was 18-year-old Cole Czarneski, from Denmark, Wisconsin, who climbed all the way from 13th to finish third. After claiming victory in a triple-25 Tuesday night, he stayed strong through the final restarts, picking up a few positions from those dropping out in front of him and sealing a podium finish with a fifth-to-third drive on the final lap.

SUMMARY

UMP Modifieds:

A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 12L-Lucas Lee[2]; 2. 7-Brad Deyoung[3]; 3. 21CZ-Cole Czarneski[13]; 4. 8A-Austin Holcombe[7]; 5. 2-Devin Dixon[6]; 6. 09-Michael Leach[10]; 7. 14M-Mavrick Varnadore[9]; 8. 8-Jimmy Lennex[8]; 9. 11R-Jeremy Rayburn[11]; 10. 26G-Ryan Gierke[19]; 11. 20-Brian Skaggs[17]; 12. 27T-Michael Turner[1]; 13. 12-Jeff Parsons[15]; 14. 25W-Allen Weisser[22]; 15. 99J-Treb Jacoby[5]; 16. 8S-Kyle Strickler[4]; 17. 33W-Rodney Wing[18]; 18. 27G-Jason Garver[12]; 19. 18C-Miles Cook II[21]; 20. 6B-Dave Baldwin[16]; 21. 24-Zeke McKenzie[23]; 22. M20-Mike Potosky[20]; 23. 64-Austin Sanders[14]; 24. 4SA-Kevin DeYoung[24]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 27T-Michael Turner[1]; 2. 14M-Mavrick Varnadore[2]; 3. 1W-Brian Wilburn[5]; 4. 18C-Miles Cook II[4]; 5. 11-Tyler Morehouse[6]; 6. 98-Shawn Vaughn[10]; 7. 4-Mike Halliday[7]; 8. 77C-Jason Cox[8]; 9. 17-Chris Wilson[3]; 10. (DNS) 15K-Chris Kittle

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 12L-Lucas Lee[2]; 2. 09-Michael Leach[1]; 3. 20-Brian Skaggs[4]; 4. K9-Will Krup[3]; 5. 77-Ray Bollinger[5]; 6. 3F-Rob Fuqua[7]; 7. 54H-Zachary Hawk[6]; 8. 43J-Jacob Hall[10]; 9. 9A-Austin O’Dell[8]; 10. (DNS) 5-Bobby Bagley

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 7-Brad Deyoung[1]; 2. 11R-Jeremy Rayburn[2]; 3. 33W-Rodney Wing[4]; 4. 88-David Pollen[3]; 5. S21-Seth Daniels[5]; 6. 25W-Allen Weisser[7]; 7. 14C-Rick Conoyer[8]; 8. 14-Skyler Douglas[10]; 9. 75R-Jason Russell[6]; 10. 23B-Scott Bane[9]

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 8S-Kyle Strickler[1]; 2. 27G-Jason Garver[2]; 3. 72-Todd Neiheiser[5]; 4. 82-Gary Dillon[4]; 5. 05-Dave Wietholder[7]; 6. 25-Josh Lolmaugh[8]; 7. 16H-Justin Hart[10]; 8. 33-Jeff Mathews[3]; 9. 27-Beau DeYoung[6]; 10. 97G-Jason Crose[9]

Heat 5 (8 Laps): 1. 99J-Treb Jacoby[2]; 2. 21CZ-Cole Czarneski[1]; 3. 26G-Ryan Gierke[4]; 4. 6ST-Joseph Thomas[5]; 5. 1H-Ben Harmon[3]; 6. 64M-Tim McCafferty[6]; 7. 0NO-Jamie Layton[8]; 8. 81-Jeremy Owens[7]; 9. (DNS) 24-Zeke McKenzie

Heat 6 (8 Laps): 1. 2-Devin Dixon[1]; 2. 64-Austin Sanders[3]; 3. 23Z-Austin Self[4]; 4. 8C-Corey Bevard[6]; 5. 0-Damian Kiefer[9]; 6. 87Z-George Zieman[7]; 7. 90-Tim Gay[8]; 8. 205-Travis Varnadore[2]; 9. 21S-Denny Schwartz[5]

Heat 7 (8 Laps): 1. 8A-Austin Holcombe[1]; 2. 12-Jeff Parsons[3]; 3. 9-Cory Balkey[7]; 4. 333-Wade Rookard[8]; 5. M20-Mike Potosky[4]; 6. E85-Jesse Strange[6]; 7. 101-Hunter Feltner[5]; 8. 10X-Billy Uptegraff[2]; 9. 99-Wade Olmsted[9]

Heat 8 (8 Laps): 1. 8-Jimmy Lennex[1]; 2. 6B-Dave Baldwin[2]; 3. A85-Brandon Hutchinson[3]; 4. 19A-Thomas Sigler[6]; 5. 4SA-Kevin DeYoung[5]; 6. 119-Josh Sigler[7]; 7. 37-Devin Wright[4]; 8. (DNS) 15R-Paul Rivall; 9. (DNS) 0L-Mason Love

B Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 20-Brian Skaggs[2]; 2. 18C-Miles Cook II[3]; 3. 77-Ray Bollinger[6]; 4. 17-Chris Wilson[13]; 5. 3F-Rob Fuqua[8]; 6. 5-Bobby Bagley[16]; 7. 1W-Brian Wilburn[1]; 8. 4-Mike Halliday[9]; 9. (DNS) K9-Will Krup; 10. (DNS) 11-Tyler Morehouse; 11. (DNS) 98-Shawn Vaughn; 12. (DNS) 54H-Zachary Hawk; 13. (DNS) 77C-Jason Cox; 14. (DNS) 43J-Jacob Hall; 15. (DNS) 9A-Austin O’Dell; 16. (DNS) 15K-Chris Kittle

B Feature 2 (12 Laps): 1. 33W-Rodney Wing[1]; 2. 25W-Allen Weisser[7]; 3. 88-David Pollen[3]; 4. 14C-Rick Conoyer[9]; 5. 82-Gary Dillon[4]; 6. 14-Skyler Douglas[11]; 7. 16H-Justin Hart[10]; 8. 05-Dave Wietholder[6]; 9. S21-Seth Daniels[5]; 10. 72-Todd Neiheiser[2]; 11. 25-Josh Lolmaugh[8]; 12. 75R-Jason Russell[13]; 13. 23B-Scott Bane[15]; 14. (DNS) 33-Jeff Mathews; 15. (DNS) 27-Beau DeYoung; 16. (DNS) 97G-Jason Crose

B Feature 3 (12 Laps): 1. 26G-Ryan Gierke[1]; 2. 24-Zeke McKenzie[13]; 3. 6ST-Joseph Thomas[3]; 4. 1H-Ben Harmon[5]; 5. 90-Tim Gay[10]; 6. 87Z-George Zieman[8]; 7. 81-Jeremy Owens[11]; 8. 23Z-Austin Self[2]; 9. 0-Damian Kiefer[6]; 10. 0NO-Jamie Layton[9]; 11. 64M-Tim McCafferty[7]; 12. 8C-Corey Bevard[4]; 13. (DNS) 205-Travis Varnadore; 14. (DNS) 21S-Denny Schwartz

B Feature 4 (12 Laps): 1. M20-Mike Potosky[5]; 2. 4SA-Kevin DeYoung[6]; 3. 333-Wade Rookard[3]; 4. E85-Jesse Strange[7]; 5. 119-Josh Sigler[8]; 6. 9-Cory Balkey[1]; 7. A85-Brandon Hutchinson[2]; 8. 19A-Thomas Sigler[4]; 9. 37-Devin Wright[10];