Thursday, February 2, 2023

Varnadore Brings Home Win for Local Fans at East Bay

 Night two of the UMP Modified portion of the Winter Nationals would see local driver Travis Varnadore come through for the win and become the first local driver in several years to take a feature win during this series. The race would see Varnadore hold off a couple of hard chargers in Kevin Adams and Lucas Lee to get the win in his well used Harris chassis that family members have been racing here at this track for well over a decade. 

Fifty eight drivers would sign in to race on night number two of the Winter Nationals with three drivers opting not to return and three new entrants. Most notable new drivers on hand would include Late Model driver Kyle Hammer while Jeremy Elliotte would race for the first time after blowing a motor on practice night and the Hawk Racing Team rolled out a second car for driver Jason Kinney. A second car for Jeff Mathews was also on hand as a team mate for Rodney Wing but Mathews opted not to drive on this night. 

Wednesday night's format would be the same as the previous night with group qualifying, eight heats and four B Features, all of which would lead to a twenty four car, twenty five lap main event. And remember, as much as the cash means to the drivers, most are point chasers also at this junction of the week, knowing that the lineups for Saturday night are based on points accumulated for the four qualifying nights with the top six not having to race a preliminary on that night. 

The first car out for qualifying was last night's winner Drake Troutman and he would set the fast time at a time of 17.280 seconds as the track would again be different than it was on Tuesday night while also being changeable as the night progressed. The top two out of every race run would make the feature field so there would be twenty four cars once again for the main event. There were more yellows in the qualifying events than on Tuesday night as drivers seemed to be pushing just a little bit harder and the track continued to confound many of the drivers with what looked like such an inviting high side to work but nearly everyone that tried the top of the track found it to be slow and they dived back for the lower groove. 

When Troutman drew the outside pole for the main event, it seemed like we were in for a runaway race with my expectations not high. However, while the track still didn't seem to offer much of a top side lane for racing this night, we would see an entertaining twenty five lapper that would feature three different leaders. 

 Troutman would indeed lead the opening lap as he got the jump on Troy Johnson but Troutman didn't pull away from the field like he had the previous night. Travis Varnadore started fourth but he quickly moved into the second and began to put the heat on Troutman for the lead. 

Meanwhile, back in the pack, one of the great charges of the early season was in full effect as Wisconsin's Kevin Adams was making an epic launch to the front of the pack. Adams had messed up in his heat and was required to run a B Feature just to make the show after having finished runner up the previous night. 

When Jimmy Lennox went to a back up car for the feature he had to go to the back of the pack and the field behind him was crossed over for the start. This moved Adams to the outside of row eight and he decided to go for broke and try to pound what had been a nonexistent cushion to that point. 

And when the pack all played it pretty conservative on the opening laps and stayed low, it opened up the door for Adams and as a driver who likes to run the cushion here anyway, it was "gravy" for him as his eyes opened wide for the room to race. He tore past about ten cars in the first couple of laps and was into the top five by lap five. He continued to charge as he moved up to fourth by lap seven and passed Johnson for third one lap later, as Troutman and Varnadore continued to battle for the lead. 

The double file restart on lap eight would see Adams make the move of the week so far as going into turn one, he would dive under Troutman and split Drake and Varnadore and race out of turn two with the lead as Varnadore would also get past Troutman. 

With Adams in the lead, Varnadore would then close up on the first place runner as it appeared that Adams was unsure whether to continue on the cushion or turn into a blocker down low. However, Varnadore had definitely picked up the pace running right on the hub and two laps later he was able to drive under Adams and take over the lead. At the halfway point, Troutman still held third with Blake Brown moving into fourth ahead of Jason Jack. 

The second half of the race would see Varnadore continue to run right on the bottom as Adams worked around on the track, low in one and two and up on the cushion on the other end. But despite the best efforts of Adams, Varnadore would be very fast on the bottom and continue to maintain his several car length lead. Travis did get to the back of the pack but was able to successfully pass the slower cars and not give up any ground. 

And while Adams pushed for all he was worth, another driver would produce as charge nearly as impressive as his. Lucas Lee would start seventh on the grid but fall back outside the top ten early on. However, suddenly the bottom would come to him and running a line much like Varnadore's, he would come back up through the field like a hot knife through butter. He would even get within a couple of car lengths of Adams for second near the end of the race. 

However, with the last seventeen laps of the race going green, no one could figure out a way to catch Varnadore who would drive on for the win. Adams drove the wheels(and right rear tire) off his car in his charge and would be happy to settle for second, given where he started the race while Lee put on notice that he will be hard to catch the rest of the week with his third place finish. Brown upped his opening night run markedly with a fourth place finish while Troutman held on for a fading fifth as he missed on the set up for night two. 

Despite the increase in yellow flag slowdowns during the preliminary events, the overall show was another smooth one with the final checkered flag waving at just around 9:30 pm. With another fine day promised on Thursday, the show will enter night number three with more surprises likely. 

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