While Michael Leach may not quite yet be a household name in the world of Modified racing, his performance here this week during the final East Bay Raceway Park Winternationals will soon have folks across the country noting where ever he races and paying special attention to him when he pulls into the pits.
On Friday night, February 2, he pulled off quite a remarkable achievement as he won for the second straight night over a field of top notch competitors, making a late race pass on none other than Kyle Strickler to claim his second straight victory of the Winternationals series.
So far in his racing career, Leach has shown his greatest success running in the upper Midwest and Mountain areas of the country, racing in both the Modified and Late Model division with just limited appearances in both Modifieds and crate Late Models in the Southeast but he will soon be one to watch as his success grows and he steps up game in more visible forms of dirt track racing.
Sixty seven drivers would sign in to race on Friday night with the lone new competitor being veteran Pennsylvania competitor Michael Altobelli. The format would be unchanged with eight groups for qualifying plus a heat for each group, followed by four B mains and the feature race, again on this night at thirty laps.
Time trials are not always an indicator of just who is fast since a track, and particularly this one, can change so much even over the course of qualifying. But when Rodney Wing, as the fiftieth qualifier out, would set fast time with a lap of 16.276 seconds, he would establish that his Jeff Mathews owned car would be fast on this night and indeed, he would be racing for the win right to the conclusion of the race.
The heat races would go smoothly with all eight won off the front row, which should not be a surprise and while the B Features continue to have their moments of difficulty, the main event was ready to roll on to the track by 9 pm.
Twenty four cars would take the green and with Kyle Strickler on the pole, he seemed like a good choice to take home his point gaining win. And he would jump into the early lead with Jason Garver and Treb Jacoby close behind. Leach would start fifth on the grid and would waste little time being a part of the lead pack action and by the time the first yellow flew with seven laps complete for a two car tangle, Leach had used the low side of the track to move into second.
Garver, who has been fast all week but has suffered multiple difficulties either mechanically or with the concrete wall, would again break while in the top five as he completed turn four on lap fourteen with a ball of sparks showering from the car and he was done. Rodney Wing and Lucas Lee had also forged their way into the top five with Jacoby and Lee trading the fourth place spot back and forth.
Several good battles took place during this time as Jacoby was one of the few able to make the top side work and he fought his way past Wing for third, only to see Rodney gain speed and not only move back past him but challenge Leach for second.
Three yellows would see much shuffling behind the leader and while Strickler continued to hold the point, Wing, Leach and Jacoby would jockey on every restart for their spots. The final yellow waved with just six laps to go and Wing had actually gained the runner up honors from Leach by that point.
However, the next few laps would be very telling as Wing pushed up the track on the restart, giving second back to Leach and Michael then closed up on the rear bumper of Strickler, looking for an opening .And when Kyle moved up the track in turn one, either because he thought he had to block the outside or his car pushed up the track, it was difficult to ascertain just which actually happened, Leach was right there to drive under the leader down the back chute and on lap twenty six, he was the new leader.
With plenty of speed, Leach was able to pull away from Strickler and despite Kyle pushing as hard as possible, he wasn't able to cut into the leader's margin. Leach would cross the line with several car lengths to spare as he took the win over Strickler with Jacoby making another late charge on the top side to edge Winger for third. Cole Czarneski had another impressive drive as he started fifteenth, and cracked the top five on the final lap as he gained positions throughout the race. Only six of the starters weren't on the track at the finish and all were on the lead lap.
I had an interesting conversation with Al Varnadore, the track owner. I had never spoken to him before but we talked for a few minutes on Friday as he was waiting for a few minutes to get back out on the track to do more prep work. I was under the assumption that with the track sold five years ago, that he had not done too much to upgrade the track since then. However, he told me that he had put all new dirt on the track in December when he found some what he called "great gumbo" near Plant City that was nearly totally rock free.
But he said that while it was the best dirt he had ever found, it was also the most difficult and finicky dirt he had ever worked with and was extremely sensitive to the amount of moisture put on it plus the changing tides that this track is famous for really affected it. There was no doubt that they struggled the first two nights of the Modified series here with a track that kept getting slimy in the turns as the temperatures dropped and the tides raised but the last couple of nights, particularly Thursday night, the track was excellent.
Al said that he would be done with the track come this Fall and that rumors that buzzed around that there still might be one more Winternationals next year wouldn't involve him if it happened. That might also be difficult too since he owns the infrastructure of the track and said that he plans to sell off the bleachers and whatever else he can and said that Donnie Moran is looking at buying the track lights for his track in Ohio. It was an informative conversation for me.
He also said that with rain in the forecast for Sunday, following the races on Saturday night his hope was that the racing groove would be pretty well sealed over and that they would then pack the cushion to try and keep the rains from soaking in too deep as he really wants to get in all six nights of the Lucas Late Models for their final Winternationals . He also said that Monday is one of his better nights of the series.
Saturday night the UMP Mods return for one last night of racing action. There will be no time trials on Saturday with points accumulated over the last three nights setting the running order for the heat races. The top six in points will automatically lock in to the main event which at seventy five laps, is one of the longest Modified races of the year. I hate to say these words when it comes to short track Modified action, but tire conservation is key to having a successful run on Saturday. Track prep is also more of a challenge with such a long main event. The winner will earn five grand plus the claim of the last Winternationals champion to hang in their race shop.
The UMP Modifieds will return
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