Saturday night, February 3rd was the finale of six straight nights of UMP Modified racing at the East Bay Raceway Park and also the last ever night of Modified racing during the Winternationals for the soon to be vacated race track. The Modified drivers would put on a feature race that would leave the fans on hand with fond memories of racing the open wheel cars here as as after seventy five laps of furious competition that would see seven different lead changes among three drivers, Lucas Lee would edge out Kyle Strickler by a car length to win the finale and take home five thousand dollars for his victory.
Eighty two different race teams entered at least one event during the six night run of the series here in 2024 as nice weather favored the racing throughout the week. By Saturday, only fifty eight were left upright but all would have one more shot to make the final main event. The top six in points earned during the week would not have to battle in last chance action but instead just draw for the top six spots and that would include Kyle Strickler, Cole Czarneski, Brad DeYoung, Ryan Gierke, Michael Leach and Lucas Lee.
All others would run heat races lined up by points earned and those that didn't make it through the heats would get one last shot through one of two B Features. Hard but relatively yellow flag free racing would be the order in those races which started right on the dot at 7 pm and by eight thirty, the feature field, which would include two provisional starters, would be set.
Other than to roll in the cushion for a few minutes, no track prep would be done on the racing surface all night as has been the norm here and after the redraw was accomplished, it would be Strickler that would start on the pole.
Strickler would take the early lead with Czarneski slipping into the second spot and Lee moving into third. The first half of the race would see the yellow wave five times for minor spins but the running order up front was pretty static and one got the sense that the leaders were mostly just putting down laps as they waited for things to develop later on while also saving their tires for the late race charge.
However, Czarneski was not satisfied to just follow Strickler around the track and he began to pick up the pace, closing on the leader several times as the lapped traffic started to mount up. On lap thirty two, Cole would sweep past Strickler to take over the lead, just one lap before the fifth yellow would wave for a slowing car.
And just three laps later, the yellow would wave one more time on lap thirty five for the built in halfway fuel stop. Most of the cars would stay on the track for their fuel stop and retain the running positions with just a couple of cars heading to the pit work area for tire changes that would relegate them to the tail of the field. At the halfway point, Lee would continue to run third ahead of Leach and Rodney Wing who had worked his way up into the top five.
The pace would immediately pick up in the second half of the race, first by the only hard crash of the event that would see five cars from back in the pack grind together in turn four and then, just two laps later and following the reemergence of the green flag, Strickler would repass Czarneski to take over the top spot. Those two would go at it as Lee seemed to wait in the wings to see how things developed.
Ten laps later, in traffic, Czarneski would again take over the lead but Strickler would get up on the wheel and drive back around Cole one lap later to again claim the top spot. Leach had moved to the top side of the track and started to make that work until he slowed suddenly with a flat tire, triggering a yellow on lap fifty.
Now it was time for Lee to pick up the pace. He drove past Czarneski and then began to close on leader Strickler. A debris yellow would wave on lap sixty three, setting up the last dozen laps of all out war as after the youngsters had dominated much of the week, when all was said and done, it would be up to a pair of Modified veterans to settle the issue.
Each was running their distinct line around the track, Lee "cat fishing" around the bottom as he often does, while Strickler retaining his nickname as he tickled the high side. Strickler would be the leader but Lee was making ground on him and on lap sixty seven, Lee would drive under Kyle off turn four to take over the lead. However, Strickler adjusted his line slightly off the cushion and would power back around Lee on lap seventy with only five to go.
They would continue to race their own lines with no slower cars to hinder them and the two to settle the issue. With three to go, Lee would edge ahead but Strickler would stay nearly beside the Tennessee racer. The last two laps would be frantic and while Strickler would make a strong push off the final corner, Lee would hold on by just over a car length to claim the prize. Czarneski would finish a strong third ahead of Treb Jacoby who drove a consistent race to remain in the top five for the second half of the race and Wing.
Leach would recover from his tire issue to take sixth and would lead the second five of Devin Dixon, Brian Skaggs, Michael Turner and Allen Weisser across the line. Exactly half the starting field would still be on the track at the finish.
A much improved crowd would be on hand to watch the finale of the series with the final checkered flag waving just at the 10 pm hour. It does feel a bit strange that this will be the finale of a long tradition for Winter time racing for the Modifieds and no matter what the schedule looks like for 2025, it will never again be quite the same. Special thanks go out to all the UMP officials that helped out this week along with Race Director Chris Stepan. I want to give special thanks to track announcer Larry Jewitt and his wife Michelle for being so kind and scoring us some fantastic seats for this week's races. I never sat in such luxury before at East Bay and never will again either.
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