The UMP Modified delegation moved on to the Volusia Speedway Park near Barberville to continue their February racing campaign as the 53rd DIRTcar Nationals kicked off on Monday night, February 5th.
It was a cold and windy Monday night and with much rain over night and other tracks rained out, Volusia was fortunate indeed to get a program completed on Monday. And despite the fact that it was a miserable night to be sitting outside watching for the fans, the drivers turned out in massive numbers with one hundred and thirteen Modified drivers from all over North America signing in to race on opening night. With all the rain, the track would be a heavy one and a large cushion quickly built up with required some careful navigation. But for the most part, the drivers did a fine job of curbing their opening adrenalin and crashes were quite far and few with most taking their equipment home in one piece except for the occasional quarter panel plus a few unfortunate enough to over strain their motors on the hard pulling surface.
The racing format would once again receive some changes for 2024 as it seems like officials are constantly tinkering with the format in an effort to make it the best for both the drivers and fans. with such a massive car count, it is difficult to settle on a format that is most fair to the drivers but also insures that the program is able to be completed in a reasonable amount of time, particularly on blustery February nights such as this very one.
This year, for the first five nights of the UMP Modified portion of the DIRTcar Nationals, all drivers will get to run a feature race, no matter how poorly they might qualify. The drivers are divided into six groups and all drivers would just qualify against the other drivers in their group, not the entire field. Then, each group would run a twenty lap feature with the lineup of course straight up off times. Each night points would be tabulated and these points would set the lineups for the last two nights of racing.
Since it was the opening night of action, all drivers would receive one hot lap session and then return to the track for their time trial session, group by group. My sense was that following the opening night, from then on the first time the drivers would be on the track, they would be qualifying.
For the opener, everything seemed to be moving smoothly along. It does take some time to hot lap and qualify that many cars but there were not big snafus and by 7:43 pm, they were ready to begin the first of six feature races. The quickest qualifier overall was Michigan's Brian Ruhlman with a lap of 17.301 seconds, set during the first qualifying session after which the track started to slow up just a bit.
Ruhlman would continue his hot start as he would then lead from start to finish to take the first twenty lap feature race. From the pole, he would immediately pull away from Clayton Bryant and build a big lead, even though the race was stopped four times by yellows for spins, a grinding first lap crash and wall banger at the halfway point.
The final eleven laps would click off nonstop and Ruhlman would stretch his lead to a full straightaway over Bryant who would hold on for that spot. Michael Turner would make a late rush that would see him drive up to third.
The second feature would see another dominating performance, this time by Mitch Thomas. He would start on the pole and move out to his own big lead, with the first thirteen laps of this racing going green. Gregory Moore would run second during the early going and would in fact, still be second at the halfway point with Shannon Fisk and Nick Neville trailing.
The yellows, three of them, then flew in rapid fashion and while Thomas was not bothered, Moore started to fade badly with Neville forging his way up to second. Thomas, meanwhile, was gone once again as he built up a strong lead and would race home unchallenged. Neville would settle for second while Kenny Wallace made the biggest move, coming from seventh to finish up third.
The third feature race would see the first nonstop green to checkered run for the drivers and it was Tyler Nicely that would maintain the lead for all twenty laps. The first lap was tense as Nicely and Cole Czarneski would race side by side for the point but Nicely would edge ahead at the line. He would then pull away slightly as Czarneski tried to stay with him. However, Cole would jump the cushion and Lucas Lee would move into second.
After that, it was a race between the Kentucky and Tennessee veterans, with things tightening up when Nicely caught some lapped traffic that proved to be troublesome. He very nearly got caught up by the slower cars before making what turned out to be the winning move by splitting a couple of slower cars and padding his lead again so that Lee couldn't catch him. Czarneski would settle for third.
Feature race number four would see the first pass for the front spot and also see the biggest charge by an eventual winner as Tim Ward would drive up from the third row to take the win. Dave Wietholder would get the jump on Michael Altobelli at the start from the outside pole and lead the first three laps. Just when it looked like Wietholder was settling in, his motor went up in a ball of smoke on the back chute and he was done.
Altobelli would inherit the lead on the restart but his lead would only last for one lap before Ward would drive around him for the point. Ward had moved to the cushion from his row three starting spot and drove by Ty Norder for second and he kept working the cushion as he powered past Altobelli to take over the lead.
Altobelli pushed back as hard as he could, staying within a few car lengths and when Ward got into traffic, things would get difficult. Tim had to make some moves both high and low but he was able to get back to the cushion before Altobelli could get past him. Two late yellows, one of which set up a one lap dash to the finish would prove worrisome but Ward continued to hold his line and would hold off Altobelli for the win with Norder settling for third.
The fifth feature race would provide perhaps the biggest controversy of the night with the identical looking cars of David Stremme and Tom Berry Jr going wheel to wheel for the lead after starting beside each other on the front row. They both raced hard into the corners with Stremme able to edge ahead by a small margin. Berry would continue to stay close to the leader but was also receiving a challenge from Michael Long for second at the same time.
Berry Jr. jumped the cushion but was able to fight off Long and then gradually reel in Stremme once again. A yellow on lap fourteen for the slowing Buzzie Reutimann after it looked like Buzzie lost a motor closed up the field once again.
Berry Jr was aggressively running the cushion and slowly he creeped up beside Stremme. They ran nearly a full lap side by side until Berry Jr was able to edge past with just two laps to go in the race. It then appeared that Stremme raced even harder to try and get the lead back. He drove very hard into turn one, washed up the track and ran Berry Jr. up into the mud and dangerously close to the wall. Stremme was able to get the lead back in the less than sporting move and Berry Jr. had no time to execute a return charge, settling for second at the line. Long would finish third.
Michael Leach would lead the opening lap of the sixth and final feature race as the young Montana driver continues to turn heads. However, when he jumped the cushion in turn one, Will Krup was right there to slip past him and move into the lead. Leach tried to get the lead back while at the same time feeling pressure from Kyle Strickler, Justin Allgaier and John Clippinger.
Strickler was pushing hard and he was able to drive under Leach for second and then set sail for Krup. Positions two, three and four were in close fashion until lap fifteen when Allgaier lost control on the back chute and spun, with Leach spinning and making contact with him. Allgaier would be done and Leach would have to go to the tail of the field.
The last five laps would see Strickler attempt passing moves on Krup but each move was counteracted by a move of Krup's and Kyle was never able to get close enough to provide maximum pressure. He would settle for second behind the Illinois driver who would take the win. An outstanding drive was put on by Joseph Thomas who started twelfth and gradually worked his way to the front, passing both low and high on the track and moving past Austin Self and Clippinger for third.
Thankfully it was a smoothly and quickly run show as by the end of the evening, it was getting quite miserable in the high rise stands with the wind a constant pain. All racing was done by right around 10 pm and as much as I have my questions about a features only format, my hands and feet agreed that it was the best way to go on this night.
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