TAMPA, Fla. — The final edition of East Bay Raceway Park’s famed Winternationals event for the DIRTcar UMP Modifieds kicked off Monday night with three separate 25-lap main events, putting three drivers from three different states in victory lane.
Jason Garver (Florida), Rodney Wing (Mississippi) and Austin Holcombe (North Carolina) took the checkered flag in each of the triple-25s, starting their six-day race week off with a boost of momentum in a field of 76 cars on the roster.
Feature No. 1 – Jason Garver
For the first time in his career, Garver is a UMP Modified Winternationals feature winner at East Bay.
The 47-year-old veteran racer from Starke, Fla., lined up fourth on the starting grid and wasted little time with his efforts to get the lead, taking advantage of the top lane on a lap four restart and driving around polesitter Lucas Lee to take the top spot.
“I just tried to hit my marks, that’s the main thing,” Garver said. “Just not worrying about who’s behind me; I never know who’s behind me.”
From there, Garver dominated. Through multiple caution periods and lapped traffic, Garver held strong out front, gapping the field on nearly every restart and driving away. He led the final 21 laps unchallenged to claim victory and not once was worried about anyone coming up from behind him.
“I felt like if I could run my line every time with the way I was able to come through there, nobody would be able to get around me, and it worked out,” Garver said.
Feature Finish (25 Laps): 1. 27G-Jason Garver[4]; 2. 12L-Lucas Lee[1]; 3. 20-Brian Skaggs[2]; 4. 77-Ray Bollinger[10]; 5. S21-Seth Daniels[7]; 6. 75R-Jason Russell[11]; 7. 3F-Rob Fuqua[9]; 8. 24-Zeke McKenzie[8]; 9. 87Z-George Zieman[17]; 10. 16H-Justin Hart[18]; 11. 4SA-Kevin DeYoung[19]; 12. 7-Brad Deyoung[3]; 13. 47-Billy Howard[15]; 14. 8S-Kyle Strickler[5]; 15. 1H-Ben Harmon[13]; 16. 1W-Brian Wilburn[12]; 17. A85-Brandon Hutchinson[16]; 18. 14L-Dalton Lane[20]; 19. 15K-Chris Kittle[23]; 20. 97G-Jason Crose[25]; 21. 16C-John Clippinger[6]; 22. 21CZ-Cole Czarneski[14]; 23. 9-Cory Balkey[22]; 24. 14-Skyler Douglas[21]; 25. 119-Josh Sigler[24]; 26. (DNS) 98-Shawn Vaughn
Feature No. 2 – Rodney Wing
It’s been nearly 14 years, but Rodney Wing has found his way back to UMP Modified Winternationals victory lane at East Bay.
The 2009 and 2010 Winternationals champion took the lead from the outside pole on lap one and never looking back en route to his fifth career Winternationals feature win and first in the division since Jan. 31, 2010.
After a third-place finish in the championship feature one year ago, Wing is back in the seat of the Jeff Mathews Motorsports #33w for the week and was pleased to start off the six-day stretch with a win.
“They always let me come and tear their car up a little bit and stuff like that,” Wing said with a joking laugh. “We didn’t get any damage tonight, but the car’s really good. It’s probably better than I am most of the time. Motor’s running really strong and everything like that, so we’re really excited about the week to come. Hopefully, we can keep it up front.”
Wing was solid on restarts, taking off and separating himself from the competition behind him almost immediately when the green flag dropped. In all, Wing went 25 laps unchallenged for the win, holding off a major contender in multi-time track champion Bryan Bernhart.
“It is tough, but thankfully, this thing restarted well and got a good jump on the starts,” Wing said. “It wasn’t that hard for me, but I’m sure it was worse for others.”
Feature Finish (25 Laps): 1. 33W-Rodney Wing[2]; 2. 6ST-Joseph Thomas[9]; 3. B69-Bryan Bernhardt[1]; 4. M20-Mike Potosky[8]; 5. 88-David Pollen[3]; 6. K9-Will Krup[4]; 7. 8C-Corey Bevard[14]; 8. 77C-Jason Cox[23]; 9. 11-Tyler Morehouse[19]; 10. 72-Todd Neiheiser[10]; 11. 14M-Mavrick Varnadore[17]; 12. 26G-Ryan Gierke[5]; 13. 8-Jimmy Lennex[7]; 14. 19A-Thomas Sigler[24]; 15. 10X-Billy Uptegraff[18]; 16. 14C-Rick Conoyer[16]; 17. 64M-Tim McCafferty[20]; 18. 23B-Scott Bane[6]; 19. 25-Josh Lolmaugh[21]; 20. 101-Hunter Feltner[11]; 21. 21S-Denny Schwartz[12]; 22. 12-Jeff Parsons[13]; 23. 05-Dave Wietholder[15]; 24. 333-Wade Rookard[22]; 25. 99-Wade Olmsted[25]
Feature No. 3 – Austin Holcombe
Austin Holcombe made the trip out from his home in North Carolina to take part in the final East Bay Winternationals and is going home with a piece of history as victor of the third Feature contested Monday night.
The 28-year-old from Elm City, N.C., was able to get the job done, but very easily could have had it ripped from him after discovering some mechanical issues as he rolled on-track for the feature.
An issue with the carburetor prompted Holcombe to have to idol the engine faster under each caution period to keep it running. However, he was able to finesse the car through the entirety of the race to collect his first career win in the famed event.
“It was definitely eventful; I had to keep changing gears from high-low to get it to take off on restarts,” Holcombe said. “A couple times, it died on me – that’s what got the quarter panel all wadded-up. I’m just glad we were able to survive, the car’s not torn up too bad, and we got a win – that’s all that counts.
“The restarts were the trickiest part. Once I got going, I could keep fuel going to the carburetor and it was fine.”
Holcombe was solid on the restarts, never letting his competition get in position to make a move. In the end, he led all 25 laps and was able to hold off late-race pressure from Chris Wilson and Jeremy Rayburn to secure the win.
“Anytime you can win at one of these staple tracks down here in Florida – they’re such big events, especially anywhere in the Speedweeks deal,” Holcombe said. “I’m just thankful to have my name up there on the list now.”
Feature Finish (25 Laps): 1. 8A-Austin Holcombe[2]; 2. 17-Chris Wilson[9]; 3. 11R-Jeremy Rayburn[7]; 4. 99J-Treb Jacoby[1]; 5. 205-Travis Varnadore[19]; 6. 54H-Zachary Hawk[11]; 7. 37-Devin Wright[15]; 8. 6B-Dave Baldwin[13]; 9. 23Z-Austin Self[16]; 10. 4-Mike Halliday[21]; 11. 1XX-Oscar McCown[6]; 12. 82-Gary Dillon[4]; 13. 27-Beau DeYoung[18]; 14. 43J-Jacob Hall[14]; 15. 27T-Michael Turner[5]; 16. 18C-Miles Cook II[12]; 17. 0-Damian Kiefer[20]; 18. 0L-Mason Love[23]; 19. 0NO-Jamie Layton[22]; 20. E85-Jesse Strange[3]; 21. 81-Jeremy Owens[17]; 22. 64-Austin Sanders[8]; 23. 25W-Allen Weisser[10]; 24. (DNS) 15R-Paul Rivall; 25. (DNS) 33-Jeff Mathews