LAKE CITY, Fla. — Allen Weisser struggled to find the grip he needed in his first venture of the weekend onto the North Florida Speedway Friday night, but unleashed a stellar turnaround on the 24-car field Saturday night to win round two of the DIRTcar UMP Modified Winternationals in dominant fashion.
“The car was on a rail tonight,” Weisser said. “I gotta thank [my crew], my dad, my fiancée and everybody that helps me out on this car. It’s been a tough go for us down here the last 10 years probably, since we’ve been coming down here. Nice to finally get a win.”
Weisser grabbed the lead from outside the front row and led flag-to-flag for the $1,200 victory, besting fellow hot shoes Lucas Lee, Drake Troutman and Jason Hughes among a solid roster of talent.
Weisser’s first night out on Friday did not go as he had hoped, making just seven laps in the Feature before retiring.
“I just couldn’t get ahold of it [Friday night], so I pulled off, saved our stuff and we just worked on this thing. We’ve been tuning on it all day, and man, we just hit the setup tonight, that’s all there is to it,” Weisser said.
One of Weisser’s biggest challengers through the better part of the 25-lap main event was Friday night’s runner-up, Lucas Lee. Lee started on the pole but got shuffled back to third on the start and followed one notable driver around for a few laps – Justin Allgaier.
Making his North Florida debut, Allgaier got off to a great start by setting overall fast time in Qualifying with a lap of 19.433. He grabbed the runner-up spot on the opening circuit of the Feature and held it through lap six before looping it in turn four to bring out the caution. Although he made no contact with any other cars in the spin, Allgaier did not rejoin the field for the restart, and instead took his Elite Chassis No. 7a pit-side, not to return.
Lee had been running right behind Allgaier and inherited the second position for the restart. He maintained it all the way back to the finish for his second-straight runner-up finish, but did not seem to have anything for leader Weisser.
“I think I just needed to be a little bit tighter on entry and I think I could have run with him,” Lee said.
Several caution flags were sprinkled throughout the Feature, as well as a short red-flag period to clean up a two-car tangle that occurred with less than 10-to-go. While these stoppages would disrupt some leaders’ momentum, they actually worked in Weisser’s favor Saturday night.
“When I stopped on that red flag, I was thinking that my tires are gonna cool down because I had a hard tire on the right-rear. After that red, the car actually got better. So, I think the tire got hot and it cooled back down and actually got better after the red,” he said.
The finish:
Feature (25 Laps) – 1. 25W-Allen Weisser, 2. 12L-Lucas Lee, 3. 21J-Clay Harris, 4. 7T-Drake Troutman, 5. 7D-Brad DeYoung, 6. 12H-Jason Hughes, 7. 2J-Troy Johnson, 8. 27-Jason Garver, 9. 141-Justin Galbreath, 10. 01-Ernie Woodard, 11. 2-Ronnie Chance, 12. 77-Trevor McKinley, 13. 14-Gary Eicher, 14. 17-Clinton Gillen, 15. 81-Jerry Foster, 16. 91-Jamie Green Jr, 17. 88-Chris Smith, 18. 6B-David Baldwin, 19. 6-Ryan Fowler, 20. 7a-Justin Allgaier, 21. 18L-Michael Long, 22. 12-David Moheng