TEAMVLR PR:
KNOXVILLE, IA (JULY 20, 2022) -
39 drivers would show up to the famed ½ mile track in Knoxville Iowa all looking to get a great start to the Schaeffer's Oil Summer UMP Modified Series presented by Spartan Transportation, LLC. Chesnee, South Carolina driver Evan Seay picked up right where he left off in the last VLR UMP series, setting the Apex Industries quick time with Dylan Yeager, Damian Kiefer, Colin Bokus, and Nathan Waddell rounding out the top 5 in qualifying.
Evan Seay lead every lap in Heat 1 with Devon Morgan, fresh off an iRacing vacation, moving up a spot to 2nd. Chase Hardy charged up to 3rd from his 5th place grid spot, and Jason Moore moved up 3 spots to claim the final transfer spot.
Heat 2 action would see Dylan Yeager hold off a hard-charging Blake Matjoulis by a razor's edge, with only a .105 seconds at the finish line. Dezmond Busby moved up 3 spots to 3rd and the real #44, Leo Pina, grabbed the 4th and final transfer position.
Three drivers would be in close contention for the Heat 3 win, but in the end D1RT Racing's Dylan Wilson outlastied Damian Kiefer and Cody Nevin. The top 3 was separated by only .555 seconds at the end of the 8-lap race with Tyler Berry transferring in the 4th spot.
In the last heat of the night, heat 4, Tanner Tomasi moved up 2 positions to take the win while Mike Augustine was able to advance 4 spots to claim 2nd. Colin Bokus and Ethan Toedter would finalize the last 2 qualifiers to the Schaeffer’s Oil A Feature.
Camden Johnston would lead all 12 laps in the Spartan Transportation B Main #1 with Carl Kilgore moving from 4th to 2nd, Joey Lamm would move up 2 spots to 3rd and Nathan Waddell was able to move up 5 spots to advance to the nights feature event.
The Spartan Transportation B Main #2 was full of action with the top 4 drivers finishing nose to tail with one another. Daniel (Bub) Powell would take the win with John Ruggiero Jr. bringing home 2nd, Ryan Conrad finished 3rd and Brent Carter was able to move up 3 spots to garner the 4th and final transfer spot.
Evan Seay would lead the 23 other drivers to the green flag of the Schaeffer's Oil A-Main. Seay was able to pull away from the field early as Dylan Yeager and Devon Morgan would swap 2nd place several times in the first 5 laps, before a caution on lap 6. Blake Matjoulis would move up to 4th on the restart with Chase Hardy rounding out the top 5.
Seay would continue to lead the way until lap 19 when he would find himself in a slider battle with Yeager. Yeager was able to lead the next 3 laps until Seay would use the bottom line to secure the race lead back and never looked back. Morgan was able to use their constant battling to sneak up and pass Yeager for the 2nd spot. In the meantime, veteran Dylan Wilson had found his way up to 4th getting around World of Outlaws Pro-Series champion Blake Matjoulis.
As the race wound down South Carolina driver Evan Seay would cross the line ahead of teammates Devon Morgan and Blake Matjoulis to take the victory. Dezmond Busby made a late race surge to come home 4th and Dylan Yeager fell back late to round out the top 5. Nathan Waddell would prove that his qualifying effort was no fluke as he would charge from 24th to finish 11th gaining the Hard Charger award for the night.
The action of this series is just heating up, tune in next week (Thursday, July 21) for the second race in the series LIVE on Facebook beginning at 9pm Eastern.
Race Winner: Evan Seay
Fastest Lap: Evan Seay 
Toedters Isle of Frenchies Hard Charger: Nathan Waddell (+13) 