Jeffreys Capitalizes on Myers’ Mistake to Win Stadium 100 Lapper

Lee Jeffreys hit the milestone of 25 wins Saturday night in the Elite Underground Utility 100 in the Brad’s Golf Cars Modified Series, but it didn’t come without some drama.

Jeffreys trailed Burt Myers with 66 laps remaining, but Jeffreys took advantage of a bad restart by Myers after a caution on lap 30. Jeffreys led for almost the rest of the race for the win.

“I guess he spun his tires or something,” Jeffreys said of Myers’ bad restart. “But you know, last year I led the 100-lap race until the end, and Jason (Myers) got me on the restart. So, hey, the family gave me one back.”

Needless to say, Burt Myers wasn’t happy with what happened.

“I missed the gear. It’s that simple,” he said. “If you have 100 (good) starts and one bad one it’s going to cost you the race, and it definitely cost us the race tonight. But I did everything but wreck him. I wasn’t going to wreck him.”

Jeffreys was surprised about what happened to Burt Myers.

“When the crew hollered ‘clear’ I was shocked as anybody,” Jeffreys said. “Then we just set there and raced for a while. I knew everybody was racing their self. And we had a couple restarts. We had a restart there, and we were side-by-side for a lap or two. I mean, I gave him room because he was giving me room.

“But I knew he was not going to be happy spinning the tires and me getting by him. Hey, I’ve been there before.”

It’s just part of racing, according to Burt Myers.

“It’s one of those things where everybody’s kind of bumper-tagging, and these transmissions are such a tight shift, those straight-cut gears, I mean it’s my mistake. I apologized to my guys. It’s just a mistake that I made and cost our team a win, I do believe.”

There were six cautions during the 100-lap race, the final one coming on lap 78. With the Traffic Control Safety Services Double-File Restart Cone, Burt Myers elected to go to the outside of Jeffreys once the race restarted with 16 laps remaining.

“We raced hard and there toward the end of the race, you know, I backed the pace down a little bit because I knew his car was a little better than mine,” Jeffreys said. “So, you know I set there and run my pace. I let him push me there in the corners. He hit me in the center, and I just tried to maintain a good pace and I tried not to get too over-aggressive on the gas. And it worked out. That’s probably one of the best races I have run over here.”

Burt Myers had one last chance with one lap remaining, but he couldn’t slip past Jeffreys.

“That’s where I went. I just tried to beat him,” Burt Myers said. “Lee’s been doing this long enough to know all he had to do was tie it down. And if he knew in his mind, I wasn’t going to wreck him, then he just parks it in the corner – just like Tim Brown did to me a couple weeks ago.”

Even Jeffreys acknowledged that Burt Myers probably had the better car.

“You better get your belts tight and you better get on top of the wheel,” Jeffreys said. “That’s all I can say.”

Jeffreys did win, however, tying him for 18^th place in the Modified Series with Max Berrier and Jonathan Brown with 25 wins. Brandon Ward was third, Daniel Beeson was fourth, and Dan Speeney was fifth.

“I mean it’s special,” Jeffreys said. “I mean there’s a lot of people that have been over here for years that hadn’t won near that many, so that’s good. But hey, I’ve been here a long time.”

Elite Underground Utility 100
Bowman Gray Stadium Modifieds
June 10 2023

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