Mike Leaty Returns to Race of Champions Victory Lane in Ol' Boy Cup IX

Mike Leaty returned to Race of Champions victory lane on Thursday night, winning the Ol' Boy Cup IX at Lancaster Motorplex.

Leaty took the lead from Patrick Emerling on lap 15 and led the remainder of the 60-lap distance to score the victory in the Ol' Boy Cup. It is Leaty's first RoC triumph since winning at Spencer Speedway on September 1, 2023.

Going winless during the 2024 season was plenty of motivation for Leaty in the offseason. Leaty showed up at Lancaster on Thursday with a new car, and that car promptly found its way to the front.

"We're a motivated bunch, right? The 25's back," said Leaty in victory lane. "We struggled all last year. Frankly, we got our asses kicked. That'll humble you and make you go to work. That's what we did.

"It seemed like it took forever to get this thing on the racetrack. We just didn't have anywhere to race, but we were testing. It's a brand new race car, first time ever out. My older car went to Alyssa, she's been racing that one. This one's brand new. My dad and I and the two kids, we put this one together ourselves over the winter. Hard work pays off."

With several members of the Leaty family competing in the Race of Champions Family of Series, there's plenty of time and resources spent on racing. However, moments like Thursday night in victory lane at Lancaster make it worthwhile.

"That's why we do it," said Leaty. "It's an expensive sport and a lot of money spent. If you can't have fun and enjoy family time and cherish the moments when we do it, then it's not worth it. This is what makes it worth it. These days are few and far between, so we'll celebrate it."

The opening 15 laps saw a flurry of lead changes, with Leaty, Emerling, Jacob Christman and George Skora, III all spending time leading laps. Once Leaty was out front, however, he quickly distanced himself from the pack.

"The 60-lap race, you can pretty much go," explained Leaty. "You've got to be smart, you know, save when you can. Honestly, the start didn't go very good for us. We were back to 11th there on that second restart. I saw Pat had made pretty good headway, so I knew he was going to be tough. Once we got an open track, this thing was just a rocket. I was three-quarters throttle when I was in the lead. It was just crazy fast."

Jake Lutz finished second after picking up a heat race win earlier in the program on Thursday. While the setup wasn't quite to his liking for the feature, he knew Leaty had the car to beat for the night.

"We were really good all day," said Lutz. "Just missed it a hair in the feature. Mike was really good. I think he was just maintaining that gap. I don't really know if we had anything for him. I just wanted to get that track position early, it was a little hairy when we were two-by-two for the lead there. You know, running with Pat and Blake, you can trust those guys and where they're going to be."

Emerling rounded out the podium, continuing a busy stretch of racing between Modified competition and a doubleheader weekend at Pocono Raceway in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series last Friday and Saturday. He was excited to return to Lancaster, a track where he has won nine times with the RoC Modified Series.

"To come to Lancaster here and race, I just absolutely love doing it," said Emerling. "This car, we worked on it all week when I came back from Pocono. I put some of my old setup in it that I used to run and we had a solid car tonight. We were just lacking a little bit. I was trying a few things, and our tires didn't quite size up the way we wanted them to, but we worked with it and had a really good car."

Andy Jankowiak, who won the TQ Midget feature at Lancaster on Thursday, finished fourth. Jack Ely rounded out the top five.

The next race for the Race of Champions Modified Series is scheduled for Saturday, July 5. The Rocket 76er brings the RoC Modifieds to Evans Mills Raceway Park in New York.

-Photo credit: MoJo Photos/Race of Champions

Ol' Boy Cup IX Unofficial Results