4-27-2001
Friday was the season opener at Gas City I-69 Speedway. The St.Myers Racing Team made an opening night defense of their repeat track championship in the UMP Modifieds. There was over 35 mods signed in with four very good heat races. The first heat went to Scotty Orr in the 23 car. Dan Hamstra chased him to the line in the 23H. Heat #2 went to Doug from the outside front row in quite the battle with the 7 of Elvin Hershberger. The two swapped the lead 2 or 3 times before the 4S took over for good with a lap to go. Heat #3 was won by the 79S of Adam Sasser followed by the 25P of Bub Patrick. The fourth and final heat was won by the #40 of Terry Hull over the 11E of Dwayne Eakright.
The feature line up was a tough field with the first four rows consisting of 2000 Gas City Feature race winners. The 0 of Hobbs and E11 of Herbert came from the B-Main to tag the tail of the feature. Doug started in seventh position and at the green the 4S went on a tear. At lap five, Doug blew by the 23H of Dan Hamstra and moved into the fourth spot. The next time by, Doug found himself spinning into the infield in turn four. The caution flew and the 4S went to the tail of the line for the restart. From a 17th place restart, Doug looked like a man on a mission. He cut through the field and worked his way back to a fifth place finish. Way to go Doug!
At the checkers, it was the 7 of Elvin Hershberger followed by the 23H of Hamstra and 0 Hobbs all the way from the tail. Coming home fourth was the 25P of Bub Patrick.
BACK TO RESULTS PAGE