May 5, 2001

Opening night at Montpelier Raceway was on the schedule for the St.Myers Racing Team today. Doug is the 1999 and 2000 UMP Modified track champion at Montpelier. A good field of cars filled the pits with the Modified car count totaling 29. Four heats were ran with heat one being taken by the 6S of Brent Sutton followed by the 11 of Phillips. Heat two was taken by the 0 of Lee Hobbs and heat three by the 4R of Brandon Raef. Doug started the tail of the fourth and final heat for the mods. Working his way through traffic, Doug found himself in 2nd and working on the leader. At the finish, Doug came up a little short as the M1 of Matheny ran the low line for the win.

Matheny drew the inversion for the feature and it turned out to be an eight. This put Doug on the pole for the feature. The track was very dry slick and dusty, and after a complete restart Doug and the 3P of Wayne Pratt brought the field to the green. Doug took the lead going into turn one and on the charge early from 7th was the 0 of Hobbs and the sixth starter, Brandon Raef in the 4R. Several cautions were to follow as the dusty conditions made visibility poor. This combining with a very slick track caused many spins and crashes. Hobbs tried and tried to wrestle the lead from Doug on restarts to no avail. The 4R of Raef looked fast early, but by mid race had started to fade. Doug led flag to flag for the victory looking very sharp and very smooth. Hobbs was second followed by the 152 of JR. Ruefer (started 15th) in third, the 18 of Tracy Ellison (started14th) fourth and the 11E of Dwayne Eakright (started 12th) in fifth.

This was a great way for Doug to start out his title defense! Way to go Doug!

BACK TO RESULTS PAGE