Derek Drowns Competition in NCRA Sprints at 81 Speedway
by David Smith, Jr.
PARK CITY, Kan. (June 14, 2008) - Derek Drown took the lead on lap twenty and cruised the rest of the distance as he won his fifth career O'Reilly/NCRA sprint car presented by ICM/Ethanol feature Saturday night at 81 Speedway. His feature win made him the fifth different series feature winner in as many events held so far this 2008 race season.
JD Johnson and Gavin Punch started on the front row for the 25 lap feature with Johnson taking the quick early lead on the rest of the field when the green flag fell. But the start was all for naught as the races only caution flag fell when series rookie Cody Forshee spun in turn two. Cory Moore and AJ Selenke had nowhere to go and were also involved. Only Selenke would be unable to continue.
The complete restart saw Johnson again jump out front but it was short-lived as he slid off the top of turn two, dropping him back to the ninth position. Punch raced out into the lead and was followed by Jon Freeman, Mike Peters, tenth starting Drown and Larry Neighbors. Punch would open a huge full straightway lead by lap four before entering lapped traffic one lap later.
Drown continued his march towards the front, passing Peters for third and pressuring Freeman for the runner up position before taking over that position on lap nine.
At the races halfway point it was still Punch with a commanding lead but lapped traffic began to slow the Collinsville, Oklahoma driver allowing Drown to close the distance. By lap eighteen, Drown and the Danny King/Shane Bangerter owned ICM/Ethanol sprinter closed to within three car lengths of the leader. Lap twenty saw Punch get caught behind a couple of lapped cars in turn two allowing Drown to drive around the top side, exiting turn two and take over the top spot.
From there Drown and his Jeff Roberg built Ethanol powered sprinter cruised unchallenged to take the ten car length victory. Peters would get around Punch for the second position and take over the series points lead while ninth starting C.J. Johnson charged to a fourth place finish. Mike Chadd of Lincoln, Nebraska rounded out the top five.
"This is a brand new car, right out of the box," exclaimed a elated Drown in victory lane. "This is Shanes (Bangerter) first victory as a car owner. We drove the wheels off this thing and took advantage of his (Punch) problems in lapped traffic."
The eight lap heat races for the twenty-six car field were won by Punch, series rookie contender Forshee and JD Johnson while Scott Lehman won the twelve lap "B" feature.
O'Reilly Finish Line HEAT 1 - 1, Gavin Punch. 2, Mike Peters. 3, Jon Freeman. 4, Corey Moore. 5, David Wheeler. 6, Jason Schroeder. 7, Dwight Schroeder. 8, Dusty Murray. 9, Marc Robe.
HEAT 2 - 1, Cody Forshee. 2, A.J. Selenke. 3, Mike Chadd. 4, C.J. Johnson. 5, Don Droud, Jr.. 6, Koby Barksdale. 7, Jeff Stasa. 8, Ryan Kitchen.
HEAT 3 - 1, J.D. Johnson. 2, Larry Neighbors. 3, Derek Drown. 4, Scott Lehman. 5, Luke Cranston. 6, Chris Morgan. 7, Allan Unruh. 8, Steve Richardson.
B FEATURE - 1, Scott Lehman. 2, David Wheeler. 3, Koby Barksdale. 4, Dwight Schroeder. 5, Luke Cranston. 6, Jason Schroeder. 7, Chris Morgan. 8, Allan Unruh. 9, Ryan Kitchen. 10, Dusty Murray. 11, Roger Sundquist. 12, Marc Robe. 13, Steve Richardson. 14, Jeff Stasa.
A FEATURE - 1, Derek Drown. 2, Mike Peters. 3, Gavin Punch. 4, C.J. Johnson. 5, Mike Chadd. 6, Jon Freeman. 7, Larry Neighbors. 8, Don Droud, Jr.. 9, J.D. Johnson. 10, Scott Lehman. 11, Luke Cranston. 12, Dwight Schroeder. 13, Chris Morgan. 14, David Wheeler. 15, Jason Schroeder. 16, Allan Unruh. 17, Koby Barksdale. 18, Corey Moore. 19, Cody Forshee. 20, A.J. Selenke.
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