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.
