Portsmouth Raceway Park
Drown takes Portsmouth opener for first MACS victory
From series reports
Doug Drown nabbed his first MACS victory. (suestevensonphotography.com)
PORTSMOUTH, Ohio (Sept. 1) — It's been a long time coming, but Doug Drown is finally a winner on the Mid-Atlantic Championship Series. The 25-year-old driver from Wooster, Ohio, picked up his first career MACS feature victory by winning the River Days Rumble 50 at Portsmouth Raceway Park.
Drown pocketed $5,000 in outrunning Rod Conley of Wheelersburg, Ohio, local hero Kenny Christy, Audie Swartz and Jack Pencil.
Christy started outside of the polesitting Drown as they brought the stacked 24-car field to green. Drown quickly shot into the lead while Ryan Markham fiercely battled with Christy for second. Markham was riding the high side around the 3/8-mile oval but lost the handle in the middle of turns three and four to bring out the first caution.
The double-file restart saw Doug continue to lead followed by an intense battle for second between Christy, Barry Bragdon and Swartz, a five-time feature winner at Portsmouth in 2007. Christy was able to hold off the third- and fourth-place cars as Rod Conley cracked the top five from his 10th starting spot. Brother R.J. Conley had scrapped his way up to third until his left front spindle broke, sending him pitside during the lap-13 caution for Bragdon.
After two quick cautions — for Chris Wilson on lap 15 and three laps later for Jason Montgomery, whose mount came up lame — Drown was able to regain his tempo as he resumed his pursuit of victory.
Rod Conley, also seeking his first MACS win, finessed his way under Christy for second and set his sights on Drown. On lap 21 the final caution flew for a spinning Wilson who had spun.
That bunched the field with Drown tenaciously holding on to the point over Rod Conley. Drown again fired the field with the 15th-starting Pencil making a daring move on the outside of turn two to break into the top five.
Drown, who steadily continued leading every lap, caught lapped traffic on lap 32 as Conley inched his way closer to the leader. Conley matched every move Drown made as the laps rapidly wound down.
With five laps remaining, Conley tried a banzai move to the outside of Drown entering turn three. But the pursuer couldn't get enough track and fell five lengths back.
Undaunted by the challenge, Drown held his line and blistered the final four laps to earn the richest victory of his career.
Notebook
Drown's Malcuit-powered Rocket Chassis is sponsored by Wooster Glass Co., Lehman Motorsports Services, Farr Motorsports and Slavic Custom Racing Shirts & Decals. ... Tim Hitt finished sixth in a rare series appearance. ... Ben Adkins rallied from 17th to finish 10th at his home track. ... Drivers from six states including Oregon made up the 40-car field.
