Doug Drown of Wooster, Ohio made a rare appearance with the Zimmer Service Center ULMS Late Model Series Friday night at Thunder Mountain Speedway and he made it pay off by capturing his first ever ULMS win of his career and took home the $3000 payday.
Doug Eck and Jon Lee fresh off his first career super late model feature win two weeks prior at Thunder Mountain paced the 22 car field to the green flag Eck charging to the front bringing local favorite Charlie Powell with him. At the conclusion of lap one, Drown quickly came from eight to fourth on the position chart. With five laps in the books, Eck had built a comfortable lead over Powell with Lee, Drown and Jared Miley the previous Thunder Mountain ULMS winner in fifth. Drown would take third from Lee on lap six and would then fall back to fifth as Miley would get by the young driver on lap seven for fourth. With ten laps in the books, it was Eck still leading over a very fast Charlie Powell who was closing in on the Terry Supper owned #4s machine. Lap 13 would see the yellow lights flash for Dylan Yoder who spun in turn four.
The lap thirteen restart would bunch of the leaders with Eck ahead of Powell, Drown, Miley, and Greg Oakes now in fifth, Lee sixth followed by Maresca, Max Blair, Matt Lux and Kyle Knapp. Drown would get a good restart on Eck and would charge around the Corry, PA driver for the lead as lap 14 was completed the caution was out again this time for Joe Petyak. The new top five running order saw the Ohio driver, Drown on the point ahead of Eck and Greg Oakes now in third ahead of Powell and Miley. On the restart the field charged around the track looking to complete lap fifteen when Oakes spun coming out of turn four resulting in a huge pileup that caught up the cars of Blair Lux and others. Blair was finished for the night relegating the point leader to a rare last place finish.
Once the field got going again and lap fifteen clicked off the board to make it the race halfway it was still Drown now leading over Mike Maresca, Powell, Eck, Lee, Knapp and Jake Gunn. Lap 17 would see Knapp take fifth from Lee only to bring out the yellow in on lap 18 as he spun and was collected by Gunn, Gale Huey, John Britsky and Skip Lindemuth. Jared Miley went off the track and over the turn 3 banking and returned to the track under the caution and was also charged in the caution.
With a dozen laps remaining, Drown, the Wayne County Speedway star, again set the pace with Maresca and Eck nipping at his quarter panels. With ten laps to go it was still Drown in his purple #12 machine over Maresca, Eck, Lee and Powell. The last and final caution came out for Joe Petyak and Miley in turn three setting up a two lap dash, which resulted in another caution on lap 28 in turn 2 when Knapp spun in turn 2 and being collected by Britsky and Michael Wonderling. One last restart for the final two laps was tried again and Drown was able to fend off the challenges of Maresca and Eck. Powell would grab fourth back from Lee wile Matt Lux came home sixth over Jerry Redden, John Weaver, Knapp and Wonderling rounded out the top ten.
ULMS Racing Series next event will be Saturday June 16 at McKean County Family Raceway in East Smethport PA and next Sunday at Eriez Speedway in Hammett, PA. The MCFR event will pay
$2500 to win while the Eriez “Dick Litz Memorial” will pay $2900 to win on Sunday. The Plyler Entry Systems United Emod Series will also be in action on Saturday at McKean for $1000 to win.
Reminder to the ULMS Late Model teams that the Hoosier 1300 or American Racer 44 tire rule will be in effect at both events and MCFR utilizes the Red AMB Transponder for both ULMS and UEMS classes. Rentals will be available at the track. Entry Fee for ULMS will be $25 and $20 for UEMS entrants. The UEMS tire rule is NO SOFTS on the rear for the UEMS Emod teams.
On Sunday at Eriez, the ULMS race teams are reminded that the Yellow Westhold transponders will be used at Eriez Speedway and the track and ULMS will have rentals available. Entry fee for ULMS entrants will be $30
ULMS is proudly supported by Zimmer’s Service Center, Plyler’s Entry System, Close Racing Supply, Insinger Performance, Sunoco Race Fuels, Precise Racing, Hoosier Tire Mid Atlantic, Lias Tire, American Racer Tire, Genesis Shocks, Integra Shocks, Keizer Wheels, Jay’s Automotive of Portville NY, Mary Norgrove Notary Public and Advocare by Advozuvy.com. Don’t forget to get all your information from the series website at www.ulmsracing.com and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
photos by Derek Bobik and Jim Balentine
RESULTS:
DOUG DROWN, Mike Maresca, Doug Eck, Charlie Powell, Jon Lee, Matt Lux, Jerry Redden, John Weaver, Kyle Knapp, Mike Wonderling, John Britsky, Danny Kientz, Denny Fenton, Joe Petyak, Jared Miley, Jason Dobson, Jake Gunn, Gale Huey, Skip Lindemuth, Brandon Groters, Greg Oakes, Max Blair
Zimmer Service Center Heat #1: Jared Miley, Powell, Drown, Gunn, Knapp, Wonderling,Oakes, Dobson
Hoosier Tire Heat #2: Matt Lux, Maresca, Eck., Britsky, Weaver, Fenton, Petyak
American Racer Tire Heat #3: Blair, Oakes, Lee, Huey, Redden, Groters, Kienitz