By MIKE MALLETT
Dan Douville is coming off one of the best seasons of his racing career. It is one that saw him win four Sprint Cars of New England A-Main events while on his way to the 2015 championship. On Saturday night the Bridgewater, N.H., driver put the exclamation point on the season as he pocketed $4,050 for winning the Inaugural Green Mountain Nationals on the Dirt Track at Devils Bowl Speedway in a combined event with the Lucas Oil Empire Super Sprints.
“I’m ecstatic,” exclaimed Douville in Victory Lane. “We’ve had a good year and this capped it off for us.”
Douville started the night with a second place finish in the third heat and then picked up a $500 win in the 10-lap dash. From there he was aided by fellow SCONE driver Chris Donnelly. Donnelly drew the six pill for the feature inversion putting Douville on the pole for the 25-lap main-event and made sure to take full advantage of the opportunity.
“It’s a pleasure, it really is to run with those guys,” said Douville about battling with some of ESS best. “It’s a pleasure to run with the SCONE guys. When we go to Canada and run with ESS, you know we haven’t had good luck but we are gaining all the time. This just proves that we can run with these guys. We just need it on the right track. We are gaining, it is a lot of fun. This is very satisfying and we had a great year.”
Lee Ladouceur started along-side Douville as they came to the green flag. Douville had the preferred lane on the inside and took full advantage grabbing the lead off of turn two. He opened up the gap on Ladouceur and quickly caught the tail of the field on lap five.
Before traffic got too thick, the first caution of the race was caused by a spinning Tyler Austin on lap eight. Austin spun after contact with Mark Smith. Smith continued while Austin was forced to call it night. A Delaware style restart put Douville by himself at the front of the field which allowed him to maintain his lead when racing resumed
Douville was pressured by Ladouceur for three laps before the second and final caution of the race came out for Lacey Hanson. Hanson slowed going down the backstretch necessitating the yellow flag. At this point it was Douville leading Ladouceur and Jason Barney.
“The cautions came out at the right time,” said Douville. “Pretty much everybody in SCONE is pretty fast and it gets tough when you get in traffic and obviously the ESS guys are fast all of the time. I caught the cautions just right and she fired off just right on the restarts. I didn’t miss my marks and we were good.”
It was all Douville at the green flag holding off Ladouceur. Ladouceur attempted to stay with the leader but was unable to do so losing ground by the midway point. Douville, who also won at Devils Bowl in early August, maintained his torrid pace keeping everyone behind him as the raced reached the late stages.
Five laps remained when Douville caught cars running at the back of the pack. Like he did earlier the race, he quickly moved through the traffic putting several cars a lap down while also increasing his lead of Ladouceur and Barney who battled one another for second.
Douville went to score the win handily over Ladouceur. The Alexandria, Ont., driver just beat out Barney for the second spot as they came to the checkered flag. Ladouceur was happy with the runner up finish which earned him $2,150, but he would have liked the race to stay green after the first caution.
“Dan was good,” said Ladouceur. “Sometimes we closed the gap then he’d take off on us. Then in lapped traffic it seemed like he had it down a lot better than we did. I moved the wing back a little bit on that restart and I had to try to bring it back ahead during the race and it got a little bit too tight.”
Barney, of Brewerton, N.Y., finished in the third position allowing him to take home $1,150. Barney gave Ladouceur all he could handle in the closing laps but was unable to secure the second spot.
“We had a pretty decent car,” stated Barney. “We were fortunate that we had a decent starting spot. I was patient early waiting to get into lapped traffic so I could try a couple different lines. I was hoping to pin Lee (Ladouceur) down on the bottom to get second but it never worked out. I waited too long to try anything. Congrats to Dan, that is pretty cool. Good for him.”
Tommy Wickham ended up finishing in the fourth position with SCONE regular Clay Dow finishing in the fifth spot.
Green Mountain Nationals Notes – A nice field of 25 cars took to the picturesque track in Vermont…The States of New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Oregon were represented along with Ontario and Quebec, Canada…Chrsitine Boesch made hard contact with the turn 2 wall during hot laps and was a scratch for the night…All totaled over $16,000 in cash was paid out for the first annual event.
Green Mountain Nationals A-Main – Dan Douville ($4,050), Lee Ladouceur ($2,150), Jason Barney ($1,150), Tommy Wickham ($975), Clay Dow ($900), Steve Poirier ($470), Sammy Reakes IV ($430), Paulie Colagiovanni ($520), Justin Barger ($700), Chris Donnelly ($500), Matt Tanner ($495), Mark Smith ($350), Scott Holcomb ($320), Luke Greenwood ($315), Jake Williams ($560), Patrick Smith ($305), Allison Journey ($300), Will Hull ($300), Stephen Hutchinson ($100), Lacey Hanson ($100), Tyler Austin ($400).
Did Not Qualify – Christine Boesch ($100), Chris Clark ($100), Will Eggimann ($100), Dennis McLoed ($100)
Lap Leader – Douville 1-25
Brian Sisson $100 to win Heats – Donnelly, Wickham, Colagiovanni
Brian Sisson Hard Charger – Barger ( 5 pos.) $50