Attica Raceway Park

By Todd Turner DirtonDirt.com chief writer

ATTICA, Ohio (May 16) — If you compiled a list of businesses known for failure, owning a restaurant and operating a Dirt Late Model race team both rank somewhere near the top of the list. But count 25-year-old Doug Drown among the true believers. "I'm doing them both," said the driver from Wooster, Ohio, with a laugh. "What the heck?" | Richards wins at Attica | Slideshow

And so far in 2008, the friendly County Harvest diner just west of Drown's hometown along with his modest racing team are rolling along pretty well. And on a Friday when he skipped all-you-can eat fish night at the restaurant, Drown's race team got a boost at Attica Raceway Park when he cracked the starting field for his first-ever World of Outlaws Late Model Series feature event and flirted with the top five before settling for an impressive sixth-place finish in a solid field of 52 cars.

"I was just amazed. To be running with the guys I look up to, that was a pretty sweet night," Drown said after finding out that WoO regular Shane Clanton of Locust Grove, Ga., barely nipped him at the line for the fifth spot at the northern Ohio third-mile oval, a stronghold for sprint cars.

Drown has been on the Late Model radar screen since he was a teenager capturing rookie titles in 2000 at Lakeville (Ohio) Speedway and Wayne County Speedway in Orrville, Ohio, but his low-budget team isn't one that has the kind of money to even start thinking about hitting a national tour. His regional credentials are solid — he won the 2005 track title at Wayne County and a 2007 Mid-Atlantic Championship Series event last year at Portsmouth (Ohio) Raceway Park — but to mix it up with nationally-known drivers like those who invaded Attica is satisfying for the driver with cropped hair and sparse goatee. After all, every other driver in the top 10 own victories on a national tour, and four of the nine are winners of the Dirt Track World Championship.

"Today was actually great to make the race and run up front with 'em," said the ninth-starting Drown, who earned a $500 bonus as highest finishing non-series regular. "If I could finish where I started, I was going to be happy. But to be honest, everybody else had newer tires on, and I had only brought eight with me for the feature. It was either one compound or the other. We went with the softer compound — I knew I didn't want to spend any more money to buy the new tires, or if I went backwards, then it wouldn't have offset the costs. It wouldn't have been very smart businesswise. We just threw a set of four tires on and went with it. We went with the soft, and it actually all worked out for the best.

"We have one car, one motor, so it's kind of nice ... that's kind of what we're doing this year is hitting what we can, and running the races we think we might be good at. This one, I'll be honest, I wasn't sure I'd actually even make (the feature) when I saw all the cars that came tonight. To finish in the top 10 like that was a great night."

With most of the other drivers making their progress in the high groove, Drown stuck with the low groove. He got within a straightaway of the leaders with 15 laps remaining as he briefly took the fifth spot from Clanton, but Clanton edged back ahead and nipped Drown at the checkered flag for the last top-five spot.

"I was able to get a hold of the (low) groove. I couldn't believe it was actually coming in. The worst part was, the guys were able to pinch me just a little bit, where I couldn't get off the corner to keep the momentum up enough. I was just scrubbing too much speed," Drown said. "If I could've swept out a little bit into the upper lane, it would've been better. But I also need to earn the respect of a lot of these guys, so I knew I better give them room for when they get that run off the high line. When it came down to the end there, I was a little less forgiving, because I'm like, 'We do have a pretty good car and I need to start using it.' But I also knew Shane raced me clean all race, so I didn't want to make contact with him just for one position. We led it how it should be and raced for the there at the end and he got me by a little nose, I guess."

If there'd been more than three cautions in the 50-lapper, Drown might not have been running at the finish. Because his one-way radio communication with series officials wasn't working properly, officials considered at one point stopping him and disqualifying him for failing to line up correctly. Drown said his RACEceiver unit malfunctioned all night despite a battery change.

"I had a RACEceiver in earlier and it didn't work in the heat race. That's why I looked like an idiot, I guess you could say, not knowing where to go," he said. "I came over right before the feature to put a battery in what I had, and I thought it would work, and it didn't. So I came over to get a new one. Well, they had (the series trailer) locked up because they were getting ready to start the feature. I was like, 'Well, let's hope I'm not the guy they'll be yelling at.' But of course I was. Go figure."

Before the feature, Drown huddled with eventual runner-up Chub Frank of Bear Lake, Pa., to discuss the night's event. Drown has relied on Frank for years as the two are both drivers aligned with Mike Farr of Genesis Shocks. He's grateful for the help he's received from Frank and Farr, as well as his sponsorship support from Wooster Glass and Malcuit Race Engines. As the owner of a restaurant along with his wife Courtney, Drown knows that support from friends and family is important. Drown's brother and sister helped out at the restaurant Friday night so he could head to the racetrack.

Why did Drown consider buying the Country Harvest Restaurant and General Store along Highway 250? Because he was a regular, of course. "I was just stopping there when I drove a truck ... and I'd stop in there and my wife and I always said we'd like to do a restaurant-type thing — never this early in our lives — but it was something that came up, and the place became available and they already had clientele, and we basically just spruced the place up and made a few changes and try and better it," Drown said.

The restaurant serves up dishes including the Trucker's Special (chop steak, potatoes and toast for $7.99), Hud's Husky Special (grilled barbecue chicken breast with swiss cheese and bacon, $6,29) and of course all-you-can eat fish on Friday evenings.

"We've been successful and it's been picking up, so hopefully it'll keep (going) in that direction," said Drown, whose son is named Cale. "Maybe one of these days my wife can be a stay-at-home mom. That's the goal, so we'll see."