The pre-F1RWRS/ARWS career of Douglas Mann

[dr-baker]

Thursday 22nd February 2007, NBS, California, Stater Bros 300, qualifying, round 2/35

"Oh no!" thought Douglas. "Not other of these large ovals." However, Douglas still managed 5th, with a lap time of 39.801 seconds. Could Douglas mantain this kind of position come race day? Douglas had no idea.

Saturday 24th February 2007, NBS, California, Stater Bros 300, race, 37 laps, round 2/35

The first few seconds of the race were fine. Then, because Douglas couldn't pass on the inside, Douglas tried back into the field's slipstream, and got pushed a bit sideways to the outside of the field. Douglas quickly fell down to about 27th. Managed to gain one place, then as Douglas was running alongside the next car in the pack, the car suddenly snapped round enough to bring out the yellow flags, far too early to pit yet. The race restarted at the start of lap 6. On the restart, Douglas fell from 25th to 29th, but started picking the speed up again by lap 8, where he gained at least another 2 positions. "At least I'm keeping up with the pace of the field this time," thought Douglas. How will the pit stops go? Will there be another full-course yellow? By lap 15, Douglas Mann was looking pretty good, getting up to 17th. But within a lap or two, with everybody ahead of him seperated by just two seconds still, Douglas got a bit caught up amongst other people's battles and the predictable full-course yellow happened, and everybody decided to come in together. Much to Douglas's annoyance! The race restarted on lap 20 with Douglas in 14th! That first lap saw the envitable fall to 20th, but regained 14th by around lap 26. But by now, the field had become spread out, and Douglas was more impressed by his 11th place finish in this race than with his 1st/8th at Daytona because this time, it was genuine pace rather than fortuitous circumstance. And despite being 5.5 seconds behind the leader, he was only 0.5 seconds from 9th place. If only for another lap or two...

Douglas's teammates had a bit of relative success themselves. Morgan Irvin gained many places from where he qualified, moving from 41st to 18th! And Rickie Cooper gained 5 places from 31st to 26th throughout the 37 laps.

Douglas's Earnings

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Salary      $14400
Winnings    $1248
Merchandise $249
New total   $448,449

Championship placings

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7th   Douglas Mann   277 points -88
12th  Morgan Irvin   224 points -141
18th  Rickie Cooper  194 points -171

After this race, Kurt Busch sent an email to Douglas that he took a bit of offence to!

If your recent performance is any indication, you could use some driving lessons. I'm going to show you how a professional drives.

The showdown was to be the following Monday. But Douglas wasn't afraid - Douglas won all of his showdowns the previous season...

[Shizuka]

If your recent performance is any indication, you could use some driving lessons. I'm going to show you how a professional drives.

The showdown was to be the following Monday. But Douglas wasn't afraid - Douglas won all of his showdowns the previous season...

But don't forget: Kyle Busch is still an ass!

[dr-baker]

If your recent performance is any indication, you could use some driving lessons. I'm going to show you how a professional drives.

The showdown was to be the following Monday. But Douglas wasn't afraid - Douglas won all of his showdowns the previous season...

But don't forget: Kyle Busch is still an ass!

But do the two Busches have a "Good Cop, Bad Cop" routine going on? Based of the tone of the above 'email,' maybe not.

Anyway, onto the showdown!

Monday 26th February 2007, Nextel Cup, Showdown! against Mr Kurt Busch, Speedway Blvd., 3 laps, round 3/37

This is my fifth showdown, and so far, the score is 4-0 in my favour. I hope you know what you're up against Mr Busch!

Well, this was the closest showdown to date, with several lead changes each lap. Douglas got into an early lead, before scaping the wall along the short stretch of dirt racing. Douglas surrendered the lead and then ironically regained the lead in exactly the same place a lap later, and then lost count of the number of lead changes and where, suffice it to say that Douglas was the first to cross the line at the end of both the second and third lap to win by 0.358 seconds. Kurt, you are an ass to think you could beat me! 5-0 to me in the showdowns. Yeah!

Kurt's response?

I guess you really do know how to drive that thing you call a car...

Ah well, better luck next time, eh Kurt?

[dr-baker]

Wednesday 28th February 2008, Whelen Modifieds, Martinsville, Appalachian 150, 37 laps, round 4/17

Ahh, Martinsville, one of Douglas's preferred tracks, but a bit harder in the Whelens with their open wheels - can't quite rub doors as easily...

Qualifying

An 18.253 lap. 3rd place. Not quite what Douglas had in mind. And his car was a bit nervous mid-corner. Could make overtaking mid-corner interesting in the race...

The Race

Douglas had a decent first lap, taking the lead by the time they crossed to line for the first time. And Douglas quickly gained a lead of aroung a second, which then started disappering around lap 11 and got passed on lap 14, despite maintaining a consistant lap time. Douglas retook the lead on lap 16 and remained there for the remainder of the race. It wasn't easy though, as the gap remained between 0.2 and 0.36 seconds for the whole 20+ laps. The gap by the end was just 0.336 seconds.

Lou Stanton had a good race, finishing 6th despite qualifying 4th. Nate Beasley started 12th and finished 15th, while Alan Walker did not do so well, finishing 20th from 18th at the start.

Earnings

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Salary      $6300
Winnings    $1650
Merchandise $447
New Total   $456,846

Championship

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1st  Douglas Mann 530 points 
5th  Nate Beasley 446 points -84
13th Lou Stanton  377 points -153
15th Alan Walker  370 points -160

That's the final event in February. March so far sees four NBS events at Redball, Las Vegas, Atlanta and Bristol; and one Whelen Modified race at Nazareth.

[dr-baker]

Thursday 1st March 2007, NBS, Redball, Crossroads 200, qualifying, round 3/35

15.485 seconds. Douglas thought as he was going round that that would be fast enough, but alas not. Close but no cigar. It was second place. Still, it was the front row and competitive.

Sunday 4th March 2007, NBS, Redball, Crossroads 200, the race, 50 laps, round 3/35

Douglas, since embarking upon this career, has done very few races that consist of this number of laps, but at least it was easily divisable so Douglas could calculate quickly whether a pit stop was reasonable should a safety car period ensue. Douglas made a good start and was already in the lead by the first turn. The gap stabalised at 0.5 seconds until Douglas became more consistant at taking a tighter line round the bends at each end of the oval. By lap 24, when Douglas started lapping traffic, the gap to second was over 4.3 seconds. As traffic might have been a problem, Douglas pitted. Even though the tyres were fine, Douglas was likely to run out of fuel a few laps from the end so it was precautionary. The entry to the pits did not go well, as Douglas did not break hard enough for long enough, so a five second penalty was to be added to the time Douglas was stationery for. This naturally dropped Douglas to last place by the time he rejoined. Lapped in fact. And into the middle of the pack - exactly the problem Douglas was trying to avoid... It took Douglas a while to master to unlapping himself as understeering into the side of others was an issue, but if he lifted off (something Douglas did not like to do!), it was easier, and still worked. By lap 36/7, Douglas found some clear air to run in, just as the leader was hitting traffic to lap. This might be the crucial few laps. Providing everybody else was going to pit too, and not make the fuel and tyres last, as Douglas might have been able to do if push came to shove. Which is exactly what began to happen! Lucky Douglas! As all this was going on, Douglas saw two cars nearly collide as one pulled down onto the pit apron as another was exiting the pits. By the time the pit stops were over, Douglas had more than a one-lap lead! Unlapping himself did make all the difference. What if Douglas hadn't sped on the entrance to the pits? For the last five laps of the race, Douglas was able to lap a few more drivers without having to lift off nearly as much. The tyres were getting better as the race stint went on.

Morgan Irvin had a Mark Webber-type weekend, going from 34th at the start to 13th by the end, while Rickie Cooper had the opposite weekend, falling from 12th to 32nd by the chequered flag.

Earnings

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Salary      $14400
Winnings    $6000
Merchandise $249
New total   $477,495

Championship positions

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2nd. Douglas Mann   467 pts  -73
8th. Morgan Irvin   348 pts  -192
21st Rickie Cooper  261 pts  -279

Next round: NBS, Las Vegas!

[dr-baker]

Thursday 8th March 2007, NBS, Las Vegas, Sam's Town 300, Qualifying, round 4/35

Douglas was hoping for a similar result as the last race weekend, but didn't feel that it was too likely in Vegas. The first of Douglas's two qualifying laps was faster, but it was only good enough for 10th on the grid.

Saturday 10th March 2007, NBS, Las Vegas, Sam's Town 300, the race, 50 laps, round 4/35

By the end of lap 3, Douglas had already got upto 2nd, having made a steady start. This was better than Douglas anticipated. In fact, his move from 5th to 2nd was a bit hair-raising, as that small gaggle of cars seemed to just suddenly be slower than Douglas and he drove right through the middle of them and still retained the position despite brushing the outside wall moments later... The fight for the lead began on lap 8 and continued non-stop until lap 14, when Douglas caused the leader to slide a bit, costing them a bit of time. But the battle was back on, just a few laps later. It quickly became a 3-way battle for the lead, which got ruined on lap 25, not long before Douglas was going to come into the pits. Douglas was third, had just taken second and was making a move for the lead when the leader turned in on Douglas, making Douglas both airbourne and sideways. Immediately, even before Douglas had come back down to earth, the yellows were out. This meant Douglas could make his pit stop while remaining on the lead lap. And get a decent lead when the others eventually would make theirs... Sounded good? Well, even as the pit stops were beginning, Douglas thought it might be an easy run. But then Douglas attempted to overtake a gaggle of cars, and caused a massive pile-up. Many who were about to pit abandoned their stop and all formed up behind the safety car. Douglas was 29th. The pit stops then began again under green and Douglas got to the top 3 again. Then it turned yellow again as there had been a misunderstanding as one car tried to enter the pits and got spun around. This is where it turned bad for Douglas, as there were only a few laps left to finish the race and Douglas finally cracked under the pressure on the restart and eventually finished 9th. Not the result Douglas was looking for, despite it being an improvement on his qualifying.

Still, at least he beat his teammates. Morgan Irvin made a good run to finish 16th from 39th at the start, while Rickie Cooper fell from 8th to 24th.

Earnings

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Salary      $14400
Winnings    $1960
Merchandise $249
New total   $494,104

Championship positions

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2nd. Douglas Mann   610 pts -58
9th. Morgan Irvin   463 pts -205
19th Rickie Cooper  352 pts -316

Next Race: NBS Nicorette 300 at Atlanta

[dr-baker]

Thursday 15th March 2007, NBS, Atlanta, Nicorette 300, Qualifying, round 5/35

With a time good enough to put Douglas Mann 6th out of a field of 43, Douglas felt quietly confident, provided he could repeat the performance from the last race meeting...

Saturday 17th March 2007, NBS, Atlanta, Nicorette 300, the race, 48 laps, round 5/35

Douglas was expecting a 50-lapper, so had to make a mental note that it was indeed 2-laps shorter than the recent NBS races. The first lap was interesting, Douglas kept to the low line, following the white line around. So it was unexpected when Douglas was suddenly spun round 180 degrees to face the oncoming traffic. Fortunately, perhaps by some miracle, Douglas escaped much damage, and no huge pile-up, so everybody simply sorted themselves under yellows, and the race got going again a few laps later. From lap 5 through to 12 or 13, Douglas ran a steady 9th. Then, as he went to make a move on Boris Said, Douglas got flipped up into the air and into the wall, while always facing the same direction, thus there were no yellows. It cost Douglas several seconds and 1 place, there having been a fair gap behind Douglas at that time. By lap 24, when Douglas came in for his pit stop, he was on the verge of trying to take 8th place again. This time, it seems it was Paul Maynard in 8th. Douglas braked hard to try and meet the pitlane speed limit, but hit the white line at 80 instead of 70 mph, so had another pitlane penalty to be taken during his stop. But it didn't hinder Douglas last time he had a penalty for speeding in the pit lane... And it worked reasonably well. Douglas had a quiet run from there to the end of the race to finish 4thand then regreted his pitlane speeding fault. He finished 3.090 seconds from the leader, 2.8 seconds behind 3rd and 2.5 seconds ahead of 5th. If only he braked a bit sooner for the pits...

Ironically, considering the recent showdown, the driver in 3rd was a K. Busch (but which one, the results list did not state). Morgan Irvin had a reaonable race from 31st to 15th, while Rickie Cooper continued to qualify better than he races, falling from 22nd to 28th throughout the race.

Earnings

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Salary      $14400
Winnings    $1742
Merchandise $249
New total   $510,495

Douglas had now won over half-a-million dollars in just 13.5 months of NASCAR racing! What would he have by the end of the year?

Championship positions

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2nd. Douglas Mann   770 pts -83
10th Morgan Irvin   581 pts -272
22nd Rickie Cooper  431 pts -422 

And now Tony Stewart is wanting a showdown against Douglas Mann... And it was to be the next Monday on the Talladega infield, before his Whelen Modified race on the Wednesday at Nazareth.

[dr-baker]

Monday 19th March 2007, Nextel Cup, Showdown! against Tony Stewart, Talladega infield, 3 laps, round 6/38 (apparently!)

Stewart made a better start across the line, but as it turns out, this was probably for the best. Turn 2, I think it was, was so wide that whoever was behind could dive up the inside of whoever was ahead and take the position. So I took Stewart up the inside on lap 1, he repeated the manoeuvre on me on lap 2, and my repeat move on him won me the race on lap 3. The winning margin was 0.918 seconds.


Wednesday 21st March 2007, Whelen Modifieds, Nazareth, Lehigh Valley 150, 37 laps, round 5/17

Qualifying

Douglas set a time of 26.403 seconds, leaving Douglas 10th. That was actually quite a poor performance for Douglas in this category, particularly considering his experience...

The Race

A poor start, where Douglas got pushed around into the pit wall, saw him fall to 22nd and last by the first bend, so the race would just be a comeback. This is the category with no pitstops or yellow flags, so it would be pure performance. Lap 3 saw Douglas starting to overtake a few cars each lap. Lap 6, and all 4 of the Rising Dragon drivers were together as a group, with Douglas having to pass them all. But some of the drivers were also making their own progress through the field. Douglas got as far as 14th on lap 10, when he got pushed round into the pit wall again! So come back part 2 was on. Lap 14 saw a small gaggle of cars ahead of Douglas slow, and Douglas was not quite able to get past. Douglas eventually settled into 11th and made little progress from there. Lap 30 saw Douglas get alongside Nate Beasley for a whole lap before getting briefly ahead, but within a lap, Beasley was comfortably ahead again. The race finished with Douglas in 11th, and the top 11 seperated by just 2.825 seconds.

Nate Beasley found it easier to get through the field, eventually finishing 4th, having started 12th. Lou Stanton had started between Douglas and Beasley in 11th, but finished 18th while last year's runner-up, Alan Walker. had a poor weekend, qualifying 19th and finishing 22nd and last.

Earnings

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Salary      $6300
Winnings    $1008
Merchandise $447
New total   $518,250

Championship

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1st. Douglas Mann   660 pts
5th. Nate Beasley   606 pts -54
18th Lou Stanton    486 pts -174
19th Alan Walker    467 pts - 193

This is not going well for last year's runner up - Alan Walker is now as far behind this year as he was at the end of last year!

[dr-baker]

Thursday 22nd March 2007, NBS, Bristol, Sharpie Mini 300, qualifying, round 6/35

This is a short oval which seemed to suit Douglas in qualifying here. Setting a time of 15.148 seconds on his second lap was half-a-tenth faster than his first and was good enough for pole. Could Douglas get his second win of the year in NBS in the race here?

Saturday 24th March 2007, NBS, Bristol, Sharpie Mini 300, race, 75 laps, round 6/35

A 75-lap race... The longest race for a long time, in terms of number of laps, for Douglas. He had to be careful not to pit at lap 25, thinking it was only a 50 lap race! Douglas made a good start and an easy lead followed, which extended to 1.5 seconds by lap 10 and 2 seconds by lap 15, which was all rather uneventful. Douglas pitted from the lead at the end of lap 38, just before Douglas was about to start lapping the backmarkers. Again, he got the pit entry wrong, but not in the same way as before. He got the car down to 30 mph before the entry and had to accelerate a bit to get to the entry! He still had the lead as he entered the pits though. By this point, the front right was getting quite dodgy but it was just over half-distance so the next set ought to last... Douglas emerged having been lapped by about 5 or 6 of the leaders. As Douglas was trying to unlap himself and make the most of his fresh rubber, he banged bumpers a couple of times with Erin Crocker, until she shoved him towards the pit wall and out came the yellows. The race restarted on lap 48 with Douglas back on the lead lap, and the others starting their pit stop sequence. Douglas took the lead on lap 54 and his lead was a whole lap by lap 56. Unfortuantely for Douglas (considering his experience of running in traffic), most of the field was running as a pack immediately ahead of Douglas so he decided to back off a bit to give himself some clear air to run in. This worked well for Douglas, avoiding the risk of further accidents and damage etc. He caught up again by around lap 70 so backed off briefly again then, and crossed the line 5 or so laps later as a winner by more than a lap!

Morgan Irvin had a good charge from 21st to 9th while Rickie Cooper also did well to recover from 37th to 12th by the flag.

Earnings

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Salary      $14400
Winnings    $2736
Marchandise $249
New total   $535,635

Championship standings

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2nd. Douglas Mann  960 pts -68
8th. Morgan Irvin  719 pts -309
19th Rickie Cooper 558 pts -470

Next race: NBS, Texas, 50 laps

[dr-baker]

Thursday 5th April 2007, NBS, Texas, O'Reilly 300, qualifying, round 7/35

29.909 seconds on Douglas's second lap was faster than Douglas's first lap of more than 30.2 seconds. As is typical for larger ovals, this did not get Douglas pole but 12th, still a long way from 43rd and last...

Saturday 7th April 2007, NBS, Texas, O'Reilly 300, race, 50 laps, round 7/35

Douglas made a good start, immediately gaining a place or two, but the race quickly settled down - the top 8 formed one group, followed by Douglas Mann, follwed by everybody else. Douglas did get a chance on lap 15 to make a move for 7th and 8th, only to slide wide and continue in 9th. Douglas's tyres were not wearing well - they wouldn't make it much further than lap 25 or 26, so did not have much choice over strategy. Lap 20 saw Douglas lose one place to 10th, but without losing time. On lap 23 (I think - there or thereabouts), Douglas tried to make amends. The guy who had overtaken Douglas a few laps earlier had made further progress, so it was those who had always been just ahead of Douglas that he tried passing. He took a low line, thought there was plenty of room, but Douglas got turned into, bringing out full-course yellows. Douglas thought this to be a good time to pit, particularly taking into account the amount of damage that he had sustained to that point. This would naturally drop Douglas to last, but also with a pitstop in hand. The race restarted on lap 27. Actually, Douglas was 42nd, a there had been a retirement. Douglas deliberately dropped back a bit to avoid trouble, but also noticed that there was one of his teammates just ahead in about 39th or 40th, although he wasn't sure which at this stage. The screen graphics soon confirmed it to be Rickie Cooper, which, judging by recent results, seemed more likely. (Douglas discovered this by picking up on Cooper's slipstream and having the driver's name revealed that way.) It was during this period that the car also developed a pull to the right, creating a handling inbalance. Just as well Douglas was not running in traffic... Pit stops began on lap 37. Then as they started to emerge from the pits, Douglas accidently rear-ended an opponent, bringing out the flags. The race restarted a few laps later, with Douglas in the middle of the pack. Ohhhhhhhhhhh nooooooooo! With a handling deficiency, Douglas was quickly swallowed up in the pack. It wasn't long before Douglas was collected and the damage was terminal. Officially, Douglas's engine was blown, but the damage was just too wide-spread to be just one thing. Just as he was on course through strategy to win... 42nd place it was.

Morgan Irvin had an unspectacualr weekend, qualifying 33rd and finishing 28th, while the safety car periods seem to work well for Rickie Cooper, for he had fallen from 20th to just ahead of Douglas after his pit stop, but eventually finished an amazing 7th!


Earnings

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Salary      $14400
Winnings    $738
Merchandise $249
New total   $551,022

Championship positions

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2nd. Douglas Mann   1002 pts -101
7th. Morgan Irvin    798 pts -308
17th Rickie Cooper   704 pts -399

At least Douglas kept his second place in the championship. There is still a long way to go, and Douglas could close that gap.

Next event: Whelen Modifieds at Meadow Creek

[dr-baker]

I now have a couple of months between having finished employment and starting university in September so I can continue this now, and hope I can finish this season and the whole of the following season by then.

Wednesday 11th April 2007, Whelen Modifieds, Meadow Creek, Market Street 150, round 6/17, 37 laps

Douglas was feeling like he had been off in some alternate realities for several months, racing in bizarre series such as F1RWRS and F1CC, but it surely had only been last weekend he was in Texas racing in NBS. Wasn't it?


Qualifying

Anyway, despite those apprehensions, Douglas decided to skip practice and go straight into 2-lap qualifying, and, with a time of 16.299 seconds, claimed pole position. A nicely-handling car helped. But could he maintain it during the race? Time would tell...

The Race

Douglas lost the lead on the start, running second for the first lap, before taking the lead on the second lap. Thereafter, Douglas wasn't challenged, even though he never had a lead of more than 0.5 seconds for more than a few laps at a time. The final winning margin was 0.218 seconds. Alan Walker finished third from 5th on the grid while Lou Stanton gained one place from 9th to 8th andNate Beasley gained three places from 20th to 17th from start to finish.

Earnings

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Salary      $6300
Winnings    $3281
Merchandise $447
New total   $561,050

Championship

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 1st Douglas Mann 850 pts
 7th Nate Beasley 718 pts -132
12th Alan Walker  632 pts -218
15th Lou Stanton  628 pts -222

[dr-baker]

Thursday 12th April 2007, NBS, Tiburon Raceway, Dodge Motorsports 300, Qualifying, round 8/35

This must be the most ridiculously short oval ever, where Douglas scored pole with a laptime barely above 12 seconds... So short is this oval, the pitlane is as long as the track, running around the outside of the track, underneath the grandstands.

Saturday 14th April 2007, NBS, Tiburon Raceway, Dodge Motorsports 300, the race, 75 laps, round 8/35

Douglas knew that he would have to lap backrunners in this race, so short is the track. Which means running in traffic. Which is not one of his strong points...

Douglas immediately took the lead, and was on the back of the pack, ready to start lapping, on lap 17 of 75, with a 3.5 second lead. After a while, the lead had whittled away to 1.1 seconds, before slowly extending the lead again. Until just over half-distance, when Douglas got nudged towards the pit entrance. As Douglas tried to rejoin the track before going into the pits, Douglas got spun round, which brought out the full-course yellows. It was marginal whether Douglas needed to pit or not, but Douglas took this as an ideal oppotunity to do so regardless, even if nobody else did. The race restarted on lap 43 with Douglas in 18th, and seemingly on the lead lap. There were so many cars so tightly bunched on this tight oval, that it was inevitable that Douglas would be spun again to cause another full-couse yellow a few laps later. This time, it was lap 49 and in 12th place. By lap 56, those who were running at the front of the pack (the leader plus a few of the leading lapped runners) had pulled out slightly and thus Douglas was now able to run in a bit of open air, despite now 'only' being second. And nobody else had yet pitted. Douglas was on fresher rubber and thus had successfully undercut the whole field... And with the nature of the pitlane and track, a green-flag pitstop would cost several laps... The lead came on lap 60, with a totally empty track ahead of him (at least until he came upto the lapped runners again). The lapping had to begin again as soon as lap 66, but this time, this happened without incident, and Douglas's lead grew. The final winning margin was 6.576 seconds, the largest it had been all race. Morgan Irvin started 12th and finished a lapped 17th, while Rickie Cooper started 40th and finished a twice-lapped 38th.

Earnings

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Salary      $14400
Winnings    $6000
Merchandise $249
New total   $581,699

Championship positions

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1st Tony Stewart  1278 pts
2nd Douglas Mann  1192 pts - 86
8th Morgan Irvin   910 pts - 368
17th Rickie Cooper 753 pts - 525

Kevin Harvick was challenging Douglas to a Showdown! Kevin said (in an email!), "I've had enough of your reckless driving, I'm calling you out!" How could Douglas refuse? He had never failed to win a Showdown!

Monday 16th April 2007, Nextel Cup, Texas Infield, 3 laps

Douglas initially took the lead, but lost out the the honourable Mr Tony Stewart as he looked for the turning off the oval onto the infield. On the Infield section, however, Douglas accidently tipped him into a slide into a wall, and finished the first lap with a five-second advantage. This was down to one second at the end of the following lap, due in part to trying to slightly cut a corner and driving through gravel. This happened on the final lap too, leading to Douglas loosing his first ever Showdown by 0.368 seconds. Ah well, had to happen sometime, eh? But what's this? Now Jimmie Johnson wants a Showdown too, the following Monday! He said, "Let's settle this rivalry, mano a mano. You can't hide behind your teammates this time. If you're not scared, I'll see you out on the track." This was to be at a track known as Devil's Canyon!

In the meantime, Douglas had a championship NBS race at Phoenix, the Bashas' Supermarkets 200.

[dr-baker]

Wednesday 18th April 2007, NBS, Phoenix, Bashas' Supermarkets 200, Qualifying, round 9/35

Douglas Mann's first lap of 28.007 seconds was faster than his second lap. Still, it was good enough for pole, and that is all Douglas was bothered about.

Saturday 20th April 2007, NBS, Phoenix, Bashas' Supermarkets 200, the race, 50 laps, round 9/35

Douglas took a high line into turn one at the start, which dropped him a few positions, but he regained them all by about lap 3. His lead extended to more than a second quickly. This remained steady until about lap 18-20, when it shrank to 0.5 seconds by the time of his pit stop on lap 25. Douglas emerged from his pit stop into clear air, just behind the two leaders, a lap down. He remained in this gap until lap 32, when he managed to unlap himself (albeit with a bit of door-rubbing against the race leader...). By lap 37, although he was pulling away from the rest of the field, he was wondering whether pitting was the right thing to do. Nobody else had yet pitted, and Douglas was some way from a top-40 result. But there again, he was on fresher rubber, and did not have enough fuel to get to the end of the race (quite...) prior to the pit stop. Thanfully, the pit stops began at the end of lap 40, with Douglas finally retaking the lead on lap 45, with a 15+ second lead. But by now, his tyres were slowing him down and loosing time to the large gaggled of not-quite-lapped cars ahead of him. But Douglas wasn't bothered by this. There was a large gap behind, and if he could avoid incidents with others, so much the better. Douglas eventually won by 14.175 seconds. Rickie Cooper finished a disappointing 21st from 13th at the start (and the penultimate unlapped runner), while Morgan Irvin gained two places throughout the race, moving from 39th to 37th.

Earnings

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Salary      $14400
Winnings    $4269
Merchandise $249
New total   $600,617

Championship positions

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1st. Tony Stewart 1412 pts
2nd. Douglas Mann 1382 pts - 30
13th Morgan Irvin  962 pts - 450
16th Rickie Cooper 853 pts - 559

And now Dale Earnhardt Jr. wants his own showdown against Douglas! Three showdowns in as many weeks! But he'll just have to wait until Douglas has had his showdown against Jimmie Johnson first...

Monday 23rd April 2007, Nextel Cup, Devil's Canyon, Showdown against Jimmie Johnson, 3 laps

The Devil's Canyon reminded Douglas of some of the natural surroundings of Radiator Springs, scene of a lot of Lighting McQueen's local racing. As for Douglas's race against Jimmie Johnson, the starting straight was long and straight, so Douglas won the initial drag race from a standing start and never looked back, to win the three-lap race in a time of 2:54.605, with a winning margin of 1.368 seconds.

Next race: NBS at Talladega for the Aaron's 312
Next Showdown: Earnhardt Jr.!

[dr-baker]

Thursday 26th April 2007, NBS, Talladega, Aaron's 312, qualifying, round 10/35

First lap round took 53.2 seconds. Next time round was a 52.3. Good enough for... 9th. And Douglas is not good at running in packs, particularly at starts, nor does he like Talladega (or Daytona)...

Saturday 28th April 2007, NBS, Talladega, Aaron's 312, the race, 29 laps, round 10/35

On lap 2, having already lost several positions, Douglas got sideways and blocked his opponents. Yellows came out and Douglas was able to continue unharmed. He restarted in 22nd at the start of lap 7. By lap 10, Douglas was running last and about half-a-minute off the lead. The car was also badly damaged by this point. He would be lucky if he wasn't last at the end of the race, regardless of pit strategy. By the time he came in to the pits at the end of lap 14 for fuel, tyres and (a lot of) repairs, he was within a lap of being lapped (which happened as soon as he entered the pits) but was also half a lap from 42nd and penultimate place. Game over with half the race to go? But there again, everybody else was beginning to pit now too - high tyre wear and fuel usage, presumably. But then, a lap after emerging from the pits, the number 33 had a 720 degree spin and brought out full-course yellows. A few cars had yet to pit, but Douglas doubted this would change anything. Oddly Douglas was 41st on the restart. But there were still 10 laps to go... Douglas ended up 25 seconds off the lead in 41st. On the results chart, the last two were a lap down, so Douglas must have regained his lap during the pitstop/full-course yellow period while the other two lost a lap. One of whom was Douglas's teammate, Rickie Cooper, in 42nd, having started only 40th. Morgan Irvin had a comparitively good day, moving up from 24th to 18th... How Douglas ever qualified 9th, he'll never know!

Earnings

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Salary      $14400
Winnings    $528
Merchandise $249
New total   $615,794

Championship positions

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1st. Tony Stewart 1592 pts
2nd. Douglas Mann 1422 pts - 170
12th Morgan Irvin 1071 pts - 521
18th Rickie Cooper 890 pts - 702

Ouch, Douglas is now almost a whole win behind in the championship, having previously been 30 points behind. Still quite a chunk of the championship to go though... Still 66 points ahead of 3rd though, so not too shabby...

Now Elliott Sadler wants a showdown. Is everybody lining up to have a showdown against Douglas Mann? Never mind, Douglas has only been defeated once before (so far...)!

Monday 30th April 2007, Nextel Cup Showdown against Earnhardt Jr, Dockside, 3 laps

The standing start began half-way round the final bend, so a little steering was needed while trying to lay down as much traction as much as possible. But Douglas won this drag race start against Dale. It wasn't an easy race, never leading by more than 0.33 seconds... until the final corner, where Dale suddenly slowed right down, giving Douglas a non-representative 12.485 second lead. Still want to take me on, Mr Sadler?

But now Douglas had a bit of a quandary. Douglas has a clash between Whelen Modifieds qualy AND race, versus just qualy for the next NBS event. Douglas has a 85 point lead in Whelens, and a 170 point deficit to make up in NBS. Douglas will probably race in Whelens to defend that point advantage, while hoping he can race from last to a decent finish in NBS. Is this a good strategy? The two tracks in question are Richmond (NBS) and Old Spice (Whelens). Douglas will definitely go well at Old Spice. And Richmond is not Talladega or Daytona.

[dr-baker]

Wednesday 2nd May 2007, Whelen Modifieds, Old Spice, Door County 150, 25 lap race, round 7/17

Qualifying

Pole position. Yawn. Move on.

Race

Led from lights to flag. 9.546 second winning margin. Nothing else to add. Lou Stanton started and finished 11th. Nate Beasley gained two positions from 18th to 16th. Alan Walker gained one from 19th to 18th. There were few gaining or losing more than a few positions in the race...

Earnings

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Salary      $6300
Winnings    $3111
Merchandise $447
New total   $625,652

Championship

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1st. Douglas Mann 1040 pts + 105
8th. Nate Beasley  833 pts - 207
12th Lou Stanton   758 pts - 282
16th Alan Walker   741 pts - 299

Not a good position for last season's championship runner-up, Alan Walker...

Wednesday 2nd May 2007, NBS, Richmond, Circuit City 250, qualifying, round 11/35

Did not compete. Racing at Old Spice in Whelen Modifieds.

Friday 4th May 2007, NBS, Richmond, Circuit City 250, race, 62 laps, round 11/35

Starting in 43rd and last. But hopefully worth it for extending his lead in the bottom-tiered Whelen Modifieds... It was hard to keep track of his progress in the early laps, suffice it to say that by the end of lap 10, Douglas was well into the top-10, but had been pushed about by a competitor to cost him a second or so, but there was now a gap behind Douglas as the field began to split into groups. (Well into top-10 = 7th) Douglas finally took the lead on lap 24, vindicating his decision to miss qualifying for this race to race in a lower-tier championship which he dominated. Douglas, in this position, normally pits at mid-race distance then waits for everybody elses pits, but on this occasion, decided to wait until lap 38, when he had a 2.4 second lead and was not far away from beginning to lap the backmarkers, just to show his dominant race pace from where he had to start. Douglas emerged, having been lapped by the top-5, but it would not be too long until everybody else pitted... But Douglas knew already that his race pace and overtaking now wasn't too bad so would start to overtake/unlap himself, especially here where he proved he could do it easily enough. This began on lap 45, before Douglas had gone on the attack. Why hadn't Douglas got past? Because he was running at a steady pace and was not needing to take any unnecessary risks. However, on lap 47, the yellows came out for a spin. Douglas recognised one of the cars as being one of those in the top-5 that had lapped him after his pit-stop and from whom he had not unlapped himself (but had subsequantly pitted). Thank goodness Douglas had not taken the risk after all! The race restarted with Douglas in 15th on lap 52, amongst a lot of drivers a lap down... One lap later, Douglas was up to 3rd, with all those ahead coming into the pits for their stops. Douglas resumed the lead a lap later, finding himself in a gap amongst the traffic. He was going to take it easy, with an 8.7 second advantage and less than 10 laps to go. Then on lap 56, Douglas had a 16 second lead?!?! Even better, Douglas was thinking... But at this point, Douglas's gap in traffic had shrunk to nothing as Douglas took to the inside of the car in front, while the car behind was on the inside of Douglas. Three wide into a turn! Douglas quickly backed off and let about 4 or 5 other cars unlap themselves to allow Douglas into a bigger, genuine gap and a lead of 12 - 13 seconds. Only 8 cars were on the lead lap, of 43 starters. An 11.958 second winning margin (around half-a-lap). And Douglas led the most laps, 24. Not bad considering no practice or qualifying and starting last. Well, at least it was more interesting than his Whelen Modified victory... Rickie Cooper didn't have a bad race, progressing from 29th to 16th by race-end, while Morgan Irvin's race let the team down, falling from 10th to 21st in the race. Only one driver didn't complete the race, stopping on lap 53, when the yellows came out. Thank goodness Douglas didn't get involved in unlapping himself, if that was the potential consequence!

Earnings

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Salary      $14400
Winnings    $3439
Merchandise $249
new total   $643,740

Championship placings

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1st. Tony Stewart 1727 pts
2nd. Douglas Mann 1612 pts - 115
11th Morgan Irvin 1171 pts - 556
23rd Rikie Cooper 1005 pts - 722

And would you Adam and Eve it? Now Ryan Newman wants a showdown! OK, so would doesn't want a showdown? Well, Newman will just have to form a line and let Douglas have his nice little showdown with Sadler first... Douglas was wondering whether a Nextel Cup contract would emerge at some point, or whether it might appear later in the season, or whether it was if he took the lead in the NBS championship, or, or, or... Must be soon, mustn't it, if all these Nextel Cup drivers are constantly challenging him to showdowns on a weekly basis?

Monday 7th May 2007, Nextel Cup showdown against Elliott Sadler, Talladega infield, 3 laps.

Always seems to be on the more obscure tracks, these showdowns. But that is no hindrance for Douglas Mann, with a European background, who knows how to turn both left AND right... Twice, momentarily, on the first half-lap, Douglas though he was ahead, but was not, and Elliott Sadler crossed the line at the end of the first lap in the lead. But then, halfway round lap 2, Douglas took the initative and took the lead. He maintained a narrow lead for the next lap, only for Mr Sadler to then back off on the last half-a-lap to give Douglas a 24.785 second winning margin... Douglas wasn't bothered. Three wins in one weekend! Ker-ching!

Next race: NBS at Darlington
Next Showdown: against Newman at Phoenix Infield

[dr-baker]

Wednesday 9th May 2007, NBS, Darlington, DHP (Diamond Hill Plywood) 200, qualifying, round 12/35

Douglas has no recollection of ever having raced or even tested at Darlington, and found the tighter end of the oval tough, and was rubbing the wall around that end. Still, he was fast enough for pole, hoping that his difficulty against the wall (and thus using the full width of the track) would not be a hindrance during the race.

Friday 11th May 2007, NBS, Darlington, DHP (Diamond Hill Plywood) 200, the race, 36 laps, round 12/35

Douglas led in the early stages, but the lead only varied between 1/10 and 1/3 of a second. Douglas found that taking a later turn-in to each end of the oval was advantageous as he could use more of the banking to aid turn-in. By half-race distance, Douglas had built up approximately a one-second lead. At the end of lap 18, Douglas tried to enter the pits, but failed due to leaving the braking too late and getting the approach all wrong. After all, he hadn't tried doing this at racing speeds yet... But because he was now going so much slower than the rest of the pack, to avoid losing too much time and too many places, Douglas 'accidently' hit the end of the pit wall and created a full-course yellow... Douglas was subsequantly also battered by many of the passing field, but when the queue was formed behind the pace car, Douglas was about third or fourth. Perfect time to pit! And get some repairs done. However, most of the rest of the field seemed to have had the same idea. Douglas's repairs would delay him somewhat, so would loose places in the queue behind the safety car! But Douglas restarted 2nd on the lap-22 restart! The restart did not go according to plan, as Douglas slipped down as low as ninth by lap 24. But then Douglas got up to race speed and gradually made his way through the field. By lap 28 or 29, Douglas made a move for second, but got heavily nudged and almost brought out the yellows, but they were thankfully avoided. Lap 33 was significant as Douglas overtook Tony Stewart, his championship rival, for the lead of the race! Stewart remained very close for the remainder of the race, with the largest gap between the two appearing as they crossed the line, 0.268 seconds. Morgan Irvin had a good race, rising from 30th to 9th, while Rickie Cooper had the almost exact opposite race, dropping from 12th to 30th.

Earnings

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Salary      $14400
Winnings    $3628
Merchandise $249
New total   $662,017

Championship places

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1st. Tony Stewart  1902 pts
2nd. Douglas Mann  1802 pts - 100
10th Morgan Irvin  1309 pts - 593
20th Rickie Cooper 1078 pts - 824

Nobody else is lining themselves up for a Showdown for a week on Monday. Maybe this time, they're waiting to see how Douglas does against Ryan Newman at Phoenix Infield.

Monday 14th May 2007, Nextel Cup showdown agianst Ryan Newman on Phoenix Infield, 3 laps

Another showdown, another win for Douglas Mann. This time, Douglas led from start to finish. A 0.938 second lead after three laps. What else is there to add?

No race the following weekend, so next race is a Whelen Modifed race on Wednesday 23rd May 2007 at Redball.

[dr-baker]

Wednesday 23rd May 2007, Whelen Modifieds, Redball, Railway 150, 37 laps, round 8/17

Qualifying

Douglas loved this race track and easily scored another pole. The car was handling perfectly.

The race

Douglas doesn't really understand what went wrong in this race. A slow start saw him drop down to sixth, which is where he still found himself on lap 4. Then he got spun round 360 degrees on the back straight. In a muddle to get going again (there are no pace cars or red flags in this series), he accidently headed down pit road. This put him a lap down. A lap or so later, he saw somebody else having spun in the same place. This distracted him, Douglas had a large spin again (In the middle of a straight? How? There couldn't have been any oil on the track...). With the field right behind, they all piled into Douglas, causing his engine to catch fire and force his retirement. Almost fortuantely for Douglas, Nate Beasley had already retired from the race himself, allowing Douglas to have a 21st place finish. Nate hadn't lost much, having only qualified 17th of 22, while Alan Walker had probably the best weekend of his year so far, moving from 14th to 3rd, while Lou Stanton had an equally good race, from 16th to 5th.

Earnings

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Salary      $7200
Winnings    $635
Merchandise $447
New total   $670,299

Championship

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1st. Douglas Mann 1145 pts + 62
11th Nate Beasley  930 pts - 215
12th Lou Stanton   918 pts - 227
15th Alan Walker   911 pts - 234

For the race where Douglas got a pay rise, he didn't show too well. But he still has the championship lead...

[dr-baker]

Thursday 24th May 2007, NBS, Lowe's, CarQuest Auto Parts 300, qualifying, round 13/35

The qualifying run didn't seem to be quite as smooth as normal, even though the car seemed OK, and this reflected in Douglas's qualifying position of 8th. Douglas was now thinking back to recent rolling starts and restarts and wasn't too hopeful for the start tomorrow, particularly in the pack as he was.

Saturday 26th May 2007, NBS, Lowe's, CarQuest Auto Parts 300, the race, 50 laps, round 13/35

Douglas fell to 13th on the first half-lap, and then continued in this position. He gained two places at the start of lap 3 to run 11th. Douglas got back into the top 10 at the start of lap 6, so progress was there, albeit slow. Lap 16 saw "the big one" happen. Douglas was currently 9th, and there was a gaggle of cars that Douglas was gaining upon. As they were crossing the start/finish line, Douglas's car started fish-tailing all over the place. And if Douglas tried correcting it, the car's tail would simply continue to be out of line the other way. Eventually Douglas ended up tail-sliding up into the pack and having a massive shunt, including facing the field head-on. Fortuantely, and inevitably, the pace car came out, which gave Douglas the chance to come in for repairs, an have his pitstop for fuel and tyres early. Nobody else yet came in, it seemed. So Douglas was now running last, and couldn't quite initially keep up with the restart, so Douglas had a period of quiet running, knowing that the race would come to him through the pitstops. The race restarted on lap 20. At the start of lap 22, those from around 40th-42nd slowled and Douglas almost collected them. He did start tailsliding having made contact with the number 42 (in 42nd! The meaning of life right there?), but because Douglas was at the back, he just waited for the slide to correct itself on the pit exit and there was nobody to have an accident with. This cost Douglas several seconds, but gained one place. It would now definitely be several more laps before he would be drafting anybody else's slipstream... At half-distance, Douglas was still in 42nd, 10.5 seconds off the leader and about a second or two from both 41st and 43rd. In the folling few laps, it became apparent that Douglas was losing a tenth or two to the leaders per lap, but still gaining on a top-40 place. But Douglas knew everybody else still had to pit. The first green-flag pit stop happened at the start of lap 38, and more followed in the laps that followed. Douglas was almost getting worried that they would not pit and that his race strategy was ruined, but he needn't have worried. Douglas finally inherited the lead on lap 43, with a 19-second advantage, but running in the middle of the pack, struggling to keep pace with those on 15-20 laps' fresher rubber. Douglas deliberately started to run round the outside of bends to allow people to unlap themselves, to avoid being wiped out, thanks to his large advantage. So Douglas finally crossed the line with Tony Stewart (in 2nd) reducing his 19 second lead down to just under 7. But Douglas didn't care, he had still won. To finish first, first you have to finish. Winning at the slowest possible speed to look after the car is still a win. Morgan Irvin gained three spots during the race to finish 18th from 21st while Rickie Cooper went from 38th to 30th (although Douglas had spotted him as low as 42nd while Douglas was 43rd...).

Earnings

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Salary     $14400
Winnings   $5176
Mechandise $249
New total  $690,124

Championship

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1st. Tony Stewart  2082 pts 
2nd. Douglas Mann  1987 pts - 95
10th Morgan Irvin  1418 pts - 664
22nd Rickie Cooper 1151 pts - 931

And now, just a fortnight after the previous showdown, Ryan Newman wants another showdown. Sour grapes...

Monday 28th May 2007, Nextel Cup, Showdown against Ryan Newman at Devil's Canyon, 3 laps

Douglas beat Ryan recently, and won a showdown at Devil's Canyon recently, so Dougie felt rather confident about this. And he was right to feel like that, because Douglas led from start to finish. Another showdown down with the opponent shown up.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Now with about 40% of the 2007 season complete, this is how Douglas's NASCAR season is shaping up.

Whelen Modifieds

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Starts:    7
Wins:      4
Top-5:     4
Top-10:    5
Earnings: $57,670

NBS

Code: Select all

Starts:    13
Wins:       7
Top-5:      8
Top 10:    10
Earnings: $236,217

Next event: NBS at Dover, Thursday 31st May 2007

[dr-baker]

Thursday 31st May 2007, NBS, Dover, Dover 200, qualifying, round 14/35

Pole position. Sub-23 seconds. Championship rival Stewart in 21st.

Saturday 2nd June 2007, NBS, Dover, Dover 200, the race, 50 laps, round 14/35

Douglas made a reasonable start by remaining in the lead. He didn't pull away from the field quite as quickly as he would like - he only had a one-second advantage by lap 20. Douglas only got half-way on fuel by lap 23 - that meant Douglas had until lap 46 to fill up, so Douglas decided to see if he could be the last to pit and thus try to lead every single lap of the race, hoping that his tyres would be OK in the meantime. The moment Douglas would get caught in problematic lapped traffic, or his tyres started giving out, he would pit. Unfortuantely, Douglas then started making a few mistakes and running wide round the bends, brushing the wall. Thus he lost the lead, running 4th and 2.3 seconds off the leader. And then when he tried to enter the pits at the end of lap 28, he got the entry wrong and hit the end of the pitwall. Again. And although he managed to quickly get into the pits, the yellows came out. Which would ensure Douglas would stay on the lead lap... The race restarted on lap 32, but worryingly the fuel guage still read less than half-full. Douglas hoped that enough fuel went in... Douglas decided to try to gain a position or two on lap 36, but instead lost 1/4-lap by rubbing doors with the other driver. At least he was in free-air now. But with damage. But with nobody else to damage it against. Douglas was 10 seconds off the lead, so after everybody else pitted, Douglas would still have a healthy advantage. And when the pitstops began at the end of lap 41, this 10 second gap was down to 9. Thankfully, Douglas didn't need another pitstop, and ended up with a victory margin of more than a whole lap! Tony Stewart, Douglas's championship rival, finished 9th, while Morgan Irvin was 30th and Rickie Cooper was a disasterous 41st.

Earnings

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Salary      $14400
Winnings    $3377
Merchandise $249
new total   $708,150

Championship

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1st. Tony Stewart  2220 pts
2nd. Douglas Mann  2177 pts - 43
11th Morgan Irvin  1491 pts - 729
24th Rickie Cooper 1191 pts - 1029

Douglas had also just been awarded a pay rise for NBS championship, going up to $18000 per race.

Next week: both Whelen Modifieds and NBS at Tiburon mini-oval (although not on same day).

[dr-baker]

Wednesday 6th June 2007, Whelen Modifieds, Tiburon Raceway, Dodge Racing 150, 37 laps, round 9/17

Qualifying

Douglas was hoping for a sub-11 second lap, but it was not to be. 11.067 seconds. Still, it was good enough for pole, so it would do.

The race

Douglas ran wide round the first bend, and thus others overtook on the inside. This stopped Douglas taking the inside line at the other end of the oval, and so was running 5th. 4th was quickly his, then had to overtake his teammate Alan Walker for third. It did not end up well, with Douglas ending up in the wall. And by the time Douglas got going again, he was in 22nd and a lap down to the two leaders. 21st came his way easily a few seconds later. Douglas managed to unlap himself on lap 23 and was now not far from moving up through the field. So to eventually finish 10th wasn't bad in a tough race. It wasn't what he wanted, but it was in the top half of the field. Alan Walker ended up third, Nate Beasley was in 6th and Lou Stanton was 19th.

Earnings

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Salary      $7200
Winnings    $1050
Merchandise $447
New total   $716,847

Championship

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1st. Douglas Mann 1279 pts + 21
6th. Nate Beasley 1080 pts - 199
7th. Alan Walker  1076 pts - 203
12th Lou Stanton  1024 pts - 255

And after the next NBS race this weekend at Tiburon, Jamie McMurray was wanting a showdown again. At Devil's Canyon. Again. Douglas would do it, but these showdowns were starting to bore him...

Thursday 7th June 2007, NBS, Tiburon, Dodge Performance 300, qualifying, round 15/35

These NBS cars were slower round here, with Douglas only able to do a 12.666 second lap, again putting him onto pole position.

Saturday 9th June 2007, NBS, Tiburon, Dodge Performance 300, the race, 75 laps, round 15/35

By the end of lap 25, Douglas already had a 4 second lead, and was busy lapping people. It was rather crowded... Douglas came into the pits on about lap 40. Here, the pitlane was on the outside of the oval, underneath the grandstands. Douglas just hoped that, when he emerged from the pits, he could quickly regain his usual inside line, otherwise he could foresee a repeat of the earlier Whelen Modified race. At least this series would have full-course yellows and pace cars... He was able to join in a gap, and adopt his inside line as he emerged from the pits. But this didn't stop some fool from hitting Douglas's right-rear, and putting Douglas into the wall. So out came the yellows! Douglas, at this point, was 2 laps down and in 41st. The restart was lap 46, and by lap 52, Douglas was at the front of the pack, in free air, and now only one lap down. Douglas was hoping the pitstops would start just as he was about to hit the back of the field again. (Not literally hitting, Douglas hoped.) Unfortunately, Douglas was already back onto the back of the pack on lap 56, just four laps later. And if you remember, pole time was 12 or so seconds, so those four laps took less than 1 minute! But the pitstops did start on lap 59. But then, towards the end of the pitstop phase, there was confusion as those entering the pits was crossing the path of those exiting the pits. There was a collision and the pace car came out. When the race went green again, there were less than 10 laps left and Douglas was still a lap down, but in fourth. Douglas quickly got past the three cars in the queue ahead of him, gaining one place and getting onto the lead lap. The race eventually finished with Douglas 3rd and the last on the lead lap, 9 seconds from the leader and the top 2 were seperated by 3.4 seconds. Douglas had led the most laps. At least he beat Tony Stewart, who had the second-highest number of laps led, who finished 7th. Rickie Cooper was 18th and Morgan Irvin was 23rd.

Earnings

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Salary      $18000
Winnings    $3720
Merchandise $249
New total   $738,816

Championship

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1st. Tony Stewart  2371 pts
2nd. Douglas Mann  2352 pts - 19
10th Morgan Irvin  1585 pts - 786
21st Rickie Cooper 1300 pts - 1071

Monday 11th June 2007, Nextel Cup showdown against Jamie McMurray at Devil's Canyon

As the data at the start of the showdown revealed, Douglas had now won 11 showdowns and lost just one. Afterwards, it was 12 wins and 1 loss. Douglas led the first lap by a fraction of a second, then round the first turn of this street track, Douglas suddenly had a 4 second lead, which turned into a 25 second/0.5 lap advantage as the third and final lap began. And Douglas did indeed finish a lap ahead of McMurray.

[dr-baker]

Thursday 14th June 2007, NBS, Meadow Creek, Coyote Run 250, qualifying, round 16/35

A 17.256 second lap around this short, triangular track gave Douglas yet another pole position.

Saturday 16th June 2007, NBS, Meadow Creek, Coyote Run 250, the race, 62 laps, round 16/35

Douglas made a good start and led form the off. In the first half of the race, Douglas brushed the outer wall several times, but without much loss of time. Tyre wear and fuel use here was relatively high, where Douglas had to pit at almost exactly half-distance. So when Douglas pitted on lap 31, he had a lead of 1.7 seconds and was not far off lapping a few of the backmarkers. But with the length of the pitlane almost as long as the track itself, Douglas was lapped himself pretty much as soon as he got to his pit box! A handful of laps later, however, just as Douglas was passing a few cars, he got spun round 180 degrees. This brought out the yellows, but fortunately for Douglas, this put him onto the lead lap, yet still last, i.e. nobody else (he assumed) had yet pitted. The race restarted on lap 42. From a lap later until lap 49 saw everybody else pit, giving Douglas a 1 lap lead and a headache as the field spread now filled the whole track and Douglas seemed to often be used as a bumber car/dodgem. So in the last few laps, Douglas backed off and allowed as many cars as wished to, to pass him. And yet Douglas still won by a lap. Tony Stewart had a bad race, only finishing 12th, while Rickie Cooper finished 20th and Morgan Irvin was 26th.

Earnings

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Salary       $18000
Winnings     $6000
Merchandise  $249
New total    $763,065

Championship

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1st. Douglas Mann  2542 pts
2nd. Tony Stewart  2498 pts - 44
13th Morgan Irvin  1670 pts - 872
20th Rickie Cooper 1403 pts - 1139

Next race: NBS at Milwaukee

[dr-baker]

Thursday 21st June 2007, NBS, Milwaukee, AT&T 250, qualifying, round 17/35

7th place with an 28.424-second lap wasn't what Douglas was expecting. But anything could happen in the race, even if Douglas were to fall to last first, as recent races proved. It wasn't too bad, at least he would have the inside line in the race.

Saturday 23rd June 2007, NBS, Milwaukee, AT&T 250, the race, 62 laps, round 17/35

Douglas made a reasonable start, and slowly made progress through the field to take the lead on lap 6. On lap 14, Douglas fell back to 5th, having never gained more than a few cars' lengths. Again, Douglas made progress, and by lap 29, he and the leader (car 33, with the same title sponsor as Douglas, Old Spice!) had quite an advantage. Douglas was going to pit at the end of lap 31, but Douglas had such a good run, that he decided to be the half-way lap leader instead. So one lap later saw Douglas pit. And he was concentrating on the pit-lane speed limit so hard, yet again he clobbered the end of the pit wall! This time, he couldn't pit immediately and so pitted yet another lap later behind the safety car. These accidents are not deliberate, yet they always seem to work out well for Douglas's race strategy. The race restarted on lap 36 with Douglas in 43rd and last. Even just taking it easy and going wide round the bends, Douglas still climbed up to 40th by the time of the 'regular' pitstops from lap 54 onwards. It was not until lap 59 that the leader pitted and Douglas took the lead again. Thereafter, some of the lapped traffic around Douglas seemed to take un]mbrage and gave Douglas a fair few whacks, but this did not perturb Douglas, who went on to win by 15.050 seconds. Tony Stewart was second, again (it'll be hard for Douglas to build up a championship lead at this rate!). Douglas officially led 15 laps of the race, while Tony Stewart was credited with 32 laps in the lead. Morgan Irvin finished 21st and last of the unlapped, having started 33rd, while Rickie Cooper fell from 11th to 33rd.

Earnings

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Salary      $18000
Winnings    $6000
Merchandise $249
New total   $787,314

Championship Standings

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1st. Douglas Mann 2727 pts 
2nd. Tony Stewart 2678 pts - 49
(3rd place is 421 points behind)
12th Morgan Irvin  1770 pts - 957
21st Rickie Cooper 1467 pts - 1260

Now why did I feel it necessary to point out the gap to 3rd? Because the next race weekend, Douglas has a Whelen Modified race on the same day as an NBS qualifying session. At Daytona. And Douglas NEVER went well at Daytona. So Douglas was expecting to qualify and finish 43rd there anyway. But there are only a maximum of 180 points available for the winner, so Douglas was going to remain a comfortable 2nd in the championship, regardless.

Next races: NBS at Daytona and Whelen Modifieds at Allstate.

[dr-baker]

Thursday 27th June 2007, Whelen Modifieds, Allstate, Aloha 150, 36 laps, round 10/17

This Whelen Modifieds event clashes with Douglas's qualifying session at Daytona in the NBS series. Douglas always stuggled massively at Daytona and Talladega, so he did not consider this a lost opportunity.

Qualifying

Douglas's first of two qualifying laps proved to be quicker at 22.886 seconds, proving good enough, not for pole, but for 5th! So Douglas would not start from pole for either race, but he still had a good chance of a result here, and with potential safety cars and pit strategies in play at Daytona, anything could happen there. Maybe.

W.M. Race

Douglas gained two positions on the first lap, gained another a few laps later, and took the lead on lap 7! But it wasn't over then, as Douglas never gained more than a 0.33 second lead, with 0.15-0.20 seconds being typical. But Douglas came through to win by 0.201 seconds after 36 laps. It turned out that the top 6 were covered by less than a second, but then the rest of the field had become strung out, with the top-10 covered by 5.7 seconds. It was a good day for the Rising Dragons team, with three of the four drivers in the top-10. Nate Beasley was 8th and Alan Walker was 9th, while Lou Stanton was 16th.

Earnings

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Salary      $7200
Winnings    $1650
Merchandise $447
New total   $796,611

Championship

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1st. Douglas Mann 1469 pts + 51
6th. Nate Beasley 1222 pts - 247
7th. Alan Walker  1214 pts - 255
11th Lou Stanton  1139 pts - 330

Is this a comeback for any of Douglas's teammates through the championship? Will any of them become his closest rival for the title? It happened last year with Mr Walker...


Saturday 29th June 2007, NBS, Daytona, Winn-Dixie 250, the race, 25 laps, round 18/35

Not a race Douglas was looking forward to, but Douglas felt a bit comforted by starting last, and thus not being likely to get caught up in any door-banging in the early stages. And it was only at this point that Douglas discovered that his championship rival, Tony Stewart, would be starting from pole... Douglas managed to get as high as 42nd round the first bend (!) then got a good draft down the back straight (albeit now in 43rd and last) before just falling away by the end of the lap. He finished the second lap 17 seconds away from the lead, but gained a place, due to a retirement in the pitlane. By the start of lap 10, Douglas was now 25 seconds behind. OK, so how come Douglas lost so much time on lap 2? That was not field spread. Douglas did not the incident to be known (and being at the back, hoped it would not have been captured on camera) but he had a large brush against the wall that cost him time, but did not damage the car. Lap 11 saw another car retire to the pits, so Douglas gained another place. Top-40? Douglas pitted at the end of lap 14. He had been hoping for a safety car, but none appeared (and there was no concrete wall for Douglas to smash his car against this time...) so he pitted as soon as the tyres showed enough wear. He was by now more than 30 seconds off the lead round this 50-odd second lap. Douglas emerged lapped. But within a lap, he was unlapping himslf, thanks to others' pit stops. The end of lap 21 saw two more cars stop in the pitlane, promoting Douglas to the dizzying heights of 39th! Douglas couldn't believe it! Douglas finished the race on the lead lap, 45 seconds off the lead, in 39th. Now, if Douglas had not attempted this race, he would have been classified 43rd, so it was worth it for that alone. That only meant scoring 46 instead of 34 points, but at the end of the day, that might make the difference... Douglas's teammates both had much better days. Rickie Cooper finished 12th from 13th at the start, while Morgan Irvin moved up from 27th to 11th during the race. Tony Stewart finished second while K. Busch was credited with leading all 25 laps. (Don't ask which Busch, the results list wasn't any more specific...)

Earnings

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Salary      $18000
Winnings    $572
Merchandise $249
New total   $815,432

Championship

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1st. Tony Stewart  2848 pts 
2nd. Douglas Mann  2773 pts - 75
11th Morgan Irvin  1900 pts - 948
19th Rickie Cooper 1594 pts - 1254

So Douglas was still within a handy distance of Mr Stewart in the hunt for the title, with little threat from behind. The next race, at Chicagoland, ought to be less disasterous. At least that's what Douglas was hoping...

[dr-baker]

Thursday 5th July 2007, NBS, Chicagoland, USG Durock 300, qualifying, round 19/35

30.313 seconds - Douglas's time from his second lap which turned out to be the faster of his two laps, good enough for 6th, one place ahead of his championship rival, Tony Stewart.

Saturday 7th July 2007, NBS, Chicagoland, USG Durock 300, the race, 50 laps, round 19/35

Starting 6th meant starting on the outside, and Douglas always lost places while stuck on the outside. So eventually, on the 1st lap, Douglas, after having lost a number of places, tried to move towards the inside of the pack. This only resulted in spins and crashes and full-course yellows. (And single-file restarts.) The race restarted on lap 5 with Douglas in 14th. He lost further places (down to 20th) over the next lap or so as he got up to speed, then started moving up the field again, as far as 16th. He lost one place on lap 11, but gained two as lap 15 began, as two took themselves wide across the start-finish line. Douglas pitted at the end of lap 25 from 14th, 3 seconds behind the leader. Until everybody else pitted, Douglas would be running last and would not know where he would end up... (Last actually being 42nd, not 43rd, due to a retirement). Those pitstops started on Douglas's lap 36. But almost immediately, a rival, who had been running right behind Douglas since his pitstop, suddenly got alongside him and turned quite deliberately into him. Douglas barrelled-rolled once, but then was able to keep going (thankfully). On the restart, Douglas was 27th. A lap later, Douglas got up to 8th as many others pitted, but Douglas was under pressure from behind. He got pushed again, which flipped him onto his roof, into which somebody else crashed. Douglas's race was over this time. So what idf Douglas took a lap or so to get up to speed? The track was wide enough and Douglas was sticking to one line. But never mind, there was nothing that Dougie could do about it. Morgan Irvin had what must have been his best race of the year, finishing 4th. Rickie Cooper also had a great race, finishing right behind Morgan in 5th. What could have been for Douglas... Thankfully for Douglas in terms of the championship, the points lost to the leader was minimal as Tony Stewart fell from 7th on the grid to a finish 35th, having led 9 laps (that's nearly 20% of the race distance!).

Earnings

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Salary      $18000
Winnings    $490
Merchandise $249
New total   $834,171

Championship

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1st. Tony Stewart  2911 pts
2nd. Douglas Mann  2810 pts - 101
10th Morgan Irvin  2065 pts - 846
18th Rickie Cooper 1749 pts - 1162

Not as bad as it could have been, although Douglas could have been so much closer... Que sera sera.

Next race: NBS New Hampshire

[dr-baker]

Thursday 12th July 2007, NBS, New Hampshire, New England 200, qualifying, round 20/35

28.874 seconds on Douglas's first lap was faster than his second and was only good enough for 7th. Well, at least his recent run of poles was now definitely over - less dull for the spectators, he supposed, but not as good for his sponsors.

Saturday 14th July 2007, NBS, New Hampshire, New England 200, the race, 50 laps, round 20/35

The first lap was going well - Douglas managed to get up to 4th before the yellows came out - a backmarker had hit the wall. On the restart, Douglas took about 1.5 laps to take the lead, but on the following lap, he was passed and then nudged into a half-spin while in 3rd. So the yellows came out again... And while this yellow was out, there was a power cut in the media centre, so all race reports then had to be done from memory!* Anyway, after the restart, Douglas and Jimmie Johnson tore away. Douglas remained behind for the majority of the laps until his pit stop just over half-way. (Although Douglas's fuel guage only fell to half-full at half-distance, he knew the fuel would not last without safety cars, thanks to fuel-saving by earlier safety car periods.) Douglas emerged just ahead of the leader, more than 28 seconds behind. By the time the remainder of the field started their pitstop sequence 18-20 laps later (on lap 45 of 50!), this gap was down to about 23 seconds and just gaining on the penultimate runner. Thus, after the final pitstop at the end of lap 49, Douglas ought to have had quite a substantial lead. This advantage would not be reflected in the official timing chart a lap later, however, as the race then finished under yellow as a backmarker spun Douglas round with half-a-lap to go! Douglas wasn't fussed, though. He had won. And he was only credited with leading 5 laps... Tony Stewart, Douglas's championship rival, finished third, while Morgan Irvin was 8th and Rickie Cooper was 32nd.

Earnings

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Salary      $21600 (pay rise!)
Winnings    $4760
Merchandise $249
New total   $860,780

Championship

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1st. Tony Stewart  3076 pts
2nd. Douglas Mann  2995 pts - 81
8th. Morgan Irvin  2207 pts - 869
19th Rickie Cooper 1816 pts - 1260

* - The battery on the PSP went flat, so I had to go to another room to recharge it!

[dr-baker]

Wednesday 18th July 2007, Whelen Modifieds, New Hampshire, New England 100, 25 laps, round 11/17

Starting from pole, Douglas led what turned out to be a dull race for the lead, as Douglas led all 25 laps and won by 5.281 seconds. Nate Beasley started and finished 7th while Alan Walker actually gained a few positions, going from 13th to 9th. Lou Stanton, meanwhile, had a disasterous race. Having started 6th, he finished 22nd and last.

Earnings

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Salary      $7200
Winnings    $2384
Merchadise  $447
New total   $870,811

Championship

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1st. Douglas Mann  1659 pts + 76
6th. Nate Beasley  1368 pts - 291
8th. Alan Walker   1352 pts - 307
12th Lou Stanton   1236 pts - 423

[dr-baker]

I am determined to finish Douglas's second season progressing through the NASCAR ranks, and, eventually, a third season in which Douglas progresses to the NEXTEL/SPRINT Cup. Hopefully leading to a NEXTEL Cup Championship? Clearly won't happen anytime soon, but hope to make a bit of progress before the end of the year! Next race coming up soon!

[dr-baker]

Thursday 19th July 2007, NBS, Martinsville Speedway 250, qualifying, round 21/35

A return to this series, after competing in other series in other time streams (requiring a combination of DeLoreans and TARDISes), saw Douglas competing at a track which was a personal favourite of his. Because he was usually quite competitive there. He turned up after some testing, and the car had been handling beautifully there. His grid position of pole would have suggested the same, but the car was an absolute handful, which Douglas suspected was obvious from outside the car. And usually, Douglas's second lap was faster than his first, but it was not the case this time - both laps were the same to the nearest 10th.

Saturday 21st July 2007, NBS, Martinsville Speedway 250, the race, 118 laps (! - really? Did I really sign up to races of THIS length?! With an ill-handling car...)

Douglas felt that this would be an all-or-nothing race. Either he would be able to keep his lead, albeit constantly by the slimmest of margins, or else he would get shuffled down the pack quickly, get into many skirmishes, and eventually be forced to retire due to car damage. The first bend saw Douglas in first, the second bend saw Douglas in second, the third saw Douglas briefly in third, before reclaiming second. It was a tough first 10 laps, as the leader sprinted away, and a traffic jam forming behind Douglas. And occasionally, Douglas would go round a bend a bit wide, and a car would slip into the gap, demoting Douglas a place. By the time of the yellows on lap 10, Douglas had slipped to fifth. Another yellow came out on lap 20, and this time Douglas had slipped to 8th, having just seen two cars pass him in one bend... It wasn't long before Douglas was demoted to 13th, then Douglas's pre-race fears kicked in. He was being heavily pressurised from behind, and in his haste to defend the inside line, clipped the end of the pit-wall, which led to the following car flipping Douglas's upside-down, ending his race immediately.


Earnings

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Salary      $21600
Winnings    $307
Merchandise $249
New Total   $892,967

Douglas remained 2nd in the NBS championship, 144 points off the leader, Tony Stewart, while 192 points ahead of Kenny Wallace in third.

[dr-baker]

Well, these ill-handling race vehicles tend to crop up every so often in this game, and last a few races, but only long enough to shake up the championship a little. Douglas knew it was something he could make a return from. It was just a question of when...

Thursday 26th July 2007, NBS, Red Ball 300, qualifying, round 22/35

His second lap this time was a tenth faster than his first, and was fast enough to give him pole (again). The car was still carrying the handling deficit from the last race. Whether it was still as bad as before, Douglas was not sure, but hoped that it could be fixed soon...

Saturday 28th July 2007, NBS, Red Ball 300, the race, 75 laps

Well, Douglas made a great start, had a 4-second lead after about 15 laps, lapping after about 25 laps, and accidently tipped a backmarker sideways while in a gaggle of cars. This brought out the yellows, inevitably. The race restarted on lap 31, and Douglas quickly fell to fifth. But he, with the rest of the top-5, started to break away from the pack. Douglas was going to pit at around lap 38-40. But so did everybody else. And Douglas had had experience that pitting at the same time could hold him up with pitlane traffic and getting cut-up, so decided to piut a few laps after everybody else, taking advantage to lead on a low-fuel load for a few laps. However, the plan backfired slightly when several cars exited the pits ahead of Douglas, at a slower pace. Douglas rammed one from behind. This brought out the yellows, at which point Douglas decided that he had better pit. Better to lose places now, and have everybody tightly bunched, rather than pit under green, and potentially lose a lap... The race restarted on lap 47, with Douglas with about a 4.5 second lead! (Many lapped cars presumably...) The lead extended upto 7 seconds, but in the final stages, when Douglas was nor far from lapping the tailenders, he backed off to avoid getting entangled. The eventaul winning margin was 5.6 seconds. Result!

Earnings

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Salary      $21600
Winnings    $6000
Merchandise $249
New total   $920,816

Douglas was now only 33 points off the NBS championship lead, and nearly 300 points clear of third place! Result!

[dr-baker]

Thursday 2nd August 2007, NBS, IRP 200, qualifying, round 23/35

By the end of the last race, Douglas thought that the car's pulling-to-the-right handling problem had been sorted. But it hadn't. Douglas had scored pole, but only thanks to his faster first lap...

Saturday 4th August 2007, NBS, IRP 200, the race, 50 laps

What went wrong? By the end of lap 1, Douglas had fallen to 11th, with no forward momentum whatsoever. Douglas was being battered left, right and centre as others fought to get pat. The yellows quickly came out on lap 2 as Douglas got shuffled down to 17th and very sideways in mid-pack... The restart was better on lap 8. Douglas remained in 17th, pressure-free for several laps, until he had an opportunity to get up into 15th... At which point, Douglas got spun up into the wall, and then hit by the following pack. He was able to get going again as the yellow flags came out. As the race went green again, Douglas was in a steady 16th place, until he pitted at the end of lap 16. But not only were they going to make extensive repairs after the previous accident, but Douglas was also awarded a speeding penalty for entering the pits too quickly... This was going to cost Douglas. Lapped. By the entire field. But Douglas decided to play it steady and held position, drafting/slipstreaming the penultimate runner, albeit a lap down. Everybody started pitting on around lap 36. Just as Douglas was gaining positions, Douglas tangled with the lead car to leave the pits. This sent Douglas rolling sideways 360 degrees and landed back upright on his wheels again. If he had not had those repairs earlier, this probably would have spelt the end of his race, but thankfully he was able to continue. But not for long. The race restarted and almost immediately, in the first few hundred yards, Douglas received a nudge to the rear, turning Douglas onto his roof. Douglas was both angry and outraged!

Douglas was 'credited' with 42nd place, having been 21st at the moment the third yellows came out...

Earnings

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Salary      $21600
Winnings    $906
Merchandise $249
New total   $943,571

Douglas was now 121 points off Tony Stewart, the NBS championship leader, and 172 points ahead of third-placed Kenny Wallace.

[dr-baker]

Wednesday 8th August 2007, Whelen Modifieds, Redball 100, 25 laps, round 12/17

Qualifying. Pole position. That is all.

The race

Fell to 2nd or third initially but quickly regained the upper hand, led the whole race and won by 1/3 of a lap. (5.1 seconds!).

Earnings

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Salary      $7200
Winnings    $3101
Merchandise $447
New total   $954,319

Championship

Douglas now has a 101 point advantage over the second-placed contender, while Nate Beasley is in 7th (326 points behind), Alan Walker (last year's runner-up) is in 8th (370 points behind), and Lou Stanton is 12th (516 points behind).

Douglas has been challenged to a showdown by Dale Earnhart Jnr in Nextel Cup cars to take place next Monday, after this weekend's NBS round at Watkin's Glen.

[dr-baker]

Thursday 9th August 2007, NBS, Zippo 200 at the Glen, Watkins Glen, qualifying, round 24/35

Any handling imbalance tends to be exaggerated on road courses, as far as Douglas was concerned. So he went into qualifying a bit concerned. And this was reflected in his qualifying position - 38th...

Saturday 11th August 2007, NBS, Zippo 200 at the Glen, Watkins Glen, the race, 20 laps

After that qualifying performance, and with the way the car was handling, and with recent race performance in mind, Douglas was not too hopeful for today's race. Any top-40 result would be welcome. The first lap wasn't too bad, finishing it in 30th, having been as high as 29th moments earlier. A slight mistake was made at the Bus Stop chicane on lap 3, while Douglas was in the top-25, that saw Douglas end up plowing through the gravel trap. This resulted in a full-track yellow. The race restarted on lap 7 with Douglas in 21st. A couple of laps later, with Douglas well into the top-20, Douglas was pushed viciously sideways. As the race was neutralised once more, Douglas decided to pit for fuel and tyres, even if it seemed likely that this was a race that might be achieveable without any stops. But this was a precaution and Douglas was hoping that it would be a gamble that would pay off. At least he knew that he could fight through the field, something that he did not forsee before the race. The race restarted on lap 12, and very soon, Douglas rolled slowly onto the car's 'doors', then onto its roof, then all the way back onto its wheels again, having overtaken a few cars into turn 1. This re-demoted Douglas to last, but Douglas just got on with it, taking several laps catching up again with the back of the pack. That barrell-roll had taken quite a bit out of the car, however, and, just as Douglas had caught up with the rest, they all eased up into a bunch. Just a slight tap, and the car could take no more. It gave up the ghost. Douglas was not at all pleased. Particularly as he was running so well early on, and set for a dominant win if everybody else still had a pit stop to go...

Earnings

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Salary      $21600
Winnings    $346
Merchandise $249
New total   $976,514

His championship challenge suffered again - he is now 212 points away from the championship lead, and a mere 61 points ahead of being third.

[dr-baker]

Monday 13th August 2007, Nextel Cup Showdown against Dale Earnhart Jnr, Devil's Canyon, 3 laps

It was the day after Douglas's birthday, and he needed to win this to get his spirits up and sort out his head. This recent run of bad luck was doing Douglas's confidence no good whatsoever. And a failure in this, knowing his history in Showdowns (12 wins, 1 loss), would probably see him disappear in his TARDIS/DeLorean for a while. Douglas took the early advantage, and led the whole race. He crossed the line to start the final lap 0.83 seconds ahead, exited the final corner with a 3.13 second lead, and yet won by 12.85 seconds?! But Douglas was not going to complain. It may have not counted for points towards a championship, but it would give his morale a much-needed boost.

[dr-baker]

I'm continuing on slightly with this. Eventually I'll finish Douglas's 2007 season in America...

Thursday 16th August 2007, NBS, Qualifying, Michigan 250, round 25/35

It was bizarre. It had felt like ages since his last round but the calendar said that it had only been the previous weekend... He knew that he had previously competed in F1RGP2C and F1CC in the 1990s. That wasn't in doubt, it was in the history books (or at least discussed in length on internet forums and listed on Wikis). But he also had premonitions of having competed in some series called F1RWRS. But he couldn't have, it was still 2007 and he thought that that F1RWRS (or whatever it was) had not begun until 2010...

But never mind, he had this weekend to focus on and a second place in the championship to improve on. 212 points behind Tony Stewart, 61 points ahead of third-placed Kenny Wallace and 210 points ahead of fourth-placed Jimmie Johnson, with 180 points for each win.

So after practice, in which the car handled beautifully, Douglas went straight into qualifying. Both laps were 39.7, good enough for 21st. Almost exactly mid-field of this 43-car grid. Douglas is notoriously bad on large ovals like this, and also notoriusly bad at running in a tight pack at the start of NASCAR races. So it was going to be a nervous race on Saturday... There was also a Nextel Cup race on this weekend, but no Craftsman Truck race/qualifying until Monday and no Whelen Modified race until 29th August, so Douglas just had this one event to focus on at the moment.


Saturday 18th August 2007, NBS, Michigan 250, raceday, round 25/35, 31 laps

And here it was, the first race in many, many months, or a week, Douglas didn't seem sure.

The start, hmmm. He got a good slipstream, so pulled out of the pack in the hope of getting past. This backfired as he lost the momentum. So he tried rejoining the pack in the same place (there still seemed to be a gap, honest!) but Douglas misjudged it and got spun round. Little damage occured, but the full-course yellow came out anyway. The race restarted on lap 5, under a single file. The first lap was relatively unnoteworthy, losing a place to 25th, then regaining 24th before the lap was over. Several laps later, Douglas was following the number 33 car, and was in 21st again (i.e. slow but steady progress was being made). Douglas and the 33 made a place or two up together, and then Douglas had a good run on him and made it past... Only to be spun round. Again. So there was another full-course yellow... Douglas was just surprised to still be in the mid-field at this point of the race! Anyway, it was now lap 12 when the race re-resumed. It was an awful restart this time, however, falling to 41st within a lap or so, and then fell to last after suffering a HUGE tankslapper (provoked by a tailend charlie). And as lap 15 came to a close, Douglas decided to pit (even though the fuel and tyre readouts were reading OK at this point). He seemingly had nothing to lose at this point, and everything to gain. After emerging from the pits, by the time he got up to speed, he had been lapped by everybody, barring 3 cars. Two were close on his tail, so he decided to just let them go so he could run his own race. It turned out that one of those two cars was the 33, which made Douglas smile, knowing that both of their races were ruined, not just his! Anyway, everybody else started pitting 10 laps later. By lap 27, Douglas was back on the tail of the field. Can you guess what happened next? A spin and a full-course yellow! Twice! And Douglas made it home in 42nd out of 43. If only the race had been declared at the second full-course yellow... Maybe if only Douglas had pitted for repairs then... But that was that. Oh, and the 33 car eventually finished in 34th.

Earnings

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Previous Total     $976,514
Salary             $ 21,600
Race Winnings      $    476
Merchandise Income $    249
New Total          $998,839

If only Douglas had had a better race/had been lees NASCAR-race-rusty/whatever other excuse, he could have passed a million dollars in earnings at this race! But it'll just have to happen next time...

Championship Standings

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1st Tony Stewart   3697 pts
2nd Kenny Wallace  3389 pts -308
3rd Douglas Mann   3332 pts -365
4th Jimmie Johnson 3245 pts -452
5th J.J. Yeley     3038 pts -659

So second is a realistic target for the next few rounds, with the title still to aim for if Douglas can be good, and consistently so.

[dr-baker]

Monday 20th August 2007, Craftsman Trucks, Bristol, O'Reilly 200, round 17/25

Today was always going to be about qualifying. Dale Earnhart Jnr had offered to compete in a showdown against Douglas Mann around the Daytona Infield, but Douglas considered championship events to be a bit more significant. OK, so he would be missing the qualifying session on Wednesday for the NBS championship, but only because the race for this championship would be happening that day!

But then Douglas turned up in Bristol to discover that he was not competing in this series this year! It just featured on his NASCAR calendar of NASCAR-sanctioned events... So Douglas thought, "What the heck," and decided to allow Dale Jnr to have his silly little showdown. After all, Douglas did have a good strike rate at these showdowns: 13 wins, 1 loss. What could go wrong?

Monday 20th August 2007, Showdown against Dale Earnhart Jnr, Nextel Cup, Daytona Infield, 3 laps

Ended up with the usual story. Decent start, closely followed by rival for the first two laps (a steady gap of around a third of a second), then ends up with a margin of more than 15 seconds on lap 3. Job done. 14 wins, 1 loss. Now why couldn't it have been that easy in Michigan?

[dr-baker]

Wednesday 22nd August 2007, NBS, Qualifying, Bristol, Food City 250, round 26/35

So, a smaller oval. Douglas was going to enjoy this. And he did when he easily scored a pole position. Not quite as fast as he went in his few laps of practice, but it was definitely fast enough. Douglas felt quietly confident of a good race...

Friday 24th August 2007, NBS, race, Bristol, Food City 250, round 26/35, 62 laps

It wasn't the best start of the race. Douglas had a bit of understeer in the early stages, caused by turning in too soon into either end of the oval. This cost him a few places. But Douglas soon got into a rhythm and fought his way back up to the lead. Lap 40 saw him catch the back of the pack to lap, and dramatically. He had been gradually catching over a number of laps, and then suddenly, he was able to gain several hundred yards in next-to-no time, nearly smashing into the back of the pack. The next lap or so saw Douglas really struggle to make any progress lapping the tailenders. Douglas decided that this was the best time to pit, but the backmarker interferred his entry to the pits (reminiscient of Schumacher and Vettel in Belgium 2012...), and Douglas smashed into the end of the pit wall, having not got enough lock on to make into the pits properly. Thus out came the yellows. At least, Douglas thought, I won't go a lap down. And time to get the repairs done hopefully... But it was going to drop him to last, on the tail of the pack. But with everybody due to pit under green? The race got going again on lap 44. Douglas deliberately made no attempt to overtake or challenge the driver who was barging him about earlier. And other drivers started pitting from lap 49, which put a smile on Douglas's face. He would have a significant lead, without needing to overtake anyone on track and driving up to half-a-second off the pace... A whole lap winning margin. Douglas was content, having apparently only led half of the 62 laps.

Earnings

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Salary      $   25,200
Winnings    $    3,783
Merchandise $      249
New Total   $1,028,071

Douglas now had career earnings of over a million dollars! His aim now was to enter the Nextel Cup for 2008 and to run his own race team as well.

NBS Championship

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1st Tony Stewart    3867 pts
2nd Kenny Wallace   3554 pts -313
3rd Douglas Mann    3522 pts -345
4th Jimmie Johnson  3372 pts -495
5th J.J. Yeley      3213 pts -654

So that poor race last time out makes it harder for Douglas to regain momentum in the championship, but 2nd is still achievable, even if the overall championship seems less so.

And, as seems to be an almost weekly event, Douglas was to compete in a Sowdown on the following Monday morning, this time against Matt Kenseth, at the 'Dockside' track. Doulas liked that track. He was confident of making the score 15 wins, 1 loss.

[dr-baker]

Monday 27th August 2007, Showdown against Matt Kenseth, Nextel Cup, Dockside, 3 laps

What's there to say? Douglas won again... But there were two differences. At the start of the second lap, Kenseth made an attempt at an overtaking manoeuvre, there was a bit of BTCC-style door-banging but Douglas came out ahead. And the other difference is that Kenseth reamin within a third- to half-a-second all the way to the chequered flag. There was no backing off in the last lap to create a 15+ second winning margin.

[dr-baker]

Wednesday 29th August 2007, Whelen Modifieds, qualifying and race, Meadow Creek, round 13/17, 25 laps

It definitely felt like a long time since Douglas raced one of these, even though the NASCAR schedule said that it had only been 3 weeks... He entered the event with a 101-point advantage over the second-placed Rodney Clay and 213 points over the third-placed Travis Haley.

Practice reminded Douglas that Meadow Creek was one of those tracks where, if he could qualify on pole and make a decent start, he would have a good race. But if he didn't, well, it was traditionally a race where he was going to finish either first or last... Qualifying made the first part of that easier, giving him the pole position.

And the race... did not go exactly as Douglas expected. It was a poor start and fell to fourth. He tried to retake 3rd a few laps into the race, but ended up in the wall, and fell... to sixth, and almost half-a-lap behing the two runaway leaders. Douglas then just stayed out, until lap 14, when he noticed a long line of cars moving slowly in single file around the inside line of this short, banked, triangular track. So Douglas simply continued at racing speed and went round the outside (this series seems to have no pit stops or yellows). It turned out that someone was pulling into the pits to retire and everybody just formed a line behind him. Anyway, Douglas ended up finding himself in third, in a large gap by himself. He finally caught up with the two leaders (who themselves were lapping others) on the final lap of the race, so Douglas ended up spending the final half of the race in a quiet 3rd place. Sorted.

Earnings

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Salary      $    7,200
Winnings    $    1,921
Merchandise $      447
New Total   $1,037,639

Whelen Modifieds Championship positions

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1st Douglas Mann     2014 pts
2nd Rodney Clay      1903 pts -111
3rd Travis Haley     1826 pts -188
4th Lyle White       1766 pts -248
5th Marvin Humphreys 1729 pts -285

Not a big extension to the lead, but it's getting bigger...

[dr-baker]

Thursday 30th August 2007, NBS, California, Ameriquest 300, qualifying, round 27/35

Another large oval, Douglas's wekaness. Still, 9th place with a 39.918 (his first lap was 40.x seconds...) was better than it was two NBS races ago, at Michigan.

Saturday 1st September 2007, NBS, California, Ameriquest 300, race, round 27/35, 37 laps

Well, it was a type of race that Douglas was not used to. Most races in Douglas's NASCAR career involved either dominating from the front or falling to the rear and either staying at the back or fighting all the way to the front. Falling from 9th to 24th (poor gearing perhaps?), then running in a steady midfield position for many laps was something Douglas had not done since his F1CC and F1RGP2C days (plus his F1RWRS days if he is indeed a time traveller between these series!). And it remained uneventful until about lap 16 or 17th, when Douglas was 22nd and making a move for 21st. A slight tap sent Douglas into the wall and bouncing off into the following pack. Thankfully Douglas was able to continue as the full-course yellows came out, at which point, everybody pitted. Douglas was hoping that he would be the sole pitter, then an easy win might be his as everybody else pits under green, but it isn't to be this time. The race restarted on lap 20 with Douglas in... 9th! Despite also taking on repairs during that pitstop, Douglas gained more than 10 positions! And on the restart, he only lost 2 positions, down to 11th, unlike the first start of the race. The next 10 laps saw Douglas gain 2 positions, up to 9th, before getting sideways on the grass across the start/finish line. The rest of the race saw Douglas remain in a steady 11th. A very unusual race, Douglas comfortably racing uneventfully in a steady mid-field position!

Earnings

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Salary       $   25,200
Winnings     $    1,248
Merchandise  $      249
New Total    $1,064,336

NBS Championship positions

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1st Tony Stewart    3998 pts
2nd Kenny Wallace   3681 pts -317
3rd Douglas Mann    3652 pts -346
4th Jimmie Johnson  3522 pts -476
5th J.J. Yeley      3328 pts -670

Douglas seems to have only lost one further point to Tony Stewart and gained about 4 on Kenny Wallace. Whether he can regain 2nd is not sure yet, but the points gaps seem to suggest that he may remain in the top-5 easily for the season. Can this gain Douglas a Nextel Cup seat for 2008? Only time will tell.

[dr-baker]

wednesday 5th September 2007, NBS, Richmond, Emerson 250, Qualifying, round 28/35

Not a massive super-speedway meant that Douglas was easily able to score pole. Yay!

wednesday 5th September 2007, NBS, Richmond, Emerson 250, race, round 28/35, 62 laps

The first half of the race was eacy for Douglas. He led the whole first half of the race to lap 31, with a maximum lead of almost 1.1 seconds, but never really had his lead challenged. The last few laps of the stint saw Douglas lose out a bit, though, with Douglas losing the lead as he braked for the pit entry. He came out lapped and in the middle of the pack, where Douglas is notorius for getting into clashes, particularly when there is a speed differential (as there is emerging from the pits!). So naturally Douglas was sent sideways on the back straight and the pace car came out. Douglas found himself at the back of the pack in 43rd, but unlapped, on the restart at the start of lap 38. Douglas struggled to keep up initially but when he caught back up, he wondered whether everybody else had pitted under the pace car (this PSP game does not show what happens on the pace car laps). In case they had, Douglas decided he had better start making up lost places. By lap 47, he had made it upto 20th, when... No, he did not crash again! Everybody started making their pit stops! By lap 53, Douglas had retaken the lead, and his advantage was now a whole lap! So he decided caution was the way forward and just held position relative to the cars around him and that is how the race finished. Simples!

Earnings

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Salary      $   25,200
Winnings    $    3,439
Merchandise $      249
New Total   $1,093,224

NBS championship Positions

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1st Tony Stewart   4149 pts
2nd Douglas Mann   3842 pts -307
3rd Kenny Wallace  3820 pts -329
4th Jimmie Johnson 3634 pts -515
5th J.J. Yeley     3446 pts -703

Top-3 is looking pretty certain for Douglas now, yet first place is looking highly unlikely at this stage, where one wins 180 points for a win.

At this stage, Douglas noticed that there were three Craftsman Truck races that did not interfere with the rest of his schedule, and with Germain Motorsports offering $9680 per race, plus 14% of merchandise sales and 18% of winnings, it might help with any future plans of team ownership in the next season. (Three other teams had offered contracts - Rossi Racing offered a salary of $6489 plus 1% of merchandise and 10% of winnings; MAG Incorporated offered $8800 per race plus 9% of merchandise and 15%of winngs; Evernham had put on the table $9240 with 11%of merchandise and 16% of winnings.) i.e. This was three races purely for the money! And when there was a signing on bonus of $9,832, even if he were to do nothing, how could he refuse!

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New Bank Total:   $1,103,056