Mark Douglas
Mark Douglas has enjoyed his share of success on the dirt tracks around east Tennessee. However, the Knoxville driver has seen a drop off in the results produced by his team over the past couple of seasons. But the veteran Dirt Late Model pilot believes he has the remedy to cure his ailing program.
Over the winter, Douglas took delivery of a new Rocket Chassis to replace the one that had failed to run up front. The new #52 machine will debut in the Ultimate Super Late Models event at Smoky Mountain Speedway on March 28th.
“We finished out the year with our other car, which was an orange style front end Rocket,” Douglas explained during a recent test session at 411 Motor Speedway. “We actually got this one in December and it’s the new style, the blue front end car like everybody’s running now. We just got it together about three weeks ago. We came here to 411 to give it a shakedown before next week at Smoky Mountain.”
Unfortunately, persistent wet conditions prevented Douglas from taking the car onto the track on that particular day. So what will the driver be looking for when he finally does get the new car on a speedway?
“You’re just trying to get a feel for the different characteristics of different cars,” Douglas said. “They’re all a little bit different and what one car likes versus another car may not be the same. Driving styles are different with every driver and it just takes something that will fit your driving style. I just want to get a feel for the new car and see what it’s like.”
Douglas hopes his fortunes will improve in the coming season with the new ride in his stable.
“I hope that this new car will turn it around for us,” he declared. “We’ve been struggling for the last couple of years and we’ve tried a lot of new things. Hopefully we can turn our luck around so we can start getting the top-fives like we used to.
“But nowadays it’s so hard,” Douglas continued. “With the caliber of competition you’ve got around here today, if you’re running in the top-5 you’re doing good. You’ve got to race a lot, like seventy or eighty times a year, just to keep up with these guys. We’re lucky to even get to race so if we can run 25 times a year against these cars and get a good finish, we’re pretty happy.”
The new No. 52 Rocket for Mark Douglas
Douglas plans to keep his efforts close to home during the early part of the year. But the new Rocket could find itself on tracks farther from his home base as the season progresses.
“Once we start with this new car and we see how we’re going to do, we’ll decide more,” Douglas said. “We’re planning to run at Bulls Gap, Smoky Mountain and here at 411 in the Super Late Model races they have scheduled. We’ll see how that goes and then decide on what else we might do. We could almost race for $3,000 or $5,000 every weekend right here in this area.
“Once we get going and hopefully make a little money, we can venture out to places like Boyd’s and Cleveland where I used to run quite a bit. We’re just trying to get back on our feet. Hopefully the driver can still drive it, but he’s getting a little older,” he concluded with a chuckle.
