Lady luck smiled at Michael McDowell this weekend in Las Vegas as he was able to shake off a string on mechanical problems and contact from another driver to score his first career victory in the Fran-Am 1600 Championship.
McDowell, fresh from the Karting ranks and already making a name for himself in his first year of competition in formula cars, had to hope his fortunes would change as he entered the weekend after electrical problems sidelined him while leading at Portland and would continue to haunt him through the Buttonwillow weekend, before coming to Las Vegas for rounds four and five of the Fran-AM West Coast Championship. “We hadn’t been able to show our full potential the last few weekends because of the intermittent problems, and despite our best efforts this weekend started rough as well, but we still managed a fourth-place finish in the race on Saturday and the crew pulled a late night to locate the problem,” McDowell commented. “Once we took to the track on Sunday I knew we’d be contenders.”
Starting from third on the grid, after sitting on the pole position for much of the qualifying session, McDowell quickly jumped into second place, challenging for the lead when third-place driver Keith Nunes used the back of McDowell’s World Speed Motorsports/MMI Karting/Mega Metals/Western Titanium Fran AM car as a launching pad, getting airborne after striking the right rear tire. Watching from the pit lane, Team Manager Telo Stewart thought this day might be cut short as well. “I felt helpless as I watched Nunes pull out to try to make the pass and the next thing I saw was his wing and front suspension flying through the air,” Stewart said. “The race was blacked flagged while they cleaned up the incident but amazingly McDowell’s car came through without a scratch.”
When the race restarted McDowell jumped back into the battle, challenging Barber for the lead right away before finally taking command of the field two laps later. Once clear of traffic McDowell was able to stretch his lead to take the checkered flag five seconds ahead of the field. “This victory is sweet,” McDowell exclaimed, “We were so close to victory at Portland, and the entire team has worked so hard to track down the demons that have plagued us. This is the best way to reward their work this weekend.”