Little Rock, Ar - October 30, 2006... Grain Valley, Missouri’s Brian Brown bounced back from a pair of rough prelims to charge forward and score a well earned second place finish in Saturday’s 40 lap Short Track Nationals finale at I-30 Speedway in Little Rock, Ar.
Constant rains on Thursday forced officials to cancel the night’s action and the decision was made to run a preliminary program on Friday night, then come back Saturday afternoon and run another prelim before adding up points and running Saturday’s finale as scheduled.
The passing points structure is used at the Short Track Nationals which meant is was crucial to move forward every time you hit track. With 100 cars in competition it meant 10 heat races would be needed. Brian was in the sixth heat race and started way back in the 10th position. Blackjack did a nice job to move forward and after 10 laps he finished fifth in the Tim & Gina Doogs, American Compressed Steel, Diablo Energy No. 21 Maxim. The finish earned him enough points to score a front row starting spot in qualifying race four. Brian got the jump and appeared to be on his way to winning the race and getting an A-main starting spot when disaster struck. With just a couple laps left a mechanical issue caused Brian to wreck and unfortunately put an early end to the night.
Brian and the team came back Saturday afternoon looking to make up for the rough luck encountered the night before. Brian started his heat race in eighth and had to deal with a typical day time track that made passing opportunities limited. Brownie got up to sixth by the finish and it then set him up to run one of the four last chance races. He started on the front row, got the jump and never looked back as he drove the Ditzfield Transfer, Hostiowa.net, McKenna Truck Center No. 21 Maxim to a dominating flag to flag win. The only problem was that he now had to start 11th in qualifying race two and the track had become increasingly harder to pass on. Brian was able to get up to eighth by the finish but his point total for the day wasn’t enough to get a main event starting spot.
The track crew did some maintenance on the track, point totals were added up and we were ready to go with Saturday night’s Short Track Nationals finale.
Blackjack started fifth in the night’s seventh heat race and utilized a strong run to finish it in second. The great heat race finish put Brian into the night’s first qualifying race where he started seventh. Brian was on his game as he powered his way through field to put the Yeager’s Harley Davidson, Weld Racing, Butler Built Performance, Ostrich powered Maxim into second place at the finish.
The two second place finishes gave Brian a tenth place starting spot in the 40 lap $15,000 to win Short Track Nationals A-main event. Brownie wasn’t about to waste his first feature starting spot of the weekend and that was apparent within the first few laps as he was on the move early. He diced it up within the first few laps and was up to seventh by a lap nine red flap period. The race then featured a long green flag run and the racing was intense. Brian carved his way forward and made it up to fourth when the final caution of the night waved on lap 34. He had gotten around Darren Stewart for third prior to the caution but had to go back behind him as the lap reverted back. Not to be discouraged Blackjack kept at it after going back green and would make the pass of Stewart for third on lap 35. He held down the third position as the white flag waved but was able to take advantage and move into the runner-up spot when the second place car flipped in turn one. At the checkered flag Brian brought the American Compressed Steel, Ditzfield Transfer, Diablo Energy No. 21 Maxim home in second place!
This puts an end to Brian’s 2006 US racing season and what a season it was.
Brian wants everybody to know how gracious he is for all the help and support this year. "I want to thank Tim, Gina and Terry Doogs for giving me an opportunity to race for their team and I’d also like to thank all of our marketing partners for making this year a success; being able to win 15 races this year was amazing."
-To learn more about Brian Brown visit his website at http://www.brianbrowninc.com