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Brian Brown – Back to Jackson! 

(Bill W) May 17, 2010 – Two podium finishes in a pair of nights racing the 410 sprint car highlighted Brian Brown’s weekend in the FVP #21.  A third at the Rapid Speedway in Rock Rapids, Iowa on Friday, and a second at the Knoxville Raceway highlighted a solid weekend.  This Friday, Brian and the team will head north again to compete at the Jackson Spring Nationals in Minnesota on Friday, before returning to Knoxville. 

The bullring in Rock Rapids was packed with fans on Friday for a 410 show paying $2,500 to the winner.  “Bill Mellenberndt and the guys involved in the 410 shows at Rock Rapids and Hartford (South Dakota) are doing a good job with the little series they are promoting,” says Brian.  “Everything around home was rained out, so we decided to make the trip up.” 

A heat win from the pole started things off on Friday.  “We got lucky with the draw,” says Brian.  “It’s a tough track.  It’s nice and wide and smooth, but the configuration is different.  It was tough to put the car where I needed to.” 

Brian drew the inside of row five for the feature and had problems at the start.  “The pill draw wasn’t good to us,” he says.  “We drew nine out of twelve.  On the original start, we didn’t get going like we wanted to.  We almost got into some other cars and got over the bank.  We were twelfth or thirteenth by turn two.” 

He rebounded, and took advantage of a restart without the cone on lap four.  Though some deemed his good restart a jump, officials did not.  “We were able to get back up to eighth, when there was a yellow on lap four,” he explains.  “They said at the drivers’ meeting that when the leader goes on the restart, everyone goes, and that’s what I did.  There was no cone.  It was ‘game on’.  When (leader Gregg) Bakker went, I went.  We were running third by the time we got to turn four.” 

A good battle ensued with Sioux Falls native Chad Meyer for the runner-up spot.  “We were able to get by Chad for second, and then we got into some lapped cars,” says Brian.  “I made a few bad decisions, and we ended up third.  (winner) Gregg did a good job.  He had the fastest car.” 

A dry-slick surface awaited competitors on Saturday at Knoxville.  A late draw for qualifying didn’t bother Brian, and he timed in fifth.  “I wasn’t worried about our bad number,” he says.  “I knew if our car was good, we would be o.k.  I was actually kind of happy to see it slick.  Usually, when the Outlaws come, that’s the way it is.  It’s nice to get some laps on a track like that.” 

A fifth place run in his heat set him up outside of row three for the 20-lap feature.  Early on, Brian battled for second.  “I felt like we had a good shot going in, as long as the track didn’t take rubber too soon,” he explains.  “We got a good start and we were able to get by David Gravel for second.  We had a restart, and I felt like I made some bad decisions that could have cost me a win.  I was impatient, and we fell back to fourth.” 

A battle for third with Lynton Jeffrey ensued, before Brian regained his momentum and rebounded up to second behind Mark Dobmeier.  “When I was racing Lynton for third, David was racing Dobmeier for the lead,” he says.  “I felt if I was more patient early, that would have been me up there.  The last several laps we had a wire tie break that holds the throttle linkage.  The throttle was stuck ¾ open.  That made it tough to run close with the lap cars.  The last six laps I had to be content to run second.” 

As he was racing and the track drew more and more rubber, Brian recalled an incident from a few years ago.  “I think I about burnt the brakes off the thing,” he says of Saturday.  “I didn’t want to take any chances in getting out of the rubber, and losing positions.  I did that once in 2006, and we ended up losing the point race by five.” 

Brian has fond memories of Jackson Speedway and is looking forward to Friday and the $5,000 to win Spring Nationals.  Some of the competition will include Sammy Swindell, Billy Alley, Gregg Bakker, Clint Garner, Wade Nygaard, Chad Meyer and others.  “Jackson is always a really good track,” says Brian.  “It’s always wide so you can do some passing.  Folkens Brothers Trucking and Van Wyhe Livestock always put on a great event up there, and this year won’t be any different.  Hopefully, the weather conditions will be much better than the 50 m.p.h. winds were last year.  I ended up on the meat wagon!  There are a lot of tough cars up there, so nothing’s going to be easy.”