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(Bill W) October 4, 2010 – Somehow the Riverside International Speedway in West Memphis, Arkansas had escaped Brian Brown’s racing calendar up until last weekend. He made a good impression at “The Ditch” by leading some of the prelim at the “Rock ‘N Roll 50” Friday night before mechanical difficulties sidelined him. He bounced back with a second place finish in the 50-lap finale on Saturday. The Grain Valley, Missouri driver is weighing his options for racing this weekend.
Brian’s first trip to the famed ¼ mile oval was met with a bad draw. He was able to overcome that by driving from fifth to second in his heat race. “We were fortunate to be in the fifth heat,” he says. “The earlier ones had a narrow track. The heat before ours, Tony Bruce and Danny Wood were able to come from the back, so we knew it could be done. I had heard a lot of horror stories about ‘The Ditch’ being a one-lane track, but I was pleasantly surprised. It was racy all weekend.”
The Knoxville track champ’s luck turned when he drew the pole for the preliminary feature. “We knew going in, we wanted to be in the top four and get locked in,” says Brian. “We were decent the first couple of laps, but then we blew the bump rubber off of the left rear. The car started acting weird off the left rear shock.”
Brian was the early leader, but it wouldn’t last long with the way the car was handling. “I think we led the first 10-12 laps, but we weren’t great,” he says. “We got in an accident with Josh (Fisher) there, and that wasn’t good for either of us. We shouldn’t have been in that spot anyway. We should have been better from the get go. We left disappointed. When you have the chance we did with the ASCS guys, you need to put the nail in the coffin.”
The finale on Saturday paid the big bucks, and Brian would start outside row three in the heat. “We drew worse (than Friday), and knew we had Zach Chappell and Matt Covington in the heat,” he says. “We definitely had to get going. I also knew that our starting spot was good if we wanted to be in the redraw for the top two heat spots.”
Brian and the FVP #21 team got the job done by charging to second. “We were able to have a good race with Zach for a couple of laps and get by him for second,” he says. “We were able to run Matt down, and we were in striking distance by the end. I felt good going into the feature.”
A draw of three him in the second row, and in position to win the coveted custom Gibson guitar that goes to the winner. “We fell in line there for awhile,” says Brian. “I knew 50 laps was a long race. We had a caution about four laps in. Everyone was on the bottom, so I put it up on the fence, and we were able to sneak around Tony Bruce and get back in line (in second).”
With defending champion Tim Crawley out front, the task to pass him would prove to be a tall one. Brian settled for a very respectable second place finish. “We had another caution, and I tried the same move on Crawley,” he says. “I just never could get to him to clear him. Looking back, I didn’t want to do anything stupid at that point, but maybe I should have taken the chance. But finishing second was solid, and that makes us look forward to the big races coming up, especially Little Rock.”
In the end, Brian enjoyed his trip to “The Ditch” and built some confidence heading into some big races coming up. “Tony Bruce did a great job with the promotion and he had a great crowd,” he says. “My only shot to beat Crawley was if he had some bad luck. I give their team all the credit, and they were able to take the guitar home.”
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