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(Bill W) September 7, 2010 – Brian Brown and the FVP #21 race team had their “Labor” pay off last Holiday weekend as they were awarded with the 410 Knoxville Championship Cup at the Knoxville Raceway in Iowa. To top the night off, they got the feature win as well. They also were in Victory Lane on Friday night at the I-80 Speedway near Greenwood, Nebraska and finished off the weekend with a charge to third in the Lake Ozark Speedway 360 Nationals in Missouri.
Brian entered Saturday night at Knoxville with an 81-point lead. The week before, when he was taken out on the first lap of the feature, reminded the team that anything can happen. “It was a long week after rebuilding the car,” says Brian. “Chad (Morgan), Kelby (Hopkins) and all the guys did a great job, as always. I really don’t like points racing until November when you get your check. Eighty points seems like a lot, but it really isn’t. You don’t try to think about it, but you can’t help it either.”
The Grain Valley, Missouri driver put himself in position to not be denied his goal. “We were able to get through qualifying (6th) and the heat (2nd) unscathed,” says Brian. “That put us on the pole of the A with the invert being six. We just knew that we’d be in good shape unless something bad happened.”
Brian chased early leader Skip Jackson. “Skip was able to get out to the lead and he set a good pace,” he says. “I felt the car would get better the longer the run we had. It seemed like when we got to some good traffic, the yellow would come out.”
Finally, after a number of restarts, Brian made the winning move. “He was doing a good job on the restarts, and I couldn’t get a good enough run to slide in front of him in one and two,” he says. “The one time I did, the yellow came out. I think when I got beside him…that may have changed his thinking on the next restart. He went through the middle, and I rode around the top. I got a good run off of two, and I was able to slide in front in three and four.”
The 410 title is special because it is Brian’s first as a car owner. “We had won with the Doogs (2007), but to go back and win it with this team was special,” he says. “We built this team with FVP, Searsboro Telephone Company, Maxim and all of our great partners. We couldn’t do it without FVP and all of our partners. It gives you a real feeling of accomplishment with all the hard work that the team puts in. They work hard all winter long, and at Knoxville we always have Glenn (Wignall), Derek (Beckman) and Jacob (Engel).”
The previous night at I-80 went well. “It’s no secret that I-80 has been one of my favorite tracks over the years,” says Brian. “We’ve had some good success there. Usually it gets up on the fence and you have to get after it. Friday was no different. We started seventh in the heat, and we were actually in contention with Lee Grosz on the last lap for the win, but ended up second.”
The redraw put Brian outside of row two for the feature. “We were able to get into second there early behind Chad (Humston),” says Brian. “Chad, Mark (Burch) and Marvin (Brees) have a really strong team. Going into their territory is always tough, and they’ve been fast all year at Knoxville too. But we were able to get by him.”
There was a late scare. “We had a caution with about twelve laps to go, and Chad gave us a slider,” says Brian. “We were able to turn back underneath him. In the end, we were able to win by about a straightaway. It was a good way to get the weekend rolling.”
Sunday’s LOS Nationals saw a format where Brian drew last (9th) in his heat. He had to win the heat just to make the dash, and only the top three transferred to the feature. “It really has been one of the silliest formats for a big event that you see,” he says. “I think they are going to passing points next year, which is a step in the right direction. In the end, I guess it worked out.”
There was trouble that eliminated any chance at hot laps. “We broke a rocker arm warming up the engine, so we missed hot laps changing that,” says Brian. “You always want to get out there and make sure things are o.k. with the car and take a look at the track, but unfortunately, we didn’t get to do that.”
Brian got a break when another competitor couldn’t start up front in the heat. Starting eighth, he was able to take the lead late in the going and win. “It was a good feeling,” he says of his run. “I think it shows where we are at as a team with the motor change and everything thrown in. We tried some things in the Dash (running 5th), but I think it took us backwards, so we went back to where we were before for the A.”
Starting inside row three, it didn’t take long to get to third. Unfortunately, the track yielded a one-groove racetrack early on. “I really wish it hadn’t have taken rubber, because I felt confident we could have won it,” says Brian. “Jerrod Hull and Tim Crawley were in position when the rubber came, and you have to give them credit. Two out of three isn’t bad.”
This weekend, Brian will be following the ASCS-Midwest series as they tackle the Central Missouri Speedway on Friday and the Junction Motor Speedway on Saturday. Sunday will be the $5,000 to win Eagle Cup. “We’ve got three big races this weekend,” says Brian. “We’re close to home on Friday at Warrensburg, head to another one of my favorites, McCool Junction (NE) on Saturday, and end up at Eagle Raceway (NE), which is always a fun track to run at too.”
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