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Friday, May 2, 2008
Brown buttons down in Atlanta
In Clearcreek Township, just a few miles north of Ma’s Kitchen restaurant in Red Lion and tucked away on a side street sits the home of NHRA Competition Eliminator veteran Rick Brown. The four-time NHRA national event champion has been racing for over 40 years, but perhaps his biggest victory came April 27th at Atlanta Dragway in Commerce, Ga. Despite difficulties in getting a transbrake release button mounted somewhere in the car where the sleeve of his racing jacket wouldn’t accidentally set it off (and then forgetting that he’d moved the button on his next run), Brown qualified 24th in the 32-car field. He lucked out in the first round. Jenny Treadwell’s machine broke during the burnout and so Brown got a free pass. But the starter imediately lit up the starting tree and Brown, now out of his normal starting routine, momentarily forgot where he’d moved the transbrake button. (The crew moved it from the floor to the steering wheel.) By the time he’d found the button, he’d spent two long seconds on the starting line. Hey, he won. I should cut him some slack. I lose my pen about once a day, and nobody moves it but me. Anyhow, Brown made up for his error by looking ahead. Overnight, he and his crew decided to make some drastic changes to the car’s setup in order to account for the 89-degree temperature and 70-percent humidity. Brown lost me when he got into telling me about air density and barometers. But his years of experience and reams of paper records told him to make the change. Crewmen Tom Perdue (of Peebles) and John Smith (of Springboro) changed to some slower tires (radials to bias-ply, I think he said), switched up the transmission gearing, and put in a different rear-end combination too. And during his “down” time, Brown was relentlessly practicing with his new transbrake button. He wasn’t about to be fooled again … and he wasn’t! In round two, Brown took out Berwyn, Pennsylvania driver Charlie Greco with a .0216-second margin of victory. Louisiana’s Craig Bourgeois was Brown’s next victim in round three. Brown was slower off the line by about 4/1000ths of a second, but won by .0037-seconds! That’s roughly 11 inches. In round 4, Brown beat a fellow Ohio driver (Avon Lake’s Pat Ross). By the way, Ross’ son works for the Buckeye Concrete Pumping Co. in Middletown. Another close margin of victory, this time Brown piloted his dark-red Don Rettich Racing Chevy to a .0246-second margin (about 6 feet). That put the 55-year-old hot shoe in the finals against one of the best Sportsman-class drivers around — David Rampy. Rampy has three NHRA world titles and two IHRA titles to his credit. The NHRA named Rampy No. 42 on it’s all-time Top 50 list of drag racing drivers a few years ago while they were celebrating their 50th anniversary. Brown says Rampy’s one of the best, ever. Well, on this day, Brown beat Rampy. With a .07-second jump at the start, Brown won by 0.0518 seconds! That worked out to about 13 feet. It truly was Brown’s day. Moments after he crossed the finish line, he felt a vibration in the car. When he came back to the paddock area, he’d learned that a $5-dollar transmission seal had popped loose and transmission fluid was leaking everywhere. Whether it’s with a transbrake button at the start, or if a small seal ring decides to pop loose after the race, timing is everything! Congratulations Rick on a memorable win in Atlanta.
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Greg’s right….
Well, except for that “better looking” comment. My picture looks like I just did a lap at Indy, but forgot to wear a helmet.
Greg, myself and Springfield News Sun gearhead Mike Cooper are excited about the opportunity to bring local motorsports the attention it so deserves.
There’s a reason that many of today’s superstars raced in the Miami Valley area. It’s an area loaded with incredible race tracks and plenty of driving talent. What better place to test your skills than against some of the finest hotshoes around?
My bet is that Greg will be your contact for the Dayton area and north. Mike’s the likely source for racers east of Dayton, and I’ve got the Hamilton-Middletown and parts south of Dayton covered.
Having worked for an Indycar team (TrueSports), for a major race track (The Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course) and a major racing series (the Indy Lights Series), I’ve got a solid bit of knowledge about the sport. But racing is one of those deals where you just can’t learn enough.
There’s names and faces out there who work behind the scenes that I’d love to talk to and learn about. And there’s stories out there in the bleachers each weekend who I’m sure have a story to tell or a recipe to swap.
We’ll be out at the tracks, from Edgewater to Eldora and many places in between. And I hope to see you there!
John
