Courtesy Ken Spencer, Marketing and Media Relations, Brown Auto RacingSeptember 11, 2005 – A steady performance after a disappointing time trail earned Doug Brown a tenth-place finish in CASCAR Super Series event #11 at Cayuga 2000 Speedway on Saturday night.
It marked the 8th top-ten finish of the season for the Brantford competitor and carried him into sole position of eleventh-place overall in the national series point’s standings. He is now just 47 points shy of his pre-season goal of tenth place with one race remaining on the schedule.
Chalk this finish up to sheer determination for the NAPA/Autopro driver who started seventeenth in the 27-car car field. As he would later state in recounting the night’s events, he felt like he was chasing his own car as well as the leaders.
“We had some fast times in practice (as high as eighth) but I’m not sure what I did wrong in qualifying,” Doug explained following the 200-lap chase. “We just had to stay on the lead lap in the early going of the race and see how things developed. The car felt good power-wise with the new engine but we had some handling problems that made for a long night.”
At one point, the usual pit stop shuffles under yellow flag conditions saw the NAPA/ Autopro Chevrolet running as high as fourth but it wasn’t a night where the racing veteran was able to keep it there. Even right side tire changes midway through the race and a late stop for a left rear tire and chassis adjustment failed the cure the unsettling push Brown was experiencing.
The team now travels to Kawartha Speedway this weekend for the final scheduled event on CASCAR’s Super Series tour where Doug hopes he can close the gap between himself and Mt. Hope’s Dave Jacombs in the race for tenth spot in the standings.
It’s a huge gap to erase but even if he falls short of his goal Doug Brown and his team mates can take solace in the fact they have made a remarkable recovery since the disappointing start to the season when they fell behind in the points race with two DNFs in the first three races.
For the second week in a row and Stouffville’s Peter Gibbons led defending series champion Don Thomson of Hamilton across the finish line with Wyoming, Ontario’s Dave Whitlock earning third place honours.
Thomson remains in first place in the standings and appears certain to win his fifth straight championship in a series that will likely be running under the NASCAR banner in 2006.
Big news on that development between CASCAR and NASCAR is expected to be announced as early as next weekend.
To a driver, it is generally agreed the news -when confirmed – will mark a major change in prominence for Canadian stock car racing and gain the series the recognition is so richly deserves.
For additional information on Brown Auto Racing, see www.dougbrown.net.
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