BROWN’S ETOWN DREAM
Antron Brown returns this weekend to the place where he formed his first visions of grandeur. The former Pro Stock Motorcycle icon turned Top Fuel front-runner will roll through the gates of Old Bridge Township Raceway Park a different man in some aspects.
Deep inside he’s still the same kid with an insatiable will to play the game.
“I am excited to get back to my hometown track where it all started for me,” Brown said. “To come back to Englishtown, where I grew up watching the Summernationals, is like a dream come true to race in Top Fuel. There will be a lot of family and friends and Matco distributors rooting us on. I don’t feel any extra pressure, I feel less pressure with all the great support our team has.”
A kid with a dream, Brown realizing reality
Antron Brown returns this weekend to the place where he formed his first visions of grandeur. The former Pro Stock Motorcycle icon turned Top Fuel front-runner will roll through the gates of Old Bridge Township Raceway Park a different man in some aspects.
Deep inside he’s still the same kid with an insatiable will to play the game.
“I am excited to get back to my hometown track where it all started for me,” Brown said. “To come back to Englishtown, where I grew up watching the Summernationals, is like a dream come true to race in Top Fuel. There will be a lot of family and friends and Matco distributors rooting us on. I don’t feel any extra pressure, I feel less pressure with all the great support our team has.”
Brown enters the 11th race on the 2008 schedule ranked second in the POWERade Top Fuel standings. He trails five-time series champion Tony Schumacher by 190 points. Brown earned the pole at the season-opener at Pomona, Calif. (4.495 seconds) and advanced to three consecutive final rounds winning at Houston and Atlanta. He has a round record of 18-8 this season.
Winning at Englishtown would be greater than Brown could imagine. That’s why he’s looking to veteran tuner Lee Beard to help make everything come to pass.
“Englishtown is one of the great races on the NHRA tour, it’s an old traditional race, it used to be the Summernationals, and I enjoy winning those races,” Beard added. There’s a lot of history at the facility and it’s been around for many years. There’s definitely more value in winning a races like Englishtown and we want Antron (Brown) to do well at his home track.”
Brown became the eighth different driver that crew chief Lee Beard has tuned to the pole award and 10th different racer Beard has tuned to a win in Top Fuel or Funny Car. Beard has 53 career wins and 58 poles. Beard is a three-time winner at Raceway Park with Gary Ormsby, Whit Bazemore and Rod Fuller.
Winning at Englishtown would certainly come as no surprise to those who have followed the rookie’s career. Brown is a two-time winner at Old Bridge having defeated Craig Treble in 2002 and Karen Stoffer in 2005.
Brown is currently ranked second in the NHRA Top Fuel points standings, just 196 points behind former U.S. Army teammate Tony Schumacher.
