Little did Brian Lohnes know a completed assignment would set the stage for what would become one the more storied careers in drag racing's microphone man history. 

Lohnes was 19 years old and working at New England Dragway on a Wednesday test and tune session. A go-fer in the track's tech department when the entries slowed down, track manager Joe Lombardo sent Lohnes to the tower to begin announcing. While the kid was proficient at teching cars, it became clear his talents were in conveying the attributes of those running down the track. 

Fast-forward 23 years later to 2022, every time the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series heads to Epping, NH, Lohnes, now the lead broadcaster on the NHRA's FoxSports broadcasts, feels like he's returning to the sandlot where it all began. 

"I don't think there's anything I could ever do that's more satisfying than that," Lohnes said. "And not because of outgrowing 'the place,' that's not why I feel that way. I feel that way because I go back, and the people that I knew then that are still racing or still hanging around the racetrack, I still recognize and say hello to now. And I think it's amazing. I mean, who else gets the shot to do this? Really nobody. When you're a baseball or a football announcer, you don't start at a venue that will eventually host a big-league event. So I think it's very unique."

Lohnes didn't actually get his first shot to announce a motorsports event at New England Dragway, and it wasn't even a drag race. The first shot came at New England International Speedway, where the teenager first called a sports car event. His first drag racing announcing gig didn't even come at New England Dragway. That was at Lebanon Valley Dragway in Upstate New York.

It was New England Dragway that confirmed he wanted to earn his keep in life behind the microphone, and he aspired to be just like the legends. If you were a drag racer during Lohnes youth, you aspired to be like Don Garlits or Don Prudhomme. For Lohnes, he wanted to be like two of those on the Mt. Rushmore of drag racing announcing - Dave McClelland and Steve Evans. 

Today, many of Lohnes's peers see him as a combination of the two legendary figures. 

"Those two guys are the gold standard of all of this stuff," Lohnes said. They're the guys that I've watched as, like we all did, growing up. And I think that in a very real sense, I always try to honor them when I work. I really feel like I owe it to them, even though they're not here to see it, owe it to them to kind of have that type of enthusiasm or have that type of delivery or have that type of fun to try to connect with the audience because that's what it did for me. It was those guys that elevated the people in the sport that made me look at racers differently, that made me look at the people that were."

Lohnes admits his command of drag racing's history and tendency to rely on drag racing's historical platform make him a perfect candidate to be considered an "old soul." He appreciates the sentiment but believes he was born precisely at the perfect time for this generation. 

"I think it's unfortunate when people have that opinion of themselves that maybe they were born at the wrong time," Lohnes explained. "If I were born in Dave McClelland and Steve Evans' era, I'd probably be driving a dump truck somewhere. I look at the sport of drag racing as I have grown into it and seen a lot of it, around obviously the NHRA stuff but also every kind of other forms of the sport. 

"I think I'm incredibly fortunate to live in this era. I mean, those guys never had an opportunity to go call a Million Dollar bracket race. Those guys never had an opportunity to see Radial vs. The World cars. Those guys never had an opportunity to go and announce Diesel drag races with guys blowing the cylinder heads at sky high."

"And to double down on it, I think that being around in 2020 will be maybe the most important part of my career, that year that was so terrible. I mean, we did a lot of work to try to make it less terrible. And I think for as long as I'm involved in drag racing, I'm going to look back at 2020 as I think one of my proudest times, even though it was such a crummy year."

Lohnes understands he has decades before leaving a legacy is essential, but as he sees it, every day, he picks up the microphone to extoll the virtues of drag racing and its participants; it's part of the process. 

"I just want people to feel I was able to be a positive influence either to the competition or the people or the presentation or the execution of it," Lohnes said. "I think the only thing I would like, I guess, at the end of all of it is that I worked hard, and I worked hard for the betterment of the sport."