Heading into the High Limit Racing season, 18-year-old Brenham Crouch knows it’ll be a long shot for him to win the title against veteran drivers such as Rico Abreu, Brad Sweet and Tyler Courtney.
After all, Crouch has only been circling the winged sprint car scene for about a year, primarily competing with the Wisconsin-based IRA Sprint Car Series. Before that, he was a midget racing regular and earned the POWRi National Midget title while driving for Keith Kunz Motorsports in 2022.
As he prepares to take his career to the next level on the national High Limit tour, Crouch is realistic about what he’d like to accomplish during the upcoming season.
“I really just want to turn some heads, I guess would be my first goal,” Crouch said. “We’re down on experience, but we do have the resources. I feel like that’s one thing my dad’s given us, is really good equipment and really good guys in the shop to give us our best chance.”
The Texas native will be piloting the family-owned No. 1 sprint car for Crouch Motorsports.
He may be one of the youngest drivers on the full-time High Limit roster — Corey Day, whose birthday is a month after Crouch’s, is the youngest — but the intimidation factor didn’t prevent Crouch from joining the series.
“High Limit just seemed to be where we fit in best,” Crouch said. “It feels like it’s the best place to go right now to race with the top-tier guys and just keep learning and try to carry some momentum and consistency over from last year.”
The young gun took home the IRA championship last year during his first full season aboard a 410 sprint car. He also tested his talent at a few World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series and High Limit shows in 2023.
Crouch’s top results included a 12th-place finish against the High Limit field at Lincoln Park Speedway in early October and a 10th-place effort with the Outlaws at Devil’s Bowl Speedway a week later.
“We really just wanted to kind of see where we stood with some special competition. And I felt like the team as a whole proved that we were competitive,” Crouch explained. “We had the speed and we could display it and perform.”
The experience of racing against the nation’s best drivers led Crouch’s father, Leighton Crouch, to make an executive decision that the team would go points racing on a national tour in 2024.
The taste test also allowed the younger Crouch to identify a few areas where he needed to improve as a driver.
“High Limit, we kind of struggled in qualifying and then at the Outlaw race, we were really good in qualifying and it made that night so much easier,” Crouch said. “I think if we can get consistent in qualifying, in the top 10 or right around that bubble, it’ll give us a better chance at starting up front and staying up there.”
From cage karts and micro sprints, to midgets and now 410 winged sprint cars, Crouch is looking forward to continuing his progression through the dirt-track ranks.
The 60-race High Limit schedule will no doubt be more demanding than what he’s become accustomed to on the IRA tour, but he’s viewing it as an opportunity to create chemistry with the team, while building his own reputation on the track.
“It’s gonna be another really good stepping-stone year and working toward our overall goal of running up front at the highest level. Hopefully we can be doing that by the end of the year,” Crouch said.
The Lubbock, Texas, native is optimistic that the time he’s spent racing winged sprint cars in New Zealand over the offseason will come in handy during the High Limit season opener at Florida’s East Bay Raceway Park on Feb. 12.
That is, should he make it there in time.
“I have a points race here on the 10th, I fly back on the 11th and race on the 12th,” Crouch said of his February travel schedule. “I’m praying (that I make it).”