MECHANICSBURG, Pa. — Brian Brown rocketed to the 410 sprint car victory Friday night at Williams Grove Speedway, coming out on top of a duel with Devon Borden to get his elusive first victory at the historic half-mile track.
The win in the 410 sprint car main meant a great deal to four-time 410 sprint Knoxville Raceway champion Brown who has spent the month of September racing in the area the last several seasons.
“When you first start driving race cars, there’s only about three tracks that you say I really want to win at before I hang it all up. One is Knoxville, Iowa, and we’ve had a lot of success there, one is Eldora, and we’ve been close, and here we are in victory lane at Williams Grove,” Brown said. “It’s a weekly show for you guys, but it means a lot to me. We can put this (checkered flag) in our shop forever.”
Polesitter Brent Marks blasted into control when the 25-lap 410 sprint main got underway as the sprinters used the event to prepare for next week’s invasion by the World of Outlaws for the two-day National Open races.
Marks simply drove away from the field as third starter Brown got by Borden for second on the second tour.
With a lead of more than three seconds, Marks hit lapped traffic on the seventh lap and began mowing down the backmarkers.
Working through the traffic, Marks did see his lead over Brown dwindle slightly to just under two seconds by lap 12 when his motor expired, bringing out the only caution flag of the race.
Brown inherited the lead for the restart followed by Borden, Gio Scelzi, Lance Dewease and Anthony Macri.
Macri slung around the cushion when action got back underway and promptly took fourth from Dewease as Brown held sway over Borden.
With 10 laps to go, Macri was battling with Scelzi for third as Brown began to creep up on the rear of the field with Borden in tow.
Borden was keeping Brown in sight with five to go when the leader hopped the first turn cushion setting up a challenge for the lead and win.
Borden used the opportunity to close up on Brown for control and as the pair entered the third corner on lap 22, the West Coast youngster blasted under Brown for the lead.
Brown fought hard for the win but Borden led back to the line with Brown glued to his bumper.
That’s when Brown broke low into the first turn with Borden taking the cushion to rally back and drag race Brown onto the backstretch.
The pair came up off of the corner side by side with Brown edging ahead at the bridge before diving into the third turn to regain control.
Brown sped to the victory by .794 seconds over Borden and he talked about his race with Borden and losing the lead.
“I don’t think I was the best car tonight,” Brown said. “I think I got a little bit lucky with Brent falling out. I wasn’t that far behind him when we got to traffic. We took back off and it felt like my left rear tire was flat. I took it easy, but when the “Daredevil” is behind you, you’d better be up on the wheel. When I seen him, I knew I had to get going.”
Scelzi rode home third with Macri and Dewease rounding out the top-five.
In his quest to polish off a clean sweep of the 358 sprint season at the track, Derek Locke started fifth in the 20-lap main.
Colby Womer led the first two laps before Tyler Brehm took over at the font.
Locke drove into second with four laps in the book and began his track down of the leader.
At the halfway point, Brehm began to work the rear of the field and this allowed Locke, who was already closing, to pull up on the leader.
When Locke ran Brehm into the third turn on the 12th lap, Brehm slammed the door to maintain control, however, Locke’s power proved too much a lap later as he muscled around for control.
A restart with three laps to go saw Locke pull away to the finish while recording his eighth win in a row this season and a clean sweep of 2021 action at the track.
Justin Foster was third followed by John Stehman and Brett Wanner.
The finish:
Feature (25 laps): 1. Brian Brown, 2. Devon Borden, 3. Giovanni Scelzi, 4. Anthony Macri,5. Lance Dewease, 6. Danny Dietrich, 7. Freddie Rahmer, 8. Lucas Wolfe, 9. Matt Campbell, 10. Justin Whittall, 11. Robbie Kendall, 12. TJ Stutts, 13. Dylan Norris, 14. Chase Dietz, 15. Steve Buckwalter, 16. Kyle Moody, 17. Tyler Ross, 18. Chad Trout, 19. Doug Hammaker, 20. Jared Esh, 21. Aaron Bollinger, 22. Rick Lafferty, 23. Steve Downs, 24. Landon Myers, 25. Brent Marks