Mother Nature Applies the Brakes to Opening Weekend

  This weekend the Brachmann Racing team travelled to Hagerstown Maryland with the big block Mighty Taco modified for the first race of the season, and the first of the Super Dirtcar Series with driver Gary Tomkins.

 With more work ahead of them and a longer travel schedule on Saturday due to some missed co operation from mother nature friday night, the team immediately unloaded the car and began to work on changes to comfort Tomkins. Friday nights events scheduled at the Lernerville Speedway were postponed due to poor weather and lower temperatures, leaving the team with no track shake down time and a longer haul to begin Saturday morning.

 The car looked fast in the first few hot laps and even turned a sub twenty second lap until a door rub with the right rear left a flat sneaker to be repaired and even less track time in the hands of the team and Tomkins, iniating some setup guessing for their time trials in the second group of the first heat. They would eventually time ninth in their heat of twelve and continue to work on their setup.

 It was in the heat that the 3 car was struggling to "stick" and while the power was there to get moving, brake issues continued and left the team with a seventh place heat finish and some more changes needed to help put the car where it needed to be. Over the course of the night, the team would continue to adjust the car little by little in hopes of finding the combination that would let them be both fast and smooth. Tomkins took the feature green, in the twenty fourth starting position and was moving forward during the first thirty laps looking faster as the counter mounted laps. A mid race battle with the 12a of Ronnie Johnson left both drivers continuously searching for real estate that would leave the other behind. In the end, it left both side by side for a near ten laps. Just before a caution on lap 65, Tomkins managed to pull ahead of Johnson and gained an inside starting position for the restart on lap 68. All this while still battling the braking issues that plagued them earlier in the night. Tomkins restarted in the 15th position battling hard for the last 32 laps for every position he could save and came home to a 17th place finish while still on the lead lap that saw Billy Decker take his first Dirtcar series win of the season.

 After the race, there was a mutual feeling that progress was made steadily throughout the night and a top ten car was just past their fingertips, perhaps still left in the hands of mother nature from the previous day. All in all, the Brachmann Racing team and Gary made a strong showing in their first ever event together and it seems as though this tandem will only get mightier.