Hustle and Muscle Power Danny O’Brien to a Second Consecutive Brockville Speedway Victory
By Jim Clarke, Clarke Motorsports Communications
Any racecar driver will tell you. Winning feels great. Sometimes, you need to work a little harder for the win – but winning always feels great! Kingston, Ontario DIRTcar small block modified driver Danny O’Brien worked extra-hard Saturday, May 30th – coming from a 13th place starting spot in a field of 22 – to claim his second straight victory at Brockville Ontario Speedway.
The driver known as the ‘Pocket Rocket’ skipped the traditional pre-race hot lap session, choosing to make some last-minute adjustments on the #7-Star Global Warranty/1000 Islands RV Centre/Pat’s Radiator/Stover Bus Lines/103.7 BOB-FM/Jackson’s Landscaping & Property Maintenance/Murdock’s Cement Finishing/Kendrick Racing Bicknell instead. While the other teams took to the track for a little seat time, O’Brien and his crew kept their machine on jack stands behind the hauler making sure everything was ready for the night ahead.
Week-long rains and high humidity levels had the racing surface in excellent shape. The bottom groove was a little heavier than the top, but O’Brien – who is in search of his 9th overall Brockville track championship – loves the high line and can often be seen running a diamond pattern around the 3/8th mile clay at The BOS. After coming from near the back of the pack to win his qualifying heat, the team went back to work on the car. His crew has been together for a number of years and has gained the driver’s confidence when it comes to making suggestions on what needs to be done.
“I never doubt what they’re proposing we do,” said O’Brien. Even if we end-up off the mark by a little bit; we still have something that goes into the set-up book. Everyone on the team has some input on how we put the car on the race track and something that might not work tonight could be the hot set-up a couple of weeks down the road.”
With 6 rows of power to work his way through, Danny O’Brien knew scoring his second Brockville win of 2009 wouldn’t be as easy as the week before when he’d started outside the front row. A couple of early race caution periods helped the 2 time runner-up for overall Mr. DIRTcar Championship, but they could have just as easily derailed his charge. After starting inside the 7th row, O’Brien moved to his patented high line early and was running 5th with just 8 laps of racing in the books.
Adam Moore made contact with Dave Heaslip on a restart after Skip McKenzie’s spin on lap 15. From there, O’Brien worked his way into 3rd and then took the fast lane around 2nd place running Todd Stewart and leader Kyle Dingwall on the 17th and 18th laps respectively. Stewart gave-up his spot on the bottom to follow O’Brien around Dingwall, but couldn’t benefit from a lap 24 yellow flag to get close enough to the leader. In victory lane, O’Brien was again quick to credit the hard work of his crew.
“The car was just awesome,” he said with a smile. “It was a pleasure to drive. I had to be patient coming through some of the traffic tonight, but I knew we had a strong piece. We made some changes after the heat race that tightened the car up too much. The crew went to work following hot laps and here we are again.”
O’Brien, who was joined in victory lane by his good luck charm ‘Tucker’ was followed across the line by Stewart and Dingwall. Bill Gill and younger brother Tim O’Brien rounded-out the top 5 finishers.
Global Warranty is based in London, Ontario and has been offering a variety of automotive and recreational vehicle warranty packages for more than 20 years, these warranties meet and exceed the needs of today’s drivers. They offer their warranty packages through your local automotive and RV dealer. Ask for details when making your purchase. Their 7 plans offer the ultimate in driving protection. For details, call 800.265.1519 or visit www.globalwarranty.com
Kendrick Racing is a family run racing team, operating for more than 45 years and calls Merrittville Speedway their home-base. The team has campaigned cars for a number of drivers over the years, including Tim Jones, Scott George and Boyd McTavish. Tim Jones will run the Global Warranty car for Kendrick Racing at Merrittville Speedway and selected special events. Danny O’Brien will campaign the team’s cars at Brockville Ontario Speedway and selected tour stops. Todd Kendrick will run the team’s #55 car at Merrittville and Humberstone, with both drivers joining O’Brien when Brockville Ontario Speedway hosts a Global Warranty night Saturday, August 1st. Learn more about Kendrick Racing by visiting
www.kendrickracing.ca.
Contact:
Todd Kendrick: 519.871.7000
Rob Hanson (Kendrick racing website admin.) rob.hanson@kendrickracing.com
Photo attachments:
#1). A familiar site in Brockville Speedway’s victory lane – Danny O’Brien and ‘Tucker’ pose for photos. (Rick Young – www.rickattheraces.com)
Prepared by: Jim Clarke – Clarke Motorsports Communications
clarkemotorsports@hotmail.com
613.968.6410 / 613.922.0654