Browns end season at Marshalltown
By ERIC ARNOLD For The Daily News
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| Kellogg’s Kyle Brown (middle) competes at Marshalltown Speedway along with father David (right) and uncle Rick (left). Below, Kyle Brown poses with his Sport Mod earlier this season.
Photo by Eric Arnold
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The father and son duo of David and Kyle Brown of Kellogg are weekly competitors in the Modified and Sport Mod divisions at Marshalltown Speedway. Both drivers proudly show the No. 21 on the side of their cars. In a rarity for local track racing, the Browns all run Ford engines, including David’s brother Rick in the Stock Car class.
Kyle, 18, is in his third full season of competition in the Sport Mod division. His hero, of course, is his father David, whom Kyle helped for 10 years at the shop and during race nights before getting the chance to climb behind the wheel. Kyle is planning to attend DMACC for general studies.
He won three features in 2007 and finished sixth in Marshalltown points. Although he finished sixth again in 2008, it was a bit of a disappointment not to be able to find victory lane. Two drivers dominated the Sport Mod division this year, as Kevin Sather and Luke Wanninger won 14 of the 16 features.
Trying to keep up with the front-runners hasn’t been easy this year.
“I just haven’t been consistent this year,” Kyle said. “I’m either running in the top five or something happens and we don’t finish.”
At the Harris Clash in Knoxville this year, Kyle won his heat race and was looking to contend for the win, but Mother Nature washed it away before the B-Mains were completed.
David is a seasoned veteran who raced go-karts in the late 1980s, Stock Cars from 1996-1998, and then moving to Modifieds in 1999. David accumulated three wins in Stock Car, and currently has 27 career wins in Modifieds at tracks all across central Iowa.
David was second in points at Marshalltown in 2001, although he missed one week of racing. For 2008, David finished the season in eighth. David is employed at Pioneer-Hybrid in Computer Systems.
Racing is a serious hobby, but it also is becoming a more expensive hobby.
“Two years ago, IMCA changed some engine rules in the Modified class that has enabled teams to spend more on engines,” David said. “There is no longer a straight engine claim rule. It’s an engine exchange now, so the fear of losing an engine isn’t as great.”
It’s been a bit of a disappointing season for the Browns, but a season many others would gladly feel accomplished to have.
The Sport Mod and Modified divisions only have a few different rules. Sport Mod is limited to a 360 cubic inch engine and a 9:1 compression on the intake. Modified has no cubic inch or intake limits.
Both David and Kyle are competing in the Boone Super Nationals this week. Their sponsors this year are Hogeland Auto Plaza, Beth Steenhoek Insurance, Jack Bucklin Auto & Parts, Eisele Motorsports, Brown Tilling and Dozing, Brown Farms.
Kyle has a few other sponsors; Pro-Line Buildings, Theisen’s in Grinnell and Raceway Café. They also have a lot of support from the families.
