Racer
Profile:
An Interview with Scott Brown at Cajon Speedway
Scott Brown
Scott Brown is a race
car driver. He campaigns a Grand American Modified car at Cajon Speedway. The
tough financial challenges that he faces, and the choices that he has to make,
are common to many racers. During racing season, Scott works during the week at
a ‘real’ job and then goes racing on weekends.
Working on a car in the garage area
I caught up with Scott
towards the end of the 2004 season at Cajon Speedway. He shared his interesting
perspective on racing with me. Here are excerpts from that interview:
“My uncle raced here for
several years. It just runs in the blood with us. I raced a go-kart [from] when
I was twelve until I was 18.”
Pre-race thrills (San Diego Mustang Club)
“I ran the Bombers out
here in ’95 for two years. I was ‘Rookie of the Year’ and finished eighth or
ninth in the points.”
“I took a year off and
was helping my uncle on his Modified. Then I got a Street Stock for a few
hundred bucks – put that together over an off season. I was racing that for two
years.”
“I do heating and air
conditioning for work. I work on my own car. It’s at my house in my garage.”
Scott Brown & his East County Gazette sponsorship
“You spend a lot on
tires. That’s the biggest thing. To be competitive you’ve got to buy a couple of
tires a week [Goodyear racing slicks]. You have to buy them here at the track.
They’re radials. They’re just under a hundred bucks [each]. Usually you use them
for one event, then for practice the following time and then put new tires on.”
Night racing at Cajon Speedway
“We run methanol. It
gives the car about an extra 50 horsepower just by running the methanol, and it
makes it run a lot cooler. We’ll do 20 gallons a night. With gas we’d only go
through ten. You burn twice as much fuel. It is a lot better. The motors run so
much cooler. You get all the extra horsepower, right off the bat.”
Action on the track
“It all adds up. If you
have any broken engines or anything like that it just takes up all your time. It
costs about $350 bucks a week to be out here.”
Scott discussed the
process of how he found, prepared and campaigned a race car in recent years:
“[It was] sitting out in the back of a boat yard, all taken apart. The owner
passed on and the wife just wanted to get rid of it. We got that for under a
grand. It was pretty tore up. We spent four or five months putting it back
together. It worked good.”
Scott Brown racing
“We finished second in
the points our first year out. We had a really good year. We didn’t have very
many engine problems. In the second year out with it we finished third. Then the
third year I won the Championship – 2002.”
Old and new race cars
“We’re way-low budget
racing. There’s quite a few guys out here that just have endless pocket books.
We do very good for what we have. We just do it out of our garage. We’re
pinching pennies. It’s been rough but we do good.”
“This year has been the
hardest year. It’s just hard when you don’t have any money behind you. You’re
having to do other things to get by. We haven’t been buying tires in a week,
[things] like that. We’ve been running on old tires. It hurts a lot.”
 
Demolition Derby
On this particular night
Scott’s car broke during his feature race. According to the “Final 2004 Cajon
Speedway Point Standings” he came in sixth in the competition for the “Carpets
Galore Hard Charger Award” and also sixth in class in Cajon Speedway’s Grand
American Modified Division. His plans for the future are “probably to keep on
racing for a little bit. It’s just hard right now.”
Scott Brown’s race car
I wish Scott and other
low budget racers well. As an autocrosser I can appreciate both his passion for
the sport and the financial challenges that he constantly faces. Being
competitive in car racing is expensive.
As always, please share
your stories and send your comments to
AutoMatters@gmail.com. Enjoy the archives and more at
www.AutoMatters.net. Drive safely and do join me again next time.
Copyright © 2004, 2006 Jan R. Wagner – #122r1
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