Brown and Butner Score Wins at Bowman Gray

Story by: Corey Latham ~ [email protected]

Winston-Salem, NC(August 5, 2011) — Another night at Bowman Gray Stadium and as the end of the season nears the controversy that everyone has been waiting on is starting to rear it’s head up. The modifed division is the featured division at the track and while Burt Myers has the points title all but locked up there are still races to run, and JonBoy Brown let him know this past weekend he’s laying to bumper to whoever it may be in front of him to get the victory.

Twin 50 lappers were on the card this weekend for the modifieds and with the cone restart the crowd was on edge for this one as 22 of the mighty modifieds rolled to the green. Early in the first 50 lapper Burt Myers and Tim Brown, the two big dogs in the point standings took off and tried to leave the field but as we all know, cautions seem to arise. While Burt was withstanding numerous shots to the rear bumper from the 8-time champion Brown, Terry Gaither who was in third gets into the lapped car of Steven Truell bringing out the caution on lap 20.

Time Brown would go to the outside of the cone to restart along Myers on the front row with JonBoy Brown stating to the inside in third. In the first 20 laps Burt and Tim had ran away from the field by nearly a full straightaway, so it looked as if the race would be decided by them. On the restart though. JonBoy Brown jumps to the inside of Tim Brown as Burt goes easily into the lead. JonBoy would take second and to many’s surprise Tim Brown would fade away in third, not looking nearly as stout as he did the first half as Burt Myers began to stretch his lead over JonBoy in second.

As Myers had pulled away looking well on his way to an easy victory, the caution flies with nine laps to go for the final time for the spinning car of John Smith after a restart the lap before. JonBoy would take to the outside as he is one of the toughest there in the unfavorable groove and run Myers hard for a full lap even around the track. As they go down the backstretch with seven laps to go, Myers pulls in front with JonBoy diving in behind cutting off the advancement of Tim Brown in third. Myers goes hard into turn three with JonBoy going harder getting into the back of Myers sending him up the track and taking the lead. With the crowd going wild Myers would fall into second as the rest of the field is getting bottlenecked behind his near spin resluting in Chris Fleming getting turned around bringing out the caution. Now Burt would have a chance to repay the favor.

As they double up the roles are reversed from the prior restart as Myers takes to the outside with JonBoy in the P1 spot. It’s a drag race into turn one with JonBoy slipping in front and Tim Brown trying to take second from Burt Myers killing his momentum to get back to the bumper of JonBoy for the lead. Myers would hold second and catch JonBoy quickly with three to go, they go into turn one with Burt on his bumper but JonBoy gives him a brake check and pulls away by four car lengths. That would be all he needed as he cruised to victory with Myers giving him some bumps after the race and the Myers fans leetting him know he was number one.

With the “Madhouse Scramble” in effect, the winner from the first race draws a number to see how many would be inverted for race number two. This makes it very challengiung for the leaders from race one, in fact Jr. Miller is the only person in history to win both races of a Madhouse Scramble night. JonBoy would draw a 16 putting Kevin Wilson on the pole with the veteran Randy Butner to his outside. Butner would easily take the lead and pull away as the cars behind him had negotiate the slower car of Wilson. Former Sportsman champion Ronnie Clifton was now in second and began to put pressure to Butner for the lead, Cliffton had won an amazing seven Sportsman championships in a row but moved to the modified divison last season to simply get one win as Bowman Gray only counts the feature wins in the record books.

Butner is able to hold off the charge of Clifton but has another problem coming his way as Bowman Gray rookie Danny Bohn makes his way past Clifton for second on lap 21. Bohn is a young but seasoned driver in the mods from up North and had already put a win on his resume from the stadium earlier in the season but getting past the long-time vetran butner was going to be tough. He began to give him taps and looked to be a little faster but the caution that would follow would be his achilles heel. Lap 29 sees Terry Gaither grow tired of the slower car of Jr. Miller holding him up and spins him off turn four to bring out the caution.

Bohn would go to the outside but could do nothing with Butner as he falls into second with Mike Adams making a rare start in a second Bob Nelson car in third. The excitemnet level would piuck up more on lap 35 as the field kept getting stacked up behind the slower cars of Clifton and Austin Pack with Jason Myers, BoBo Brown, Lee Jefferies and Jr. Miller all crashing down the front straightaway. after the first race with Jonboy Brown and Burt Myers having a spat, the other brothers of the two, BoBo and Jason were now in a spat. BoBo felt that Jason had driven him hard across the grass keeping on the throttle after they wrecked resulting in some bumper tag under the caution. Nothing like a rivalry at Bowman Gray and it being brothers against brothers just adds to the storylines.

We get another restart with Butner pulling ahead to the point but it doesn’t last long as Austin Pack has something on his right front suspension fail collecting the cars of Tim Brown and JonBoy Brown getting heavy damage ending their night. Tim Brown had crashed so hard into the backstretch gaurdrail that his rear bumper got stuck int he railing resulting in a long cleanup trying to remove it. Under the red flag the fans began jawing with Brown as he looked over his car, Bowman Gray has no catchfence so the fans are pretty much in your face. Brown was not pleased and became rather angry jawing back with them and having to be restrained by police. We really can’t make this stuff up, It’s just the way it is there.

We get back to racing finally and Danny Bohn is once again unable to beat Butner on the outside, he now has Burt Myers who had survived all the carnage from 15th spot on his back bumper. Five to go and Bohn is there as Myers looks content in third, Bohn gives shot after shot to the rear of Butner but Butner is able to hold on each time. Butner gets a great run off the corner the final lap and pulls to his first victory since 2007 after a good race from Bohn who ran him very clean considering the taps were for the lead.

With only three races to go the points may be Myers for the taking but the wins are still important. Burt may have a rivalry with JonBoy now but he has think big picture with his “Drive For Five” championship on the line, but the last race of the year may get interesting. Not to say the two leading up to it won’t be, it’s hot, the drivers are irritated and paybacks are becoming due.

Race 1:
1. Johnathan Brown
2. Burt Myers
3. Tim Brown
4. Jason Myers
5. Lee Jefferies
6. Terry Gaither
7. BoBo Brown
8. Jr. Miller
9. John Smith
10. Dean Ward
11. Austin Pack
12. Danny Bohn
13. Mike Adams
14. Ronnie Clifton
15. Randy Butner
16. Kevin Wilson
17. Ricky Knapp
18. Lee Stimpson
19. Chris Fleming
20. Brad Robbins
21. Steven Truell
22. Robert Jefferies

Race 2:
1. Randy Butner
2. Danny Bohn
3. Burt Myers
4. Chris Fleming
5. Ronnie Clifton
6. John Smith
7. Jason Myers
8. BoBo Brown
9. Mike Adams
10. Kevin Wilson
11. Ricky Knapp
12. Lee Stimpson
13. Dean Ward
14. Austin Pack
15. Tim Brown
16. Johnathan Brown
17. Lee Jefferies
18. Jr. Miller
19. Terry Gaither