WINSTON SALEM, NC :: The anticipation was over, it was finally here. Since last August, people have been waiting and they would not be disappointed as they would once again flock to the “Greatest Of Them All”, the legendary Bowman Gray Stadium for the 65th opening night and the “Hayes Jewelers 200”. There ended up being some disappointments though, yet they were not in the stands but on the track as Tim Brown picked up where he left off once more in the “Hayes Jewelers Special” #83. Hayes Jewelers had a very big night.
Brown would just miss the pole by 1/100th of a second as Jason Myers picked up his first of the season in the 28 car field. Lee Jeffreys, Danny Bohn and Burt Myers would round out the top five starters. There were some stories behind them though as Andy Seuss was called last minute to drive Puddin Swisher’s famous #53. JonBoy Brown, was unable to get his new car done and had to jump in a TJ Hunter owned ride and Kevin Neal was making his first mod start ever after coming from Limited and Late Models.
The early pace laps were led by another famous Hayes Jewelers car, as Ralph Brinkley would lead the field in his beautifully restored #9 mod from the late 70’s that helped propel him to 8 championships at Bowman Gray. As the crowd of nearly 14,000 came to their feet for the green flag it didn’t take long for the scene to be set as Brown, “The Rocket”, as he is called in the region had an absolute rocket under him. He would easily jump to the lead from the outside over Jason Myers and Danny Bohn to begin his assault on the 200 lap feature. But there would be plenty of action along the way.
It took only six laps for the first melee of the night to unfold on the 1/4 mile bullring as Danny Probst would loop it around in turn one collecting the cars of Robbie Brewer, Steven Truell and Ronnie Clifton. Everyone would continue as this set up our first “cone” restart of the night as Jason Myers would try the reversed role from the start with him now being on the outside of Brown.
The next restart didn’t fare well for the pack of the pack again as everyone tried to get that all so important inside groove, only problem was there were cars already there. Brown would jump to the lead but only till turn one where half the field had the accordion effect going on with cars going everywhere once more bringing out another caution. It was that kind of a night.
The scariest accident of the night would come on lap 37 as Brian Weber would hook the outside wall, shoot over it and ride down the concrete wall separating the fans from the track. It was an attention getter for sure. The hard part was figuring how to get the Weber machine out from there as it was pinned between the guardrail and the concrete wall behind it. The track crew did a fantastic job of handling the situation and Weber was able to walk away unscathed in one of the more spectacular crashes in recent memory.
When we did to get racing it turned into a tire game, or who could, or would, be willing to run the same pace as Brown. Danny Bohn would slip into second in the middle stages of the event not to the liking of Jason Myers who was pinned to the outside on a restart. Myers would apply heavy pressure to the back of Bohn for quite a while as Bohn would make runs on Brown, only to lose ground and be pressured heavily again. Throughout these numerous runs and restarts, Jonathon Brown was making runs to the outside only to fall back in line with the leaders but had a strong car that was new to him and heavily underfunded compared to the cars around him. He would fade late though as his brakes had started to go away from the drop of the green flag.
As Brown would motor away from every restart, the field behind him were jockeying for position to make a run at him. Brian Loftin would become a player late in the game driving a car rented from Jeremy Stoltz as he raced up to the lead pack with Burt Myers in tow. The top 5 could keep pace with Brown but could never get close enough to make a move towards the leaders back bumper. Zach Brewer, driving for Bob Nelson would cause a little excitement behind them as he muscled his way inside Lee Jefferys for 7th, only problem was that Lee was almost as low as he could go. The contact sent Jeffreys into the wall and out of the race….not before he got out and gave Brewer a piece of his mind under caution.
As we approach the 3/4 mark of the race, the leaders have finally tried to ride to save tires as the 200 lap distance does a number on tire wear. It had been very hard though because of all the restarts, nearly one every 10-15 laps, as the drivers had to race hard to get in their spots after the green each time. But with 30 to go various drivers began to push the button. John Smith was the first one as he moved around Burt Myers for sixth and then began to pressure Loftin for fifth. Well he didn’t pressure him long as he got to the back of Loftin on lap 174 and gave him the bumper in turns 3 and 4 pushing him high up the track allowing himself and Burt Myers to scoot by.
Meanwhile, up front, Tim Brown had flipped the switch. Staying just a few cars ahead of second all night, Brown turned up the wick and pulled out to nearly a straightaway lead in just a handful of laps. His Rahmoc powerplant was potent on this night. He seemed to pull away at will. But hold on now, as he pulled away and looked to be heading to the house Jason Myers flipped his own switch and began to reel Brown back in. That was halted though by a strange situation, Mike Speeny, a Northerner who had made the trip down for the season opener, began to race Myers very hard. Racing hard is fine, but when you have been lapped by the same leaders numerous times, racing him like it was the last lap for the Daytona 500 with 22 laps to go seemed rather odd. Myers would finally dispose of Speeny after numerous tire bumps and hard racing but by this time Brown was long gone again. But you know at the stadium this story won’t end like this.
After two quick cautions for spins with 10 to go we go at it again, Brown took off and Myers gave chase. Myers looked to be good at a few points on the track, Brown was just better at more including from the center of the corner off, which is key at Bowman Gray. Tim was on his way, he could see the white flag in the air………only to have Danny Probst spin at the start finish line with Brown wondering what he has to do to get this night over.
So we get to a green-white-checkered, the last thing Brown wanted to see. Unlike the other restarts, anything in the last ten laps is single file so he didn’t have to worry about the pressure from the outside. But you always have to worry about the pressure from the rear as the “bump-n-run” is the norm there. Jason Myers was the man that had to do that and Jason is knowm to be a clean racer so he wanted to “beat” Brown, not do him dirty. At the start it was like the rest, Brown was a killer on the restarts and easily jumped to the lead with Myers and Bohn giving chase. Myers would dive it in hard but at the same time he had to not overdrive the corner as Bohn would pounce on the position. Brown would take the white and drive to the checkered with Myers getting a hard shot from Bohn to get him loose off turn four but held on to finish second.
It was a great night of racing, usually the season opener at many tracks are tame, with drivers having their cars new and pristine so they don’t take the chances that they usually do later into the season. Not here on this night, nothing but hard racing and bumping and grinding with the top dogs going at it. In the end it was the man who came out on top at the end of last season, the “Hayes Jewelers Special” car winning the “Hayes Jewelers 200” with former great and Hayes driver Ralph Brinkley on hand and Bruce and Zack Hayes there to watch it all. It served notice to everyone that, although it may be a new year, Tim Brown is looking to make it look like years past.
