WELCOME TO THE BRP MODIFIED TOUR

BY SHAWN WOOD

Middlebourne, WV, May 1, 2021….. – Chad Brachmann made the long tow from Sandborn, N.Y. pay off on Saturday night when he held off a hard-charging Garrett Krummert over the middle stages of the 35-lap feature to record the $3,000 win and his first BRP Modified Tour triumph of 2021 at the Tyler County Speedway.

By luck of the draw, Brachmann would start on the pole for the feature but it would be outside pole sitter Brad Rapp getting the jump into turn one and taking the lead.

Rapp would lead the first seven circuits before Brachmann took the lead in a wild, three-wide battle on the front stretch coming to the line. “It got dicey for a few laps,” Brachmann said of the battle for the lead. “The preferred line was the outside line and Brad was running it until he bobbled.”

On the lap five restart, Rapp continued to lead the field until turn two when Brachmann drove under Rapp and lead on the backstretch while Krummert pulled alongside Rapp on the backstretch. Brachman would go high in turn three, opening the door for Rapp and Krummert to get under him and that’s when Brachmann turned his car hard and came down the banking to make it a three-car battle for the lead with Brachmann on the low side, Krummert in the middle and Rapp on the outside with King Jr. following Krummert’s tire tracks.

Brachmann led briefly at the line while Rapp took the outside line and Krummert went low. As the four cars entered the first turn, Rapp would spin out on his own to bring out the caution just as Brachmann had made the pass on Krummert for the lead on the low side of the first and second turns. “The key to making that pass was when they (Rapp and Krummert) slid up in front of me, I knew I to turn hard to turn the car inside to get a run-down off the banking,” Brachmann said. “You have to take any opportunity that you can when you have a small little bull ring like that.”

Brachmann would spend the next segment of the race holding off Krummert until he was able to get his car to the high side and open up his lead in the late stages of the race. Brachmann’s night almost came to end with under 10 to go when he got squeezed up into the front stretch wall by a lapped car, but was able to continue on and not lose any momentum or his lead over Krummert. “I was worried that it was going to do damage to the car, but I kind of glanced off the guardrail. It was a lot closer than I would have liked,” Bachmann added.

Brachman is the sixth different winner in eight races for the BRP Modified Tour at the quarter-mile track. It was Brachmann’s seventh win with the Tour which ties him for ninth on the all-time win list with Jim Rasey. Krummert would hold on to finish second with Eric Gabany, JR McGinley, and Kyle Fink rounding out the top five. Sixth through 10th were Rex King Sr., Rapp, Steve Barr, Rick Regalski, and Jim Rasey.

Heats for the 25 big block modifieds were won by Dave Murdick, McGinley, and Krummert.

Friday night’s event at Ohio Valley Speedway in Washington, West Virginia, was canceled due to wet grounds. The BRP Modified Tour returns to action on Saturday, May 29 at Hummingbird Speedway.

FINISH: Chad Brachmann, Garrett Krummert, Rex King Jr., Eric Gabany, JR McGinley, Kyle Fink, Rex King Sr., Brad Rapp, Steve Barr, Rick Regalski, Jim Rasey, Tony Pangrazio, Paul Kot, Mike Turner, Mark Frankhouser, Chris Rudolph, Tom Glenn, Dillon Barr, Rodney Beltz, Shawn Kozar, Steve Slater, Nathan McDowell, John Venuto, Mike Dougherty, Dave Murdick.