BRANTFORD – Brantford’s Mitch Brown has never done anything half way. Hockey fans will remember him winning the Sutherland Cup as a member of the Caledonia Corvairs last season. But as hard as he himself is on the ice, he drives his #10 Sprint Car even harder.
At the annual Ohsweken Speedway awards ceremony Brown, as well has his entire racing team, won honours for 2014 racing season.
[justified_image_grid ng_gallery=7]The 21-year-old was acknowledged as the speedway’s “Driver of the Year” in the Corr/Pak Merchandising 360 Sprint Car Division.
“That is especially rewarding for me because it is voted on by other drivers,” says Brown.
He also won honours for perfect attendance this past season at Ohsweken Speedway, and his Pit Crew was recognized as “Crew of the Year.”
This past racing season, Brown won five A-Main features, and was runner up to Glenn Styres in the championship points standings, along with an impressive number of high finishing numbers on both sides of the border.
Although he is only 21, he is a veteran Sprint Car driver entering his sixth season. The acorn doesn’t fall far from the tree as Brown and his younger brother Jake carry on a three-generation dynasty of competitive racing. Jake closed out last season on a winning note, as well, at the South Buxton Raceway on Sept 28th.
Browns Auto has been a familiar landmark at the corner of Erie Ave and Birkett Lane since the legendary patriarch of the Brown Racing Team, Harold Brown, opened his garage in the 1960s. Mitch and Jake’s father Doug Brown is a very successful NASCAR Canadian Tire Series racer, as well.
Along with the success of the 2014 season came a sad note when Harold Brown passed away, leaving the next generations of that familiar blue #10 to carry on the family business as mechanics and racers.
“I never got to see my granddad race, but my dad was racing when I grew up, so I pretty well grew up either at the garage or at the track,” says Brown.
This year will be Brown’s first opportunity to race year-round. He has hung up the skates, for now, and without hockey, he and Jake (who plays hockey for the Hagersville Hawks) will be traveling to the southern United States to compete in the bread-basket of serious auto racing. They both hope to gain invaluable experience in the US they can bring back to Ohsweken for the 2015 season.
Mitch is very happy to be a regular at the Ohsweken Speedway and counts his blessings.
“It’s one of the best dirt tracks around,” he says. “Especially when you get traveling to other tracks in the States, you get spoiled racing up here. Ohsweken track is a beautiful place and to have a track that nice up here and only 15 minutes from my house, it’s pretty cool.”