Story by: Nathan McGee/RACE22.com Contributor
Photos: by Eric Hylton Photography

Winston-Salem , NC (August 19, 2009) --Another season has now come to an end at what is infamously known as, "The Saturday Night Madhouse"; historic Bowman Gray Stadium. This year was filled with many ups and downs, surprises, normal drama with even more drama added in by the addition of the many History Channel camera crews(more on that later).

This year's modified championship came down to the last race, with several drivers still in contention. Coming into the Carolina Farm Credit 150, Tim Brown was leading the points by 40 points but this is double point's night. Burt Myers, Jonathan Brown and Randy Butner were all mathematically still in contention. Tim needed to only finish 10 spots behind Burt in order to claim his historic 8th championship, and as Bowman Gray goes, you just never know what might happen at the very tight famed 1/4 mile. Jonathan "Jonboy" Brown and Randy Butner needed both Tim and Burt to have very bad nights. However that was not to be.

The final qualifying session of the season is not determined by a draw, instead you qualify in the order of your point position. Tim Brown set the pace with a 13.430 lap but was quickly replaced by Burt Myers who turned a 13.352 lap. Burt once again took the pole, which gave him the "Pole Award" for the year having taken a total of seven poles. Lee Jeffrey's in the 77 car, took the outside of the front row which dropped Tim to third just behind Burt. The rest of the top ten qualifiers were as follows: Burt Myers (1), Lee Jeffreys (77), Tim Brown (83), Jeremy Stoltz (20), Randy Butner (5), Jason Myers (4), Robert Jeffreys (75), Dean Ward (71), Brad Robbins (40), and Jonathan Brown (53) (Junior Miller qualified 12th).

As the green flag comes out, Burt and Lee race side by side into turns 1 and 2 (south turn), Tim with his very powerful 83 car pulls through on the inside and takes the 2nd spot. Every one quickly goes to single file, until lap 3 when Tim gives Burt a tap on the rear bumper, breaking his momentum just long enough for Lee to jump to the outside and pass him taking the 2nd spot.

The single file racing didn't last long before the first of seven cautions came out on lap 12; when the 28 of Ricky Gregg and 51 of Stan Welborn got together in the south turn. Three of the other cautions involved Junior Miller; lap 64 has Dean Ward in the 71 getting into Junior as they come to the start finish line, Lap 87 has Junior giving Gene Pack (31) a spin around in the north turn and on lap 99 nearly an identical incident occurs between Junior and Kevin Powell (99). Kevin makes sure Junior knows he was not pleased with the 'turn' of events during the caution.

As they go back to green, the top ten to twelve cars remain single file with only Jonathan Brown making a pass. Burt Myers opened up a near 2+ second lead on the entire field with ten laps to go, but that quickly began to change when on lap 146 Tim takes off and passes Lee Jeffrey's and begins making up the ground on Burt. Burt's car appears to have been used up staying in front of Lee Jeffrey's for so long. What appeared to be another win for Burt and the Myers family begins to look questionable, however the laps are ticking off quickly. Tim cuts Burts lead down and is on his bumper on the white flag lap.

Tim's late charge wasn't quite enough though as Burt Myers crosses the finish line with Tim just off his bumper. Burt Myers picks up the season finale Carolina Farm Credit
 

150 win! The win gave him the most wins, most poles, and most laps led for the 2009 season. When asked about the night and season, Burt said "We came up a little short. We had the most wins, most poles, most laps lead, came up with a big banana split but no cherry on top!"

Both drivers and their teams came out to celebrate. Burt stopped at the start/finish line for the Carolina Wood Floors Victory lane celebration. Tim does several donuts in the middle of the infield and jumps on top of his car and raises his hands in victorious celebration.

When asked if there had been a few more laps, would he have been able to catch and pass Burt; Tim stated "Oh yeah, we had a drag race car tonight!" When asked about the season Tim said "Great race and season with Brown Racing! 8th Championship, wow what a great Season!"Car owner and Tim's brother, Ben Brown, told me "Eight is awesome, Tying Ralph Brinkley's record is both historic and quite an honor!"

The night was not free from drama, as it is Historic Bowman Gray Stadium. Prior to evening practice, David Severt (Junior Miller's nephew) was not allowed to race a car that Junior had bought earlier in the week. The car was deemed not legal by officials because of several outdated areas: seat belt harnesses, fuel cell, and rear bumper welding. Junior, Jonathan Brown and Puddin Swisher all took turns attempting to plead their case but to no avail.

After the races while trying to get a quote from Tim, we were interrupted by ongoing argument between the Brad Robbins and Chris Fleming crews. This was brought on by an on track incident between the two; where Brad got the worse end of the deal. This was ALL caught on film by the History Channel film crew. Many cameras were around the track and even more in the stands filming and on this night a helicopter was flying over head filming the final modified race of the 2009 season. The new 'reality' show by the History Channel is tentatively being named "Madhouse" and as of this time does not have an air date(sometime in 2010).

One more historic note is to say Congratulations to Ronnie Clifton for winning his 8th straight sportsman division championship. Ronnie told me after the race "This was the hardest championship I have ever won here, came from 23rd in points after the first race and had to overcome several issues tonight to finish 10th. My guys never gave up on me and I never gave up on them". 

Race Results:
1 1 Burt Myers
2 83 Tim Brown
3 5 Randy Butner
4 20 Jeremy Stoltz
5 4 Jason Myers
6 77 Lee Jeffreys
7 53 Jonathan Brown
8 13 Chris Fleming
9 71 Dean Ward
10 70 Alfred Hill
11 69 Junior Miller
12 72 Brent Elliott
13 75 Robert Jeffreys
14 99 Kevin Powell
15 33 Matt Caldwell
16 11 Ricky Knapp
17 31 Gene Pack
18 40 Brad Robbins
19 45 Lee Stimpson
20 3 Terry Gaither
21 28 Ricky Gregg
22 51 Stan Welborn


Final Championship Points:
1 83 Tim Brown 796
2 1 Burt Myers 756
3 53 Jonathan Brown 731
4 5 Randy Butner 730
5 4 Jason Myers 670
6 70 Alfred Hill 592
7 40 Brad Robbins 581
8 13 Chris Fleming 577
9 69 Junior Miller 576
10 75 Robert Jeffreys 566