Brownstown Speedway
Notes: RTJ's animal-style effort rules Jackson 100
By Bryan Ault
Special to DirtonDirt
The Koehler Motorsports team. (heathlawsonphotos.com)
BROWNSTOWN, Ind. (Sept. 27) — As 35-year-old Ricky Thornton Jr. of Chandler, Ariz., rolled into the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series postrace technical inspection area following his Jackson 100 victory at Brownstown (Ind.) Speedway on Saturday, one well-known crew member repeated the same mantra over and over. | RaceWire
“He’s an animal,” two-time World 100 winner Brian Birkhofer said. “He’s an animal.”
The Hall of Fame racer from Muscatine, Iowa — and temporary addition to the Koehler Motorsports team of the Lucas Oil Series points leader — watched Thornton with immense respect as he circled the quarter-mile oval in southern Indiana, outdueling Devin Moran to pocket the $50,000 payday.
“I've seen him and watched him, but I never really personally met him until last Thursday,” said Birkhofer, brought on board the team through his association with fellow Iowan and his former crew member Zach Frields, who crews for Thornton. “He's just a genuine, humble person. I met his parents, and it tells you a lot about somebody when you meet their parents, so it’s been a lot of fun. He's an easygoing guy. There's no arrogance to him. And it's just fun to watch him.”
It was certainly fun to watch Thornton battle with Moran during Brownstown’s annual century grind. Moran paced the field for the first 21 circuits before surrendering the lead to Bobby Pierce of Oakwood, Ill., who led the 100-lapper for laps 22-46. Moran regained the lead for laps 46-75 before a pursuing Thornton finally caught up with the Dresden, Ohio driver. Thornton steadily maintained a top-five position, saving his tires and equipment for crunch time.
“Being on a hard tire, really, you just don't want to go too hard too quick and blister them,” Thornton said. “They get way too hot on the top layer and they blister real bad, and then you're not very good at the end. I was trying to run hard, but I really didn't want to fall out of the top five. I feel like if you get more than two rows back on a restart, you really don't know what's going to happen.”
Thornton also used restarts to his advantage. The caution for a slow Clay Harris on lap 65 was a critical restart for Thornton, allowing him to get a great run on Moran.
“Bobby picked the bottom and I was kind of glad he did because I knew Devin was going to go back to the top on the restart,” Thornton said. “I was able to make a good lap and get by him. It worked out for us.”
“(Moran) was running the bottom. And the top wasn't really any faster, I don't think, but the straightaway speed difference — you could make so much more straightaway speed. He never tried to chop me or nothing. So that part was nice. We were racing hard and I think we never touched once.”
After several circuits of thrilling sliders, Thornton wrested control for good on lap 76 and never looked back. The victory put Thornton 80 points ahead of Moran with three races to go in the Big River Steel Chase for the Championship, and well-ahead of Jonathan Davenport of Blairsville, Ga., and Hudson O’Neal of Martinsville, Ind., who had nightmarish weekends at Brownstown. Contact with Moran caused Davenport to spin — the second time in as many nights. He recovered to finish sixth Saturday, but O’Neal faded to finish 17th at his home track, where he retired a night earlier after an early scrape with Thornton resulted in right-front damage.
The playoffs move to Pittsburgh's Pennsylvania Motor Speedway next weekend.
“I think now we're back to where we started the weekend,” Thornton said. “At least for me and Devin, obviously, we beat Hudson, so we get points on him and then J.D.'s mishap with him and Devin. It’ll make Pittsburgh easier.”
Ferguson’s charge
Carson Ferguson’s fourth-place run at the Jackson 100, in his mind, provided a glimpse of what his Paylor Motorsports team can be with the right setup, and more importantly, the right tires.
Pitted next to his cousin, Chris, who was making just his second career start at Brownstown, the 25-year-old driver has frequently found himself battling toward the front of the national touring field this season, but rarely having the finishes to show for it. Bad luck, untimely flats and middling performances have caused him to fade in features, but a strong finish from his eighth starting spot at the southern Indiana track gives him a boost.
“I think we got a bad batch of tires there a few weeks ago, and we've just been going through them,” Ferguson said. “We switched wheels, we switched a little bit of everything — tire pressure, where we're cutting them, and just nothing seemed to work. So we went and got a brand-new tire from the track today for the feature, and it obviously stayed with me the whole time, so it was a lot better.”
The new batch of rubber may be the difference for Ferguson. With three races remaining on the Lucas tour schedule, the strong showing at Brownstown has him looking ahead to 2026.
“I feel like last year we, you know, we wouldn't start out with speed through the night, but maybe we would get a little bit going for the feature,” said Ferguson, who notched just his third top-five finish on the Lucas Oil season. “And this year, I feel like we've really hit our stride, (qualifying) a lot better, starting better in the heat races and the features and stuff, but we just had a lot of bad luck and just things not go our way,”
English rebounds
Starting 14th, Tanner English of Benton, Ky., progressed to a seventh-place finish in Brownstown's 100-lapper. Saturday’s show was much better for English than his Friday outing, when he and Bobby Pierce, a fellow competitor on the World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series, made contact during the C.J. Rayburn Memorial eventually won by Nick Hoffman of Mooresville, N.C.
English did not hide his displeasure with Pierce, who is primed for his second-straight series title. The two made contact in turn three at Brownstown, sending English into an infield tire and damaging his nosepiece.
“I just got ran over,” English said. “I mean, it's happened to me quite a bit by him and he's just hard to race. That's it. I mean, that's just all I got to say about it. It don't help that he's way faster than you at any point in time. And if you wanted to get him back, you can't hardly do it now.”
English felt he had a top-four car Saturday, but a marginal qualifying effort and starting deep in the field prevented him from advancing any further than seventh. All in all, though, he left Brownstown much happier on Saturday.
“Car's good and in one piece, so I feel like it's good night,” English said. “Just wish I would have qualified just a little bit better and maybe start up front, you know. It's hard to gain an advantage anymore, you know? Everybody's so close. You can be faster than five guys in front of you and you can't pass them.”
