Curran Scores 5th Victory on Emotional Weekend For The Curran Family

(7/8/2019)

While every victory obviously means a lot to a racecar driver, Saturday night at Antioch Speedway meant so much more for B Mod winner Brent Curran. In the past 4 years, Curran has lost 3 extremely close family members, each passing on in the first week of July. With Curran unsure if he’d be able to race Saturday, he knew they’d want him out at the track doing what he loves, thus Curran made the decision to race Saturday night.

The night kicked off with heat race action, with an unfortunate pill draw lining Curran up last in the 5 car race. In the first two laps Curran made 2 quick moves, passing last week’s winner Scott Savell and point leader Tommy Fraser to slide into 3rd position. Though he was able to catch 2nd place runner Les Friend, Curran would have to settle for 3rd in the heat.

For the feature, Curran would roll off 5th, but by the end of the opening lap, he was already up to 2nd. Just one lap later, Curran would capitalize on a mistake by race leader Kevin Brown to grab the top spot.

While Brown was able to hang close to Curran for a couple of laps, Curran quickly began pulling away and opening a huge gap back to 2nd. By the time the first caution waved 7 laps in, Curran had amassed a full straightaway’s length lead over Brown and the rest of the field.

Once the race got back underway it was right back to business for Curran, this time with a new challenger in Les Friend riding behind in 2nd. Just like before the caution, once a few laps had passed, Curran was once again ahead by a sizeable margin.

When all was said and done, Curran would go on to win the feature by nearly half a lap. The feature netted Curran an increased $500 win winnings, as well as narrowing the points battle with Fraser to just 2 points.

When asked for a comment about his night, Curran said “This last week has been a very tough week for me emotionally. I lost 3 family members very close to me within a few days of each other in the last 4 years. My Dena on 7/3/17, my Grandpa Barry on 7/5/17 and my Grandpa Jerry on 7/7/15… It was even up in the air that I was going to race Saturday with where my head was this week. They would’ve wanted me to race my heart out so I did. Had a solid heat race on one of the best track surfaces I’ve seen all year at Antioch. Car was solid and only needed to make a few minor adjustments for the main as the track dried out a bit. Went out with the intention in the main to take it easy the first few laps and keep the nose clean and go racing once everyone got sorted out. The car felt great the first few laps and within a couple laps found myself out front. Moved around a bit trying to see where the car felt the best but finally settled in on the bottom and never looked back. All in all another great week for points and an emotional win to top that.”

Brent would like to thank all of his sponsors and supporters, including:

Steel City Motorsports

Steadfast Construction

GRT Race Cars Inc.

Empire RC

89 Design

All Flow Muffler & Auto Repair

Jeff Fields (Brandit Designs)

Red Six RaceGear

Velocita-USA

Interested in having writeups like these done for your race team throughout the season? Contact Daren Ricks of DRC Motorsports Media here on Facebook, at darenricks999@gmail.com or at (530) 828-0112 to discuss a plan that fits your team’s needs.

Daren Ricks

DRC Motorsports Media

Curran Perseveres Through Challenging Track Conditions to Take 2 Top 10’s at Merced and Antioch

(6/10/2019)

Though the team’s primary focus is on winning the Antioch Speedway B Mod title, Curran headed down to Merced Speedway this past Wednesday to compete in their annual Fair Race. The team wanted a chance to test their dry slick setup, and with the track’s water truck breaking down early on a hot night, Curran got a bit drier of a surface than he had been expecting.

Due to IMCA point average lineups, Curran would start last in his 9 car heat. With only 3 cars transferring to the feature he would have plenty of work to do if he wanted to transfer directly from the heat race. Despite being in a stacked heat race, Curran would climb up to 5th to set himself up with a solid starting position in the B Main.

Though Curran rolled off 4th in the B Main, he quickly found his way to the front. Once Curran took the lead, there wasn’t anyone even close to being able to catch him, as he lead the remainder of the race to win by nearly 5 seconds.

Curran’s B Main win would start him towards the back for the feature as he started 14th. Over the course of the 25 lap feature, Curran carefully picked his spots, moving into the Top 10 in the early going. As the laps wound down, however, Curran just couldn’t find the room to move much further forward, and would ultimately come home with an 8th place finish.

Saturday night at Antioch started much better for Curran, who drew the pole for his heat race. Curran would go on to lead all 8 laps, leading by nearly a straightaway, as he picked up the heat race win in dominating fashion.

Since Curran had won the previous race, he would be forced to start 10th for the main event. With track conditions drier than many had ever seen at the speedway, the thick cloud of dust made it difficult to make moves in traffic.

Despite the dust, Curran was on the move early, moving up to 7th before a Lap 5 caution. A few laps later, Curran would grab 6th after a fellow competitor spun ahead of him.

On the restart, Curran would quickly grab 5th from Chris Sieweke, and was all over the back of Kevin Brown for 4th. Though it looked like Curran easily had the speed to get around Brown, there just wasn’t room on the track to make a move stick. Curran would go on to run the remainder of the race in 5th, where he’d ultimately finish.

Brent would like to thank all of his sponsors and supporters, including:

Steel City Motorsports

Steadfast Construction

GRT Race Cars Inc.

Empire RC

89 Design

All Flow Muffler & Auto Repair

Jeff Fields (Brandit Designs)

Red Six RaceGear

Velocita-USA

Daren Ricks

DRC Motorsports Media

Curran Notches Top 5 in First Career A Mod Start

(5/6/2019)

Though there wasn’t a B Mod race scheduled at Antioch Speedway Saturday night, Antioch’s own Brent Curran needed to get some laps in to test out the car’s new rear end. With that in mind, the team headed to Antioch Speedway to compete with the track’s A Mod class.

Despite running against a faster class, Curran was fairly competitive. Since he was just trying to make sure the car was ready to go for next week he didn’t push it too hard. He was able to gain one spot to finish 5th, but he easily had the speed to finish in the Top 3.

At the drop of the green flag in the Main Event, Curran was on the move. Curran would move from 8th to 6th on the opening lap, and was knocking on the door of the Top 5. Just one lap later, Curran again moved up two spots, this time taking 4th.

Buddy Kniss wasn’t going to give up 5th easily, however, pulling back alongside Curran to run side by side multiple times over the next few laps. The lone caution of the race would wave 7 laps in, bunching the field back up and meaning Curran would have Kniss to his outside on the restart.

On the ensuing restart Kniss would regain 4th, as Curran had to fend off a new challenger in Brian Pearce. After a few laps Curran was able to break free and maintain 5th. A short time later, Curran would catch early leader Terry Kaiser and pass him to move back into 4th.

While Curran was able to keep pace with the Top 3, he wasn’t finding ways around the car ahead of him. Curran would ride out the last half of the race in 4th, putting up a strong showing against the division above what he normally runs.

After the race, Curran said: “It was a good night altogether. Worked out some bugs in the new rear end and was able to fine tune a bit and see how the car reacted. Didn’t want to take a chance on a points day for us and have an issue arise with something we missed. Finishing top 5 and being able to race side by side with some of my A mod hero’s was just a bonus. Hopefully I’m able to do it again sometime soon or maybe even try it out in a real A mod.”

Brent would like to thank all of his sponsors and supporters, including:

Steel City Motorsports

Steadfast Construction

GRT Race Cars Inc.

Empire RC

89 Design

All Flow Muffler & Auto Repair

Jeff Fields (Brandit Designs)

Red Six RaceGear

Velocita-USA

Daren Ricks

DRC Motorsports Media

Curran Backs up Previous Week’s Win With 2nd Place Run

(4/28/2019)

After weeks of frustrating finishes and circumstances, Brent Curran’s season appears to done a complete 180 after 2 consecutive great finishes. The Antioch native won last week’s $500 to win race at Antioch Speedway, and was in the running for the $1,000 prize Saturday night.

At the drop of the green flag for his heat race, Curran was gone. Though a caution came out and caused a full restart, Curran once again used his front row starting spot to his advantage and jumped out to a big lead. For the next 8 laps, Curran’s lead would grow, before ultimately winning the heat race by a full straightaway’s length margin.

Since Curran had won the previous week, Curran would be forced to start the feature in 8th. Curran remained patient in the early portion of the race, only moving forward 1 spot in the opening 5 circuits. That’s when Curran began to go to work.

Over the next lap and a half, Curran would slice and dice his way to 5th. With a group of 3 cars ahead, Curran started to use the bottom part of the race track, the part that most of the field was avoiding, to make his passes. Curran had made his way to 4th when minor contact with another competitor dropped him back to 5th, right before a Lap 9 caution.

The upcoming restart didn’t last very long, however, as another driver spun on the backstretch to immediately bring the yellow flag back out. On the ensuing restart, Curran quickly moved into 2nd place. Curran then began what could simply be called an amazing battle with race leader Tommy Fraser, and that may be understating it.

Over the next 9 laps, Curran and Fraser remained side by side for the majority of each lap, with Curran just coming up short of clearing Fraser multiple times. The entire time the two drivers raced door to door, they were able to do so without touching once, truly a testament to the skill of both drivers.

Just as it looked as though Curran was possibly starting to gain an advantage, one last caution waved with 3 laps left. Curran would throw everything he had left at Fraser on the restart, but it just wasn’t enough, ultimately settling for a 2nd place finish.

When asked about his thoughts on the race, Curran said “It was another solid points night for us and the car went on the trailer in one piece again. That race though was by far the most exciting race I’ve ran in a modified. To run door to door for 8-10 laps without even the slightest wheel rub was amazing. Better yet the whole top 3 ran super clean and put on a show for the fans. It’s always a good night when the officials and the fans can come in the pits and thank you for the show you put on. Antioch is a tough track to pass on or even just run side by side. The track modifications really made the racing a lot better and opened up multiple grooves to work with. Made the ability to come from the rear of the field possible. Can’t wait to see what the rest of the year has to hold and hopefully keep our points run alive!”

Brent would like to thank all of his sponsors and supporters, including:

Steel City Motorsports

Steadfast Construction

GRT Race Cars Inc.

Empire RC

89 Design

All Flow Muffler & Auto Repair

Jeff Fields (Brandit Designs)

Red Six RaceGear

Velocita-USA

Curran’s Run of Bad Luck Comes to a Close, Puts on Clinic at Antioch en route to Win

(4/22/2019)

Ever since Antioch’s own Brent Curran declared his intent to chase the Antioch Speedway B Mod title, his luck on the track had fallen off the rails. 2 consecutive DNF’s later and with doubts arising, he and the team decided to take one last shot on Saturday night to see if the title was worth chasing.

The night of course started off with his heat race, where Brent started 4th. After passing Mark Garner for 3rd, Curran went to work on Todd Gomez for 2nd. Unfortunately for Curran, he ran out of laps and had to settle for 3rd.

The inversion would help Curran tremendously, as he would slot in to start on the outside of the front row for the feature. At the drop of the green flag, Curran was gone. Within 2 laps, Curran had staked out an almost straightaway’s length lead back to 2nd place.

It only took Curran 4 laps to hit lapped traffic, and once he caught them, he began maneuvering through them like a hot knife through butter. Curran was making multiple lines work while the rest of the field predominantly ran the high side. As the laps clicked off, Curran began running into heavier traffic. Though 2nd and 3rd were slowly inching closer, they couldn’t reach Curran.

With 7 laps left, the lone caution of the race came out. This would give his closest challengers one chance to contend for the win. On the ensuing restart, 2nd place runner Fred Ryland was able to keep Curran within striking distance. Ryland would look inside multiple times over the next few laps, but just could not find a way past Curran.

Curran then began pulling away again. Curran would amass a big enough lead to go on to win the race comfortably, picking up his first win in 2019 in the process.

After the race, an excited, but relieved Curran said “On Saturday, we just wanted to go to the track and have a solid finish with a straight car at the end of the night. We didn’t want to have to make the decision to run somewhere else to lighten the load on our wallets. Having a home track minutes from your house to go to every week with a solid fan base is definitely way more ideal than traveling every week. To finally end the bad streak with a win though was that much more special and huge for keeping our points run alive. To see all the smiles on my crew and families faces that know what I’ve been going through the last couple weeks was very emotional and special for me. That monkey is finally off our back and hopefully we can just keep the momentum from here.”

Brent would like to thank all of his sponsors and supporters, including:

Steel City Motorsports

Steadfast Construction

GRT Race Cars Inc.

Empire RC

89 Design

All Flow Muffler & Auto Repair

Jeff Fields (Brandit Designs)

Red Six RaceGear

Velocita-USA

PC: Katrina Kniss

Curran Just Misses Ringing in New Year With a Win

(1/2/2019)

After a highly successful rookie season in the Sport Mod class for Brent Curran, the Antioch native looks to build off an already impressive list of accomplishments heading into the 2019 season.

Curran and team would kick off the 2019 season on New Year’s Day at the Stockton Dirt Track, as some of the top drivers from across the state flocked to the 4/10ths mile oval to ring in the new year. A nice pill draw would set Curran up with a front row starting spot, and as soon as the green flag waved, he was gone. 2nd and 3rd place did all they could to reel Curran back in over the 8 lap heat race, but weren’t able to make any inroads, leading to an easy heat race win for Curran.

Curran’s pill draw luck would continue into the redraw, as Brent drew the pole position for the main event. From the drop of the green it again looked to be Brent’s race to lose. Despite a multitude of early cautions, Brent would pull away on each ensuing restart. Once the race finally settled down, Curran settled into a groove, setting the quickest lap of the race while holding a steady advantage over 2nd place runner Jason Nation.

As Curran closed in on lapped traffic, Nation slowly began closing in. Though Nation was starting to reel him in, Curran looked like he had a big enough advantage to hold on for the win, but that would all change in the last few laps. With just 2 laps to go, Curran caught up to the back of 2 lapped cars racing side by side. This slowed Curran enough for Nation to pull up to Curran’s bumper as they took the white flag. The two cars running side by side finally ran single file but Curran was left nowhere to go as Nation had pulled to his outside heading into turns 1 and 2. The two raced side by side as they headed down the backstretch, but Curran was still stuck behind lapped traffic, giving Nation the space needed to make a last lap pass for the win and forcing Curran to settle for 2nd in a race that he easily had the speed to win.

A disappointed Curran had this to say after the race: “Bitter sweet night tonight for the first race of 2019. Day started of great taking the win in the heat race. Started pole and lead the whole main till the last lap and got boxed in by a lap car. Ended up p2. I could sit here all night and think of plenty of excuses or scenarios that could’ve changed the way things turned out but bottom line is it’s racing and sometimes the cards don’t play out. Either way good start to the 2019 season and even better to spend the day with family and friends. Can’t thank the team enough for giving me a bad fast car and my sponsors for making everything possible. On to the next one.”

Brent would like to thank all of his 2019 Sponsors and Supporters, including:

Steadfast Constitution (Randy Cotton)
Steel City Motorsports (Keith and Amber Brown)
GRT Race Cars (Zach Wehlage)
All Flow Muffler and Auto Repair (Danny Larson and Jeffrey Erickson)
89 Design
Lunati
Interested in having writeups like these done for your race team throughout the 2019 season? Contact Daren Ricks of DRC Motorsports Media here on Facebook, at darenricks999@gmail.com or at (916) 229-7474 to discuss a plan that fits your team’s needs.

Daren Ricks
DRC Motorsports Media