Danny O’Brien Scores First Win Of 2018 At Can-Am
Story By: CLAYTON JOHNS / DANNY O’BRIEN RACING – INVERARY, ONT – Danny O’Brien got into the win column for the first time this season last Friday night when he scored the victory in DIRTcar 358 Modified weekly action at Can-AM Speedway in Lafargeville, NY. O’Brien recorded a perfect night, winning the heat race and then the main event in the first race of a doubleheader weekend.
“Friday night we were really good,” O’Brien said. “We had a few extra cars show up because Mohawk rained out early. It made for a good field of cars and a great racetrack.”
O’Brien lined-up sixth for the main event and quickly made his way forward to challenge for the early lead. The track was wide and provided an excellent surface for O’Brien to make his charge to the front.
“You could actually run anywhere on the track you wanted,” O’Brien explained. “There was an outside, middle and a bottom. I got the leader on the outside and moved back to the bottom and stayed there the rest of the race.”
After taking the lead, O’Brien settled into the top spot and knew he had the ability to control the race.
“About lap 10 of the race I knew we had a good car,” O’Brien recalled. “We went around the leaders pretty good and you can just tell when your car is good. I figured if we didn’t screw anything up, we’d be alright.”
O’Brien was strong over the final 15 laps and outpaced veteran Super DIRTcar Series driver Tim Fuller over the final laps to claim a well-earned victory. Scoring the win over Fuller made it that much sweeter, O’Brien said.
“Him and Billy Dunn are among a lot of good cars over there. When you win one there (at Can-Am), you earn it,” O’Brien said.
On Saturday, O’Brien returned to Brockville Ontario Speedway for weekly DIRTcar 358 Modified action. O’Brien started at the rear of his qualifying heat before driving up to a third-place finish. Starting mid-pack in the Feature, O’Brien got stuck in the wrong place at the wrong time in an opening lap.
“On lap one of the feature, we all got bottle necked going into turn three. A bunch of them checked up and I checked up, but the guy behind me got into me, spun me around and took a few of us out,” O’Brien explained.
“That bent the front end up and it was struggle from there. We started at the back again and the car was off. The right-front shock was bent a bit on it and we struggled to sixth.”
While O’Brien certainly would have preferred a pair of wins on the weekend, he was quite happy to take home a sixth-place result given the circumstances.
“I was lucky. I spun in the middle of the track and everybody got by,” O’Brien said. “It could have very easily been a DNF, so I’ll take it.”
O’Brien will be back in action at both Can-Am Speedway and Brockville Ontario Speedway this Friday and Saturday night, respectively.
