Danny O’Brien Scores First Brockville Win Of 2018, Top-Five At Can-Am

Story By: CLAYTON JOHNS / DANNY O’BRIEN RACING – INVERARY, ONT – Danny O’Brien continued his hot streak as he scored his third win in as many weeks and first of the season at Brockville Ontario Speedway in DIRTcar 358 Modified action on Saturday. June 9.

O’Brien also earned a fourth-place finish at Can-Am Speedway in Lafargeville, NY on Friday, June 8. Both races were a part of new four-race co-operative Border Battle Series between the two tracks.

Friday night, O’Brien timed in second in his group before finishing second in his heat. That lined him up sixth for the 35-lap main event and he drove forward to the fourth-place result.

“We lined up sixth for the race and finished fourth,” O’Brien said. “We had a good run.”

O’Brien’s third straight top-five finish at Can-Am set him up for a strong run on Saturday night at Brockville. At his home track, O’Brien set quick time in the third group and used the pole starting position to his advantage in the heat race and drove to the victory. The win put him third on the starting grid for the main event.

“We got second right away off the start,” O’Brien explained. “Chris Herbison was leading and I think he led the first 10 laps before a yellow came out. I got around the outside of him on the restart and never looked back.”

Although O’Brien paced the field the remaining 25 laps, it was not necessarily an easy task as he had to navigate lapped traffic on a couple of occasions as well as restarts.

“We had a few cautions, but we still had some lapped traffic to deal with,” O’Brien explained.

“(Ryan) Arbuthnot was close. He’s been running well and he was a close second. He showed me the wheels on the bottom one lap and I realized the outside had gone away in one and two. We moved back down to the bottom and we were good.”

O’Brien has now made 10 starts on the season and has earned seven top-five finishes in the process, including his three victories. A return to racing twice every week as helped the multi-time Brockville champion find a rhythm behind the wheel of his 1000 Islands RV Centre No.17d.

“I think racing two night’s a week is really helping,” O’Brien said. “Racing at Can-Am has really sharpened us up on setups. It was heavy in Time Trials at Brockville and it really shows we’re a lot better at loosening the car up for time trials and we’re getting more speed out of it. It shows in the results.”

O’Brien will only have one race on the schedule for the upcoming week. He will miss Friday’s race at Can-Am to attend a Celebration of Life before returning to action Saturday at Brockville.