By Jim Clarke, Clarke Motorsports Communications
He’s a very quiet young man – until you get him behind the wheel of a racecar. At just 16 years of age, Brandon Watson is talking loud and drawing a crowd in Kawartha Speedway’s NAPA Auto Parts Late Model division. The Fraserville, Ontario raceway hosted a 100 lap invitational event for their headline class Friday, June 19th and even though the deck may have been stacked against him, the talented teen from Stayner, Ontario managed to record his second consecutive win.
After winning the night’s first qualifying heat from an outside front row starting spot, the 10th grader at Stayner Collegiate advanced to the semi feature where he’d not only gain some extra track time, but also earn valuable points in the championship chase. Starting 9th in the ‘semi’ allowed the young hot-shoe to miss a 4 car wreck in turns 3 and 4. Watson and Dan McHattie each arrived on the scene late and managed to slow-down in time to avoid the mishap. He finished 5th in the semi feature and gave the crew some much needed feedback following the extra session.
“We’ve noticed that the car changes as the night goes on,” said Watson’s father, car owner and crew chief, Tim. “For someone his age, Brandon gives us some excellent information where set-up is concerned. The things he told us after the heat race gave us some ideas and we adjusted air pressure to give the car a bit different feel. There were more changes before the feature too – but they were a bit of a gamble because the 100 lap distance is a long run to know what the car will need.”
The feature event took the green flag with Tom Walters and Bryan Mercer on the front row, but ran just 1 lap before the yellow flag was displayed for a front-stretch wreck involving John Bryan and Rino Martenari. On the re-start, both Dan McHattie and Brandon Watson started to march to the front. The duo seemed to be following each other. Watson took the #9 McColl Racing Enterprises-Shear Metal Products-Ken MacKinnon Construction-Plumtech Plumbing-W.
Gethons Pumping-Simcoe Building Centre-LaFarge Concrete-Clearview Custom and Collision-AKN Automotive-Torbram Electric Supply Chevrolet into the lead with less than 40 laps in the books, but surrendered the top spot to McHattie just 3 laps later. With 50 complete, the top 5 was McHattie, Watson, Chris Morrow, Walters and Dwight Brown.
When the crossed-flags – signifying the race’s halfway point – were displayed, it was like someone lit a fuse under Brandon Watson. The youngster set his Chevy on ‘kill’ and ran the second stage of the event with his right foot firmly planted to the firewall. His yellow, red and blue rocket sliced its way through traffic like a hot knife through butter.
Using the high line on one lap – and the low line the next, he not only gained track position – he put some serious distance between himself and rival Dan McHattie. At the checkered flag, Watson had a 12 car length advantage over the #71 machine. Chris Morrow, Tom Walters and Dwight Brown completed the top 5.
“I really couldn’t think about things too much,” said Watson in victory lane. “When Dan McHattie is running second, you need to do everything you can to put some space between the 2 cars. The lapped cars were racing for spots too, so you have to figure out where you’ll catch them and do your best to work your way past.”
Showing he’s still just a kid at heart, Brandon Watson finished his victory lane interview by thanking the fans, his sponsors, crew, family members...and his dog.
Photo attachments: (Jim Clarke – Clarke Motorsports Communications)
#1). Brandon Watson gets in some track time at Kawartha Speedway.
#2). The kid is hot! 16 year-old Brandon Watson picked-up another qualifying event victory in the NAPA Auto Parts Late Model division at Kawartha Speedway.
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