Diary of a Speed Demon

Toby Brown is number 61a in our programs, but number one in our hearts.

Toby Brown, who grew up just an hour or so southwest of Springfield in Carthage and still lives there, has driven 140 miles per hour in both national and localized sprint car races. He has crashed. He has won races. He’s number 61a racing on his dad’s team, Brown Racing Express, and he says it’s exhilarating… and then some. The following is what it feels like—in Toby’s own words—to own the track.

Sprint cars are built specifically for what we do. They’re the ones with the wings on top of them. They’re open-wheel, no fenders, no doors. They’ve got a big spoiler on top. Fastest thing on dirt.

When I first started, it was kind of nerve-wracking wondering if the car’s going to turn when you get to the corner. Everybody worries about wrecking a little because you’re going so fast, and I’ve wrecked plenty.

When you wreck, you see sky, ground, sky, ground because you’re just flipping. I’ve had a few concussions. I’ve never broken any bones or anything. It takes some time to get used to handling the car. You’re in dirt, so there are ruts. The track’s not smooth like it is on asphalt. I think the speed and the quickness of it make it difficult. You don’t have time to think about what you’re going to do. You just have to do it. It’s got to be second nature. If you think, it’s too late. You wreck.

They say it takes a different breed to drive sprint cars. They say it’s a whole different animal, which it is. With sprint cars, you’re looking at 680 horsepower or more to a car that only weighs 12 hundred pounds. Sprint cars have an 18-inch-wide tire on the right rear and a 16-inch-wide tire on the left rear and a wing that’s constantly pushing down on the car, so we don’t lose much power. It’s all that horsepower to the dirt. That’s what makes them so fast. It’s kind of mind-boggling, actually.

We’ve got a two-seater sprint car that we give rides in to the fans who think they know how to drive. If you’re in the grandstand, it looks real easy to drive. You get fans who come down after the races and say, ”Why didn’t you do this? Why didn’t you do that?” Hop in there and try it.

But if it wasn’t for fans, it wouldn’t be nearly as much fun to race. One of my favorite things at the races is when little kids want your autograph and say they want to be a racecar driver. The next generation. That’s what makes it worth doing. I’ve got some cousins and all my friends’ kids, little ones that I try to get going fast. I try to encourage them to go just as fast as they can go on their little Big Wheel or bicycle. When I was a kid, I always hurt myself falling off stuff—crashing go carts and bicycles. I’ve wrecked about everything you could possibly wreck.

When I won my first sprint car race in Monett, it didn’t hit me for about a week that I’d actually won, because I’d been racing for so long. I’d been racing modifieds and won a bunch in that. It wasn’t anything to go in and win on a modified. But the competition is just so much closer in sprint cars, so it took a lot of effort to win.

When I won in sprint cars, it was like, “Oh man! I won!”

Online Exclusive: Speedy Links

Check out Toby's official O'Reilly American Sprint Car Series home page.

Learn where to watch live racing right here in Springfield, including a sprint car race in June.