While Mother Nature certainly made her presence known during Declan Brownsey’s recent American racing campaign, the expat New Zealander never failed to prove his consistency each time he took to the track in the U.M.P. Modifieds class, picking up a number of encouraging results. 
Contesting a reduced schedule of eight race meetings in support of the prestigious Late Model Hell Tour, rather than the originally planned 14, with heavy rainfall creating the worst cancellation record in over five years, there were plenty of positives for Brownsey to draw from his stint overseas.
Based in Bloomington, Illinois and racing for car owner Brian Deavers, the 27-year-old contested several rounds of the Summer Nationals for U.M.P. Modifieds at Kankakee County Speedway, Spoon River Speedway, Fairbury Speedway and Farmer City Raceway. However, it was during one of two visits to the latter track that he achieved his best result, coming home eighth after qualifying into the A Modified feature race on both occasions.
Participating in a $1,000 to win event at Tri-City Speedway as a part of Legends Week alongside 43 rivals, Brownsey did extremely well to make his way into the feature race, starting out of position 21 and managing to work his way forward to a 16th-place finish amongst some tough competition.
Another highlight came during a visit to Spoon River Speedway, where Brownsey qualified a pleasing 12th for the B Modifieds feature race before being forced to pull to the infield after contact with another competitor resulted in damage to the car.
Being the highest B Modified driver in the Summer National point standings, Brownsey also placed a competitive 43rd out of 251 drivers in the overall point standings.
Brownsey was also joined in America by his partner Renee Leggo, who was able to enjoy her first taste of competitive racing at Farmer City Raceway prior to the feature race being rained out, getting a second chance to fill the driver’s seat at Spoon River Speedway before returning home.
“We thoroughly enjoyed our trip to America and overall we’re quite pleased with what we were able to achieve; it’s just a shame that the weather forced us to cut our schedule down,” commented the AMCA Nationals and National 4s racer, who resides in the town of Ningi in the Moreton Bay region of Queensland.
“We can’t thank Brian enough for allowing both myself and Renee to pilot his cars. The competition is extremely fierce and it has allowed me as a driver to gain some invaluable experience that I hope to be able to draw on back home in Australia.”
Brownsey would like to thank the following sponsors for helping to make his American racing trip a possibility:
Bryke Racing
Highline Racewear & Team Apparel
B-HAM Signs & Designs
Varsitee Screenprinting
Renee Leggo Photography
Threadworx Custom Embroidery
Cush Clothing Co.
44 Photography
To find out more about Brownsey and his team, LIKE them on Facebook by searching Brownsey Team Racing.
