WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — Teenager Carson Brown will make his third start of the season in the Cube 3 Architecture TA2 Series Saturday at Watkins Glen Int’l. He’s been plenty busy since his last appearance with the series on April 26 at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway.
Brown, the 16-year-old from New London, North Carolina, will drive the No. 8 PayCafe/Ebb Logistics/SLR-M1 Racecars Chevrolet Camaro at Watkins Glen.
Brown, who finished fourth at Sonoma, has been a busy race car driver since his last Trans Am Series run.
He’s competed in ARCA Menards Series races, won an ASA STARS National Tour race at Madison Int’l Speedway in Wisconsin, and most recently has been competing in the DIRTcar Summer Nationals.
“It’s been a while since I’ve been in the TA2 car as we’ve had a very busy spring and summer racing a lot of short-track stuff,” Brown explained. “That’s been a lot of fun, but I’m definitely looking forward to getting back with TeamSLR and getting back after it. I feel like we’ll have a really good car this weekend. It’s been a while, so I might be a little rusty at the start, but we’ll get plenty of track time and I think we should have a good weekend.
“Watkins Glen is a track that’s on the NASCAR schedule and a road course that everybody looks up to. I have high hopes and hopefully we can get it done with another good finish.”
He’s never raced at Watkins Glen.
“I’ve driven it on the sim and I’ve looked at some video, everything I can do to prepare. It looks interesting on the sim,” Brown said. “I felt like there are a few corners down in the boot where the entry-to-exit value is very interesting. I feel like there are a lot of corners that are very oval-like, and some interesting braking zones. I’m sure things will be a lot different in person, in real life, than the simulator, but hopefully the preparation has definitely gotten me close.”
Of late Brown, who turns 17 on Sunday, has been tossing a dirt late model around tracks throughout the Midwest.
“The main thing was the DIRTcar Summer Nationals, which is basically a super late model event with 30 races in 32 days, all at different tracks,” Brown said. “I also ran a couple of races in our asphalt super late model. I won in that at Madison International Speedway in Wisconsin. That was a $15,000-to-win race, so that was very cool. I also set a track record, won a couple poles, and had a decent amount of top-10s in the dirt late model during the Summer Nationals. It’s been pretty grueling but it’s a lot of fun.”
Brown believes racing on dirt helps him on other types of tracks.
“I feel like the dirt stuff helps me a lot, just being able to adapt,” Brown said. “When you race dirt, you only get three laps of hot laps, and then you’re straight to qualifying. And I feel like dirt helps me a lot as far as just being able to adapt to different racecars, different conditions, different track shapes. And then racing on asphalt, I feel like that helps with patience and just understanding more how stock cars drive and how they work.”
