INDIANAPOLIS — It’s been over a week since Taylorsville, N.C., driver Brady Allum won the biggest race of his young career.
He did the unthinkable, he held off Bobby Santos III, the master of winged pavement racing, and scored his first pavement sprint car victory of any kind.
His July 11 Must See Racing Sprint Series victory at Michigan’s Owosso Speedway, was huge. The win was very popular among fans who had just witnessed the exciting affair. Fan reaction moments after the checkered flag waved told the whole story.
The win was worth $5,400 and made the long trip back to North Carolina much easier for Allum and his father Chad.
Since then, Allum has had a lot of time to reflect on the night and how it has changed his career.
“That was absolutely the biggest win of my career so far,” proclaimed Allum. “The one thing that sticks out is we have been fighting so many problems over the last couple of years since I’ve been running sprint cars, from being a rookie, to relearning things. Since I’ve been working with Aaron Pierce things have really picked up. We knew we had the speed and we were finally able to capitalize on it.”
What started out as a disappointing night with a qualifying effort of only 11th quick finished with a Cinderella ending.
“After qualifying I wasn’t happy with the car,” remembered Allum. “My dad and Aaron (Pierce) asked me what was wrong. I told them the driver hasn’t showed up yet, that’s what’s wrong. Right before the heat race, they looked at the lineup and told me this was my time to make up for it.”
By winning his heat race, Allum was able to gain a spot into the inversion. His qualifying time allowed him to earn the pole position for the feature event, and the rest is now history.
“The motor we had is a really old 12-valve 410. It only makes about 800 horsepower. It’s a smaller 410 and isn’t as big as some of the other motors in the winged cars,” Allum said. “All I knew was I had to get off of the corners first. If I was side-by-side with Bobby (Santos) leaving a corner, He would beat me the second half of the straightway.
“All I knew was I had to get out of the hole faster and better. If I could do that, I could almost slide him into turn one, and take his line away, to the point it would make him get back into single file.
“This whole experience has been great for me and my dad. He’s been super happy and stoked for it. He believed in me and knew it was only a matter of time before we did it. We soaked it in all the way on the drive home,” he continued. “I received texts and calls from people all over the country from family, friends, and people I raced against all the way home. I actually may have just landed a sponsor because of winning that race and might be able to do some more winged pavement racing in the future.”
Allum was proud of the accolades he received.
“After the race Bobby, his crew, and his dad came over and congratulated me,” Allum said. “That was really cool. He’s been really supportive the few wing races that we’ve ran. He told me he was happy to see me running so well with these guys. That was probably the coolest moment of the whole night, having himself and his family come up to me and congratulate me.
“I couldn’t see the scoreboard because of the way it is angled. I knew somebody was back there late in the race but had no idea who it might be until he stuck his nose in there. I knew somebody was coming regardless. I just told myself to not make any mistakes. The ones I did make luckily happed at times when I had a big lead, and nobody could capitalize on it.”
He did have one unexpected challenge along the way.
“One problem I encountered in the race was I took the steering wheel off under a red flag,” Allum explained. “I felt something under the throttle pedal. A zeus button was stuck under there. When I went back out, I put my steering wheel on upside down. When I was chasing the car after being tight, the steering wheel being off and out of position and was a challenge.
“I think the minute I took the checkered it hit me that I’d just won a Must See Racing event. I slowed down a lot, enjoyed that moment, and soaked it all in.”
