Rick Brown looks to friendly confines in Roseburg

By Jon Brown, MERIDIAN, Idaho — Last month, “Quick” Rick Brown proved that he could win away from home.

Now the former ASA Northwest Sprintcar Racing Association champion will get the chance to show what he can do in his own backyard when the Canadian-American Western Winged Sprintcars Series makes its first foray to Douglas County Speedway in Roseburg, Ore.

Brown hails from Springfield, Ore., which is about an hour north of Roseburg on Highway 99. He’ll have plenty of local company when the WWS and NSRA get together to co-sanction a two-night show at the 1/3-mile paved oval on the Douglas County Fairgrounds.

The American Speed Association is sanctioning both series for the first time this season.

Friday’s DCS Debut is a 40-lapper. It’s followed up by Saturday’s 50-lap Art Pollard Memorial.

Brown won the Super Shoe on June 29 at Stateline Speedway in Post Falls, Idaho, to mark the midway point of the WWS season.

Bryan Warf still holds a 29-point lead over fellow Meridian, Idaho racer Johnny Giesler in the Western Winged Sprints championship chase.

Brown has yet to crack the top 10 even though he became only the second non-Idaho driver to win a WWS event. Scott Aumen of Duncan, British Columbia, won the first night of the Daffodil Cup last year on his home track at Western Speedway in Victoria, British Columbia.

No doubt Brown and his fellow Oregonians – Andy Alberding of Winston and Matt Hein of Roseburg – are hoping that home cooking will go their way this weekend.

Saturday will mark the first WWS involvement in the prestigious Pollard Memorial.

The race is run in honor of the former Indianapolis 500 competitor who died at the age of 46 in a practice crash at the Brickyard on May 12, 1973. He finished eighth in his 1967 Indy debut. It was the only time in five appearances in the race in which Pollard finished the final lap.

Though born in Utah, Pollard moved to Roseburg in 1944 and attended high school there. He used to race at the fairgrounds that now house Douglas County Speedway.

According to the family’s tribute website, Pollard’s first race was a hydroplane boat race down the Umpqua River outside Roseburg.

His first automobile race was an indoor micro midgets contest at the Douglas County Fairgrounds.