Brent Dragon Hitting His Summer Stride
MILTON, Vt. – Coming off an impressive Top-5 finish at Thunder Road International Speedbowl last Sunday afternoon, Brent Dragon feels like his combined effort this season is finally rounding into form.
Dragon, who during the offseason combined his Dragon Motorsports No. 55 Furniture World of VT/Beverage Mart/Charlesbois Freightliner Chevrolet team with Avery Motorsports, said he believes that the learning curve for the dual focus is about to hit its stride as the summer stretch of racing commences.
“We’re definitely going in the right direction,” said Dragon, who finished fifth in the Carquest VT Governor’s Cup 100 on Sunday at Thunder Road. “(Distance Racing owner) Jeff Taylor’s definitely helping us a lot. In the six races we’ve run already, we’ve been very competitive in five of them.
“I feel really confident with the two groups together.”
This weekend, Dragon will use an off-weekend for the ACT Late Model Tour to compete in a 100-lap Late Model event at White Mountain Motorsports Park on Saturday night. Dragon was caught up in another car’s accident early in the White Mountain 150 at the track earlier this month, and he hopes to use the night to fine-tune his car’s handling.
Dragon sits seventh in the ACT standings through five series races.
“We’re going to go and try and some more stuff with (the Avery Motorsports) car,” Dragon said. “We weren’t all that great at White Mountain last time we were there. We weren’t bad, but we’re going to go and try to to be a little better.
“I felt like we were pretty close when we were there. I thought we were really good in practice, but after that rain came (before qualifying), the track changed so much and we didn’t keep up with it. We’re going to go back and try it again.”
It’s been a challenging year to date for Dragon, who has had to adjust to the role of being a driver first and his own crew chief second.
He’s run his Avery Motorsports ride in the ACT events at Lee USA Speedway, Thunder Road, Oxford Plains Speedway and White Mountain, while running his own car at Devil’s Bowl Speedway and in the non-points race last weekend at Thunder Road. Dragon has one Top-5 finish in ACT competition, at Oxford.
“It’s actually really hard,” said the all-time ACT leader in starts. “After having done everything yourself for all these years, it’s hard to just show up and drive it – but I’m starting to get used to it. (Crew chief Donnie Avery and I) talk quite a bit – about every day we’re talking on the phone – which is something I’ve never had before. Usually, I’ve done everything myself during the week to get ready.”
At Thunder Road last weekend, which the team decided to run after being rained out at Oxford the night before, Dragon said he noticed that things were starting to take shape.
“I bet we had seven or eight guys there,” he said. “I’m used to showing up at the track with two. It was sort of fun to have that. It took a lot of pressure off me.
“I think we’re going in the right direction, but it takes a lot of time.”