Tim O’Brien 2011 Season in Review; Busy Season Highlighted by Applefest Shootout Victory at Brighton Speedway
Craig Revelle – Finish Line Web Design
November 7, 2011
The 2011 racing season was a busy one for Tim O’Brien and the Jim’s Performance Plus team. Racing weekly at Mohawk International Raceway, Brockville Speedway and Cornwall Speedway, O’Brien had three victories this season, and posted 36 top ten finishes in the 46 events that he entered.
When the season got underway in late April, O’Brien started racing at Can Am Motorsports Park for the first three weeks. He was the defending 358 Modified champion at the track, and started the year off with three consecutive top ten finishes, including a third place finish in the final race before switching to Mohawk Raceway when they opened in the middle of May, along Brockville and Cornwall.
When the season got underway at O’Brien’s three main tracks this season, he started out with some mixed results. At Brockville, he was able to score fourth place finishes in the first four events of the season. Cornwall started out slow for O’Brien, finally posting his first top five at the track in his fourth start of the year. At Mohawk, O’Brien posted top five finishes in three of his first four starts to begin the year.
At the end of June, O’Brien picked up his first win of the season at Cornwall, and began to emerge as a contender for the track championship. He was also in third in points at Brockville, and while struggling a little at Mohawk Raceway, he was still contending for a top five in the battle for their championship.
July was certainly the busiest month of the season for O’Brien with 12 events. He posted his first ever win at Mohawk Raceway on July 15th, and had three top five finishes at Brockville, including back to back second place results, and three top ten finishes at Cornwall. While he was holding ground at Brockville and Cornwall in the battle for the championship, he fell out of the top five at Mohawk Raceway by the end of the month.
Despite a third place finish at Brockville and a fifth at Mohawk in August, the rest of the results were not what the team was looking for down the final stretch of the season. Most of the races scheduled for the month of August at Cornwall were lost to rain, and the mediocre results throughout the results took him out of contention for a track title at Brockville.
September started out a little slow for O’Brien, finishing 12th on the final night of points at MIR. He followed that up with a third place finish on the final points night at Brockville, and seemed to gain momentum as he had a great third place finish at Mohawk as they closed out their 2011 season with a Mr. DIRTcar 358 Modified race. O’Brien closed out the month with a spectacular win at the Applefest shootout at Brighton Speedway after finishing second in the same event the past two years.
The late season momentum continued through the final event of the season at the Northeast Fall Nationals at Brockville, as O’Brien scored a solid top five finish in the Mr. DIRTcar 358 season finale.
Plans have not yet been finalized for the 2012 season, but will be announced on the website after the new year.
Tim O’Brien would like to thank all of the sponsors for the upcoming season. These great companies include; Jim’s Performance Plus, Pat’s Radiator, Windmill Construction, Tom Henderson’s Custom Meats, Allen Bell & Associates, Parcoll Products, Rust Check, S.G. Wells Ford and J.A.T. Maintenance. For more information on Tim O’Brien and the Jim’s Performance Plus Race team, please visit our website, www.timobrienracing.com.