A School for Jr. Dragsters, An Idea Whose Time Has Come

Mon, 8 Aug 2005, 09:57 PM

By Bob Frey
Photo copyright 2005 Auto Imagery, Inc.

Brooks Brown

At the ripe old age of thirty three Brooks Brown has accomplished a lot in the sport of drag racing. He has been a national event winner, a national record holder, a mechanic and crew chief to the stars and generally one of the more versatile guys in the sport. Brooks has been especially successful in a world where success is measured by the fact that you can keep eight cylinders lit for an entire quarter mile and that would be the world of the very fickle fuel injected, nitro burning dragsters. Together with his dad, the late Tom Topping, and his brother Marshall, Brooks was part of one of the hottest cars back in the early and mid 1990's. "Our car was pretty good," Brooks said. "We ran with everybody and beat most of them. Those were good times." Those who remember the car and the younger Brooks Brown remember a kid with long, flowing hair and lightning reflexes on the starting line. Today Brooks is all grown up, well sort of. At least he's cut his hair and he holds down a real job. But while the hair and the look may be different there is one thing that hasn't changed and that's his desire to make cars go fast, especially those nitro jobs.

Kevin Brown

When I caught up with Brooks he was in Seattle helping the "Joker," Kevin Brown, qualify for the Top Alcohol Dragster field while making the fastest run of his career. "Kevin heard about me through a mutual friend and we hit if off right away. The Seattle race was my first with him as a crew chief and I think we did pretty well." The team reassembled recently in Sonoma for another try at fame and fortune and then, after that race, it's back to work for Brooks at a job that, not surprisingly, involves cars. Lots of cars. "I'm working with Mike Walsh, or 'Movie Mike' as he's called. He owns a company that's called Premiere Studio Rentals in San Fernando and he builds cars and special vehicles for movies and it's really cool." While Brooks may be new to the job, 'Movie Mike' isn't, and he has been providing specialty vehicles to the movie and television industry for years. "I have about 400 cars that I have made and they include everything from the Starsky and Hutch cars to World War II vehicles and the ones that we just did for War of the Worlds. Right now we're making some police cars for the television show 'Las Vegas.' Basically if someone needs a car for a movie we either have it or we can make it," Mike said.

As exciting as tuning a 260 mph dragster is and as much fun as making cars for the stars may be Brooks and Mike are even more excited about their newest project, a drag racing school for Jr. Dragsters. "My daughter is seven and she wanted to get into a Jr. Dragster," Mike said. "So I went to a race here locally and watched the parents and the kids and after a while I decided that they all could use a little education on how to do this and I came up with the idea of the school." Mike said that simple little things caught his attention at the race, things like the parents standing in the staging beams when their child was trying to race, or the parents standing right between the child and the Christmas tree. "There were so many things that just looked very basic to me that it appeared neither the parents nor the kids were aware of and that's when the idea of a school hit me." As surprising as it may sound, there is no where in the country right now where families can go to learn the art and skill of racing a Jr. Dragster. "I figure that before the family goes out an invests in a car, a driving suit, a trailer and all of that stuff, maybe they should be able to just come out and learn about the sport and see if they all like it. We all have kids and we know how quickly they can change their minds about an activity. If a parent makes an investment in a Jr. Dragster operation and then the child changes their mind, well, nobody will be happy." And what parent hasn't seen how quickly a child can go from wanting to be a racer to being a baseball player or a dancer? With Mike's school, they can try it before they buy it, plus they can learn the right and the wrong way to go racing. It sounds like a good deal all around.

Movie Mike
Brooks Brown will be one of the instructors at the school along with another one of 'Movie Mike's' full time employees. "I taught at the California School of Drag Racing for a while and I've helped Paul Smith at his school so I know how to work with students. Working with the young kids should be fun and the parents will get an education, too," Brooks said. Mike added that the parents will be required to attend the class with their children. "This is a school and a learning process not a baby sitting or day care program," he said. "From what I've observed some of the parents need as much education as the kids do." Mike noted that the school will teach all of the basics, including the staging procedure, running down the track and the all important part of shutting the car off. "Believe it or not the most incidents for the Jr. cars have happened when the kids go to turn off at the end of the track. There have been several who have actually flipped the cars over because they don't know how to shut them off or slow them down," Mike said. "Our school will address that problem as well as all the others associated with undertaking a new venture like this with your kids."

At present the school is scheduled to open in August at Los Angeles County Raceway in Palmdale, California. Mike has ordered a couple of cars from the same company that made the cars for the Erica Enders' Disney movie, "Right On Track." "That movie alone was responsible for a lot of kids, especially young girls, wanting to get into the Jr. Dragster program and while we haven't spoken to Erica yet it would be great if we could get her involved in some way," Mike said. In addition to the cars and the on-track instructions, Brooks said that there will be a drag racing simulator set up at the track so the kids can get used to how the Christmas tree operates and how they should respond to it. "It'll be a lot of the basic things but, like I said, after seeing a couple of races and watching a lot of people I know that there is a real need for a school like ours." Mike plans to offer classes of up to ten children at a time, but no more, and all of the runs down the track will be single runs so each student will get the instructor's undivided attention. In an effort promote the school Mike has already taken several Jr. Dragster cars to car shows in the Southern California area and he has added his name to the side of Kevin Brown's dragster. "We have a web site for the school and it's 'Drag Kids.com." That's the name of the school and you'll it see on Kevin's car this weekend and at the races for the rest of the year. The web site is up and running and folks can go to it to learn more about the school."

Mike Walsh is motivated by the fact that his daughter, Danielle, wants to go Jr. Dragster racing and he didn't know where to turn to teach her how to do it. Brooks Brown is motivated by the fact that he gets to be involved with drag racing and teaching, two things that he has done for most of his thirty three years. "I helped Eric Medlen and Ben Marshall when they drove my "Texas Stagecoach" car and look where they are now," Brooks said with a smile. "I also helped Clay Millican when he was getting his license. I still have my driver's license so I can sign off for those guys when they're trying to upgrade. Plus, being involved with Mike and now getting to be the crew chief for Kevin is the next best thing to driving a car myself." Brooks went on to say that even though he and Kevin have the same last name they aren't related. "He needed a crew chief and he just stared going through the phone book until he came to Brown, Brooks and called me up." Nice story Brooks. For his part Kevin is really enthused about having Brooks work on the car. "He's a real talent and this is working out well for both of us. And Brooks has been very good with my son and he's given him some good advice and guidance. He'll be a great teacher."

If you'd like to find out more about the Jr. Dragster school, check them out on the web at http://www.dragkids.com/ and stay tuned for more from Brooks Brown and 'Movie Mike' Walsh.