South Plattsburgh, NY - The competition is intense in Airborne’s DIRTcar 358 Modified division. The average starting field for a Ernie’s Discount Tools Modified feature in 2011 was 29 cars - most of which were separated by four-tenths of a second or less.

Top-10 finishes were worthy of respect each and every week. Any race program not working hard to move forward can end up in the other direction.

“I got more seat time last year and it made a difference, but we still struggled to finish races,” Brown said. “We could have had five top-5 finishes, but things broke. We were making our own parts trying to get by.”

Brown drove the No. 327 Modified to two top-10 finishes in 2011, including a 5th-place run on Casella Night. His son Matt and Lawrence Gaylor serve as his race night crew and help him out during the week.

This year Brown has signed a new sponsor, HYVA Corp., a hydraulics and telescoping cylinder manufacturer. They will join Les Carrieres de St. Dominique Quarry, CSTP Inc of Foster, QC and Gaylor’s Garage of Fulford, QC.

Dan, Matt and Lawrence attended the recent Modified setup seminar conducted by Airborne promoter Mike Perrotte. “We learned a lot and are very appreciative of Mike’s making the effort to do that,” Brown said.

The No. 327 team intends to donate a percentage of its purse money to a local organization working with kids with learning disabilities. “We haven’t set a exact number yet, but we’ll be meeting again with them and displaying the car on their behalf the day before the Airborne opener,’ Brown said. “We’ll definitely be racing for a cause this season.”

South Plattsburgh, NY - A new way to spice up a demolition derby will “kick off” at Airborne Speedway Saturday, June 30 when car soccer, as popularized at state fairs in the Midwest, makes its debut in Plattsburgh.

The object of the game is the same as regular soccer: score more goals than the other team in the allotted time. There are even similar rules: Players still can’t touch the ball with their hands, rough play is penalized, and there are even referees on the sidelines holding flags. Unlike regular soccer, head balls are not recommended!

The biggest difference – the normal one-pound synthetic leather ball gets replaced with a 300?-400?-500-pound steel ball (“we’ll do some testing first” says Mike Perrotte) and the size of teams goes from 11 to 3. The trickiest part is hitting the ball hard enough to move it along, but not so hard you take yourself out - all the while avoiding getting hammered by your opponent.

Airborne Speedway and Dunn Tire Raceway Park in Lancaster, NY, will each host two events in a four-race DIRTcar 358-Modified series offering a combined purse of $60,000.

“We’ve added a mid-week night of racing to our 2012 schedule – Wednesday, June 20, and boosted the payoff for the Akwesasne Mohawk Casino Triple 50’s Shootout Saturday/Sunday September 8-9,” Airborne promoter Mike Perrotte said. “The Shootout winner will collect $5,000.”

“It’s always exciting for our fans to see how our Modified teams stack up against quality invaders and it’s a series we can build upon in the future,” Perrotte added.

The series opener at Airborne will go 75 laps and pay $3,000-to-win. Dunn Tire Raceway Park dates are Tuesday, June 26 and Tuesday, August 21. Both events at the western NY half-mile facility also pay $3,000 to win.

“We’ll be there at Dunn,” said Patrick Dupree two-time Airborne Modified track champion. “It’s a challenging track and a change of scenery for us. Hopefully we can do a good job of promoting DIRTcar racing on asphalt and expand the series.”

"We're very much looking forward  to be on board with this series, along with Airborne and DIRTcar," said Tim Packman, President Stock Car Operations at DTRP. "This provides us with a great opportunity to host an event with DIRTcar; one of the most recognized sanctions in motorsports. And, in our area, the DIRTcar 358-Modifieds are highly recognized as well. We're looking forward to these races. Our fans are already talking about both events."