The 2001 Season started slow with handling problems with the Mach Five. The first six weeks the car would not handle because they changed the rules and took away some right front camber. He managed a few wins and a feature win within the first six weeks so he was able to keep the points lead. After that point the car kept getting better and faster. Rob started winning more often and gained alot of points to win the first half Championship. The tech guys did not like him winning so much so he went thru inspection quite often. They could not find anything illegal until they noticed the right front spring had 2 more coils than the left front. They docked Rob 298 points and made him change the left front spring to match the right. This was a stock replacement spring from Federated Auto Parts (you cannot buy any exactly stock from 1987) but this was not good enough for the tech guys. We took the points hit and still maintained the overall points lead but suffered in the second half points. The tech guys tried again many times to slow us down, even taking the cam to check lift and duration. No other rule infraction was found. The car remained fast and Rob won 20 races for the year. Seven of those times were Main Feature Wins. The last six weeks Rob was the fastest qualifier with a best time of 16.36. The highlights of the Painesville racing year were winning 3 features in a row and winning the pursuit 2 times starting in the back of 10 cars and winning in 10 laps. The last pursuit win Rob passed 4 cars in the last 2 laps and had to bounce of the wall to take the win. (very exciting race) The Mach Five Race Team and Rob Brown were the 2001 Factory Four Season Champions.


We wanted to go to Sandusky Speedway again to defend our Cavalcade win last year but they would not let us come back with stick shifts and camber. So the last stop of the year was Mansfield Speedway. Rob had a poor qualifying lap but managed to win his heat race. The 6 cylinders we raced against were tough. The 12 lap King of the Hill shootout was exciting when the Mach Five was keeping up with the fastest 6 cylinder then the tires started going away. He finished the race in 7th with both right side tires showing cords. The Main Event was rained out twice so we will have to try again in 2002. The successful racing season would not have been possible without the help of the entire Mach Five Racing Team. Thank you to Dad (Bob), Randy, Mike, Don, Rocky, Bob Boyd, Joshua, Anthony & Timothy. The helpful cheer section with Robin, Mom, Andrew and Angelina.

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