By Bill Foley
Tim Sears Jr. finally captured the Brewerton Speedway big block modified championship.
He’s been so close so many times, but the fickle finger of fate simply pointed his way and indicated, “Not this time.”
Well, it finally was his time as the No. 83x came from deep in the pack to finish a title clinching third behind Larry Wight and Chad Phelps on the final night of the 2023 regular season.
Talking with Dirt Track Digest, Tim said, “Well, it feels pretty good, to be honest. We’ve just put so much time into this. And we’ve been so close for the last handful of years. I mean, we’ve been first or second going into last night. I haven’t finished it.”
Continuing he spoke about comments in victory lane, saying, “Like I said out there (victory lane), I haven’t finished this last race in the last three or four years. We’ve been leading (the points) or second with a legit shot at it. We just haven’t been able to close out the deal. So to finally close the deal out definitely feels pretty good.”
Ironically, little Tim Sears Jr. dreamed of this moment many years ago.
“My mom mentioned a couple of weeks ago that when I was in third grade, they asked you to write about your life goals. And I wrote that I wanted to win a big block race at Brewerton and that I wanted to win a big block track championship. Now we’ve been fortunate enough to win a big block championship at both Fulton and Brewerton. And we’ve won the 358 title the last two years over there (at Fulton). We finally got this one at Brewerton, and it means a lot to be able to look back at that list of stuff that I wanted to accomplish when I got older, and we’re slowly checking stuff off.”
Even though the Sears Racing Team had a respectable lead entering the final night at “The Demon,” he was worried.
Continuing his conversation with DTD, he exclaimed, “Oh my God, I think I went through my car about 10 times this week. I don’t think I went upstairs before midnight or one o’clock every night because I just looked at it, went through it, and checked all the stuff I could think about.”
He said, “I’ve had stupid stuff happen in the last couple of years on this last night. We broke the ground bar on the frame. The stud broke off, and I lost all the ground. I lost power on the last night, and that was that. That one hurt the most, as I was actually leading with a 15- or 20-point lead over Larry. He ended up winning on the last night, and I just didn’t finish, so he ended up beating me, and that year we were really tight in points, and I ended up fourth for not finishing that race. Yeah, it was definitely a nerve-racking week. I’ve been pacing and everything else because, like I said, we’ve been so good and so bad that just one bad night seems to ruin it all every year.”
On the final night, he battled his way to third.
Reflecting on the race, he said, “Yeah, my car was really good. I was just kind of leery. I got through traffic really good and really fast. I just couldn’t match his (Larry’s) pace early. I couldn’t get through the traffic as fast, but I think his car might have been a little bit better early on. He just got there quicker. But I think that as we got a little more spread out, I was quicker. I was there at the end. As far as time wise, we just ran out of laps, and I needed more yellows.”
His program seems to be really coming together, and he has plenty of faith in his Troyer chassis and Kevlar powerplant.
Sears noted, “We’ve been really good here this year, and we’ve really been consistent. We didn’t finish out of the top three all year at Fulton, and we were very consistent here. We haven’t won the races this year that we did last, but we’ve definitely gotten the consistency part of our program down. We are getting there. We’re still not as good as Sheppard or Maty (Williamson), and Peter (Britten) is really good everywhere he goes. I’m not as good as some of those guys on the series, but we’re getting there. We’re taking notes, going to all of these different places, and putting our time in. Eventually, it will pay off.”
Tim thanked all of the crew and sponsors for their support, including LJL Kevlar Racing Engines, Troyer Dirt Cars, E&V Energy, Kinsella Quarries, Coyote Motorsports, P:enny Levos, Spectrum Contracting, Dirt Track Digest, 87 Speed, Scott Jeffery’s Performance Plus, R&B Fabrication Inc., Syrstone, Kevin Barnes, SRI Performance, Swing Springs, and Integra Shocks.
For Tim Sears Jr. and his team to win championships at both Central New York speedways puts him in a pretty select area, as now he can celebrate these achievements and look forward to accomplishing other goals he has set for himself.
