Osborn finally reclaiming success (with video)

CEDAR RAPIDS - Brad Osborn is finally back on the right track.

The veteran race car driver endured a rocky road the last few years, but has reclaimed some of the success that made him one of the top late model drivers on asphalt.

Osborn has claimed two feature wins in the last five weekly points races at Hawkeye Downs Speedway, ending a slump that hadn't yielded a win since 2007. Osborn's two victory also has him in third place in the late model season points standings.

 The 31-year-old driver from Janesville edged Joey Gase for the win last Friday night, capturing the lead after a restart with three laps remaining and winning by .105 seconds.

"I'm not going to say it's the biggest (win) but it felt like it was the hardest to come by," Osborn said. "Just from the times we've had the last couple of years. It was a huge deal.

"We've had lost of good times out there, but it seems like the last few years we've had lots of bad. It was a good way to hopefully come out of it."

See the exciting finish to his most recent win.

Tim Plummer competes against Osborn in the late model class. He is glad to see Osborn's re-emergence in victory lane.

"It's especially great because they have been pretty loyal supporters of Hawkeye Downs over the years," said Plummer, who won the late model division last year and is the seven-time defending modified season points champion. "You need people like that to find success."

The return to victory lane might be a result of some old-fashioned elbow grease in the offseason. Osborn and his team dedicated a lot of time, doing what Osborn called "homework" on the car's setup and building on what they already knew.

"It's nothing magic ," Osborn said. "It's just work."

The same effort helped him in his latest win, where he worked his way to the front of the field and passed Gase on the high side after a caution with three laps left in the 30-lap feature. Two weeks ago, Osborn crashed into the wall in Turn 4 and severely damaged both ends of his car. His team tore everything apart that night and started to work the following morning. They worked all week, finishing the night before the races.

"We had some bad luck and broke a couple weeks ago. We thrashed on it to get it back and having that showing Friday night was pretty cool," Osborn said. "I didn't think there was a prayer in the world that we'd be back with that car Friday night. We didn't load it in the trailed until 11:30 Thursday night."

Osborn praised his crew for their hard work. He said everyone contributed and sacrificed, travelling to Janesville from out-of-town to work on the car. Not only did they prepare it to race, but they produced a winner.

"Everybody busted their butts," Osborn said. "It was amazing."

It has been hard work to restore his winning ways. Osborn, who started driving on dirt tracks at 16, began racing late models at Hawkeye Downs in 2002. He wasted no time winning back-to-back season points championships in 2004 and 2005, pulling into victory lane 15 times in 38 features. He tallied an impressive 10 wins in 2004.

"When he first got into late models, he had success right away," Plummer said. "For a couple years there, he won the vast majority of the races and was really quick."

The slump was a mix of different things. Essentially, Murphy's Law reigned - whatever could go wrong usually did.

"Just handling issues and bad luck," Osborn said about what caused the slump. "It seemed like if there was a wreck to be found we were in it."

His previous dominance made it even harder to swallow the stretch that saw him claim only one victory in 2007, despite managing top-10 finishes in the final season points standings including four in the top-five since 2006.

"That's why the last couple years have been such a downer," Osborn said. "We've had success out there. We just got out in left field and couldn't get out."

Osborn has persevered the rough stretch, earning his first win this season on May 27. Things are looking up, but he still isn't at the desired level.

"We're gaining on it every week," Osborn said. "Everything's coming together eventually. There's room for more.

"We're going to try our best for it to continue I can tell you that. We don't want to go back that's for sure."