UNION SPRINGS - His racing dreams changed after learning from the professionals.
Glenn Gaston/ Special to The Citizen
Sprint car driver Bryan Howland, of Auburn, prepares for a new season of racing.
Sprint car driver Bryan Howland, of Auburn, prepares for a new season of racing.
At 9 years old, Auburn's Bryan Howland got his first taste of racing from helping his dad.
Howland's father, John, raced in the Limited Super Modified for two years when he stopped to give Howland a chance to get behind the wheel and he has been driving ever since.
“My dad was kind enough to relinquish himself and he sold his car to buy me a go-kart and get me racing,” Howland said.
Howland then started in the Quarter Midget at the New York State Fairgrounds in Syracuse.
Now 20-years old, Howland has some successful races on his resume in the American Sprint Car Series Patriot Sprint Group.
In 2004, Howland won Rookie of the Year and just a year later, he took home the championship at the Full Throttle Sprint Car Nationals in Lake Odessa, Mich. after winning five races that season.
He won three races in 2006 but had no first place finishes to boast about last year. This season, though, Howland begins the Patriot Sprint Car circuit on May 3.
It has been about 12 years since Howland started his racing career, his fifth year racing the 360 sprint car.
Howland once had dreams of continuing his career into the NASCAR scene but his most recent summer job changed his dream entirely.
For a few months last summer, Howland worked down at the Andy Hillenburg Fast Track Driving School in Charlotte, N.C.
Howland got to be a part of the driving school program that many NASCAR drivers graduated from before becoming the stars they are today.
“I did maintenance on the stock cars, worked as a flagger, an official and I got to ride in the cars as an instructor teaching students how to drive the cars.” Howland said.
The difference between the stock cars and the cars that Howland drives is one of the things that turned him off from that side of the sport.
“The sprint cars are open wheeled dirt cars,” Howland said. “The throttle control is more precise on the sprint cars, on the asphalt you slide more, plus there are no spotters or mirrors and we only race 25 to 30 laps on a much shorter track.”
Sprint racing is also different from modified racing - the main difference being the wings on the car.
The wings on the sprint car creates a downforce pushing on the track to give the car better traction and it makes them handle much differentlly from the fully fendered modifieds.
“Sprint car racing is more about having fun with family and friends not winning the race,” Howland said. “Plus I have no desire to be a celebrity, I just want to drive.”
Howland says that he was also turned off by the politics, money and media aspects of NASCAR.
Although he does not want to be in the media spotlight, Howland enjoyed feeling like somewhat of a celebrity when local media covered his long distance trek to one of his races last season.
Howland flew up to his family's home in Union Springs from the racing school in North Carolina a few times for races last season.
One of those races ended up in a wreck for Howland when he went into a wall at the nationals in Knoxville, Iowa. Howland was out for the race after suffering a broken hand and a back injury. Not to be kept down, though Howland took a week off of the driving school but raced despite the injuries soon after and went back to school in North Carolina with a good story.
Howland may have put aside his NASCAR dreams but he still has many goals in front of him, one of which is to continue racing with his family and friends, and the other is to finish college.
He plans to attend school in the fall for civil engineering and keep using what he learns to do what he loves, racing.
“I love to race so I will probably always try to juggle with whatever I'm doing,” Howland said. “I plan to go away to college but I will make sure I am close enough to home so that I can make it to as many races as possible.”
Howland and his sprint car will be racing locally this spring and summer at the Cayuga County Fairgrounds Speedway, the Rolling Wheels in Elbridge, Fulton Speedway, Canandaigua Speedway and the Brewerton Speedway.
He travels all over the country to race in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, Iowa and up to Canada.
Howland's number 51 car is sponsored by Lasca's, Filtrec, Palm Beach Grading and Jimmy D's speed machine, to name a few, and dedicated to his brother John Howland who died of cancer in January of 2007.
“When I moved into the Patriot Sprint class, my number 45 was taken so we decided to go with my brother's football number in his honor,” Howland said. “My brother was never into racing but it's nice to drive with his number on there.”
The family-oriented Howland has a pit crew that consists of his father, other family and friends from school and those he has met through racing.
“It takes a lot of work to race,” Howland said. “I work on this like a full time job, and I have a lot of people helping me. I get 20 percent of what I win at the end of the season though, so it's not a bad gig.”
For more information on Bryan Howland and his schedule, visit his website www.bryanhowland.com.
Howland's father, John, raced in the Limited Super Modified for two years when he stopped to give Howland a chance to get behind the wheel and he has been driving ever since.
“My dad was kind enough to relinquish himself and he sold his car to buy me a go-kart and get me racing,” Howland said.
Howland then started in the Quarter Midget at the New York State Fairgrounds in Syracuse.
Now 20-years old, Howland has some successful races on his resume in the American Sprint Car Series Patriot Sprint Group.
In 2004, Howland won Rookie of the Year and just a year later, he took home the championship at the Full Throttle Sprint Car Nationals in Lake Odessa, Mich. after winning five races that season.
He won three races in 2006 but had no first place finishes to boast about last year. This season, though, Howland begins the Patriot Sprint Car circuit on May 3.
It has been about 12 years since Howland started his racing career, his fifth year racing the 360 sprint car.
Howland once had dreams of continuing his career into the NASCAR scene but his most recent summer job changed his dream entirely.
For a few months last summer, Howland worked down at the Andy Hillenburg Fast Track Driving School in Charlotte, N.C.
Howland got to be a part of the driving school program that many NASCAR drivers graduated from before becoming the stars they are today.
“I did maintenance on the stock cars, worked as a flagger, an official and I got to ride in the cars as an instructor teaching students how to drive the cars.” Howland said.
The difference between the stock cars and the cars that Howland drives is one of the things that turned him off from that side of the sport.
“The sprint cars are open wheeled dirt cars,” Howland said. “The throttle control is more precise on the sprint cars, on the asphalt you slide more, plus there are no spotters or mirrors and we only race 25 to 30 laps on a much shorter track.”
Sprint racing is also different from modified racing - the main difference being the wings on the car.
The wings on the sprint car creates a downforce pushing on the track to give the car better traction and it makes them handle much differentlly from the fully fendered modifieds.
“Sprint car racing is more about having fun with family and friends not winning the race,” Howland said. “Plus I have no desire to be a celebrity, I just want to drive.”
Howland says that he was also turned off by the politics, money and media aspects of NASCAR.
Although he does not want to be in the media spotlight, Howland enjoyed feeling like somewhat of a celebrity when local media covered his long distance trek to one of his races last season.
Howland flew up to his family's home in Union Springs from the racing school in North Carolina a few times for races last season.
One of those races ended up in a wreck for Howland when he went into a wall at the nationals in Knoxville, Iowa. Howland was out for the race after suffering a broken hand and a back injury. Not to be kept down, though Howland took a week off of the driving school but raced despite the injuries soon after and went back to school in North Carolina with a good story.
Howland may have put aside his NASCAR dreams but he still has many goals in front of him, one of which is to continue racing with his family and friends, and the other is to finish college.
He plans to attend school in the fall for civil engineering and keep using what he learns to do what he loves, racing.
“I love to race so I will probably always try to juggle with whatever I'm doing,” Howland said. “I plan to go away to college but I will make sure I am close enough to home so that I can make it to as many races as possible.”
Howland and his sprint car will be racing locally this spring and summer at the Cayuga County Fairgrounds Speedway, the Rolling Wheels in Elbridge, Fulton Speedway, Canandaigua Speedway and the Brewerton Speedway.
He travels all over the country to race in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, Iowa and up to Canada.
Howland's number 51 car is sponsored by Lasca's, Filtrec, Palm Beach Grading and Jimmy D's speed machine, to name a few, and dedicated to his brother John Howland who died of cancer in January of 2007.
“When I moved into the Patriot Sprint class, my number 45 was taken so we decided to go with my brother's football number in his honor,” Howland said. “My brother was never into racing but it's nice to drive with his number on there.”
The family-oriented Howland has a pit crew that consists of his father, other family and friends from school and those he has met through racing.
“It takes a lot of work to race,” Howland said. “I work on this like a full time job, and I have a lot of people helping me. I get 20 percent of what I win at the end of the season though, so it's not a bad gig.”
For more information on Bryan Howland and his schedule, visit his website www.bryanhowland.com.
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