Brandon Maready #9

Street Stock

    
     Racing is like an incurable illness to most race car drivers. It is something that infects them and then it affects every aspect of their lives. They eat, sleep and breathe the sport. It’s in their blood and they let you know it. Drivers are usually labeled as raucous, hard-headed, blue collared men with tempers as hot as the engines of the cars they drive; and many live up to the stereotype.

     Brandon Maready is not one of those drivers.

     On the outside, the 22-year-old Jacksonville native looks serene and collected, almost stoic when he is getting his car ready to race. But under it all there is an intensity that makes him the great driver that he is. His intensity keeps him focused one hundred percent of the time on what he needs to do; so he just goes out there and gets his job done.

     The stereotypical driver also has a problem controlling his ‘need for speed’; he has to race, no exceptions. Brandon Maready has the rare ability to curb his appetite for racing. He has actually taken a few years off during his career. But do not confuse his self-control with indifference. Maready has plans and goals for his racing career and when he is racing he gives it his all, you can tell by the fact that he almost cannot help but win.

     Maready started racing go-karts at Highway 24 Raceway in Richlands when he was just 10 years old. He ended his go-kart career with numerous wins and two track championships in his class. Despite his success in karts he decided to take a break from the track and did not make it back for a handful of years.

     When he did start racing again he built himself a front-wheel drive car and brought it to Coastal Plains Raceway (CPR). He claims that his front-wheel days were just ‘messing around’ so when he decided to get serious he purchased a ’92 Camaro.

     He spent last winter fixing it up and he hoped it would run well in 2006; it did. He drove it to four victories, nine top-five finishes, 11 top-ten’s and the 2006 Street Stock Championship at CPR; certainly not bad for his first full season racing in the Street Stock class.

     Maready likes where he is in his career, for now. Next year he plans on being at CPR running the same series in the same #9 Camaro that performed so well this year. Further down the road he would like to travel more and maybe move to a late model but for now he is planning for next season and hoping for another championship.

     With his cool demeanor, Brandon Maready can easily be overlooked on pit road but when he is on the track you cannot help but notice him. If people have not taken notice this year, then they certainly will in ’07 when Maready is back on the track defending his title.

 

Apr 7

Apr 21

May 12

May 19

June 2

June 16

June 30

July 7

July 21

Aug 4

Aug 18

Sept 1

Sept 15

Sept 29

Oct 6

Oct 20

QUAL.

X

6

11

3

FINISH

X

3

11

5

POINTS

X

46

30

42

PTS. TOTAL

X

46

make-up

118