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After Disappointing Finish, U.S. Army Rider Brown Won't Stay Down For Long12/11/2006By Rob Geiger Sr., NHRA.com: Although it didn't garner the national attention afforded the spectacular Top Fuel climax, Antron Brown's late-season swoon in Pro Stock Motorcycle that denied the popular rider his first POWERade title is no less biting for the people involved than Doug Kalitta's disappointing second-place finish was in Top Fuel. Like Kalitta, Brown had his best shot at drag racing glory in 2006, but he also came up just short, settling for second place at the final event of the year. Brown's career record looks a lot like Kalitta's does. Both men turned Pro in 1998 and have been rock-solid top 10 runners ever since. Brown has a pair of runner-up finishes in the championship chase, and Kalitta has three. They both raced to the final approximately every six races, and they both held the points lead late this year only to come up short. But while Kalitta must wait to test for next year, Brown's U.S. Army team is already hard at it, burning up the quarter-mile in anticipation of a better 2007. "This year was real disappointing for us, but I've kind of taken in it stride and put it behind me," the eternally positive Brown said. "We didn't have that dagger-in-the-heart finish Doug had, so maybe it wasn't as bad for us. I don't know. "We really started falling off with four races left. There was an electrical problem with the bike, and it was taking power from the ignition. We changed everything we could think of, but we really didn't solve the thing until our first off-season test session. It was hard to swallow because we were running so well and we had the points lead late in the year, which is all you can ask for -- that chance to win -- but we didn't finish it off."
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