Cancer Claims The Life Of Paul Brown
Muscle Mustangs & Fast Fords is saddened by the death of Paul Brown, son of famed Mustang tuner Kenny Brown of Kenny Brown Performance. Paul Brown died of metastatic melanoma (skin cancer) at the age of 43. Paul was the '11 GTS champion in the SCCA Pro Racing Pirelli World Challenge Series; Brown's team, Paul Brown/Tiger Racing, also won the team championship in the same series last year and secured the manufacturer's championship for Ford.
"Paul was diagnosed with skin cancer in March, just two weeks before the 2012 World Challenge season opener,” said Cari Southworth of Kenny Brown Performance." Justin Bell drove his eBay Motors/Kenny Brown Performance Ford Mustang Boss 302S in most of the races this season. Brown had full knowledge of his prognosis, but he was determined to drive in the double-header at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in Bowmanville, Ontario, last June despite his illness.
"He found the strength to compete, and finished third in the first race even though he hadn't driven in competition in eight months. It was one more podium finish in his illustrious but far-too-short career. He finished in the top 10 in the second race despite a broken header,” Southworth added.
In 2011, he posted five World Challenge GTS victories, 10 top-10 finishes, 9 top-5 finishes, and secured the driver championship with one race remaining on the schedule. He set the fastest lap of the race in 7 of the 12 races. He did all this in a production car he transformed into a race car in less than a month with a crew of two.
Brown also won the NASA American Iron Extreme (AIX) Championship in 2009. He was the first NASA national race winner ever in AIX in 2006. He held track records in SCCA World Challenge, American Sedan, ITE, Super Unlimited, American Iron, and American Iron Extreme at many famous racetracks such as the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Road Atlanta, Mosport, Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Road America, Buttonwillow, Hallet, Mid-America Motorplex, St. Louis, and Heartland Park Topeka.
In his first job in professional racing, Paul worked for his father on the Saleen Autosport team in 1986. He helped the team sweep all four categories in the Escort Endurance Series Championship in 1987, which exposed him to other top racers like Steve Saleen, Rick Titus, Scott Pruett, Parnelli Jones, George Folmer, and Pete Halsmer, to name a few. That series evolved into the SCCA Pro Racing Speed World Challenge. Brown competed in this form of motorsports for almost two decades, finishing in the top 10 in over half of the events he ran.
In the '90s, he established HP Motorsports in Omaha, Nebraska, a Mustang tuning and parts business. At the same time, he campaigned a self-funded privateer World Challenge team and earned a reputation for being able to fix anything and keep racing despite a small budget. Eventually he moved from the Midwest to California to work at Tiger Racing. He married Carol Hollfelder on September 17, 2005.
Brown was born July 8, 1969. He is survived by his wife, Carol Hollfelder; his father, Kenny Brown; his stepmother, Cari Southworth; his mother, Sylvia Musil; his stepfather, Gordon Musil; his brother, Adam Brown; his sister-in-law, Jessica Brown; his brother and sister-in-law, Jeff and Cathy Perriman; his grandfather Jasper Brown; his in-laws and racing mentors, Tom and Bea Hollfelder; and three nieces.
Steeda Captures 2012 SCCA American Sedan Championship
Driving his Steeda-equipped Mustang, Ed Hosni captured the 2012 SCCA National Championship in American Sedan. Hosni, of Galloway, Ohio, took his '85 LX to lead late in the race at the famous Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, and held on, topping the world-class field of drivers. The American Sedan (A/S) race series is comprised of 302 and 305 cid V-8–powered Mustangs, Camaros, and Firebirds, and is sometimes referred to as top class for production-based vehicles.
Hosni operates on a limited budget, rebuilds his own engine and transmission. His car is equipped with a Steeda 5-Link suspension system, Tri-Ax shifter, billet caster/camber plates, lightweight front swaybar, bumpsteer kit, billet rack bushings and clutch quadrant, and firewall adjuster.
Hosni was running in second place with just a few laps to go. "As we entered the last corner, I got the best run I could. I countered with a maneuver to cross over and almost hit the leader. When I crested the hill, I saw the starter holding the checkered flag. I seriously didn't know it was the last lap of the race—I must have missed the white flag as I was so close in the draft the previous lap. As we approached the finish line, I was in first place with the second place car just a tenth of a second behind me!”
MM&FF Open House Set For March
The third annual MM&FF Open House is scheduled for March 7, and you won't want to miss it! Team MM&FF will open its doors and host a fun evening that will include music, models, food and drink, and great giveaways. Plus, a ton of hot Mustangs and other Ford performance vehicles will be on display. We'll be rolling out some serious power on our in-house Dynojet, and we'll debut our latest project Mustang—the Coyote coupe. The event is free and we expect to see you there!
MM&FF Announces Burnout Contest Winner
Back in August we announced our burnout contest. Contestants sent us videos ranging from mild to wild, and narrowing down a winner wasn't an easy task. Though it was a tough decision, we finally made our choice.
We would like to congratulate Joey Herauf of Warman in Saskatchewan, Canada, who was selected as our winner, along with his '84 coupe. Joey will receive a pair of 275/60-15 M&H Racemaster tires from Coker Tire.
Our runner-up was Calving Kiassen, followed by Jesse Rodriguez. Honorable Mention goes to Kim Gervlis, who put on quite a smoke show as well. It was tight picking between Joey and a few others, and we send our thanks to all the participants.
Cobra Jet Concept Goes Twin-Turbo At SEMA Debut
Dialing into its recent success, the Ford Racing team debuted its Twin-Turbo Cobra Jet concept at the recently held Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) show in Las Vegas. Built on the platform that has made the current CJ a winner, the new model features a pair of Borg-Warner turbochargers that are similar to those found on the EcoBoost engine in the Focus ST.
"In the perpetual quest to stay ahead of the competition, for the first time ever Ford Racing has equipped its factory-built turnkey drag racer with a turbocharged engine, adopting the same award-winning technology found on road-going EcoBoost engines,” said our source at Ford.
"When a new generation of Cobra Jets arrived a few years back,” recalls Jesse Kershaw, Ford drag racing competition manager, "they immediately began winning with a modern, fuel-injected 5.4-liter V-8 topped with a belt-driven supercharger. Over the past four years, the Cobra Jet has gone on to become both a fan and competitor favorite, the most successful late- model vehicle in drag racing.”
In 2011, the Mustang GT's all-new 5.0-liter V-8 found a home in the Cobra Jet, both with and without a supercharger. "Despite its smaller displacement, the improved breathing of the 5.0-liter—with its twin independent variable camshaft timing and Boss 302 cylinder heads—provided comparable performance while showcasing the high technology available in street Mustangs today,” said Rob Deneweth, Cobra Jet powertrain development engineer.
Turbocharger Design and Release Engineer Dave Born joined the Cobra Jet team after working on the 3.5-liter EcoBoost V-6 for the F-150 to help make this concept a reality. "When done right, turbocharging is just as good as or better than supercharging,” Born confirms. "To overcome the biggest perceived drawback of turbocharging–the lag–we've selected the smallest possible turbos that will give us the airflow we need. We've also got some other enhancements to help improve the responsiveness—we have very low inertia and very low internal friction.”
According to Ford, along with a shaft riding on low-friction ball bearings, the compressors can spin up to 150,000 rpm almost instantly.