By: Kevin Ramsell
BURLINGTON, WI (Wednesday, July 22, 2009) – Last Saturday at Dells Raceway Park, an ASA Member Track, a familiar face return to the pits of an American Speed Association sanctioned event. Veteran crew chief Howie Lettow has come on board to help Lane Automotive Rookie of the Year contender Blake Brown in the American Speed Association Kwik Trip Midwest Tour presented by ECHO Outdoor Power Equipment.

Lettow is happy to be a part of the ASAMT, “It should be a good time, this is a very competitive series,” Lettow commented. “You got a lot of veterans along with some good young up and comers, so it’s a pretty tough series. If you can run well here, you can run well anywhere.”

He returns to mentor another rookie driver and is very familiar to mentoring rookies in the American Speed Association. His resume includes: Pat Schauer in 1981, Ken Lund in 1984, Ted Musgrave in 1987, Scott Hansen in 1989, Jimmie Johnson in 1998, and David Stremme in 2002. He also won the American Speed Association National Championship with Tony Raines in 1996.

In 2009, he hopes to add Blake Brown to his well-known resume as TD Racing has joined forces with Terry Motorsports for the rest of this season. “My grandpa (Terry Kunes) just made a deal with TD Racing and Howie Lettow that we are going to be doing some racing for them for the rest of the year so I am definitely excited about that,” Brown said. “I love working with all of those guys. I ran with them at Memphis last year and recently at Madison for the Swiss Colony All-Star Challenge race and it was a real fun time to get to work with all of those guys and they definitely know what they are doing. We look forward to running up front.”

Last year, Brown drove for TD Racing at a late model event in Memphis and came home with a third place finish. “We ran Blake in our car at Memphis last year and I was really impressed with him, he did a really nice job,” Lettow said. “There is just a lot of upside; he’s a young kid, really good to work with, good communication skills, and just a lot of talent. For the amount of experience he’s got in late model stock cars, he does a nice job.”

Brown recently finished fourth at the ASAMT Keith Fleck Miller 100 at Hawkeye Downs and sixth this past Saturday at the Race for the Gold – Silver Race, the first race with Lettow. He also finished ninth at the All-Star Challenge event under the watchful eye of Lettow.

He has moved up to 12th in the ASAMT point standings and is only 62 points behind leading rookie contender Jacob Goede.

“That was a real good run for us, the track is a lot like our home track at Illiana, we were actually pretty bad at Illiana for the ASAMT race but I was able to go off of that and make the adjustments we need to be able to run fast on a track like Illiana,” Brown commented about his fourth place run at Hawkeye where he ran up front the whole night.

Adding Lettow as his crew chief will give Brown more confidence in a series that he enjoys being a part of, “I am definitely glad I am here,” Brown exclaimed. “I definitely think this is hands down one of the toughest late model series that is running now in the country especially when you get guys like Kevin Harvick coming up to run with the series. It shows the level of competition and I am going to learn a lot running with these drivers.”

Brown and Lettow are now preparing for the next ASAMT event which is Tuesday, August 4th at Wisconsin International Raceway in Kaukauna, WI for the Dixieland 150 presented by Gandrud Chevrolet. NASCAR star Kevin Harvick and current NASCAR Camping World Truck Series point leader Ron Hornaday Jr. will be competing with the ASAMT Touring Stars and the best Midwest Super Late Model drivers. Tickets are on sale now at www.asamidwesttour.com.

ASAMT ECHO Outdoor Power Equipment/Oregon Cutting Systems “Quick Cut” Qualifying will get underway at 4:30 p.m. with the autograph session scheduled to begin at 5:45 p.m. Racing gets underway at 7:00 p.m.

To learn more about the American Speed Association Kwik Trip Midwest Tour presented by Echo Outdoor Power Equipment log on to www.asamidwesttour.com or call the ASA Midwest Tour office at (262) 514-3880 or e-mail Tim Olson at tim@asamidwesttour.com or Steve Einhaus at steve@asamidwesttour.com.

To learn more of the Daytona Beach, Florida-based Racing Speed Associates or the American Speed Association Racing Member Track program, call (386) 258-2221 or send an e-mail to info@asa-racing.com. For news and information from racetracks and regional tours involved in the American Speed Association, visit www.asaracing.com.

ASA™, ASA Racing™ and American Speed Association® are trademarks of Racing Speed Associates, LLC. Racing Speed Associates, LLC is not related to or affiliated with ASA Late Model Series, LLC.