Ernie Francis Jr. was at the back of the grid for the start of Sunday's Trans Am feature race at Brainerd International Raceway and had his first victory of this season when it concluded.
Francis, with 24 previous career wins at Trans Am's top level, was 0-for-6 in 2021 before Sunday. He made it sound like a drought of epic proportions in a postrace interview.
"It's been tough … we've been waiting so long for this win,'' the Floridian said. "I'm so happy we could go from the back to win this.''
It took only six laps around the BIR road course for Francis to get into the top three, and then he outlasted Tomy Drissi of Los Angeles, last year's winner here, for the win.
"We really had a dominant car today … we were dominant all weekend,'' Francis said.
The racing weekend was billed as a tribute to Jed Copham, the track's owner for 12 years before he drowned while on vacation in Fort Myers, Fla., in November 2018. Kristi Copham, Jed's wife, now runs the track.
"We didn't pack the place, but it was a good crowd and we had great races,'' she said Sunday.
The F4 series for open-wheel machines debuted at BIR this weekend. Canadians Nico Christodoulou, Mac Clark and Louka St. Jean finished 1-2-3 in the main race, the first-ever sweep for Canada in the series.
