April 18, 2004

Saturday at Houston: Antron Brown slipped to the second starting spot in the Pro Stock Bike class for Sunday's running of the O'Reilly Spring Nationals at Houston Raceway Park.

After taking the provisional pole on Friday with a 7.074-ET @ 187.94-mph, the United States Army Pro Stock Bike rider was edged out by two one thousands of a second for the top position in the last qualifying session on Saturday.

"I'm a little disappointed we couldn't stay number one," said the Indianapolis resident. But, we have to put that aside and get prepared for race day. We want to go four rounds on Sunday."

Brown took the first round win over 15th qualifier, Josh Helvie, when Helvie went red.

In round 2, Brown defeated Shawn Gann. He was out of the gate first and had the power to hold on for a hole-shot win. Brown's win was by 0.0037 seconds (approximately 12 inches).

Round 3: Brown wins again with a hole-shot defeating hard charging Geno Scali by 0.0103 seconds (approximately 3 feet).

In the final round, Brown had a starting line advantage, but Karen Stoffer chased him down by half track and took the win. Brown lost to Stoffer by .0018 seconds, or about six inches, this was Brown's 20th career final round and Stoffer's first win in three final-round appearances.