BUFFALO TWP — Race fans never notice Don Brown's No. 71B Modified car at Lernerville Speedway — unless they're looking at the back of the field.

That's where the Butler resident and 1989 Slippery Rock graduate can be found most of the time.

But he doesn't mind a bit.

Brown, 39, is in his first year of racing a Modified after spending three years excelling in mud-bog racing.

"Take a four-wheel drive truck through three feet of mud for 200 feet ... fastest guy wins," Brown said. "That's mud-bogging, pretty much."

He was pretty good at it, too, winning nearly 30 races during his stint in the sport.

But Brown has wanted to race a Modified at Lernerville since he was a boy.

"As long as I can remember, I've wanted to drive one of these things," he said. "We're just starting out. I plan to be at this for quite a while.

"I'm just out here to learn. I don't care if I accomplish anything. Just don't junk the car, hurt myself or anybody else."

He admits to getting the car "torn up" at Lernerville and Tri-City recently, "but it was only sheet metal. We've avoided the really extensive repairs."

Brown is 15th in Modified points at Lernerville entering this weekend's action. He also runs at Tri-City and Sharon Speedway each weekend and is following the BRP Tour.

"The more I'm out on a track, the faster I'll learn," he said.

Though he does receive a bit of help from others, Brown's race team basically consists of Jodee Kugel and their 6-year-old daughter, Baylee.

The couple has been together for eight years.

"I'd never been involved in racing, but I do what needs done back here (in the pits)," Kugel said. "Change tires, pull the motor, clear out mud, whatever. I've been learning as we go."

Baylee isn't just an onlooker, either.

"She knows every tool we've got," Kugel said. "If we tell her to go get a certain wrench or another tool, she'll come back with the right one.

"She's never missed one of these races. She loves this."

Kugel anticipates the Brown race team growing in numbers during the coming years.

"We'll get more help the better he gets," she said.

Brown's car is a 2004 Modified previously owned by Jeremiah Shingledecker, who won points championships at Lernerville and Tri-City last year.

"He won his first feature here in this car," Brown said.

No one knows when Brown's first feature win will come, if it ever does.

His family race team is willing to wait.

"Don loves this — and I back him in whatever he does," Kugel said.