Driver Spotlight: Brandon Varney

Photo Credit: Susan Johnson

In only 6 races of his sophomore season in the Bandits division at Oxford, 19 year old Brandon Varney has shown he’s no longer a rookie. Besides June 3^rd he hasn’t finished out of the top 10 so far this season.

After hitting the wall and not finishing on June 3^rd, Varney bounced back and led the entire 30 lap feature the following week on June 10th to win his first race of the season.

What some people may not realize is that the 3^rd generation driver Auburn native has been racing since the age of 8 starting out in the Oxford go-karts series. During his Go-Kart career he won 5 championships and holds the record for most go-kart wins at Oxford.

Brandon’s first visit at Oxford Plains Speedway was when he was only 4 days old.

“My parents actually met at the track so I’ve been coming to Wednesday and Saturday night races all my life” He explained.

You can say racing is in Varney’s blood with his grandfather Gardner "Gardy" Tripp, Uncles Skip and Kenny Tripp, Uncle Chris Varney and his dad Kevin Varney all spending time behind the wheels of race cars at Oxford Plains Speedway.

As a driver he looks up to his uncle Skip Tripp, Kyle and Ryan Hewins who he used to sit with in the stands as small child before they started their racing careers, and Jeff Moon, Brandon's parents actually used to own a mini stock that Moon raced and it was always one of his favorites to watch, now as a driver Moon has become one of Varney's biggest supporters and mentors.

While he hasn’t gotten the chance to race against any of his family members he loves racing with the other guys who he grew up watching.

“Those are the guys you need to learn from so you can better yourself and hopefully be as good as them to teach the next generation of drivers” Varney said without hesitation.

It’s no wonder his favorite competitors are Charlie “Chachy” Hall (Who is currently letting him drive one of his cars), Jamie Heath, Kyle Hewins and the guys who have a lot of racing experience.

Photo credit: Susan Johnson

“If I can hang out with those guys on the track I must be doing something right.” Varney said about the veterans.

On May 13^th he was able to “hangout” with Jamie Heath, he raced him hard and clean to finish in 2^nd place one spot better than last year’s bandit champion.

With this being only his 2^nd year behind the wheel of a race car Brandon is eager to learn and take any advice given to him by veteran drivers like Kyle Hewins and Dustin Salley who have really been great mentors for him. 


Advice Brandon would give a new driver starting out is don’t give up.

“No matter where you finish, no matter if your frustrated, in racing you have your ups and downs, Whatever it is you, have to keep on keeping on and don’t give up.”

Varney knows this from the experiences he’s had the past few weeks. He went from his lowest hitting the wall to a high point coming back the next week and winning.

“It was huge thing to go out there with a new car we’d just pulled out of the woods and win especially after last week that wasn’t fun and this week was so much fun!” He explained on June 11^th.

Two things that Brandon loves about racing is: the adrenaline that he gets from racing and  being able to watch his heroes, he hopes there are kids out there that think of him as their hero too.

Every race car driver enjoys winning but Brandon feels as though his greatest accomplishment so far is to just be able to get sponsors, spend time with his family and just getting to have fun on the racetrack.

Brandon has two wins under his belt already this season after winning in the Bandits on June 10^th and winning in his rebel on June 14^th. Since the beginning of last year he has collected 6 wins.

The people who help Varney and his 1 cars are his parents Jamie Tripp-Varney and Kevin Varney, Chachy Hall and Richard Kimball.

 Brandon has 26 sponsors this season including Maine Mobile service, AGF, Henry's Concrete, Craig Moore Trucking, R and R Automotive and Vinyl, Mainely Awards and Great Choice Vending.

When he isn’t racing Brandon keeps busy playing college baseball for Central Maine Community College along with coaching younger kids, working at Ingersoll arena,Auburn rec and at LL Bean.

Though Brandon Varney is still pretty early in his racing career and taking everything in stride, showing he’s got immense talent behind the wheel of a race car.

You can catch a glimpse of Brandon Varney and his black Kyle Hewins Motorsports sponsored 1 cars racing weekly at Oxford Plains Speedway on Wednesday nights in the Rebels division and on Saturday nights with the Bandits.