Chad Brachmann carries the Sunflowers of Sanborn colors predominantly on his dirt modified. The agritourism business owned by him and his wife, Louise, benefits from the travel he logs with the race car. That includes whether he races locally, at Ransomville Speedway in New York, or as far away as the Super DIRTcar Series’ World of Outlaws Bristol Throwdown at Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee.
“We put up a map [where visitors can place pins of] where they are from,” said Brachmann, 46, of Sanborn, New York. “You wouldn’t believe where people come from. We get [visitors] from all states, different countries.”
The Sanborn, New York, attraction started in 2017 as a tribute to Louise’s late father.
“We had an empty field on the corner of our farm,” Brachmann said. “[My wife] was flipping through a magazine and saw a big field of sunflowers and decided that’s what she wanted to do in memory of her father. It blew up from there.”
The field, which was originally eight acres, drew attention. So much so that it forced the Brachmanns to reconsider their field of sunflowers.
“It got to the point where we had to have the sheriff’s department directing traffic,” said Brachmann. “It’s a busy road where we were at. It’s a 55-mph road, and people were parking on the side of the road and getting out of their cars.”
The following year they moved it to a different part of the property. They made a lot where people can safely park their cars and take in the field of sunflowers. In addition, the expanded the scope of the attraction. It now spans 40 to 45 acres, with 30 acres dedicated to allowing visitors to pick their own flowers, with 15 to 20 different varieties. Plus, Sunflowers of Sanborn goes beyond just flowers from when the open on August 1 to when they close in mid-September. That includes activities and events such as wagon rides, food trucks, crafts, and apple cannons, where you can shoot apples with a air-powered gun at a target.
Chad Brachmann holds 12 championships at tracks and series such as Ransomville Speedway, Merrittville Speedway in Ontario, Canada, and the BRP Modified Tour. He plans to pick and choose his races this season. However, wherever Brachmann races, you can count on him carrying what fuels his racing operation, Sunflowers of Sanborn.
The Outside Groove Executive Editor has covered motorsports since 2000. His many awards include the 2019 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Jim Hunter Writer of the Year and the 2013 Russ Catlin Award for Excellence in Motorsports Journalism.
