A pair of feature races were battles to the finish Friday night at Brown County Speedway.
Maria Broksieck didn’t lead until the end of her Street Stock victory, while Taylor Schmidt of Bath wasn’t even sure that he had won the Midwest Modified main because the race was so close.
Broksieck of Goodwin was running the high side and was running out of time. However, the mother of two decided to stay the course and when the two race leaders collided with one lap remaining, Broksieck took advantage.
“It got quite slick and a little bit treacherous out there on the top. It was definitely not there after the last resetart, but I was not giving it up up there,” Broksieck said. “Luck was on my side. I don’t know if the two below me got tangled up together or what happened there, but anyway it did turn out in my favor.”
Once she took the lead on the next to the last lap, she moved to a better spot on the track and held on for the checkered flag.
“It was a pretty close race,” Broksieck said. “It was great to have a top and a bottom lane again out there.”
Broksieck is part of a well-known racing family. Her brother, Tony Konold of Clear Lake, competes in the Modified division.
“It’s always been a family thing. We’ve always done this together,” she said. “We’ve got a lot of racing in our blood.”
No race was tighter than the Midwest Mod feature as Schmidt edged Adam Brotherton of Huron by the smallest of margins.
“I didn’t know if he beat me or not,” Schmidt said following the thrilling finish. “I saw him on the bottom and it was like a three-wide finish with the lap car. It was a pretty good race.”
Schmidt was running high side and trying to hold off Brotherton on the low side. That led to a dilemma during a restart.
“Right before the caution came out, I saw Brotherton on the bottom,” Schmidt said. “I was like, ‘Ah man, I can’t figure out if I should go to the bottom or not.’ So during that whole caution what was running through my head was if I should switch the rear brakes to the front or what to do here, so I just kept it the way it was.”
However, Schmidt did make the switch and hooked up fine on the lower side of the oval.
“I was going to run the top, but entering the first corner after that caution I went straight to the bottom and it worked out pretty well,” he said.
Schmidt appeared to be well on his way to victory before a lap car got in his way and forced another tough decision.
“Then that lap car came into play and I didn’t know what to do, how to get around him,” Schmidt said, “so I just went to the top and then he started drifting up to the top and I saw Brotherton (on the bottom).”
The two lead cars were nose-to-nose as they crossed the finish line.
“We started making pace laps after the race wondering who won,” Schmidt said.
The 22-year-old is having fun competing against drivers he grew up watching at the local track.
“These guys have been doing it for years,” Schmidt said. “I was watching them when I was a kid. Just being able to race side by side with them is pretty awesome.”
And Friday night it literally was side-by-side at the finish in a race that Schmidt won’t soon forget.
“It will definitely go down in the books, that’s for sure,” he said. “It was fun.”
Other feature winners included Nathan Grehl of Hitchcock in Super Stock, Cayden Schmeling of Watertown in Modified and Chad Becker of Aberdeen in Late Model.
Racing continues at 7 p.m. Friday.
To see complete results, click on the following link:
