Brown County Speedway hosted Kid’s Night Friday night and drivers put on a show for the young fans in the crowd.
In the Late Model division, Aberdeen’s ‘Showtime’ Kent Arment lived up to his nickname, coming from his 12th-place starting spot to get the feature win.
While though starting in the back isn’t ideal, Arment had fun working his way to the front.
“It’s great. I’ve been racing so long; I like doing stuff like that,” Arment said. “I’ve won a few races, no doubt. So sometimes it’s how you win them. … At this point in my career, I just race at Aberdeen, and I like doing it and having fun. That’s what it’s all about. So that’s fun; it was like a Friday night shootout for me. It was a good time.”
While Arment was working his way through traffic from the back, pole sitter Chad Becker led the first 19 laps until colliding with Josh Skorczewski. Becker wasn’t able to continue and with six laps to go, Skorczewski led, followed by Mike Stearns and Arment.
Arment got by Stearns on the restart on the outside and, with two laps remaining, cleared to the lead on the bottom of the track.
A big reason Arment was able to use both the top side and bottom side of the track was because of how versatile his car was.
“It was really really good. My car has been excellent all year. It’s been really on point and we’ve done a few different changes over the year, but not a lot really. It’s really good right now; it’s not 100% all the time, but man, it’s really good,” Arment said. “I feel good every time I jump in it, heat races or feature races every night. It’s fun, you don’t have a car that’s that good often to where you’re just going to ride it out and I’m riding it out right now. I’m not changing anything for a long time.”
Arment was also pleased that he got to deliver an exciting performance and win in front of so many young fans.
“We just love having the kids down here. We’re always promoting that stuff we want to feed our racers and we want to teach the kids what racings all about and see if we can get them into the sport,” Arment said. “We’re doing stuff for the Boys and Girls Club coming where they’re going to have field events out here and bring all the kids for that.”
Arment was part of another battle earlier in the evening in the Modified feature, but it was Stearns who came out with that victory.
Arment started second and, two laps into the race, took the lead, and just two laps after that, Stearns made his way up to second after starting fifth.
A caution came out with 15 laps to go and on the restart Stearns got the lead, but another caution came out that gave the lead back to Arment.
“It’s really frustrating. I felt like I had the lead and with my guys pointing me to the top, I would have gone to the top after that if I would have been the leader and it probably would have been over at that point,” Stearns said. “I felt like I should have been the leader because the debris caution wasn’t until everybody went by, so that is frustrating and you show your hand a little bit too. It’s like, OK, now Kent saw that I could pass him down there if he didn’t make any mistakes, then he’s going to be thinking about going down there. So yeah, it can be really frustrating.”
After the restart with 14 laps left, Stearns repeatedly got alongside Arment but couldn’t quite make the pass because of the momentum Arment carried off the corner using the top side of the track.
“(The top) is always hard to beat if there is anything up there to get a hold of. Our car was really good on the bottom, but I felt like I had to slow down just a little bit too much to keep the car straight and that was killing the momentum a little bit,” Stearns said. “I could get off the corner really well, but I was lacking a little bit into the middle. So, I thought maybe I could make it happen and he’d maybe make a mistake on the top or something, and I could get the lead, but Kent ran a really good race until we got into the yellows there and he still ran a good race.”
As Arment started to open the gap down the stretch, a caution fell with three laps to go and Stearns chose the top side of the track unlike he had done the rest of the night.
On the restart, Arment ran the top side of the track and Stearns reacted by going to the middle and clearing into the lead out of turn two. Entering turn three, Arment tried a slide job and cleared Stearns but carried too much momentum and slid off the track as Stearns went on to win the race while Arment finished sixth.
“I took the top and thought (Arment) was going to the bottom in turn one like he had been. He went to the top, so that was a good move by him, but then that forced me to the center and there was a ton of traction through the center and it’s shorter than around the top, so we just beat him off the corner,” Stearns said.
The Street Stock race opened the features and after a caution-filled event, Jodie Michaelsohn found himself in victory lane for the first time this year.
“It feels really good,” Michaelsohn said. “I think last year I got one and we’ve had a lot of troubles this year. We’ve been right there so it’s good to get one.”
There were two cautions within the first six laps and the restarts helped Michaelsohn climb from seventh to third.
“The cautions helped pretty good because as long as I was on the inside, it helped me gain position,” Michaelsohn said. “You had to be on that strip, or you were out to lunch; you weren’t going anywhere. So, they helped a lot.”
After another caution, the race restarted with eight laps to go and Michaelson grabbed the lead before a caution came out with six to go, followed by two more before a completed lap, which cut the laps in half to only three remaining.
After restarting in traffic, once Michaelsohn got out front, he had an easier path.
“It made it a lot easier to start up front because then I could target and hit my spot directly instead of waiting for the other guy in front of me to slide up and hit the brake,” Michaelsohn said. “Up front was a big advantage.”
There were two more cautions without completing a lap and the race was called with Michaelsohn declared the winner.
In the Super Stock race, 17-year-old Bryson North of Huron got the win after starting seventh.
With North starting deeper in the field, he had to go where his competition wasn’t and as the leaders all ran around the bottom, North powered around the outside all the way into the lead.
As North drove around the competition using the top, he was surprised nobody came up to try and block his momentum.
“I was kind of surprised, actually. Seeing (Stewart) Schipke run the middle, I knew there was some traction down there, but I was committed to the top,” North said. “It was pretty fast, but you had to be on your marks every lap.”
North passed Schipke with 12 laps to go and built a lead until a caution came out with six laps remaining.
Even though it didn’t take North long to get the lead, he still had to be patient.
“I knew I had to take my time,” North said. “20 laps is quite a long time with this track condition, but once I started moving forward I knew then they would cut the laps down. I knew we had to kind of pick up the pace.”
North is having fun racing for wins at such a young age.
“It’s pretty awesome to be honest,” North said. “This is my fourth year and the only year I’ve gotten two wins. I only have three wins total in my career, so it’s pretty awesome to run with these guys.”
The other two feature winners on the night were Dusty Mund of Lisbon, N.D. in the Legends class after powering around the outside from fifth to first, and Watertown’s Todd Stark, who started on the front row and led every lap but one.
To see complete results, click on the following link:
