On a night meant to honor the late Andy Daly, it was only fitting that a pair of his friends won feature races at Brown County Speedway, Aberdeen, Friday night.
Mark Abeln won the Andy Daly Super Stock Special feature race and paid tribute to Daly, a former driver at the track, following the victory.
“I swear up above that the last three laps he was the one that was driving,” Abeln said. “I don’t remember it. I honestly don’t remember it.”
Abeln took home the biggest Super Stock prize money of the year by winning the race; a total of $3,112.12, a figure featuring Daly’s number 12 race car.
“We went to high school together,” Abeln said. “This means the world to me.”
Ablen trailed for a good share of the race before lap traffic began to take its toll with about five laps remaining. That allowed Abeln to get past Brad Kopecky of Miller for a lead he never lost.
“Slow but sure,” Abeln said. “I just kept telling myself to settle down, slow down, think ahead, don’t jump the gun, and it paid off.”
Aberdeen’s Josh Skorczewski won the Late Model feature race and also talked about Daly following his victory.
“I knew Andy for a long time and I’m really good friends with Mike Stearns, and he was really, really good buds with him and introduced me to Andy,” Skorczewski said. “I can still remember when I won my first feature here in 2012 in the Late Model and how excited Andy was. He came over and shook my hand and said I did a great job. It’s something I’ll never forget.”
Skorczewski had to wait out a long delay in the feature race when a pair of vehicles collided and ended up locking up. He said he thought about a lot of things during the break in the action.
“That definitely was a marathon. There’s a lot of things that go through your mind,” Skorczewski said. “Everything from what you did on the car, something you felt might be going wrong, worry about your tires sealing up, just anything like that, and maybe I need to switch my line. I felt like guys maybe were catching me, moving around. I had a good line figured out, but you never know what they’re doing behind you.”
Jaren Wibstad of Jamestown, N.D. won the first feature of the evening. He was able to hook up on the high side and break away from the pack about midway through the Midwest Modified feature.
“It was pretty fast up there,” Wibstad said. “You could maintain on that bottom but yeah, you didn’t even have to lift when you were up top there.”
The 24-year-old driver said he knew about the risk of going over the top when by running on the high side.
“This car is pretty tight all around all the time, no matter what I do to try and loosen it up,” Wibstad said, “so every once in a while I’d get tight up there too, but I just tried the corner different every time.”
He said the race track was in prime shape for the feature race.
“Two lanes of racing is all I ever ask for. That’s all I ever ask for and that’s what we got tonight,” Wibstad said. “Normally the features down here are pretty awesome. The heat races can be really tough and mucky, but that feature was awesome.”
Other feature winners on the night included Jayden Bogh of Huron in the Street Stock division, and Cayden Schmeling of Watertown in the Modified division.
Racing continues next week with a doubleheader on Friday and Saturday for the annual Rumble.
To see Friday’s results, click on the following link:
