Being able to hold off a hard-charging field to win a feature is one thing. To do it on a night that honored a longtime friend was even better.
Mike Stearns of Aberdeen captured the Modified feature race during the opening night of the Andy Daly Special at Brown County Speedway Friday night.
The late Daly not only competed at the local track, but was a member of the Stearns race team.
“Andy was a huge part of our racing and a good friend. The whole Daly family is a good family, great family, so it does mean a lot to us,” Stearns said. “If you want to win one really bad out here, it’s definitely specials like that for a buddy that’s not with us anymore, but we’re going to keep his memory alive.”
While Stearns led from start to finish, he had his hands full with fellow Aberdeen racer Kent Arment. Stearns ran the low side while Arment hooked up on the high side, at one point pulling even on the front stretch.
“I was going around the bottom pretty well there and all of a sudden I started seeing a nose poking,” Stearns said, “and I thought, well the top must be pretty good.”
The two battled for a while before Arment eventually lost his line on the top of turn four midway through the race.
Stearns continued to hug the oval as tight as he could even though the high side was also fast.
“There was good traction down there, so if you were able to rotate in the center and come out low, you could get really good drive down the straightaway,” Stearns said. “You’ve got to have really good drive coming off the corner to keep up with the high-side momentum. We had some pretty good dig.”
Stearns decided to remain on the bottom of the track on a late restart and was able to hold off Dylan Zabel of Selby to take the checkered flag.
“I wasn’t sure if I should move up and try it,” Stearns said of the high side, “but I didn’t want to move to the top and then get beat where I knew it was good.”
The Midwest Modified feature was nearly a carbon copy of a few weeks ago as Watertown’s Todd Stark outdueled Huron’s Adam Brotherton to claim the victory.
Just like he did in a previous race, Stark was able to do just enough to grab the win over Brotherton.
“Nothing wrong with that,” Stark said.
Stark said he wasn’t sure he would be able to hold on.
“Adam was really tough there,” Stark said. “I honestly didn’t know if I was going to get it done.”
Interestingly enough, it was Stark’s third win at BCS this summer, all coming in the same fashion.
“I’m notorious for running the top of Aberdeen,” Stark said, “so for me to win three features on the bottom this year is really kind of odd.”
The night marked the first ever appearance for the Legends cars. The vehicles are much smaller than a normal race car.
“They have a motorcycle engine in them,” said Gage Madler of New England, N.D.
He said the cars can go about 65-70 miles per hour.
Madler, and his brother Noah, both have Legend cars.
“We used to race Motocross and then we quit when I was about 9 or so,” said the 17-year-old Madler. “We always went to the raceway in Dickinson, N.D., and we’d always go watch and we saw this class, and thought it was really cool to do, so we decided to get some.”
After each brother won a heat race Friday night, 19-year-old Noah said there is a friendly battle when the brothers compete against each other.
“It’s awesome. It definitely pushes you a lot more, I feel like a lot more than other people,” Noah said. “I feel the brotherly competition is insane.”
While there is a healthy respect for each other, there is also a strong desire to finish ahead of the other.
“We want to see each other do good,” Noah said, “but obviously we want to beat each other.”
As it turned out, the brothers finished first and second in the Legends feature race with Gage edging out Noah on this occasion.
“We count it as we both win if we go one and two,” Gage said, “so we’ll both celebrate together.”
The brothers are among the top Legends drivers in the country with Noah finishing second in national points last year and Gage finishing fourth. They are right at the top of national points again this summer.
The brothers would like to keep moving up the racing ranks in the future.
“Our plan is we’re going to win a couple national championships,” Noah said, “and then hopefully 3-5 years, we’ll hop in an A Mod and then hopefully just keep moving up there, Late Models.”
Chad Becker of Aberdeen won the Late Model feature, navigating lap traffic and a late slide move by Huron’s Cole Searing to take the checkered flag.
Jordan Henkemeyer of Sauk Rapids, Minn., ran the high side to collect his first feature win at BCS by taking the Super Stock main.
“I haven’t won here before,” Henkemeyer said. “I usually end up having bad luck and don’t qualify very good.”
That was not the case this time as Henkemeyer started in the front row and led the entire race.
“This is pretty cool,” Henkemeyer said. “Getting a good starting position really helped.”
He will try to duplicate his feat when racing resumes this evening with additional pay.
“Hopefully, we can do the same thing (Saturday) when it pay’s really good,” Henkemeyer said, “but this is a good start.”
Tonight’s racing program starts 6 and will include a Fireworks display at the conclusion.
To see Friday’s results, click on the following link:
