A trio of drivers came up with the right paths to captured feature wins during the opening night of The Rumble at Brown County Speedway Friday night.
Chad Becker of Aberdeen won the $2,500 first-place prize in the Late Model feature, Jayden Bogh of Huron won the Street Stock feature, and Dawson Zabel of Selby took the checkered flag in the Midwest Modified division.
Becker had a lead, lost it for a bit, and then regained it by squeezing between two cars coming out of turn two.
“I was kind of figuring the track out. Where I could run high, where I could run low, where I could run through the middle,” Becker said. “I knew once he got me, I just had to be patient for the middle to come in and I’ll roll them. When I got that middle packed in good there, then I could roll right through that middle.”
As the race went on, the path to success changed throughout forcing Becker to make mid-race adjustments.
“The track changed about three different times. It was top right away, then it was bottom,” Becker said. “I could really hook up and then I see my signal guys told me to get up and I got up. … I run here enough and the track was different tonight than normal. I had to chase it a little bit.”
With a lot of lap traffic, Becker just stayed in the mix and knew he’d be there down the stretch.
“The car was coming in all over. I knew I’d be good late in the race,” said Becker. “I just had to maintain it in the first half.”
Becker was good late in the race, splitting those two cars to take the lead and never looked back.
“Once I figured my lane out, I just stuck the foot in it and held on,” Becker said. “The car would go wherever I wanted it to, so it was actually fun at the end.”
Becker briefly lost his lead midway through the race, but didn’t panic in the 30-lap feature.
“That’s why I love the longer races,” Becker said, “it’s kind of fun.”
While Bogh started on the pole position and led the entire way in his feature, it was far from an easy race.
“I’m pretty wore out. I was pretty nervous starting up front,” Bogh said. “That race went way too long. I about spun out. Everything that could have happened, happened out there, and I’m just glad I stayed on.”
Bogh nearly lost the lead late in the race as Trey Hess of Grand Forks, N.D., pulled up right beside him and threatened to take the lead with less than five laps remaining.
“I seen him down there,” Bogh said, “and I just buried it a little farther.”
The race took a bit of a toll of Bogh, who won his fourth feature of the summer at BCS.
“I need to do some cardio or something,” he said, “because I was getting pretty wore out at the end.”
The race featured drivers from four different states.
“This is huge, biggest career win by far. These guys don’t mess around,” Bogh said. “We were just coming in here hoping we could make the show and keep the point lead here, and we come out with a win. You can’t ask for much more.”
Zabel didn’t lead his feature race until the end. He was running in third and just waiting for the perfect time to make his move. A caution flag allowed him to do just that.
“With all the pace laps the middle kind of got packed in there,” Zabel said, “and got rid of all the slime and everything that was there, and then it worked pretty well.”
As cars were getting positioned for the restart, he knew exactly where he wanted to go when the race resumed.
“The whole time we were under pace laps I was kind of licking my chops there,” Zabel said.
The strategy worked when the green flag fell and Zabel raced to the front of the field for a lead he never lost.
“It got packed in nice and it looked like a good solid lane,” Zabel said.
He said he probably wouldn’t have been able to win the race if not for that late yellow flag.
“Sometimes yellows kill you,” Zabel said, “and sometimes they’re your best friend.”
Racing resumes at 7 tonight with just Street Stocks and Late Models. The Late Model feature tonight will pay $5,000 to the winner.
To see Friday’s complete results, click on the following link:
