Feature races came down to the wire Friday night at Brown County Speedway.
Aberdeen’s Kent Arment took home a win in the Wissota Modified race after a late-race battle with Tony Konold of Clear Lake.
Arment and Konold came across the line side-by-side, but it was Arment who claimed the win after a big run on the top of the track out of turn four.
“It was great,” Arment said. “The season we’ve been having with this car hasn’t been the best, so we’ve been hunting around. So, having a good close win, there was a lot of fun. … I had a blast.”
Arment started the race ninth and slowly but surely worked his way up to second and with a few laps to go and most of the cars stuck on the bottom of the track, Arment decided to do something different and go to the top.
“Out of turn four, they were starting to throw a little tack up there and it was sticking to the high side so I could pull down a little,” Arment said, “and I felt the motor lug a little bit, so I knew I was in some good stuff.”
Even though Arment found speed at the top, he still wanted to get back to the bottom.
“I wanted to pass him on the bottom, to be honest,” Arment said. “But I went up there and I was coming fast, so I just went to the high side and committed to that.”
During the last lap, Arment wasn’t sure if he was going to get the win or not.
“I was really just watching my marks at the end and hoping for the best,” Arment said. “That’s all I was doing.”
Another late pass came in the Street Stock feature race with Andy Rossow claiming the victory, passing Chris Serr with one lap remaining.
After leading a majority of the race, Serr caught lap traffic and made contact with one driver and that was enough to slow him down and allow Rossow to pass on the outside.
“I was going to try the high side and give it one shot,” Rossow said. “And the leader got into that lap car, so I thought right after that that’s my chance, so I went up there and it worked.”
Even though Rossow knew that the late-race development would give him a shot, he wasn’t sure how well it would work out for him.
“I knew there was a chance, but it was going to be a tall task,” Rossow said. “But it stuck pretty good, so that’s awesome.”
Rossow also talked about how fun it is to be able to compete so closely with his competitors.
“It’s always exciting,” Rossow said. “There were three of us battling for a while and that’s what makes it really good. That’s what makes it awesome.”
The Midwest Mods had the biggest turnout of drivers on the night, packing 27 cars on the track, and it was a 17-year-old Blake Adams from Cameron, Wisc. getting the win.
“It was pretty cool,” Adams said. “I’ve never won here and it’s definitely one of my favorite tracks to come to. We only get to come here a few times a year, so it’s definitely cool.”
Adams started on the pole, but it wasn’t easy getting the win as he had a tight battle early with Watertown’s Todd Stark.
Stark briefly took the lead by threading the needle three wide through the middle before a caution came out with 15 laps to go.
After the restart, Adams pulled a slide job to take the lead, but Stark immediately returned the favor before Adams got back by on the inside.
“It was nerve-wracking,” Adams said about the battle with Stark. “I hate starting on the pole because you just never know where to be right after intermission. Luckily, I just kind of held on.”
Adams held the lead through two more cautions before the final yellow flag of the night came out with just two laps to go.
With all the pressure on him with the late restart, Adams fired out strong and held on to claim the win.
“Scared and mad at the same time,” is how Adams said he felt after seeing the last caution. “It sucks seeing the checker come out and all of a sudden the yellows out and now you have to start all over. It was definitely nerve-wracking, but luckily we got it.”
Mike Stearns took the win in the Late Model race after a tight battle with two fellow Aberdeen drivers in Arment and Josh Skorczewski.
Arment sat on the pole and led the first few laps, but a caution came out with 18 to go and then two more incidents brought out cautions without completing a full lap.
“That’s what actually helped me the most,” Stearns said about the cautions. “I had three trial runs to see what I could do on the top and how hard I could drive it, see what I could get away with. So I felt like that probably actually helped us, but usually it’s pretty frustrating. For Kent and Josh, it was probably pretty frustrating.”
With less than 10 laps to go, Stearns had found his way around Skorczewski and set his sights on Arment.
Arment got held up slightly in lap traffic and it was just enough for Stearns to drive around the high side and get the lead.
The two continued to battle until a caution with six laps to go forced a restart. Stearns got a good jump on the restart and rolled around the bottom, forcing Arment to try the top.
Arment closed the gap slightly, but Stearns was proved to be too strong and took home the win.
Even after the victory, Stearns was still disappointed about the Modified race that took place earlier in the evening.
“It feels good, but we probably let one slip away in the modified,” Stearns said. “We started on the front row, but I felt like the track wasn’t ready to race on in the top. So it was slimy and I slipped over the top, lost a bunch of positions and had to go to the back and came back up and got third.”
However, Stearns did say it was probably motivation to win in the Late Model.
“I probably had a little extra incentive,” Stears said. “I wasn’t real happy, but I think I drive better when I’m mad.”
Warner’s Trevor Nelson won the Super Stock race after driving from seventh to first in the 20-lap event.
Early in the race Nelson utilized the top side to get the lead while everyone else stuck to the bottom.
“I just kind of had to go where they weren’t,” Nelson said. “Everybody was committed to the bottom. I know the middle is starting to brown up so it has a chance. I’m not here to follow somebody and it paid off.”
Late in the race, after a few cautions, Nelson was running the top, but Aberdeen’s Stewart Schipke was closing in on the bottom.
Noticing that, Nelson switched lanes and was able to hold off Schipke and the rest of the pack to get the win.
“On a track like that, you know where you want to be at on the track,” Nelson said. “But it just played out in our favor. I know how to run the bottom here pretty well. So yeah, it just worked out in our favor.”
Nelson hopes the strong performance will help his team hit its stride the rest of the season.
“We kind of struggled here the last few weeks,” Nelson said. “We’re kind of hitting on a few things now and were just lucky to be up here and hopefully keep the momentum rolling.”
Ryan Erdahl of Jamestown, N.D. won the Legends feature.
Racing continues at 7 p.m. Friday.
To see complete results, click on the following link:
