It always pays to know the fastest way around a racing oval, but there are times when a little luck comes in handy.
A group of drivers caught a few breaks on the way to capturing feature victories during the opening night of the Andy Daly Super Stock Memorial Special at Brown County Speedway Friday night.
It started in the first feature of the evening when Maria Broksieck of Goodwin momentarily lost her lead late in the Super Stock race, but got it back when a yellow flag before the completed lap restored the previous positions.
“We got lucky with the caution at the right time,” Broksieck said. “That was luck played right there.”
There was plenty of room to run on the oval at the beginning of the event.
“The start of that race we were three-wide running all together there,” Broksieck said. “That was pretty awesome.”
The conditions changed throughout the course of the feature and Broksieck changed right along with them.
“The bottom slicked off so fast. That lane was gone,” she said. “You had to move and find a new lane.”
Broksieck was able to make adjustments throughout the race to eventually take the checkered flag.
“From one lap to the next it can be completely different,” she said. “What felt right last time, doesn’t feel at all OK this time.”
Selby’s Dawson Zabel caught a different kind of break on the way to winning the Midwest Modified feature.
Zabel was running second to Miller’s Lane Johnson early in the race, before ducking down low to grab the top spot.
“There was a little bit there. I just knew I was going to have to slide him to get a lead,” Zabel said. “I just got a good run. I knew there was no other way to get around him.”
It appeared Zabel was in good shape, until he ended up colliding with a car that had spun out in turn one.
However, Zabel was able to continue in the race.
“Got lucky, I guess. … Sometimes luck’s on your side,” he said.
Zabel wasn’t sure if his car had sustained much damage or not.
“Right away I was a little nervous,” he said. “I could feel it wasn’t hard, hard, but you never know with the suspension stuff. It doesn’t take much of a hit to wreck some stuff.”
Mike Stearns led from start to finish to win the Modified feature. The win carried extra significance for the Aberdeen driver because the late Andy Daly used to be part of his racing team. Stearns traditionally runs Daly memorial races strong.
“They mean a lot to us and we’ve had a lot of success at them,” Stearns said, “so that’s pretty cool.”
While Stearns always competes hard, he has a little extra motivation while racing in honor of his longtime friend.
“You just gotta do it. I almost feel like I owe it to my crew, and his family, and everybody to try to come out and get a win,” Stearns said. “It means a ton to us. A lot of work, a lot of effort goes into it, so to be able to put it in victory lane is awesome.”
While most Legends cars prefer to run the bottom side of the oval, Preston Martin of Lincoln, N.D., hooked up on the high side on the way to his second straight feature victory.
“A lot of the cars love to run on the bottom. … Legends can run lower than the big cars run, so they leave a lot of moisture down there for the Legends,” Martin said, “but I’ll be honest, I hate playing the patience game down low. I like playing the balance game up top, and try to teeter on that top side as much as I can.”
The top side of the track paved the way to victory for Trevor Nelson during the Street Stock feature. The Warner driver took an early lead and then kept it by running on the outside of the oval.
“It was getting treacherous up there at the end,” Nelson said. “It’s a really fine line up there right now. I thought I was going to lose the lead there a few times.”
Like a few other drivers, Nelson caught a bit of a break when a caution flag stopped the race with 11 laps remaining just as he was getting into lap traffic. When action resumed, he was able restore his lead on the way to the victory.
“We got in heavy lap traffic there,” Nelson said. “That one with 11 to go really saved me, I think.”
Aberdeen’s Kent Arment was closing in on Stearns in the Late Model feature and took advantage of a small opening with seven laps remaining to take a lead he never lost.
Again, lap traffic played a significant role as both Arment and Stearns were trying to get around them coming out of turn four.
“He come in there and I went high,” Arment said, “and I turned underneath him and holy cow there he was off the track.”
The victory was a special one for Arment, who also knew Daly.
“I love this memorial race. … I wanted to win it real bad,” Arment said.
The second program of the memorial special takes place at 6 tonight with twice as much money at stake. There were 128 entries on opening night.
“This Andy Daly deal is huge. … It’s fun to win it,” Arment said. “We had a huge crowd tonight. We had tons and tons of cars.”
To see complete race results, click on the following link:
