A pair of drivers who were on the verge of victory only to come up short earlier this summer, captured feature wins at Brown County Speedway, Aberdeen Friday night.

Maria Broksieck, who twice got edged right before the checkered flag earlier this season, finished the deal during the Street Stock feature. The Goodwin driver led from start to finish after starting on the pole position.

“I never like to start in the front row,” Broksieck said, “but you know what, sometimes you’ve got to take that and run with it, too.”

Broksieck decided to run the shortest distance around the track, staying on the bottom of the racing oval.

“I pretty well thought if I kept in on the bottom there, that’s where there was some moisture and some tack in the track there,” Broksieck said. “It wasn’t too slick yet, and if I kept it there I’d be OK for the most part for the remainder of the race.”

It was a fitting finish for someone who hasn’t caught many breaks at the track so far this summer.

“We’ve had flat tires, broken brake lines, just weird random things,” she said.

Yet, Broksieck has stayed the course and she was rewarded for it this time.

“You’ve got to take the good with the bad,” she said. “It’s all part of it.”

Brad Kopecky also made up for some tough luck a couple of weeks ago when he was leading his feature only to encounter trouble with five laps left.

This time, the Miller driver was able to get through lap traffic and hold off a charge from Matt Johnson of Aberdeen by staying on the high side of the track.

“That’s the place I like to run,” Kopecky said. “If there’s a cushion on there, I’ll about guarantee you I’ll be on it.”

Kopecky said he saw Johnson’s white number 17 car out of the corner of his eye following a restart after a yellow flag.

“I could see Matt down there on that restart,” Kopecky said. “I could see the white nose poke under me going into three, but I knew if I could hit my marks on the top, I’d be hard to beat.”

However, when Kopecky encountered lap traffic, his previous late-race troubles came to mind.

“That was a heartbreaker,” Kopecky said of his recent setback. “I broke a power steering pump with five laps to go leading that one.”

Kopecky was able to seal the deal this time around for his first ever feature win in Aberdeen.

“It means a lot. I’ve never won at Brown County,” Kopecky said. “This is my first win here. I’ve won at I-90, I’ve won at Miller, I’ve won at Huron, I’ve never won up here.”

Feature wins at BCS have been a bit tough to come by for Mike Stearns this summer, but the Aberdeen driver picked up a crucial one in the Modified division as he is in the hunt for the national points championship.

“Every feature win is going to be huge from here on out,” Stearns said. “The difference between first and second is five points, so it’s huge at the end when you’ve got feature wins over second-place finishes.”

Stearns took advantage of lap traffic to help him track down Tony Konold of Clear Lake who was hooking up on the high side for the majority of the race.

“When it’s high-side dominant like that it’s just hard to make up any ground, so lap cars kind of make a race out of it, usually,” Stearns said. “I was chipping away on the bottom, I just couldn’t make up enough ground, so I had to jump up to the top, try to run him down.”

With seven laps to go, Stearns saw his opening when Konold encountered slower cars and he was able to duck under him for a lead he never lost.

“You just kind of know when you’re not making up any ground on the bottom, you just need to get going somewhere and at least keep pace with him, and then hope for an opportunity like that,” Stearns said.

It was the second win of the year at BCS for Stearns and his eighth overall on the year.

Scott Hansen of Garden City won the Midwest Mod feature and Kent Arment of Aberdeen won the Late Model feature after both started on the front row and took advantage of that prime position.

Racing continues at 7 p.m. Friday.

To see complete race results, click on the following link:

https://www.myracepass.com/events/526101/races