After a long, hard winter, auto racers were happy to be back to their pastime Friday night at Brown County Speedway.

They were greeted with a new racing surface and it received solid reviews in the season’s opening action.

Super Stock driver Mark Abeln said the oval, which contains new dirt that was hauled in during the offseason, was stickier than it has been in the past.

When asked if that was good or bad, Abeln responded, “We’ll see later on in the year, but right now it’s a great thing. The car hooks up nice, it’s smooth, no washboards or anything.”

Andy Rossow of Florence believes the new surface will lead to good racing.

“I think it will be pretty racy,” Rossow said.

Rossow also knows that track conditions will change throughout the course of the season, and there will be times when it dries out. He said he enjoys the challenge of racing in multiple conditions.

“I like a hammer down race track, hold it to the floor and going,” Rossow said, “but I also like dry-slick where it’s a little bit technical.”

Abeln, who just returned to racing last season after an 11-year absence, won his first heat race of the season.

“This is our back up car, too. Our good car is sitting at home with no motor,” said Abeln, who farms west of Groton. “I never drove this car in my life. We just put it together last week.”

Like Abeln, Rossow also won his heat race in the Street Stock division. He was excited to start off this year’s campaign by taking the checkered flag.

“That was good. It was my first race of the year. I didn’t even get any Test and Tune, because I was having car trouble,” Rossow said. “It was nice to go out and get a heat race win right away. It makes me a little more confident going into the feature.”

Feature winners on the evening were Trevor Nelson of Warner in Super Stock, Kasey Ussatis of Nome, N.D. in Street Stock, Lee Grosz of Watertown in Modified, Adam Brotherton of Huron in Midwest Modified, and Josh Skorczewski of Aberdeen in Late Model.

In the end, all the individuals that got in behind the wheel were winners on the night after waiting for eight long months to get back on the track. And make no mistake, opening night is special, even for veteran drivers like Aberdeen’s Chad Becker who has been competing for more than two decades.

“The first night you get a little excited, especially with the long winter we had,” Becker said. “It definitely gets your stomach going a little bit the first night, but when the car makes the first corner good, you’re good to go.”

It doesn’t take much to get racers in the mood to compete once they arrive at the track.

“It’s a spring sport. We get started in the spring and everybody has cabin fever,” Rossow said. “You get out to a Test and Tune, smell a little race fuel and then you’re ready to go. It’s time to go.”

And while it has been weeks since the last time drivers have turned a wheel in their race cars, some things never change.

“It felt like riding a bike again,” Abeln said. “Everything was smooth. There’s no other feeling like it.”

Racing continues at 7 p.m. Friday.

To see complete results, click on the following link:

https://www.myracepass.com/events/472575/races