JACKSON, Minn. – Brian Brown and Casey Friedrichsen opened the season at Jackson Motorplex in impressive fashion Friday night during the Bull Haulers Brawl presented by Folkens Brothers Trucking.
Both drivers led the first lap and the final lap of their feature, but were forced to rebound after being passed early in the race on an electric track.
Brown scored his first victory of the season and first at Jackson Motorplex since May of 2017 during the $5,000-to-win Northern Outlaw Sprint Ass’n main event, which was the first ever series race at the track.
“I got to traffic the first time and I was way too cautious,” Brown said. “Skylar (Prochaska) showed us how hard to run. Hats off to Skylar. He did a great job. The No. 2ks team did great as well. It’s a great podium and we were lucky enough to come out on top.”
Brown paced the field for the first five laps of the 25-lap main event before Prochaska took over the top spot by using the bottom in turns one and two on lap six. Prochaska increased his advantage before a caution on lap nine set up a double-file restart. Brown quickly reclaimed the lead and pulled away in traffic before a caution on lap 23 bunched the field up for a late dash to the finish.
It was to no avail as Brown won by 2.008 seconds.
Prochaska was the runner up and he beamed on the frontstretch during the post-race interviews.
“It’s just good to be standing on the frontstretch again,” he said. “We got (Brown) in lapped traffic. That was fun by itself. He had better starts than we did.”
Matt Juhl was the final finisher on the podium.
“I got a rough start there and had to rebound,” he said. “The more the track got worked in, I kept getting faster throughout the race.”
Brooke Tatnell advanced from 14th to fourth to earn the Quick Change Rebuilds Hard Charger Award and Justin Henderson maneuvered from 12th to fifth.
Brown and Prochaska were up front from the start of the night as each driver set fast time in their qualifying group. James Broty, Tim Estenson, Nick Ranten and Jack Croaker picked up heat race victories. Nick Omdahl was the B-main winner.
Friedrichsen led the first four laps of the Wyffels Hybrids RaceSaver Sprint Car Series feature, which was shortened from 20 laps to 15 laps because of nearby inclement weather.
As traffic neared Friedrichsen tested a higher groove in turns three and four, which opened the door for Mike Moore to drive by on lap five.
Moore kept Freidrichsen at bay by approximately three quarters of a second for most of the remainder of the feature before he got tight in traffic, pushing up the track in turns one and two with two laps remaining.
Friedrichsen capitalized to regain the lead on lap 14 and he held on for the triumph by .581 of a second.
“It just kind of opened up,” he said. “Everything worked out well. We’re just ecstatic.”
Clayton Christensen rounded out the podium with Carter Chevalier finishing fourth and Bill Johnson running fifth.
Friedrichsen, Jesse Lindberg and Dusty Ballenger were the heat race winners.
The next event at Jackson Motorplex will be May 25, featuring the Bank Midwest IMCA Series, with a-modifieds, stock cars, hobby stocks, b-modifieds, hornets and sport compacts on the racing card.
The results:
NOSA 410 Sprint Cars: 1. 21-Brian Brown (2); 2. 35-Skylar Prochaska (1); 3. 2KS-Matt Juhl (5); 4. 16-Brooke Tatnell (14); 5. 7-Justin Henderson (12); 6. 14T-Tim Estenson (6); 7. 9N-Wade Nygaard (15); 8. 27-Carson McCarl (4); 9. 55-Nick Ranten (8); 10. 11M-Brendan Mullen (9); 11. 8H-Jade Hastings (18); 12. 8-Jack Croaker (3); 13. 0-Nick Omdahl (21); 14. 2K-Kevin Ingle (19); 15. 33-James Broty (7); 16. 26-Blake Egeland (24); 17. 83-Lynton Jeffrey (20); 18. 97-Alan Gilbertson (16); 19. 51A-Elliot Amdahl (11); 20. 20A-Jordan Adams (22); 21. 4-Colton Young (17); 22. 2A-Austin Pierce (13); 23. 14-Jody Rosenboom (10); 24. 4K-Kris Spitz (23).
Wyffels Hybrids RaceSaver Sprint Cars: 1. 2-Casey Friedrichsen (1); 2. 69-Mike Moore (4); 3. 1CC-Clayton Christensen (2); 4. 15-Carter Chevalier (3); 5. 56-Bill Johnson (5); 6. 4SS-Jody Rosenboom (8); 7. 81-Jared Jansen (7); 8. 24T-Christopher Thram (6); 9. 7L-Jesse Lindberg (9); 10. 5-Javen Ostermann (11); 11. 23-Brandon Bosma (13); 12. 27-Rick Schroeder (18); 13. 2D-Dusty Ballenger (12); 14. 4S-Michael Stien (10); 15. 10-Trevor Serbus (15); 16. 17Z-Zach Foesch (19); 17. 91-Andrew Sullivan (20); 18. 7-Johnny Sullivan (21); 19. 13X-Eli Hargreaves (17); 20. 6B-Bayley Ballenger (16); 21. 05-Brandon Allen (14).