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Thunderstorm rolls through Ashland area at race time and shuts off the racing valve at ABC Raceway

By Nick Gima

ASHLAND, WI (May 25) - A gorgeous May evening quickly turned soggy when a fast-moving thunderstorm front passed through the Chequamegon Bay area right at ABC Raceway’s scheduled start time. It forced the track’s board of directors to cancel its 2024 racing season opener for the second-straight week.

The 60th season under the direction of the Ashland-Bayfield County Racing Association will now try to kick off with the first night of the FastLane Motorsports Northland Super Stock Series, to be held on Saturday, June 1, and to be presented by the NAPA Auto Parts Stores of Ashland and Washburn. The series is entering its 10th season and will include stops on nine nights over the next three weekends, all at eight different tracks in northwestern Wisconsin and northeastern Minnesota, with ABC the only track to host two events.

ABC is offering an unprecedented purse for the opening night of the series, which includes a series-record $4,000 feature winner’s share and four-figure paychecks to each of the top-five feature finishers. Early estimates are calling for more than 50 WISSOTA Super Stock entries coming to Ashland next Saturday to kick off the series and run for the big money.

The series will return on Saturday, June 8, for the fourth race of its schedule. ABC Raceway is one of the three charter tracks of the series (Superior and Proctor, MN, are the others), having hosted the series in each of its nine prior seasons.

Full-program racing in the WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds, Pure Stocks, and the ABC Six-Cylinders will also be part of the June 1 program at ABC.

More information regarding upcoming events at the ABC Raceway is available on the track’s website, www.abcraceway.com.