6-11 Page 46

Friday, June 7

On Friday, Joanne and I headed down Hwy 53 bound for Colfax and Menomonie. We stopped to see Joanne’s sister Joan Schneider on our way to what was supposed to be the third race in the Northland Super Stock Series. Due to rainouts earlier this week and last weekend, Red Cedar Speedway was actually the first race of the series to be contested.

There was a total of 46 cars on hand joined by 22 Mid Mods and 15 WISSOTA Mods. Also on hand were five WISSOTA Street Stocks and seven Hornets, which are unsanctioned. It was a decent car count for a total of 95. If I had any say in it, I would have kept the WISSOTA Super Stocks, and then just added the WISSOTA Mods and WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds.

Despite the track prep crew’s very best effort, it was as dusty as I’ve ever seen it. Racing went to nearly 11 p.m., longer than I would have liked given the 150-mile-plus ride home.

Despite the dust, it was a very good show and the Supers lived up to their billing.

DJ Keeler was on hand and I read where Keeler towed all the way out to Montana and he won the feature at Electric City Speedway. Quite an accomplishment for one of our (Gondik Law Speedway) regulars!

Dexton Koch, who comes to race with us at GLS quite frequently during the summer, got past race leader and our neighbor Scott Lawrence in the heat race with a couple laps to go. This came to be a sign of things to come, as Koch later drove to the series win.

I mentioned how dusty it became earlier in the night. Interestingly enough, as the laps wore away, the dust settled or was blown off the track and the final laps of the feature were easily visible.

If the first Super Stock event was any indication, drivers from the northern tier of WISSOTA Tracks (Grand Rapids, Superior, Ashland, Hibbing and Proctor) may have sort of a leg up. Racers such as Kyle Copp, Terran Spacek, Keeler, Shawn McFadden, Scott Lawrence, Matt Deragon, and Canadian racer Cole Chernosky from Thunder Bay all made the feature and finished it. That’s seven in the 17 who finished.

In the other divisions, the 15-lap WISSOTA Midwest Mod feature was won by Wyatt Boyum of International Falls, MN.

The WISSOTA Modified feature was won by Kevin Adams of Cameron, with Jake Hartung, Ashley Anderson, Shane Halopka and Tanner Gehl from Solon Springs in the top five.

In the 12-lap WISSOTA Street Stock feature Hunter VanGilder of Rice Lake took the victory ahead of Gunnar Watkins, Dylan Baskin, Fred Prudoehl, of Winona, MN, and Bruce Stanley, of Merrill, WI, in the top five.

Saturday, June 8

Once again, I say, finally! We finally attended a race at ABC Raceway, the fourth try at an opening night. The rain went away and didn't come back until we were well on the way back to Superior. We had a passenger on the way back, giving a ride to Dennis McCauley’s wife Patty. Dennis was busy wrapping up the Fastlane Motorsports Northland Super Stock Series at the raceway.

It was a terrific car count for ABC’s opening night. With all classes racing, there was a total of 105 cars on hand. There were 36 Super Stocks in that total, which was 10 less than the series’ opening night at Red Cedar Speedway, with 46.

In the other divisions there were 22 Mid Mods and 21 WISSOTA Modifieds. A nice turnout of the unsanctioned Six Cylinder racers, unique to the ABC Raceway, totaled 16.

Tanner Hicks, who drives in the Midwest Mods, changed numbers for 2024, now driving the red No. 80. In MWM feature action, Joey Jensen went on to record a sweep as he won the 20-lap feature following his heat race win. Cody Carlson finished second to Jensen and finally got his wish ... to finish a feature! Jimmy Latvala, Koehler and Hicks rounded out the top five.

There were a number of caution flags in the Mid Mod feature, as well as some red flags for serious incidents. The most serious was for the No. 70 of David Simpson from Thunder Bay, Ontario. A scuffle in the first turn left the No. 70 lying on the driver's side when it was over. Hopefully the damage to the car is fixable. If not, hopefully he has another car as he was trying for the WISSOTA National Championship in the division. More importantly, we were told that he was uninjured in the crash.

In another wreck, the rear tires of a competitor landed on top of the No. 40 of Blake Adams. Amazingly, both cars drove away after they were separated. No injuries that time either.

It is my thought that one of the reasons there are so many problems in the Mid Mods is the number of new and/or rookie drivers entering the class. We saw something along those lines in the Supers a few seasons ago. There is a wide range of driving talent and experience in the Midwest Mod division. With the difference there is more of a chance of a new driver getting in trouble through the lack of experience. As eventually happened in the Supers, racers stayed with it and, as they acquired more skills, the number of incidents was reduced.

The WISSOTA Modifieds were also swept by Mike Anderson in the No. 57. He won the second heat, started on the front row of the 20-lap feature and finished off the sweep by leading every lap for the win. Justin Weinberger, Brady Uotinen, Nick Oreskovich and Tyler Vernon were top-five finishers.

Then it was time for the main attraction, the Fastlane Motorsports WISSOTA Super Stock Series. In the 30-lap big show, Dylan Nelson started seventh and took the win. DJ Keeler was a close second. Shane Kisling, Jordan Henkemeyer and Joey Jensen were the remaining top-five finishers. Jensen worked his way forward from 15th and avoided trouble to finish out that top five.

In the Pure Stock feature Travis Hazelton started fourth and took the win.

It was a good, if very long night of racing at ABC Raceway and we hope against hope that they will have many more races this summer! (It is summer, isn't it)?

As a side note, it was great to see our old friend John Kallas on track in the bright orange No. 88 Modified.

Sunday, June 9

Well, that's more like it! We just got home from the Proctor Speedway installment of the Fastlane Super Stock Series and it’s just 9 p.m. There is really something to be said for starting early on Sundays in order to let those who have been racing in the area from a distance — like Thunder Bay, Ontario or International Falls, MN — get home at a reasonable hour, especially if they have to work Monday!

The WISSOTA Super Stock Series is supposed to be the featured class of the event, and as such, Proctor dropped the WISSOTA Late Models and Modifieds for the evening, while keeping the Pure Stocks, Hornets and Midwest Modifieds as supporting classes.

The sun was out and it was a decent car count, with six fewer Super Stocks on hand from the night prior — 30 instead of 36.

Following heat race action, the first feature to enter the track was the 15-lap event for the Midwest Modifieds. Thus far this season, our friend Cody Carlson has been asking, “Can I at least finish a feature?” He answered his own question Sunday with a dominating run in the main event. You may think that I mean he got out front and drove off to a huge lead for the win. Let me assure you, that wasn't the case here! Carlson redrew the outside of the front row with 19 other cars lined up behind him. Don Smith had the pole, but when the green flag flew Carlson took the lead and stayed out there through a few caution flags. Being out front in a strong car made a big difference. Every time he had to lead a restart he was able to set the car in a groove that never let anyone close enough to contend for the lead.

He mentioned in his winning interview that the car was giving him a bit of concern in turn one, sort of a stumble, he said. He was able to compensate for that and each time he had to lead the restart he was very strong off the second turn. He finished a couple of car lengths ahead of Joey Jensen, Blake Adams, Tyler Vernon and Evan Checkalski for the very satisfying win.

Checkalski, by the way, is the grandson of our longtime friend Dennis Checkalski and son of Kelly Checkalski, who now races a Modified.

It was nice to hear our names mentioned in victory lane due to the small sponsorship we have on the car. It was really a thrill to watch Carlson not only finish a feature, but sweep the Midwest Modifieds on a Sunday night! Way to go Cody, let’s see some more wins, buddy!

Next up was the feature for the WISSOTA Pure Stocks. With only 11 cars on hand it gave us a few minutes to calm down from the frantic action in the Mid Mod feature. When 12 laps were complete, Chaston Finckbone completed the sweep of the class. He started in the eighth spot, was sent to the back with just a few laps to go, and advanced with the help of some caution flags and some great driving.

Then it was time to see how the featured division drivers in the WISSOTA Super Stock feature event would do. There were good battles up front. I was going to say “when the dust had settled,” but there was pretty much no real dust being kicked up due to all the rain we've had. (On the news I heard that in 20 days we had 18 days when it had rained.) At the checkered Terran Spacek took the win ahead of Jordan Henkemeyer of Sauk Rapids, MN, who I believe will hang onto his series point lead. The next two finishers did a great job. Third-place finisher Shawn McFadden came from the 14th to take the spot. Fourth-place finisher DJ Keeler from Superior came even farther, from 18th. Ashland's Matt Deragon started ninth and finished fifth.

The rest of the top ten were: Dexton Koch in sixth, Kyle Copp in seventh, 21st-starter Tommy Richards was eighth, James Trantina ninth, and Tim Johnson 10th. Johnson had been the cause of an early caution and scratched his way back into the top 10. Twenty-one of the 26 starters were running at the end of the 30.

We were watching Scott Lawrence during the event hoping that he might break out a bit better. He started in the 11th starting slot and made it inside the top 10 but then fell to finish in 15th. Hopefully he can move upward as the series progresses.

I suspect that Lawrence won't try to keep up his string of having raced in every race since the series was formed, going on 10 years ago.

The night’s racing finished up with the feature event for the WISSOTA Hornets.

Justin Schelitzche of Chaska, MN won the night's final feature for the Hornets to complete the division sweep. He finished ahead of Superior’s Carson Gotelaere and Ashland's DeJay Jarecki, A.J. House and Joseph Puidokas in the top five.

As I always say, it was a good night of racing as opposed to getting rained out and not racing at all!