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Thursday, June 27

We managed to get started on what looked to be a busy four days of racing. The week began on June 27 at ABC Raceway. It was the Farm Stock Special, and the purses were increased for the WISSOTA Mods, Super Stocks, and Midwest Mods. The Supers raced for a $1,000 to win, the Midwest Modifieds went for $1,500 to win and the WISSOTA Modifieds raced for a top prize of $2,500 to win.

So, how did this payoff draw competitors to the speedway? Twenty-one Super Stocks, 22 Midwest Modifieds and 28 WISSOTA Modifieds joined 14 Six Cylinder cars and seven WISSOTA Pure Stocks for a total of 92 cars present on a Thursday night.

The event drew some really good racers. For instance, in the WISSOTA Mods, Duane Dale from the Iron Range was on hand, as was Shane Sabraski, former ABC Regular Steve Lavasseur, young “Super Star” Kennedy Swan, Kaden Blaeser, and Dave Cain (who drove Colin Chaschuk’s car). Andrew Mackey, who has stepped up to a Mod from the Super Stocks, was also on hand, as was Mike Anderson (who has won at the raceway already this season), and Darrell Nelson. Unfortunately, Nelson never got a chance to compete as a hot laps problem sidelined the race car.

In the WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds, with 22 cars on hand, there were a few I haven’t seen race this season including Cole Boston, Andy Jones, Ross Fuhrman, Paul Suzik, David Baxter and Reagan Ruffi, whom I had never heard of before.

I have noticed a few new (to me) WISSOTA Super Stocks I’ve not seen before as well, including “Bond, Trenton Bond” who I think moved up from the Sixes, maybe? Good to see Andy Grymala back in the Super ranks after what he was put through last season.

Covering the sanctioned action, Dustin Holub won the WISSOTA Pure Stock feature, while Twin Ports regular Aaron Bernick finished third.

In the WISSOTA Super Stocks, the main event went to Shane Kisling over Terran Spacek, with Shawn McFadden, DJ Keeler and Patrick Beeksma in the top five.

In the Midwest Mods’ 25-lap main event, Tyler Vernon improved his finishing position by one spot over his heat run to take the win. Joey Jensen, Paul Ripley, Cole Boston and William Moelter rounded out the top five.

In the WISSOTA Modifieds, Jody Bellefeuille completed the sweep of the division holding off Shane Sabraski and Kennedy Swan in the top three. Justin Weinberger and Nick Oreskovich finished in the top five.

Saturday, June 29

It turned out to be a great fall day Saturday at Gondik Law Speedway for night one of the Border Battle, even if it was June 29. With the help in the early evening of a 14 to 18 mph breeze off the lake, it became somewhat uncomfortable if you weren’t prepared for it.

For the first night of the Big Show, we had 38 WISSOTA Late Models, 38 WISSOTA Modifieds, 14 WISSOTA Super Stocks, 30 WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds and 10 of the USRA Late Models. That’s a total of 130 cars. Each division raced extra laps during their features as well. The Mods did not race a feature, as they were just qualifying on night one for the $10,000-to-win main event set for Sunday.

There were a couple of interesting things I noted or learned Saturday.

All four of the WISSOTA Midwest Modified heat races were won from the outside of the front row. In the Mid Mods, Dexton Koch was in a ride, the No. 19x.

I found out that Modified racer Kaden Blaeser, son of former Mod racer Todd Blaeser, is still in high school.

Modified racer Mike Anderson, who used to live in Colfax, WI, and now resides in Jim Falls, was in a WISSOTA Late Model to go with his WISSOTA Modified. He won his heat in the Late Model from ... the outside of the front row, over Pat Doar and Danny Vang!

It was kind of funny watching the black push truck trying to help Saturday night. Twice he pulled up behind a car and, just as he was going to push, the cars drove off!

I still think that the track needs to be scraped away from the walls in the turns. You may have read my example of Harry Hanson flipping in turns one and two because the track was too rough back in the day? The dirt is too high on the walls and the track is so fast in the later going, the cars are using the whole track, and a short wall in the turns is going to mean more trouble! Just sayin’.

It’s apparent that the longer they run on the big four-tenths mile, the faster the outside groove becomes, easily the quickest way.

I found it interesting that the fourth heat of Late Models was given a “timeout” and sent to the infield due to two or three caution flags in the first laps of their heat. Good call! They ran the first heat of Supers before allowing them to come back and complete their eight laps.

The evening went just a bit late, but those who stayed to the end got their money’s worth! We had some of the best racing I’ve seen in a while Saturday night. I certainly hope it continues, especially in the big $10,000-to-win Modified race!

In the feature races, Joey Jensen won the 25-lap WISSOTA Mid Mod feature ahead of Jake Smith, David Simpson, Ryan Gierke, and Jason VandeKamp in the top five.

I was watching Cody Carlson, who started third in the feature. I spoke to his mom Judy and she said they were having trouble figuring out why the car seemed to go flat during the feature in Ashland on Thursday. She said they worked on it on Friday and yet more on Saturday, even took apart the rear end to see if something had gone south. It seemed great in the heat with the win, but in the feature it seemed to go flat again; it reached a certain speed and couldn’t go any faster. He worked hard and managed to hold onto a top-10 finish in ninth. Still, the car should be much faster than that. I hope they can figure it out, get it back to the way it was a couple weeks ago in Proctor, when he wiped the track up with a clean sweep!

In the 35-lap WISSOTA Late Model race, Shane Sabraski made the pass on Pat Doar for the lead about a third of the way through the feature. Former track champion Travis Budisalovich was third followed by Johnny Broking and Dan Bargender in the top five.

Dave Flynn, Mike Anderson, Skeeter Estey, Kevin Burdick, and 20th-starter Darrell Nelson were the top-10 finishers.

It was great to see Nelson back in competition. I was waiting to see if he was going to give it a try after health problems over the winter. Now, not only is he racing his own two cars, but he’s also bringing along his son Cade into the racing world as a driver.

In the 25-lap WISSOTA Super Stock feature, the old “start on the outside of the front row and win” continued on. Dexton Koch took the No. 78k to the front and stayed away from Shane Sabraski, who started fifth, to take the win. Tristan LaBarge, Kyle Copp, and DJ Keeler completed the top five, while Rick Simpson, Shane Kisling, Doug Koski, Scott Lawrence, and Don Livingston were top-10 finishers.

Sunday, June 30

I’m home from the second day of the Great Lakes Border Battle. I came home early as, during the WISSOTA Late Model 35-lap event, a piece of debris struck my on the head. Luckily I had on a cap with my sweatshirt hood up, so the hit wasn't as bad as it could have been. I have a spot on my head about the size of a 50 cent piece.

A decent car count for the divisions was on hand for the second day, with 30 Mid Mods, 37 Late Models, eight of the USRA Late Models, 13 Super Stocks and 38 Modifieds.

After the last-chance qualifiers, it was time for feature racing. In the 25-lap feature for the Midwest Mods, Tyler Vernon started on the outside of the front row and rode that high groove as he held off fourth-starting Joey Jensen. Zach Benson slipped back from the pole position to finish third and Jason VandeKamp moved up from 11th to take fourth. Our guy Cody Carlson started in eighth, moved up to fifth, then backward to ninth. He finished the night seventh.

Moving on to the WISSOTA Late Model event, rookie Johnny Broking held off Shane Sabraski (who is also a rookie in the division, I believe). Ashley Anderson made his first appearance in a Late Model here and came away with a third-place finish after displacing Pat Doar back to fourth ahead of James Giossi.

In the WISSOTA Super Stock division, Kyle Copp held off Shane Sabraski to take his first win at Gondik Law Speedway in some time. Curt Myers, Doug Koski and Tristan LaBarge finished in the top five.

It was a terrific weekend for Darrell Nelson's son Cade, as he dominated the feature in the USRA Late Models both nights. At the time I left due to my injury, they had not finished the big Modified race.

It was a great two days of racing at our track. We seem to have the same problems as other tracks in the area, as there is a dust problem.

Now, this coming week, we are still busy. On Monday we are headed to Proctor Speedway for a visit from the XR Late Model Series. Then Tuesday, they are scheduled to make the grueling trip across the bridge to race at GLS. We then head to Rice Lake Speedway for one of the greatest fireworks shows you'll ever see. Oh, yeah! That is also the night the Fastlane Motorsports Northern Super Stock Series is set to run its rescheduled event.

That's all for this time. See you at the races!