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Sunday, June 23

The sun finally came back out and produced a nice Sunday for racing, with Granite City Motor Park in Sauk Rapids, Minnesota able to get their show in on Sunday.

On tap for race fans was the DRC.tv Street Stock Tour and Kid's Night with powerwheels drawings and giveaways. The Late Models, Modifieds, Mid Mods and Hornets joined the Street Stocks in a five-division program.

Perhaps because of Kid's Night activities or the fact it was so long since racing last took place, a very nice crowd was on hand to enjoy the excellent weather.

Twenty-eight Street Stocks signed in to race on Sunday, along with enough cars in the other classes to warrant a pair of heat races.

A visit through the pits found that Kolby Kiehl was debuting a new car in the Street Stocks. It was actually a car he recently purchased from Kaden Woodie, but this was his first night in the car. Kiehl, who has had his racing action decrease dramatically after buying into Rice Lake Speedway, didn't have the time or feel it appropriate to race at his own track. He also had his few Super Stock opportunities to race end when he was involved in a big crash at Red Cedar during their Fastlane event. That car, by the way, is expected to be repaired soon; it is at the shop of Mark Roine in Hibbing, MN. In the meantime, Kiehl has eased his itch to race by purchasing the Street.

Also new to the Street Stock class was Tommy Patton, who was on hand with his Subaru Street Stock. I can't say whether or not Patton will also continue to race his Super Stock, too.

Since I last saw him, Devin Fouquette has a new look and new number on his Modified. His new number, No. 515, is a combination of his number and his father Chad's numbers and was done to honor Devin's grandfather, who passed away a couple of weeks ago. They have decided to leave it as is now to continue to honor him.

It was a tough night for the Fouquettes, as Devin was slowed by a flat tire and eventually pulled out of the Modified feature, while Chad spun his Late Model to avoid another car, but still made contact and heavily damaged the rear deck on the car — even as he continued to finish the feature race.

To sum up the racing action, Shane Sabraski won a pair of feature races — not surprisingly, Jenna Hagemann held off a big challenge to win the Hornet feature, Kolton Brauer held off constant pressure to win the Street Stock Tour race, and the drive of the night was put on by Cory Mehrwerth, as he won a hotly contested Mid Mod feature.

Sabraski is clearly getting more and more comfortable driving the Late Model and the results are starting to reflect that. Sunday night he started in the second row and quickly moved to second behind Chuck Olson. He made the pass for the lead, only to have it wiped out by the only yellow flag of the race. Still, it was only one more lap before Sabraski made the pass stick as Olson slipped up the track and opened the door for Sabraski.

Once in front, he was gone. Ryan Mikkelson pushed his hardest to try and keep up but once he got to second, Sabraski had way too big of a lead to be caught; Mikkelson had to settle for second. Only seven cars finished on the lead lap as Sabraski set a torrid pace. Dylan Kromschroeder raced home third.

With Don Eischens right beside him on the front row, the Modified feature looked like it might be more challenging but Sabraski got the early jump. Despite a hard attempt to keep up, Eischens had to yield the lead to Sabraski and try to keep up. This race was plagued by yellow flags, with the action slowed five times for spins, mostly. Eischens remained second the whole time and on each new green, took another shot at Sabraski but each time, Sabraski fought him off.

Finally, the last shot was after a Hot Karl spin with only two laps to go. Instead of challenging for the lead, Eischens had his car push badly up the hill and he dropped all the way to fifth, with Brandon Mehrwerth and Zach Benson benefitting. Reportedly, the feature wins were No. 893 and 894 for Sabraski, as he closes in on 900.

Hagemann had a strong run in the Hornet feature, as she fought off a couple of pretty fast drivers in Justin Schelitzche and Payson Patrin. From the outside pole, Anthony Jenson led the opening lap but Hagemann quickly moved up to challenge, and then passed for the lead, with just two laps done. Schelitzche and Patrin then moved into second and third and chased her the rest of the race, with the last nine laps going nonstop. Schelitzche usually tracks down competitors at this point and then drives on for wins, but not Sunday. Hagemann kept a few car lengths lead and that never wavered to the checkers.

In post-race inspection, Schelitzche was disqualified for an unknown reason (to me, anyway) with Patrin elevated to second over Russ Kiker, Jr.

Big changes brewed in the DRC Street Stock point standings when point leader Ty Agen broke in his heat race and was done for the night.

Four heats and a B Feature set the 24-car starting field for the main event, with Patton scratching out of the race.

Kolton Brauer was scored the leader for all 25 laps of the Street feature but it was much harder than that makes it sound. Five yellow flags always kept the field bunched and he had drivers literally hammering on his rear bumper for much of the race as they tried to get past him.

There was a mad scramble for second on back, and about a half dozen drivers were shuffling for those spots. Each yellow flag was followed by a mad scramble of jockeying drivers as Jeff Ekdahl, Justin Vogel, Kyle Anderson, Andrew Hanson and Levi Randt went at it hard for position.

A debris yellow with just two laps to go gave Anderson the best shot and he pounded hard on the rear bumper of Brauer, but Brauer, who had driven a spotless race with no mistakes to that point, didn't get flustered and maintained his line, smoothly driving on for the win. Anderson and Randt, who is rapidly improving, finished up second and third. Only five drivers didn't finish the feature and all were on the lead lap.

The drive of the night has to be awarded to Cory Mehrwerth, who started sixth, was only fifth at the halfway point, and with a great late-race charge using the cushion, made the winning pass with only three laps left to top the Mid Mod feature race.

Ashton Schulte started on the pole and fought first Jake Smith and then defending national champion Zach Benson, who over took Smith for second. Those three ran in the top positions past the halfway point with Jake Hagemann and Mehrwerth next in line. Benson continued to try and get under Schulte but when he couldn't, he always fell back in line on the bottom. The top four pretty much were lined up when Mehrwerth chose to go up against the wall and he made immediate progress, picking off a car a lap as the race grew to its conclusion.

Mehrwerth got past Benson for second and continued to roar on the high side. With just three laps to go, he blew past Schulte for the lead. Once in front, he pulled away to record a significant win.

It was a good night for the family; not only did he win, but his brother Brandon scored a solid second-place finish in the Modified main.

It was a good night of racing with the drivers putting on a good show in all classes. The final checkered flag flew some time after 9:30 p.m.

Thursday, June 27

We ended up at ABC Raceway in Ashland, Wisconsin for a rare, Thursday night show on June 27 due to a change in plans. Now in its third year, the Farm Stock Special is held on the Thursday night right before the two-day Border Battle at Gondik Law Speedway, and then ABC takes Saturday night off.

This race has grown to be quite the big event, with a whole host of great sponsors that significantly boost the purse for this race. For example, the Modifieds are racing for $2500 to win, the Super Stocks $1,000, and the Midwest Mods $1,500. Other positions also get a significant boost in their take-home pay, so it is certainly a race worth attending, for those who can.

Dave Cain was the guest driver in the Colin Chaschuck Modified and Dave Baxter made his first WISSOTA appearance in quite some time with a Mid Mod. Also in the field was Steve Lavasseur, who now has a WISSOTA Mod. For the last couple of years he has been running mostly open-type shows.

For the folks from ABC, this was only their second racing night of the year! That is shocking. However, we know many other tracks are in the same boat (literally), so the bad times have been shared by many tracks this year. We need for there to be some outstanding weather throughout the rest of the summer, with the hope those tracks can recover from all that they have lost already.

The night began in such a strange way. I don't recall a time, at least recently, when I saw so many cars break during hot laps. There was a steady stream of tow vehicles and trailers leaving the pits before the races even started. To look at it, you would have thought the races were cancelled or something!

Among those was Darrell Nelson, who was making his first WISSOTA run of 2024, and Steve Stuart. Stuart had to rush home and do a quick welding job on his new Dirt Dueller chassis Super Stock that he debuted Thursday. In total, there were six drivers who scratched out of their heats for various reasons, with a couple then making it out for later racing. The rest either sat in the stands watching or just headed home to work on their issues.

A last-minute work schedule change allowed the Smith racing team to make the pull from St. Joseph, Minnesota after they originally hadn't planned on being at ABC. They had a new motor in their Modified for Thursday night, having exposed the rods on their other motor on Sunday at Granite City. Bob Smith said they were lucky to find one available and he thanked Vic Schmidt for doing a lot of the leg work. They were trying to work all week and also get the car ready.

Zene Anderson celebrated his 82nd birthday by driving to a top-five finish in the Pure Stock feature. He joins Fast Freddie Prudoehl and Clarence Washburn as some of the noted senior citizens still racing.

The Modifieds started 23 cars in their main event; for some reason they took just three out of the B Feature instead of the normal four. The stats show Jody Bellefeuille led all 30 laps, which makes is sound like this was quite the boring race. Actually, it was a battle of wills that lasted from the halfway point of the race to the finish, when Shane Sabraski passed Nick O. for second and then closed in on Bellefeuille for the lead. After a third-lap crash in turn one eliminated three cars, they cranked off 14 straight laps of racing, with Sabraski using the top side of the track to move into second.

From then on, it was a battle between two of the best to see who would come out on top. To my untrained eye, Sabraski looked to have the quicker car, but Bellefeuille had the preferred groove covered and was not going to just pull over when Sabraski honked his horn. Sabraski tried ducking under Bellefeuille and also tried to run around the top and pass him, but he just couldn't get quite the mustard he needed to make the pass.

And for his part, Bellefeuille never made even the hint of a mistake that could cost him the win.

Kennedy Swan really seems to be getting her car dialed in as of late, with several strong runs in a row. She just hasn’t caught the right circumstances to get a win. She drove to a strong third-place finish on Thursday, however, with that win seemingly close.

The circumstances of the Midwest Modified feature played out similar to that of the “Big Mods,” as announcer Nick Gima likes to call them. Cole Boston was on top as the leader for the first five laps of the Mid Mod feature, until he was overtaken by Tyler Vernon, who found the top side fast and to his liking.

However, by the halfway point of the race, he had Joey Jensen breathing down his neck. Jensen started seventh but primarily used the low side of the track to work his way to the front.

Vernon was still running high but Jensen was very fast on the low side and it seemed just a matter of time until Jensen made the pass as the final 14 laps went green.

But Vernon was sharp and recognizing the Jensen was coming hard on the bottom, adjusted his line and started running lower on the track. This blocked off Jensen, who really seemed to have the quicker car at the end. Just like the Mod feature, Vernon made no mistakes, Jensen couldn't find a hole or make the outside work well enough, and Vernon then drove on for the win. Paul Ripley made quite the charge of his own late in the race, as he was up tickling the guard rail and came from 10th in the last half of the race to work his way up to third at the checkers.

Shane Kisling got his first Super Stock feature win at ABC since the 2017 racing season, leading the 20-lap main from start to finish. To be fair, Kisling hasn't run Supers much since that date, instead working with a Modified program mostly until this year. He came back out in a Super in 2024 from the stable of Don Muzzy.

Kisling started on the pole and took the early lead with Terran Spacek pushing him. However, for the second time on Thursday, it was Sabraski again moving into the challenging position and then trying to find a way past the leader. Sabraski got second from Spacek and then put heavy heat on Kisling for the lead. However, things went bad on lap nine when Kisling spun in turn two and the call was put on Sabraski to go to the tail. In the post-race interview, Kisling seemed to indicate that he got a bit sideways and Sabraski couldn't get slowed in time and tagged the leader, but that’s the way things go from time to time. Sabraski went to the tail and for the last 13 laps, Kisling was able to maintain his advantage over Spacek, who inherited second. Shawn McFadden rounded out the top three.

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