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Bellefeuille, Kisling and Vernon plant their cars in victory lane during Farm Stock event at ABC Raceway

By Nick Gima

ASHLAND, WI (June 27) - Feature wins on Thursday night at ABC Raceway were a long time coming for Jody Bellefeuille and Shane Kisling. For Tyler Vernon, his win was particularly satisfying.

Nearly 100 cars competed during the third annual Farm Stock Special, the raceway’s salute to the northland’s farmers and agricultural employees.

Bellefeuille led every one of the 30 laps to a $2,500 paycheck in the WISSOTA Modified headline event, but it was hard-earned, with Shane Sabraski dogging him every step of the way. Bellefeuille started on the pole and outran Nick Oreskovich out of the first set of turns, while Sabraski dove low to pull alongside Oreskovich to challenge for second.

A huge eight-car pileup on lap three slowed the quick early pace, and on the restart Sabraski immediately put the pressure on Bellefeuille as the lead pair pulled away. Kennedy Swan overtook Oreskovich for third on lap seven and reeled in the lead pair over the next three circuits, staying within a car-length of Sabraski. On lap 17, Aiden Hoffman’s stalled ride just off the front straightaway brought about the race’s only other caution stop.

Sabraski threw every trick he could think of at the leader, diving low and charging high, but Bellefeuille maintained his cool, hit his marks to near perfection, and edged Sabraski by a third of a second at the final stripe for his eighth-career win at ABC, but first since August 2018. Swan was a fair distance back in third, but well ahead of a late-charging Justin Weinberger and Oreskovich in the top five.

In a touching sign of sportsmanship, Bellefeuille dedicated his win to popular local longtime racer Darrell Nelson, who has been fighting health issues for several months.

It had been a year longer since Kisling parked his WISSOTA Super Stock in ABC’s victory lane - August 2017 - but like Bellefeuille, he started on the pole and led every lap for his $1,000 payday and his 15th-career feature win at the speedway.

After a four-car get-together at the start, Kisling cleared Patrick Beeksma to claim the point and pulled a few lengths ahead of a three-car dogfight that included Beeksma, Terran Spacek and Sabraski. Spacek soon won that battle and then restarted on Kisling’s back bumper, with Sabraski alongside, after a lap-three stoppage for a three-car spin.

The battle between the three leaders was thrilling and close - as it turned out, a little too close for Sabraski, who tapped the back of Kisling’s car on lap eight, causing the leader to spin in front of the field. With Sabraski out of the mix for the final 12 laps, it was just a matter of Kisling holding his line and eventually pulling to a 1.19-second advantage at the checkers over Spacek.

The pair were well ahead of 11th-starting Shawn McFadden, who clawed his way to third just ahead of D.J. Keeler and Beeksma.

Vernon, a two-time ABC Midwest Mod champ, came from sixth and quickly forged his way to the front, taking the lead from visiting Cole Boston on lap five and fending off a determined Joey Jensen for the $1,500 winner’s check.

Boston raced door-to-door with polesitter Jesse Polson for a lap before establishing himself as pacesetter, stretching his lead to six-tenths of a second as Vernon and William Moelter overtook Polson for second. Vernon drew to Boston’s trunk lid by lap five and charged by with an outside pass down the back straight for the lead on the next lap.

Vernon’s lead was over a second on lap 11 when Bryan Lund’s car tagged the turn one wall to bring about the race’s only yellow-flag delay. Joey Jensen, who won on opening night, restarted third and immediately pulled past Boston and stuck to the bottom lane to challenge Vernon, who was sailing around the upper edge. Vernon wisely dropped to the bottom groove, taking away Jensen’s best option, and he held on to a tight quarter-second margin at the checkers for his 16th-career feature win and 11th in a Midwest Mod at the speedway.

Tenth-starting Paul Ripley was impressive in charging to third, getting ahead of Boston and Moelter late in the run.

In the WISSOTA Pure Stocks feature, only five of the seven registered drivers made the call. Visiting Dusten Holub gained his first-career feature win here in a nailbiter of a race.

Holub started on the pole alongside Eric Crosby, and for the entire eight-lap event the duo put on a show, with Holub holding the lead and Crosby threatening in every way possible. Behind them, Aaron Bernick duked it out with Shane Basina for third.

On lap three Crosby bobbled, allowing Holub to scamper to a seemingly healthy lead, but Crosby hustled to pull back to the leader’s rear fender as the pair took the white flag. Holub held true to his line while Crosby charged up on the inside, and at the finish line Holub was scored the winner by .011 seconds - a photo finish of less than two feet.

Bernick held off Basina for third, well back of the lead pair, and Zene Anderson, who will turn 84 years young on Friday, came home fifth.

Basina got his revenge in the ABC Six-Cylinders’ feature, fighting hard to get by Jakob Bond before pulling away late for his eighth-career ABC Raceway win.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Modifieds:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 11B-Jody Bellefeuille[1]; 2. 7A-Shane Sabraski[4]; 3. 18S-Kennedy Swan[6]; 4. 11-Justin Weinberger[8]; 5. 21F-Nick Oreskovich[2]; 6. 26G-Ryan Gierke[7]; 7. 22-Brandon Copp[10]; 8. 57-Mike Anderson[12]; 9. 43K-Kaden Blaeser[5]; 10. 22J-Jeff Spacek[3]; 11. 3H-Jake Hiatt[9]; 12. 21-Jake Smith[16]; 13. 40JR-Tyler Vernon[23]; 14. 621-Dave Cain[14]; 15. 9MM-Aiden Hoffman[18]; 16. 1L-Donnie Lofdahl[17]; 17. 24D-Duane Dale[21]; 18. (DNF) 7-Andrew Mackey[11]; 19. (DNF) 7XJR-Marcus Dunbar[13]; 20. (DNF) 9-Brady Uotinen[15]; 21. (DNF) 515-Devin Fouquette[20]; 22. (DNF) 7M-Brandon Mehrwerth[19]; 23. (DNF) 99L-Steve Lavasseur[22]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 22J-Jeff Spacek[2]; 2. 43K-Kaden Blaeser[3]; 3. 3H-Jake Hiatt[6]; 4. 7XJR-Marcus Dunbar[1]; 5. 1L-Donnie Lofdahl[7]; 6. 24D-Duane Dale[5]; 7. (DNS) 32-Pat Cook

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 11B-Jody Bellefeuille[4]; 2. 21F-Nick Oreskovich[2]; 3. 22-Brandon Copp[3]; 4. 621-Dave Cain[1]; 5. 9MM-Aiden Hoffman[5]; 6. 99L-Steve Lavasseur[6]; 7. (DNS) 44-Darrell Nelson

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 11-Justin Weinberger[4]; 2. 26G-Ryan Gierke[5]; 3. 7-Andrew Mackey[3]; 4. 9-Brady Uotinen[1]; 5. 7M-Brandon Mehrwerth[6]; 6. 88-John Kallas[2]; 7. (DNS) 22S-Cole Spacek

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 18S-Kennedy Swan[1]; 2. 7A-Shane Sabraski[2]; 3. 57-Mike Anderson[3]; 4. 21-Jake Smith[4]; 5. 515-Devin Fouquette[6]; 6. 40JR-Tyler Vernon[5]; 7. 19J-Jack Rivord[7]

B Feature 1 (10 Laps): 1. 24D-Duane Dale[1]; 2. 99L-Steve Lavasseur[2]; 3. 40JR-Tyler Vernon[4]; 4. 88-John Kallas[3]; 5. 22S-Cole Spacek[8]; 6. 32-Pat Cook[6]; 7. 19J-Jack Rivord[5]; 8. (DNS) 44-Darrell Nelson

WISSOTA Super Stocks:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 6-Shane Kisling[1]; 2. 22T-Terran Spacek[3]; 3. 51JR-Shawn McFadden[11]; 4. 12K-Duane (DJ) Keeler[6]; 5. 21C-Patrick Beeksma[2]; 6. 33-Curt Myers[8]; 7. 26-Kyle Copp[12]; 8. 80-Steve Stuart[7]; 9. 77L-Scott Lawrence[10]; 10. 7A-Shane Sabraski[4]; 11. 24-Andy Grymala[18]; 12. 1E-Eric Olson[5]; 13. 21-Joey Jensen[9]; 14. 2-Don Livingston[15]; 15. 2XL-Jason Garner[20]; 16. 82-Paul Gucinski[14]; 17. 42-Myron Basina[19]; 18. 44-Trenton Bond[17]; 19. (DNF) 27-Matt Deragon[16]; 20. (DNF) 36-Darin Meierotto[13]; 21. (DNS) 77-Jake Nevala

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 21-Joey Jensen[2]; 2. 21C-Patrick Beeksma[4]; 3. 22T-Terran Spacek[5]; 4. 77L-Scott Lawrence[7]; 5. 36-Darin Meierotto[6]; 6. 27-Matt Deragon[1]; 7. 42-Myron Basina[3]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 33-Curt Myers[6]; 2. 1E-Eric Olson[3]; 3. 12K-Duane (DJ) Keeler[7]; 4. 51JR-Shawn McFadden[4]; 5. 82-Paul Gucinski[5]; 6. 44-Trenton Bond[2]; 7. (DNS) 77-Jake Nevala

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 80-Steve Stuart[1]; 2. 6-Shane Kisling[6]; 3. 7A-Shane Sabraski[4]; 4. 26-Kyle Copp[3]; 5. 2-Don Livingston[5]; 6. 24-Andy Grymala[2]; 7. 2XL-Jason Garner[7]

WISSOTA Midwest Mods:

A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 40JR-Tyler Vernon[6]; 2. 30-Joey Jensen[7]; 3. 28-Paul Ripley[10]; 4. 33C-Cole Boston[2]; 5. 87-William Moelter[4]; 6. 7XJR-Marcus Dunbar[8]; 7. 21-Jake Smith[5]; 8. 15-James Vendela[12]; 9. 73-Andy Jones[9]; 10. 55-Jesse Polson[1]; 11. 91-Paul Suzik[14]; 12. 35B-David Baxter[15]; 13. 32III-Cody Carlson[3]; 14. 16S-Ryan Savoy[22]; 15. 80-Tanner Hicks[11]; 16. 21+7-Ryan Barningham[13]; 17. 21L-Jimmy Latvala[18]; 18. 00-Ross Fuhrman[20]; 19. 7-Reagan Ruffi[17]; 20. 16-Cory Jorgensen[19]; 21. (DNF) 22-Matt Jacobson[21]; 22. (DNF) 79-Bryan Lund[16]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 7XJR-Marcus Dunbar[3]; 2. 33C-Cole Boston[5]; 3. 73-Andy Jones[4]; 4. 28-Paul Ripley[7]; 5. 21+7-Ryan Barningham[8]; 6. 79-Bryan Lund[1]; 7. (DNF) 00-Ross Fuhrman[2]; 8. (DNF) 16S-Ryan Savoy[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 30-Joey Jensen[7]; 2. 40JR-Tyler Vernon[5]; 3. 32III-Cody Carlson[6]; 4. 80-Tanner Hicks[2]; 5. 91-Paul Suzik[3]; 6. 7-Reagan Ruffi[4]; 7. (DNF) 22-Matt Jacobson[1]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 21-Jake Smith[2]; 2. 87-William Moelter[4]; 3. 55-Jesse Polson[1]; 4. 15-James Vendela[6]; 5. 35B-David Baxter[3]; 6. 21L-Jimmy Latvala[5]; 7. 16-Cory Jorgensen[7]

WISSOTA Pure Stocks:

A Feature 1 (10 Laps): 1. 15H-Dusten Holub[1]; 2. 28-Eric Crosby[2]; 3. 17-Aaron Bernick[3]; 4. 69ER-Shane Basina[4]; 5. 5Z-Zene Anderson[6]; 6. (DNS) 7R-RJ Holly; 7. (DNS) 57-Brent Mindock

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 28-Eric Crosby[2]; 2. 57-Brent Mindock[6]; 3. 15H-Dusten Holub[5]; 4. 17-Aaron Bernick[1]; 5. 69ER-Shane Basina[7]; 6. 5Z-Zene Anderson[3]; 7. (DNF) 7R-RJ Holly[4]

Six-Cylinders:

A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 69ER-Shane Basina[5]; 2. 9-Jakob Bond[1]; 3. 23-Mathew Rohlfing[3]; 4. 92-Cody Eichmann[4]; 5. 20-Justin Pratt[6]; 6. 103X-Jimmy Stearns[7]; 7. 81-Adam Traaholt[2]; 8. 5-Roger Walker[8]; 9. 41-Mady Anderson[9]; 10. (DNS) 28-Travis Swanson; 11. (DNS) 97-Alex Bond; 12. (DNS) 43-Jim Anderson; 13. (DNS) 42-Cameron Bond; 14. (DNS) 62D-Dalton Truchon

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 5-Roger Walker[7]; 2. 92-Cody Eichmann[6]; 3. 103X-Jimmy Stearns[3]; 4. 81-Adam Traaholt[4]; 5. (DNF) 28-Travis Swanson[2]; 6. (DNS) 42-Cameron Bond; 7. (DNS) 62D-Dalton Truchon

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 69ER-Shane Basina[4]; 2. 23-Mathew Rohlfing[6]; 3. 9-Jakob Bond[3]; 4. 20-Justin Pratt[2]; 5. 41-Mady Anderson[7]; 6. (DNF) 97-Alex Bond[5]; 7. (DNF) 43-Jim Anderson[1]