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Shane Sabraski at the checkered flag as he won the first of two Late Model features at the Twin 25s. (Tim Hunt Photo)

Sabraski and Searing split Late Model mains at Gondik Law Speedway’s annual Twin 25s event

By Nick Gima

SUPERIOR, WI (July 19) - Shane Sabraski won the first of two WISSOTA Late Model features and Cole Searing took the second - each worth $2,500 - during Friday’s “Twin Ports Twin 25s” special at Gondik Law Speedway.

Sabraski doubled up by taking the WISSOTA Super Stock feature win, while youngster Cade Nelson improved to 3-0 in USRA Limited Late Model visits to the oval.

The first of the two Late Model features counted as part of the Structural Buildings WISSOTA Late Model Challenge Series, as well as the locally based KME Late Model Series, drawing 51 entries for the division from five states and Canada. After timed qualifying, six heat races and three semi-features, the field was pared down to 26 starters for feature number one, with the winner having the traditional honor of drawing a chip to determine the number of positions inverted from that race’s finishing order to set up the starting grid for feature two.

Sabraski, WISSOTA’s top Late Model rookie, earned enough passing points from his heat race to start on the pole for the first 25-lap feature, and he was never bested throughout the run. After a get-together between Kevin Burdick and Johnny Broking in between turns three and four on the first lap, Tyler Peterson side-smacked the turn one wall on the ensuing restart to slow the early pace.

On the next try, Sabraski beat fellow front-row mate Josh Zimpel out of the first pair of turns and sped off into the night, pushing his lead to more than a second in less than two laps. John Kaanta grabbed third at the time, ahead of a pack of at least a half-dozen cars battling for fourth.

By lap eight, as Sabraski was pushing his advantage into the two-second range, Kaanta had separated himself from the pack trailing him and drew up to challenge Zimpel. Just as Kaanta had pulled alongside Zimpel on lap 10, Jeff Provinzino and Burdick collided in turn three to bring about the final yellow-flag slowdown of the run.

Again Sabraski pulled away on the restart, but Kaanta took advantage of the side-by-side realignment to grab second one lap after the showing of the green flag. Zimpel did not yield the position easily, though, and that battle allowed Sabraski to run off to a 1.5 second advantage with 10 laps remaining. Eventually Kaanta established himself as runner-up, and over the course of the waning laps, he trimmed Sabraski’s advantage by half with three laps to go, without help from backmarkers getting in the leader’s way.

Sabraski had less than a one-second gap between himself and Kaanta at the checkers, while Zimpel finished a distant third. A tangle in the final corner between fourth-place combatants Johnny Broking and Don Shaw sent Shaw’s car airborne for a moment; both cars suffered significant damage, and Shaw was awarded fourth while Broking was penalized for the incident, moving Adam Ayotte to fifth.

Twin 25s feature two winner Cole Searing (Tim Hunt Photo)

The invert put 11th-finishing Peterson on the pole for feature two, with Searing, the current Challenge Series points leader, starting alongside. Peterson, WISSOTA’s defending national Late Model champion and current national points leader, snagged the early edge when Searing bobbled in the opening turn, and Searing, himself a former national champ from Huron, SD, fell into a dogfight for second. Jeff Massingill, who qualified for the “Twin 25s” via a provisional, was third.

By lap four Chad Mahder, who set the fastest time in Late Model qualifying earlier in the program, joined Searing and Massingill to make up a very entertaining skirmish for second, allowing Peterson to scamper away to a 2.3-second lead by lap 10. With no caution stoppages to slow the pace, Peterson caught the tail-end of the running order by lap 13, but this allowed Searing, who had finally broken free for second, to eliminate the leader’s cushion by lap 15.

Searing used an inside move in traffic to edge ahead of Peterson, and although the pair stayed close while weaving their way through the backmarkers; Searing eventually pulled away to a final margin of 1.3 seconds. Massingill recovered to make things interesting late, but ending up with third-place money, followed at a distance by Mahder and Ryan Mikkelson.

Sabraski and Dylan Nelson raced each other hard to start the 15-lap, $750-to-win WISSOTA Super Stock A-main, and just as Nelson seemed to inch ahead on lap two, Sabraski charged right back and took over pace-setting duties for good one circuit later. From there the defending WISSOTA national champ in this division ran off a series of nearly-flawless laps to build on his career win total, which is now in excess of 900.

The feature ran nonstop, allowing Sabraski to slowly but certainly draw away from Nelson, while behind them Scott Lawrence had his hands full keeping a six-car pack at bay for third. Lawrence eventually pulled away from all but Matt Deragon, who hounded the former GLS track champ for much of the run.

Sabraski caught and lapped last-running Rita Anderson with three laps left and cruised to a final winning margin of 2.5 seconds. Nelson was all alone in second, well in front of Lawrence, who fended off Deragon’s last-lap threats for third. Darin Meierotto completed the top-five.

Nelson won his third USRA Limited Late Model feature in as many tries at Gondik Law Speedway in 2024, after an early battle.

Next up on the slate at Gondik Law Speedway will be the annual Meet the Drivers Night on Friday, July 26, when fans of all ages will be invited onto the front straightaway of the track to get an up-close look at the race cars, meet all of their favorite drivers, and maybe even collect some treats.

That night will also include the fourth race of the GLS KME Late Model Series, presented by Kapella Machine Electronics, which will pay $5,000 to the winner of the Late Model feature.

WISSOTA Modifieds, Midwest Mods, Pure Stocks and Hornets will join the program. For more information on the Gondik Law Speedway, log on to the track's website, www.gondiklawspeedway.com.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Late Models:

Twin Feature #1 (25 Laps): 1. 7A-Shane Sabraski[1]; 2. 85-John Kaanta[4]; 3. 5-Josh Zimpel[2]; 4. 42S-Don Shaw[9]; 5. 04JR-Adam Ayotte[3]; 6. 55C-Chad Mahder[12]; 7. 27-Jake Redetzke[6]; 8. 15*-Ryan Mikkelson[13]; 9. 6M-Jeff Massingill[24]; 10. 10-Cole Searing[19]; 11. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson[10]; 12. 31-Travis Budisalovich[18]; 13. 29F-Dave Flynn[7]; 14. 7-Joel Bennett[11]; 15. 10G-Daniel Bargender[14]; 16. 44-Darrell Nelson[16]; 17. 54-Rick Niemi[21]; 18. 11G-James Giossi[20]; 19. 07-Cory Crapser[25]; 20. 11-Pat Doar[26]; 21. 45J-Johnny Broking[8]; 22. (DNF) 22E-Kevin Eder[22]; 23. (DNF) 2M-Dave Mass[17]; 24. (DNF) 30-Kevin Burdick[5]; 25. (DNF) 28P-Jeff Provinzino[23]; 26. (DNF) 81-Ashley Anderson[15]

Twin Feature #2 (25 Laps): 1. 10-Cole Searing[2]; 2. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson[1]; 3. 6M-Jeff Massingill[3]; 4. 55C-Chad Mahder[6]; 5. 15*-Ryan Mikkelson[4]; 6. 85-John Kaanta[10]; 7. 27-Jake Redetzke[5]; 8. 5-Josh Zimpel[9]; 9. 31-Travis Budisalovich[12]; 10. 10G-Daniel Bargender[15]; 11. 7A-Shane Sabraski[11]; 12. 04JR-Adam Ayotte[7]; 13. 54-Rick Niemi[17]; 14. 44-Darrell Nelson[16]; 15. 81-Ashley Anderson[26]; 16. 11G-James Giossi[18]; 17. 30-Kevin Burdick[24]; 18. 07-Cory Crapser[19]; 19. 11-Pat Doar[20]; 20. 29F-Dave Flynn[13]; 21. 7-Joel Bennett[14]; 22. (DNF) 22E-Kevin Eder[22]; 23. (DNF) 2M-Dave Mass[23]; 24. (DNF) 28P-Jeff Provinzino[25]; 25. (DNS) 42S-Don Shaw; 26. (DNS) 45J-Johnny Broking

Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 85-John Kaanta[2]; 2. 7A-Shane Sabraski[4]; 3. 44-Darrell Nelson[3]; 4. 7-Joel Bennett[8]; 5. 21-Todd Frank[6]; 6. 47-Danny Vang[7]; 7. 14N-Keith Niemi[5]; 8. 07-Cory Crapser[1]; 9. 7C-Robbie Cooper[9]

Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 45J-Johnny Broking[1]; 2. 10G-Daniel Bargender[2]; 3. 55C-Chad Mahder[4]; 4. 22-Brett Shafer[3]; 5. 21F-Gunner Frank[6]; 6. 28-Sam Mars[5]; 7. 22E-Kevin Eder[7]; 8. (DNF) 212-Mike Klippenstein[9]; 9. (DNF) 37X-Skeeter Estey[8]

Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. 30-Kevin Burdick[2]; 2. 5-Josh Zimpel[5]; 3. 31-Travis Budisalovich[1]; 4. 28P-Jeff Provinzino[3]; 5. 11-Pat Doar[4]; 6. 68-Mike Prochnow[7]; 7. 21B-Mike Bellefeuille[6]; 8. 63-Patrick Kelley[9]; 9. (DNF) 9-Terry Lillo[8]

Heat 4 (10 Laps): 1. 42S-Don Shaw[1]; 2. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson[3]; 3. 10-Cole Searing[2]; 4. 2M-Dave Mass[4]; 5. 7H-Harry Hanson[7]; 6. 2-Todd Gehl[5]; 7. 11D-Tim McMann[8]; 8. 6M-Jeff Massingill[6]

Heat 5 (10 Laps): 1. 29F-Dave Flynn[2]; 2. 04JR-Adam Ayotte[5]; 3. 15*-Ryan Mikkelson[4]; 4. 99-Billy Kendall III[3]; 5. 31T-Trent Follmer[1]; 6. 1L-Brad Loveday[7]; 7. (DNF) 117-Deven VanHouse[8]; 8. (DNF) 81W-Anthony Woodhull[6]

Heat 6 (10 Laps): 1. 27-Jake Redetzke[2]; 2. 81-Ashley Anderson[1]; 3. 11G-James Giossi[3]; 4. 16-Derek Vesel[4]; 5. 54-Rick Niemi[5]; 6. 54L-Jayme Lautigar[8]; 7. 9M-Ronnie Malecki[7]; 8. 15X-Blake Boelens[6]

B Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 2M-Dave Mass[2]; 2. 11G-James Giossi[1]; 3. 28P-Jeff Provinzino[3]; 4. 11-Pat Doar[4]; 5. 54L-Jayme Lautigar[5]; 6. 28-Sam Mars[7]; 7. 6M-Jeff Massingill[11]; 8. 21B-Mike Bellefeuille[9]; 9. 63-Patrick Kelley[10]; 10. (DNF) 117-Deven VanHouse[8]; 11. (DNF) 47-Danny Vang[6]; 12. (DNF) 7C-Robbie Cooper[12]

B Feature 2 (15 Laps): 1. 31-Travis Budisalovich[1]; 2. 54-Rick Niemi[5]; 3. 68-Mike Prochnow[6]; 4. 2-Todd Gehl[7]; 5. 07-Cory Crapser[10]; 6. 14N-Keith Niemi[8]; 7. 9M-Ronnie Malecki[9]; 8. (DNF) 16-Derek Vesel[2]; 9. (DNF) 21F-Gunner Frank[4]; 10. (DNF) 99-Billy Kendall III[3]; 11. (DNS) 81W-Anthony Woodhull; 12. (DNS) 9-Terry Lillo

B Feature 3 (15 Laps): 1. 10-Cole Searing[1]; 2. 22E-Kevin Eder[8]; 3. 37X-Skeeter Estey[11]; 4. 7H-Harry Hanson[3]; 5. 11D-Tim McMann[7]; 6. 15X-Blake Boelens[10]; 7. 21-Todd Frank[4]; 8. 1L-Brad Loveday[6]; 9. 212-Mike Klippenstein[9]; 10. (DNF) 22-Brett Shafer[2]; 11. (DNF) 31T-Trent Follmer[5]

WISSOTA Super Stocks:

Feature (15 Laps): 1. 7A-Shane Sabraski[2]; 2. 25-Dylan Nelson[1]; 3. 77-Scott Lawrence[3]; 4. 27-Matt Deragon[5]; 5. 36-Darin Meierotto[6]; 6. 26-Kyle Copp[8]; 7. 24-Andy Grymala[9]; 8. 2-Don Livingston[10]; 9. 6-Dan Peterson[12]; 10. 11R-Rita Anderson[11]; 11. (DNF) 57-Randy Graham[7]; 12. (DNF) 12K-Duane (DJ) Keeler[4]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 7A-Shane Sabraski[1]; 2. 25-Dylan Nelson[5]; 3. 36-Darin Meierotto[4]; 4. 57-Randy Graham[2]; 5. 2-Don Livingston[3]; 6. 6-Dan Peterson[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 77-Scott Lawrence[1]; 2. 12K-Duane (DJ) Keeler[2]; 3. 27-Matt Deragon[5]; 4. 26-Kyle Copp[4]; 5. 24-Andy Grymala[6]; 6. 11R-Rita Anderson[3]

USRA Late Models:

Feature (15 Laps): 1. 44-Cade Nelson[1]; 2. 73-Larry Fitzsimmons[2]; 3. 2-Derek Quinn[3]; 4. 5B-Derek Berg[4]; 5. 63-Patrick Kelley[5]; 6. 26D-Chad Dawson[6]

Heat (8 Laps): 1. 44-Cade Nelson[2]; 2. 73-Larry Fitzsimmons[4]; 3. 2-Derek Quinn[1]; 4. 5B-Derek Berg[5]; 5. 63-Patrick Kelley[3]; 6. 26D-Chad Dawson[6]