7-30 Page 27 | ATD Racing News

WISSOTA winners on a steamy, sweltering night at ABC Raceway are Anderson, Copp, Dunbar and Crosby

By Nick Gima

ASHLAND, WI (July 27) - On a steamy, sweltering night, five divisions of racing offered a mix of dominant performances and nailbiter finishes at ABC Raceway Saturday.

The ABC Raceway Hall of Fame’s class of 2024 was also honored Saturday, as they were formally inducted during intermission of the race program.

WISSOTA Dirt Track Series winners included Mike Anderson, Kyle Copp, Marcus Dunbar, and Eric Crosby.

Anderson won the opening-night WISSOTA Modified feature, and he’s raced here ever since, trying to protect a slim lead in the track’s points standings. His strong effort in this night’s feature certainly helped his cause.

After a restart for a John Kallas stall, Dunbar swept around polesitter Cole Spacek to take the initial lead. Andrew Mackey moved to second ahead of a logjam of racers. Anderson, who started sixth, worked his way through that thick traffic to move past Mackey by lap seven, just before Shawn Kreyer’s racer slowed to bring about a yellow-flag stop.

On the restart, Anderson dropped low to get by Dunbar into the lead. Just past the 20-lapper’s halfway point, Anderson’s lead was more than 2.5 seconds, but a get-together between Brandon Copp and Pat Cook brought the field back together.

Anderson sped away again following the restart, this time to a final buffer of 4.2 seconds ahead of Dunbar. Eleventh-starting Brady Uotinen charged forward over the final eight laps to take third from Spacek, and Canadian visitor Cody Wolkowski climbed to fifth.

By contrast to Anderson’s dominance, the show put on by Kyle Copp and Steve Stuart in the WISSOTA Super Stocks all but ended in a coin-flip. Copp, who started on the outside of the front row, blasted away from Rick Simpson and polesitter Rita Anderson, who in turn were followed by a tightly knit pack. Copp spent the first seven laps pushing his lead to nearly 2.7 seconds, but that went away when Jake Nevala’s car stopped on the front straight.

Copp again pulled away as Simpson and Matt Deragon raced side by side for second, with Stuart right behind in fourth. Copp built another 2.35-second advantage by lap 12, but again the caution lights flashed on - this time for Jason Melton’s spin.

Stuart, who had taken third from Simpson just before Melton’s spin, worked the low groove and swiped second from Deragon. Stuart then hounded Copp mercilessly, pulling alongside Copp often over the remaining laps, and at one point edging ahead by less than his bumper. But Copp found just enough power to hold on for a .366-second winning margin.

Deragon followed at a distance, just ahead of Shawn McFadden and Simpson. Stuart goes into next Saturday’s program with a slim five-point advantage on McFadden with just two shows remaining.

Dunbar, pulling double-duty, grabbed the lead after an early restart and went on to a performance similar to Anderson’s in the WISSOTA Midwest Modified 20-lap feature.

Like Anderson, Dunbar started eighth, as Ryan Barningham assumed command from his second starting spot. A lap-one, three-car tangle eliminated Jesse Polson’s ride, and Jesse Young’s spin on the restart delayed the proceedings again. After that Dunbar, the two-time division champ, followed Cory Jorgensen to the front. Jorgensen and Dunbar debated the lead for a couple of laps before Dunbar took over for good on lap five and built a 2-second lead by mid-race.

Tanner Hicks made solid inroads into the top-five during the back half of the run, climbing from ninth to third with a pass of Canadian visitor Mike Jacques on lap 11 and mixing it up with Jorgensen over the final five circuits. Another young Canadian, David Simpson, ran well in the top-five until his car failed him with six laps left.

No one had anything for Dunbar, who was a full four seconds ahead of the battle for second, which was eventually won by Jorgensen.

Jacques closed out an impressive night with a fourth-place paycheck, while 12th-starter Paul Suzik worked hard to get to fifth.

Dunbar padded his divisional points lead to 35 over Suzik with the win.

It was not the way he wanted to do it, and it was not as dramatic as his win in Superior the night before, but Eric Crosby was awarded his first-ever ABC Raceway feature win in the nonstop, 10-lap WISSOTA Pure Stocks headliner.

Outside front-row starter Shane Basina dove low to pass polesitter Anthony Schultz for the initial lead, with Aaron Bernick following into second. Bernick then used the lower route to take the lead away on lap two. Crosby, who started fourth, raced side by side with Basina at about a second behind the leader before claiming the spot on lap six.

Crosby all but eliminated the advantage Bernick built, closing to the leader’s rear bumper as the pair took the white flag. Crosby could not find a way and followed Bernick to the checkers, just a quarter-second back, but in a post-race inspection Bernick’s car was deemed illegal for a technical infraction, handing the win over to Crosby.

Basina held on for what became second, ahead of Brent Mindock and Schultz. Zene Anderson was paid for a fifth-place finish. Crosby’s lead over defending track champ Mindock is now 44 with just a couple nights remaining in the points season.

The ABC Six Cylinders kicked off the feature-race portion of the program after intermission, and Dalton Truchon scored his third win in the past four shows at the oval.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Modifieds:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 57-Mike Anderson[6]; 2. 7XJR-Marcus Dunbar[2]; 3. 9-Brady Uotinen[11]; 4. 22S-Cole Spacek[1]; 5. 224-Cody Wolkowski[9]; 6. 18S-Kennedy Swan[8]; 7. 3H-Jake Hiatt[3]; 8. 11-Justin Weinberger[5]; 9. 21F-Nick Oreskovich[7]; 10. 32-Pat Cook[13]; 11. 22J-Jeff Spacek[12]; 12. (DNF) 88-John Kallas[14]; 13. (DNF) 22-Brandon Copp[10]; 14. (DNF) 7-Andrew Mackey[4]; 15. (DNF) 74-Shaun Kreyer[15]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 57-Mike Anderson[1]; 2. 18S-Kennedy Swan[3]; 3. 21F-Nick Oreskovich[4]; 4. 3H-Jake Hiatt[5]; 5. 224-Cody Wolkowski[2]; 6. 9-Brady Uotinen[8]; 7. 22J-Jeff Spacek[6]; 8. 32-Pat Cook[7]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 22S-Cole Spacek[1]; 2. 11-Justin Weinberger[3]; 3. 7XJR-Marcus Dunbar[5]; 4. 7-Andrew Mackey[7]; 5. 22-Brandon Copp[6]; 6. (DNF) 88-John Kallas[4]; 7. (DQ) 74-Shaun Kreyer[2]

WISSOTA Super Stocks:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 26-Kyle Copp[2]; 2. 80-Steve Stuart[8]; 3. 27-Matt Deragon[7]; 4. 51JR-Shawn McFadden[6]; 5. 77K-Rick Simpson[3]; 6. 21C-Patrick Beeksma[11]; 7. 3B-Austin Blom[5]; 8. 44-Trenton Bond[9]; 9. 7B-Jason Melton[4]; 10. 11R-Rita Anderson[1]; 11. (DNF) 77-Jake Nevala[10]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 51JR-Shawn McFadden[2]; 2. 3B-Austin Blom[1]; 3. 27-Matt Deragon[3]; 4. 77K-Rick Simpson[5]; 5. 44-Trenton Bond[4]; 6. (DNF) 21C-Patrick Beeksma[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 80-Steve Stuart[4]; 2. 26-Kyle Copp[1]; 3. 7B-Jason Melton[3]; 4. 11R-Rita Anderson[2]; 5. (DNF) 77-Jake Nevala[5]

WISSOTA Midwest Mods:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 7XJR-Marcus Dunbar[8]; 2. 16-Cory Jorgensen[3]; 3. 80-Tanner Hicks[9]; 4. 31J-Mike Jacques[5]; 5. 91-Paul Suzik[12]; 6. 21+7-Ryan Barningham[2]; 7. 22-Matt Jacobson[10]; 8. 20-Judd Skubal[11]; 9. 79-Bryan Lund[1]; 10. 410-Jesse Young[13]; 11. (DNF) 70-David Simpson[6]; 12. (DNF) 47-Tad Schoonover[4]; 13. (DNF) 55-Jesse Polson[7]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 31J-Mike Jacques[1]; 2. 21+7-Ryan Barningham[4]; 3. 55-Jesse Polson[5]; 4. 79-Bryan Lund[2]; 5. 80-Tanner Hicks[7]; 6. 20-Judd Skubal[3]; 7. 91-Paul Suzik[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 7XJR-Marcus Dunbar[3]; 2. 16-Cory Jorgensen[2]; 3. 47-Tad Schoonover[4]; 4. 70-David Simpson[6]; 5. 22-Matt Jacobson[5]; 6. (DNF) 410-Jesse Young[1]

WISSOTA Pure Stocks:

A Feature 1 (10 Laps): 1. 28-Eric Crosby[4]; 2. 69ER-Shane Basina[2]; 3. 57-Brent Mindock[5]; 4. 47-Anthony Schultz[1]; 5. (DNF) 5Z-Zene Anderson[6]; 6. (DQ) 17-Aaron Bernick[3]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 17-Aaron Bernick[1]; 2. 57-Brent Mindock[3]; 3. 69ER-Shane Basina[4]; 4. 28-Eric Crosby[6]; 5. 47-Anthony Schultz[2]; 6. 5Z-Zene Anderson[5]

Six Cylinders:

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

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 23-Mathew Rohlfing[4]; 2. 43-Jim Anderson[6]; 3. 92-Cody Eichmann[2]; 4. 97-Alex Bond[5]; 5. 28-Travis Swanson[1]; 6. 41-Mady Anderson[3]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 62D-Dalton Truchon[1]; 2. 5-Roger Walker[2]; 3. 9-Jakob Bond[4]; 4. 20-Justin Pratt[5]; 5. (DNF) 42-Cameron Bond[3]; 6. (DNF) 69ER-Shane Basina[6]