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Mackey modifies his rivals’ way of thinking Saturday at ABC Raceway while Stuart, Simpson and Mindock also make it to victory lane

By Nick Gima

ASHLAND, WI (July 6) - It was a special program at ABC Raceway Saturday night, as the track hosted its Six Cylinder Slam, as well as WISSOTA Dirt Track Series racing in the Mods, Midwest Mods, Super Stocks and Pure Stocks.

Winners in sanctioned action included Steve Stuart, David Simpson, Brent Mindock, and Andrew Mackey, while Jakob Bond took home the championship belt in the Six Cylinders.

Andrew Mackey was dominant in the 20-lap WISSOTA Modified feature, leading flag to flag despite two stoppages for his first-ever win in a Modified.

After a multi-car get-together on the opening lap, Mackey swept around polesitter Marcus Dunbar and shot away, leading by a full second within just three laps. Dunbar had his hands full holding onto second place with Tyler Vernon pestering him, and behind them as many as seven cars raced in close formation while debating fourth.

As positions were swapped, several drivers, such as Mike Anderson (from seventh to as high as fourth) and Kennedy Swan (from eighth to as high as fourth), made strong advances. But Swan’s solo spin with seven laps remaining brought about one last yellow flag, and erased Mackey’s 2.9-second cushion. Seemingly unfazed, Mackey pulled away over the closing laps and put 1.7 seconds between himself and Vernon, who stole second from Dunbar with four circuits left.

Anderson overtook Brandon Copp late for fourth-place money.

Three-time defending and nine-time ABC champ Steve Stuart of Ashland may have been even more dominant in picking up his first WISSOTA Super Stocks feature win of the season and 46th of his career at the oval.

Stuart followed outside front-row starter Matt Deragon past early leader and polesitter Don Livingston on lap two, then continued to make his way by Deragon on the high line before a spin of visitor Leslie Leu’s racer slowed the run. The remaining 18 laps clicked off nonstop, allowing Stuart to disappear from the field.

Deragon held second well ahead of an entertaining duel for third between Andy Grymala and Shane Kisling, while Shawn McFadden settled comfortably into fifth, well ahead of Livingston’s battle with visiting driver Kori Richter. Stuart caught the tail of the field in no time, but had to wait patiently until openings presented themselves to get through slower traffic, allowing Deragon to shave a second or so off his deficit.

Once in the clear, Stuart sped away again, building a final winning margin of more than 4.5 seconds over Deragon. Kisling, Grymala and McFadden filled out the top five at a distance.

David Simpson led all 20 laps for his seventh career WISSOTA Midwest Modified feature win at Ashland, although he needed to overcome a couple of late restarts to do it.

Simpson beat Jesse Polson from the pole to claim the lead at the start. Two laps later, Jimmy Latvala’s racer smoked and stalled while running in heavy top-10 traffic, bringing about the first of the race’s three cautions.

Simpson pulled away after the re-do and built up as much as a 1.4-second lead on second-running Paul Suzik, while behind him eighth-starter Vernon charged forward, getting by Polson to take third on lap seven, and using a long green-flag run to close the sizeable gap to Suzik.

On lap 17, an infield marker tire was bumped onto the track in turn three in front of the leaders. Simpson and Suzik, running the upper lanes of the track, cleared the obstacle safely enough, but Vernon, running a lower lane while trying to complete a pass of Suzik, had to take evasive action to miss the tire and nearly spun. The debris brought about the second caution flag and pulled the field back to Simpson for the three-lap shootout.

Ross Fuhrman’s spun ride delayed the restart, after which Vernon took advantage of the side-by-side start to swipe second from Suzik. Simpson, however, fended off Vernon for the final laps and won by half a second. Suzik held on to third ahead of Polson and Dunbar.

In the WISSOTA Pure Stocks feature, defending ABC champ Brent Mindock overcame heavy contact with another car and the back-straight guardrail to score his fifth-career feature win in Ashland.

The contact came on the opening lap, when thick traffic created contact between Mindock and Rob Christman, resulting in Mindock’s car stopping. Mindock took advantage of the restart to drive past Nicholas Hazelton and Charlie Pitcavage for the lead, and from there he pulled away to a margin of just over two seconds before the stalled car of visiting Anthony Schultz brought about a race stoppage on lap four.

After debris on the track delayed that restart, Mindock took off and closed the run with a three-second final advantage on Eric Crosby, who beat R.J. Holly to second place during the last restart. Aaron Bernick and Basina were hot on Holly’s back bumper to complete the top-five.

In the spotlighted Six Cylinder event, Jakob Bond won the first of the two features run for his division, then scored a podium finish in the other to claim the championship belt at the conclusion of the second annual Six Cylinder Slam. Dalton Truchon was victorious in the other feature.

Bond was awarded a huge oversized WWE-style belt for earning the overall title, as well as a $100 bonus, and both he and Truchon were presented satin prizefighter’s robes and $200 for their respective feature wins.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Modifieds:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 7-Andrew Mackey[2]; 2. 40JR-Tyler Vernon[5]; 3. 7XJR-Marcus Dunbar[1]; 4. 57-Mike Anderson[7]; 5. 22C-Brandon Copp[6]; 6. 21F-Nick Oreskovich[9]; 7. 32-Pat Cook[4]; 8. 11-Justin Weinberger[12]; 9. 22-Cole Spacek[3]; 10. 18S-Kennedy Swan[8]; 11. 88-John Kallas[11]; 12. 3H-Jake Hiatt[13]; 13. (DNF) 22J-Jeff Spacek[10]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 57-Mike Anderson[2]; 2. 32-Pat Cook[1]; 3. 22C-Brandon Copp[4]; 4. 22-Cole Spacek[7]; 5. 21F-Nick Oreskovich[3]; 6. 22J-Jeff Spacek[6]; 7. 88-John Kallas[5]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 18S-Kennedy Swan[1]; 2. 40JR-Tyler Vernon[2]; 3. 7-Andrew Mackey[6]; 4. 7XJR-Marcus Dunbar[3]; 5. (DNF) 11-Justin Weinberger[5]; 6. (DNF) 3H-Jake Hiatt[4]

WISSOTA Super Stocks:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 80-Steve Stuart[4]; 2. 27-Matt Deragon[2]; 3. 6-Shane Kisling[8]; 4. 24-Andy Grymala[3]; 5. 51JR-Shawn McFadden[7]; 6. 2-Don Livingston[1]; 7. 14-Kori Richter[5]; 8. 14X-Leslie Leu[6]; 9. 42-Myron Basina[9]; 10. 44-Trenton Bond[13]; 11. 11R-Rita Anderson[10]; 12. 247-Jackson Larson[11]; 13. (DNS) 26-Kyle Copp

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 2-Don Livingston[2]; 2. 51JR-Shawn McFadden[7]; 3. 14X-Leslie Leu[3]; 4. 24-Andy Grymala[6]; 5. 42-Myron Basina[5]; 6. 247-Jackson Larson[4]; 7. (DNF) 44-Trenton Bond[1]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 6-Shane Kisling[3]; 2. 80-Steve Stuart[4]; 3. 14-Kori Richter[2]; 4. 27-Matt Deragon[5]; 5. 11R-Rita Anderson[6]; 6. (DNF) 26-Kyle Copp[1]

WISSOTA Midwest Mods:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 70-David Simpson[1]; 2. 40JR-Tyler Vernon[8]; 3. 91-Paul Suzik[3]; 4. 55-Jesse Polson[2]; 5. 7XJR-Marcus Dunbar[7]; 6. 15-James Vendela[6]; 7. 28-Paul Ripley[12]; 8. 17-Deven VanHouse[9]; 9. 47-Tad Schoonover[11]; 10. 16-Cory Jorgensen[10]; 11. 79-Bryan Lund[15]; 12. 21+7-Ryan Barningham[13]; 13. (DNF) 00-Ross Fuhrman[14]; 14. (DNF) 80-Tanner Hicks[4]; 15. (DNF) 21-Jimmy Latvala[5]; 16. (DNF) 1-Hunter McDougall[16]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 7XJR-Marcus Dunbar[2]; 2. 40JR-Tyler Vernon[3]; 3. 70-David Simpson[1]; 4. 55-Jesse Polson[4]; 5. 17-Deven VanHouse[7]; 6. 47-Tad Schoonover[5]; 7. 21+7-Ryan Barningham[6]; 8. 79-Bryan Lund[8]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 80-Tanner Hicks[1]; 2. 91-Paul Suzik[2]; 3. 15-James Vendela[4]; 4. 21-Jimmy Latvala[5]; 5. 16-Cory Jorgensen[6]; 6. 28-Paul Ripley[7]; 7. 00-Ross Fuhrman[3]; 8. 1-Hunter McDougall[8]

WISSOTA Pure Stocks:

A Feature 1 (10 Laps): 1. 57-Brent Mindock[4]; 2. 28-Eric Crosby[7]; 3. 7R-RJ Holly[9]; 4. 17-Aaron Bernick[5]; 5. 69ER-Shane Basina[11]; 6. 66X-Rob Christman[1]; 7. 81-Charlie Pitcavage[3]; 8. 5Z-Zene Anderson[10]; 9. 47-Anthony Schultz[6]; 10. (DNF) 31-Travis Hazelton[8]; 11. (DQ) 02-Nicholas Hazelton[2]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 17-Aaron Bernick[5]; 2. 02-Nicholas Hazelton[1]; 3. 66X-Rob Christman[4]; 4. 81-Charlie Pitcavage[2]; 5. 7R-RJ Holly[6]; 6. 69ER-Shane Basina[3]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 57-Brent Mindock[2]; 2. 31-Travis Hazelton[5]; 3. 28-Eric Crosby[4]; 4. 47-Anthony Schultz[1]; 5. 5Z-Zene Anderson[3]

Six Cylinders:

A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 9-Jakob Bond[2]; 2. 62D-Dalton Truchon[14]; 3. 69ER-Shane Basina[4]; 4. 23-Mathew Rohlfing[7]; 5. 3BB-Scott Ovaska[5]; 6. 5-Roger Walker[9]; 7. 20-Justin Pratt[11]; 8. 41-Mady Anderson[10]; 9. (DNF) 81-Adam Traaholt[12]; 10. (DNF) 92-Cody Eichmann[1]; 11. (DNF) B 21-Brad Hanson[8]; 12. (DNF) 42-Cameron Bond[6]; 13. (DNS) 43-Jim Anderson; 14. (DNS) 28-Travis Swanson

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 9-Jakob Bond[3]; 2. 28-Travis Swanson[1]; 3. 23-Mathew Rohlfing[7]; 4. B 21-Brad Hanson[5]; 5. 5-Roger Walker[6]; 6. 20-Justin Pratt[4]; 7. (DNS) 43-Jim Anderson

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 3BB-Scott Ovaska[2]; 2. 69ER-Shane Basina[3]; 3. 42-Cameron Bond[7]; 4. 92-Cody Eichmann[1]; 5. 41-Mady Anderson[4]; 6. 81-Adam Traaholt[5]; 7. (DNS) 62D-Dalton Truchon