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Doar delivers, Nelson nails one, Schelitzche scores and Treviranus topples foes at first of two fair nights at Gondik Law Speedway

By Nick Gima

SUPERIOR, WI (July 30) - The first of two nights of racing as part of the Head of the Lakes Fair was held on Tuesday at Gondik Law Speedway, with landmark wins achieved in all four features on a hot, muggy night with temperatures hovering near 90 by race time.

WISSOTA Dirt Track Series winners included Pat Doar, Darrell Nelson, Justin Schelitzche, and Tom Treviranus.

Pat Doar took the checkered flag at the end of the 25-lap KME Late Model Series main event for WISSOTA Late Models, pocketing $1,500 in the process. The all-time winningest Late Model driver in the track’s history started outside on the front row and stayed side-by-side with polesitter Skeeter Estey for the first full lap, followed closely by Billy Kendell, Dave Flynn, Kevin Burdick and others. But as the leaders set up for turn one for the second time, Estey’s car planted into the sticky surface, causing his car to launch into the air, pirouette and barrel-roll multiple times before crashing onto the track directly in front of the vast majority of the field.

Estey was treated at the track, and then taken to a hospital in Hibbing, MN, near his hometown of Kelly Lake, where he received further treatment for injuries and is recoverings.

After a 20-minute red-flag stop, Doar led the field back to the restart and a long green-flag run. Kendall restarted second and opted for the outside lane in row two, but at the end of lap two his car slipped high going through turn four, allowing Flynn to dive low and steal the position.

Doar spent the rest of the first 10 laps of the run virtually in cruise mode, building a lead of nearly two seconds. As he began to deal with backmarkers starting on lap 11, his lead was thinned to less than a second by Flynn.

After escaping through the slower traffic, Doar had plenty of open track ahead of him as the laps wound down, but Eric Lillo’s spun racer in turn two set up a green-white-checkered finish. Flynn and Kendall kept each other just busy enough to allow Doar to draw away to a .75-second margin of victory and 56th Late Model feature win at Superior.

Burdick survived an entertaining race-long battle with Danny Vang for fourth. Doar moves into a tie for the points lead with Johnny Broking, as the KME Series heads for a thrilling conclusion.

Darrell Nelson, the all-time WISSOTA Modified feature win leader at the track, and total feature wins leader, led Tuesday’s 20-lap feature flag to flag for his 73rd Modified win at the track, and 115th overall win in Superior.

After a lap-two spin by Steve Stavenger, Kevin Adams applied pressure on Nelson on the restart, diving low to take the lead, but fourth-place Bob Broking’s spin slowed the pace again.

Adams tried the high side one lap after the restart, but Nelson held true to form and continued out front, pushing his lead out to more than 1.5 seconds, while Adams’ car failed him on lap five.

The field followed Nelson back to green for another restart; Jody Bellefeuille restarted second and tried to keep pace with the leader. Brandon Copp, who started the race in 10th, used a thread-the-needle move between Tanner Gehl and Brady Uotinen to take fourth on lap six, and then threatened third-running Jack Rivord for several mid-race laps.

Bellefeuille trimmed some of Nelson’s 1.25-second lead away when Uotinen’s racer broke on the front straight with four laps remaining.

Back under green, Bellefeuille took one last shot at the lead with an inside move, but Nelson stormed back within the circuit and ran off to a 1.48-second margin of victory. Rivord fended off Copp for third, and 12th-starter Al Uotinen worked his way past Andrew Inman late in the run for fifth.

In the nonstop 12-lap WISSOTA Pure Stock feature, Tom Treviranus ran away late to tally his first-ever feature win at his home track, against a field that included his son Trevor and daughter Jessie.

Polesitter Jake Smith led a tight-knit pack through the early stages of the run, and although Trevor Treviranus’ car failed him on lap two, Smith still had Tom Treviranus and Aaron Bernick side by side just behind him, and Jessie Treviranus right on their back bumpers.

On lap five, Tom made his move to the outside on Smith, and Bernick dove low, and within the next lap Tom had cleared both to take over the lead. Smith settled into second, but only for a lap as his car gave up on lap seven and he pulled out of the race.

With her dad driving away to a lead of more than a second, Jessie Treviranus kept the pressure on Bernick, threatening on a couple of occasions to take the runner-up position.

Tom Treviranus took the win by 1.841 seconds, while Bernick held on to finish second just ahead of Jessie Treviranus, who joined her father on the victory stage to celebrate the landmark win.

It seems like every time Justin Schelitzche shows up at a Northland track this summer, he leaves it with a feature winner sticker in hand. This held true on Tuesday in Superior as he fought to lead all 12 laps for his 14th career WISSOTA Hornets A-main win at the oval - tying him for first on the track’s all-time win list in this division with the driver he held off to beat.

Schelitzche grabbed the immediate lead from the pole and pulled away from a fierce battle for second between Carson Gotelaere and DeJay Jarecki, which in turn put some distance between those combatants and the close pack racing for fourth, led by Riley Ament. Jarecki had just snuck by Gotelaere on lap three when Brady Fosso’s car slowed to a stop on the front straight with issues.

On the restart, the lead trio sped away to put on a thrilling bumper-to-bumper show for the fans, leaving Nikota Larson and Ament trailing at a distance. Gotelaere seemed to back off for a bit as Jarecki tried a couple of different moves to take the lead, but Schelitzche was well up to the challenge, and Gotelaere regrouped to make one last run at the win.

In the end, Schelitzche finished with Jarecki on his trunk lid and Gotelaere just as close behind Jarecki. Larson stayed a distant fourth ahead of Ament.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Late Models:

Feature (25 Laps): 1. 11-Pat Doar[2]; 2. 29F-Dave Flynn[3]; 3. 99-Billy Kendall III[4]; 4. 30-Kevin Burdick[6]; 5. 47-Danny Vang[7]; 6. 45J-Johnny Broking[9]; 7. 31-Travis Budisalovich[16]; 8. 6M-Jeff Massingill[8]; 9. 44-Darrell Nelson[11]; 10. 7C-Robbie Cooper[13]; 11. 212-Mike Klippenstein[10]; 12. 24(E)-Eric Lillo[14]; 13. (DNF) 14N-Keith Niemi[15]; 14. (DNF) 19-Steve Laursen[5]; 15. (DNF) 54L-Jayme Lautigar[12]; 16. (DNF) 37X-Skeeter Estey[1]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 29F-Dave Flynn[1]; 2. 19-Steve Laursen[2]; 3. 47-Danny Vang[4]; 4. 30-Kevin Burdick[8]; 5. 45J-Johnny Broking[6]; 6. 54L-Jayme Lautigar[5]; 7. 7C-Robbie Cooper[3]; 8. 14N-Keith Niemi[7]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 37X-Skeeter Estey[2]; 2. 99-Billy Kendall III[4]; 3. 11-Pat Doar[8]; 4. 6M-Jeff Massingill[6]; 5. 212-Mike Klippenstein[1]; 6. 44-Darrell Nelson[7]; 7. 24(E)-Eric Lillo[5]; 8. (DNF) 31-Travis Budisalovich[3]

WISSOTA Modifieds:

Feature (20 Laps): 1. 44-Darrell Nelson[2]; 2. 11-Jody Bellefeuille[6]; 3. 19J-Jack Rivord[5]; 4. 22-Brandon Copp[10]; 5. 98-Al Uotinen[12]; 6. 45-Bob Broking[1]; 7. 11JR-Andrew Inman[8]; 8. (DNF) 74-Shaun Kreyer[13]; 9. (DNF) 9-Brady Uotinen[9]; 10. (DNF) 95-Rick Rivord[7]; 11. (DNF) 2-Tanner Gehl[3]; 12. (DNF) 4S-Steve Stavenger[11]; 13. (DNF) 40-Kevin Adams[4]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 19J-Jack Rivord[3]; 2. 11-Jody Bellefeuille[2]; 3. 45-Bob Broking[5]; 4. 2-Tanner Gehl[4]; 5. 9-Brady Uotinen[6]; 6. 4S-Steve Stavenger[1]; 7. (DNF) 74-Shaun Kreyer[7]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 95-Rick Rivord[2]; 2. 44-Darrell Nelson[1]; 3. 40-Kevin Adams[5]; 4. 11JR-Andrew Inman[4]; 5. 22-Brandon Copp[6]; 6. 98-Al Uotinen[3]

WISSOTA Pure Stocks:

Feature (12 Laps): 1. 31-Tom Treviranus[3]; 2. 17-Aaron Bernick[4]; 3. 131-Jessie Treviranus[2]; 4. (DNF) 86J-Jake Smith[1]; 5. (DNF) 231-Trevor Treviranus[5]; 6. (DNS) 69ER-Shane Basina

Heat (6 Laps): 1. 31-Tom Treviranus[1]; 2. 17-Aaron Bernick[4]; 3. 86J-Jake Smith[5]; 4. 131-Jessie Treviranus[3]; 5. 231-Trevor Treviranus[6]; 6. 69ER-Shane Basina[2]

WISSOTA Hornets:

Feature (12 Laps): 1. 14-Justin Schelitzche[1]; 2. 0-DeJay Jarecki[5]; 3. 9G-Carson Gotelaere[4]; 4. 26N-Nikota Larson[7]; 5. 10A-Riley Ament[2]; 6. 15-Ryan LaBorde[8]; 7. 10Z-Cade Johnson[3]; 8. 7-Abby Baum[9]; 9. (DNF) 27-Brady Fosso[10]; 10. (DNF) 19-Joseph Puidokas[6]; 11. (DNF) 01-Jasper Drengler[11]

Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 9G-Carson Gotelaere[1]; 2. 0-DeJay Jarecki[3]; 3. 26N-Nikota Larson[5]; 4. 19-Joseph Puidokas[4]; 5. 15-Ryan LaBorde[2]; 6. 7-Abby Baum[6]

Heat 2 (6 Laps): 1. 14-Justin Schelitzche[5]; 2. 10A-Riley Ament[4]; 3. 10Z-Cade Johnson[3]; 4. (DNF) 27-Brady Fosso[2]; 5. (DQ) 01-Jasper Drengler[1]