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Carlson, Traynor, Crosby and Schelitzche score Northern Nationals night one wins at Gondik Law Speedway

By Nick Gima

SUPERIOR, WI (September 5) - Gondik Law Speedway hosted its first full-program night of the 36th annual Northern Nationals, which included the Northern Renegade Winged Sprints as its featured attraction Thursday.

Cody Carlson, Eric Crosby, Nick Traynor, and Justin Schelitzche were WISSOTA Dirt Track Series winners.

Carlson added a Northern Nationals feature win to his resume on Thursday, holding off a fierce challenge from Jason VandeKamp for much of the second half of the WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds’ 20-lap A-main.

Polesitter Michael Blevins, Sr. worked the inside line against fellow front-row starter Carlson over the first lap, but eventually fell into line behind Carlson. Meanwhile, VandeKamp won an early battle with Jimmy Latvala for third. Carlson pushed his advantage to more than 1.2 seconds after six laps, but that lead shrunk by half as he began to catch the tail-end of the field, allowing Blevins and VandeKamp to reel him in.

Adam Hansen’s looped ride at mid-race gave VandeKamp the opportunity to take over second on the restart, and he stuck to the leader’s rear pushbar as closely as he could as they pulled away from the field. But Carlson held tight to the point, despite being tested by multiple restarts throughout the back-half of the run.

On lap 14, Mervin Castle III lost the handle on his ride, and a lap later Bill Speak spun to pause the proceedings. After Eric Anderson partially climbed the turn one wall on the ensuing green flag, new third-place runner McLean Andrews spun completely sideways coming off turn two in front of all but Carlson and VandeKamp. Miraculously, he wasn’t hit by any of the oncoming rush of cars.

Carlson had VandeKamp nipping at his heels for the final four-lap shootout, but held his line and came home less than seven-tenths of a second ahead. David Simpson scored a third-place finish ahead of Paul Ripley and Blevins.

Ten of the 11 WISSOTA Street Stocks that accepted GLS’s invitation to participate in Thursday’s Northern Nationals program started the 15-lap feature, but Nick Traynor was first to the checkered flag.

Kyle Bolt shot out front from his second starting spot and pulled away from a battle among Tom Worth, polestarter Kolby Kiehl and Traynor for runner-up honors. Brendan Makkinga’s spin on lap two slowed things for a moment, and after Worth threw a quick challenge at Bolt, Traynor slipped by for second. Two circuits later Traynor worked an inside pass on Bolt to take over pacesetting duties, and when Bolt lost the handle on his ride just after the pass, Traynor stayed at the front for the remainder of the run.

Kiehl stayed on Traynor’s trunk lid for a few laps, but could not mount a challenge, and Traynor eventually pulled away to a 1.77-second buffer at the final stripe. Kiehl fell back into a battle with A.J. Kellar, but held on for second, while Worth and a recovered Makkinga claimed fourth and fifth, respectively.

In a WISSOTA Pure Stock feature that boasted the top four drivers in national points, Eric Crosby led every lap on his way to his first Northern Nationals win.

Crosby - himself the top rookie in the national standings - started from the pole and, after a lap one spin by Jason Simonson and a six-car mess on the ensuing restart, he fended off a determined Devin Fries before pulling out to a four-car advantage. Fries fell into a battle with national title contenders Chaston Finckbone and Aaron Bernick for a lap before he and Finckbone closed on Crosby again on lap three.

Crosby drew away as the race reached its midpoint and was not to be threatened again as he sped to a 1.28-second final margin. Finckbone and Fries put on an entertaining battle for second before Finckbone settled the discussion on the final lap, and Bernick had his hands full fighting off a late charge by Brent Mindock, who is also in the national title hunt, for fifth. National points leader Dustin Puffe struggled to a 10th-place finish.

Justin Schelitzche settled the debate early in the WISSOTA Hornets feature, taking the lead from the pole and heading up every lap for his third Northern Nationals championship.

GLS Hornets track champ DeJay Jarecki followed Schelitzche into second right away, but found himself in a battle with Nikota Larson for several laps, allowing the leader to establish a significant advantage ahead of Derek Dunbar and a debate between Riley Ament and Canadian first-nighter Selena Owen for fifth. The 15-lap finale ran non-stop, allowing Schelitzche to maintain his comfortable margin all the way to the finish and well ahead of Jarecki, who put some space between himself and Larson as the race went on.

Ament came home a distant fourth, with Dunbar an equal distance back in fifth.

Polestarter John Vaillancourt led the first couple of circuits of the Sprints’ 20-lap main event, but front-row starting mate Ken Hron grabbed the lead after a restart and held on to the finish for his first Northern Nationals title. Hron slipped away to a .86-second final margin of victory at the checkered flag.

During Wednesday’s open practice night, the “Showdown in Souptown” challenge race was presented between the top eight in final track points between the WISSOTA Super Stocks and the Midwest Mods. After Dylan Nelson set the fastest qualifying time at 17.890 seconds (80.089 mph avg), he started his Super Stock on the pole and led every lap of the 20-lap spotlight event, becoming the first Super Stock racer to win the “Showdown” in its three-race history.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Midwest Mods:

Feature (20 Laps): 1. 32III-Cody Carlson[2]; 2. 16(V)-Jason VandeKamp[6]; 3. 70-David Simpson[7]; 4. 28-Paul Ripley[5]; 5. 10-Michael Blevins Sr[1]; 6. 64-Evan Checkalski[12]; 7. 15-James Vendela[9]; 8. 16-Ryan Savoy[11]; 9. 187-Sam Blevins[17]; 10. 7M-Dalton Mains[13]; 11. 3D-Kevin Monteith[8]; 12. 89-Kolby Reed[10]; 13. 69-Justin Bassa[18]; 14. 21(L)-Jimmy Latvala[3]; 15. 10(C)-Mervin Castle III[15]; 16. 13-Chris Bretting[25]; 17. 00(F)-Ross Fuhrman[22]; 18. 66-Bill Speak[24]; 19. 8-Jonny Nowak[23]; 20. (DNF) 3M-McLean Andrews[14]; 21. (DNF) 7A-Eric Anderson[16]; 22. (DNF) 8A-Adam Hansen[19]; 23. (DNF) 00-Jason Hobbs[21]; 24. (DNF) 1W1-Kalan Wagner[20]; 25. (DNF) 14-Adam Shinn[4]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 28-Paul Ripley[1]; 2. 3D-Kevin Monteith[2]; 3. 15-James Vendela[4]; 4. 7M-Dalton Mains[6]; 5. 187-Sam Blevins[8]; 6. 00(F)-Ross Fuhrman[7]; 7. 1W1-Kalan Wagner[5]; 8. 13-Chris Bretting[3]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 10-Michael Blevins Sr[4]; 2. 21(L)-Jimmy Latvala[5]; 3. 64-Evan Checkalski[2]; 4. 3M-McLean Andrews[6]; 5. 8A-Adam Hansen[8]; 6. 66-Bill Speak[3]; 7. 8-Jonny Nowak[7]; 8. (DNF) 30-Joey Jensen[1]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 16(V)-Jason VandeKamp[1]; 2. 14-Adam Shinn[5]; 3. 89-Kolby Reed[4]; 4. 10(C)-Mervin Castle III[6]; 5. 723-Wayne deBruin[3]; 6. (DNF) 55-Jesse Polson[2]; 7. (DNF) 5-David Swearingen[7]

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 32III-Cody Carlson[2]; 2. 70-David Simpson[1]; 3. 16-Ryan Savoy[4]; 4. 7A-Eric Anderson[5]; 5. 69-Justin Bassa[3]; 6. 00-Jason Hobbs[7]; 7. 99J-John Coppock[6]

B Feature: 1. 187-Sam Blevins[1]; 2. 69-Justin Bassa[4]; 3. 8A-Adam Hansen[2]; 4. 1W1-Kalan Wagner[8]; 5. 00-Jason Hobbs[6]; 6. 00(F)-Ross Fuhrman[5]; 7. 8-Jonny Nowak[10]; 8. 66-Bill Speak[7]; 9. 13-Chris Bretting[11]; 10. 99J-John Coppock[9]; 11. 723-Wayne deBruin[3]; 12. (DNF) 5-David Swearingen[13]; 13. (DNS) 55-Jesse Polson; 14. (DNS) 30-Joey Jensen

WISSOTA Street Stocks:

Feature (15 Laps): 1. 40-Nick Traynor[6]; 2. 8-Kolby Kiehl[1]; 3. 54X-AJ Kellar[3]; 4. 55-Thomas Worth[4]; 5. 426-Brendan Makkinga[8]; 6. 35-Nathan Henny[11]; 7. 77-Kyle Bolt[2]; 8. 16-Warren Bartelt[10]; 9. 24-Andrew Piilo[5]; 10. 31-Tom Treviranus[7]; 11. 22-Tyson Waller[9]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 77-Kyle Bolt[2]; 2. 54X-AJ Kellar[4]; 3. 40-Nick Traynor[3]; 4. 31-Tom Treviranus[6]; 5. 16-Warren Bartelt[5]; 6. 35-Nathan Henny[1]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 8-Kolby Kiehl[5]; 2. 55-Thomas Worth[2]; 3. 24-Andrew Piilo[4]; 4. 426-Brendan Makkinga[3]; 5. 22-Tyson Waller[1]

WISSOTA Pure Stocks:

Feature (15 Laps): 1. 28-Eric Crosby[1]; 2. 40C-Chaston Finckbone[3]; 3. 95F-Devin Fries[2]; 4. 17-Aaron Bernick[6]; 5. 57-Brent Mindock[7]; 6. 23R-James Rahn[4]; 7. 31-Tom Treviranus[8]; 8. 33S-Jason Simonson[14]; 9. (DNF) 56-Stephen Erickson[9]; 10. (DNF) 21X-Dustin Puffe[5]; 11. (DNF) 231-Trevor Treviranus[10]; 12. (DNF) 131-Jessie Treviranus[11]; 13. (DNF) 53-Travis Zembo[13]; 14. (DNS) 55-Jimmy Rich Jr

Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 28-Eric Crosby[2]; 2. 40C-Chaston Finckbone[5]; 3. 17-Aaron Bernick[3]; 4. 21X-Dustin Puffe[7]; 5. 231-Trevor Treviranus[4]; 6. 131-Jessie Treviranus[1]; 7. 53-Travis Zembo[6]

Heat 2 (6 Laps): 1. 95F-Devin Fries[2]; 2. 23R-James Rahn[5]; 3. 57-Brent Mindock[3]; 4. 31-Tom Treviranus[6]; 5. 56-Stephen Erickson[1]; 6. 55-Jimmy Rich Jr[4]; 7. (DNF) 33S-Jason Simonson[7]

WISSOTA Hornets:

Feature (15 Laps): 1. 14-Justin Schelitzche[1]; 2. 0-DeJay Jarecki[3]; 3. 26N-Nikota Larson[2]; 4. 10A-Riley Ament[5]; 5. 20D-Derek Dunbar[8]; 6. 34-Selena Owen[4]; 7. 10Z2-Lauren Johnson[7]; 8. (DNF) 69-Madisyn Olson[6]

Heat (6 Laps): 1. 14-Justin Schelitzche[3]; 2. 0-DeJay Jarecki[1]; 3. 26N-Nikota Larson[6]; 4. 34-Selena Owen[2]; 5. 10A-Riley Ament[4]; 6. 69-Madisyn Olson[7]; 7. (DNF) 10Z2-Lauren Johnson[8]; 8. (DNF) 20D-Derek Dunbar[5]

Northern Renegade Winged Sprints:

Feature (20 Laps): 1. 46H-Ken Hron[2]; 2. 03-Jamey Ogston[3]; 3. 95-John Vaillancourt[1]; 4. 609-Casey Lang[6]; 5. 29-Leigh Thomas[11]; 6. Z15-Zach Olson[7]; 7. 92-Danny Wait Jr[9]; 8. (DNF) 11-Jesse Grife[5]; 9. (DNF) 56-Josh Braford[8]; 10. (DNF) 17-Austin Phillips[4]; 11. (DNF) 1-Tony Gernert[10]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 95-John Vaillancourt[2]; 2. 46H-Ken Hron[4]; 3. 11-Jesse Grife[1]; 4. Z15-Zach Olson[3]; 5. 29-Leigh Thomas[6]; 6. 92-Danny Wait Jr[5]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 03-Jamey Ogston[2]; 2. 17-Austin Phillips[3]; 3. 609-Casey Lang[4]; 4. 56-Josh Braford[1]; 5. (DNF) 1-Tony Gernert[5]