ABC Raceway to Crown 2020 Champs on Saturday

by Nick Gima

                Ashland, WI, August 26 — The points-paying portion of the 2020 stock car racing season at the ABC Raceway concludes this Saturday, with champions to be determined at the conclusion of each of the night’s six features.

                The “Mountain Dew Championship Saturday Night” program, to be presented by WIMI, 99.7 FM, of Ironwood, MI, and North Star Beverage of Hurley, with include qualifying heat races and features in the WISSOTA-sanctioned Modifieds, Super Stocks, Midwest Mods, Pure Stocks and Hornets, as well as the ABC Six-Cylinders.

                WISSOTA’s points system, which is used for all six divisions at Ashland, places a lot of emphasis on large gains for strong feature race efforts – as well as significant losses in the standings for poorer finishes. With 100 points awarded for a feature win and 45 points just to start the A-main, every division but one has at least two drivers within range of a title, and first-time champions will be named in two of the classes.

                In the WISSOTA Modifieds, Pat Cook of Washburn turned a two-point deficit to Phillips’ Cole Spacek into an 11-point lead, with a third-place performance in last Saturday’s Mod feature besting Spacek’ seventh. Should Spacek win this Saturday night, Cook would need to finish third again, or better, to hold on for his first-ever championship here. Neil Balduc of Bessemer, MI, the track’s Mod champ back in 2016, sits in third, just 27 points behind Cook and is still very much in contention.

                Dave Flynn of Superior chalked up his third WISSOTA Super Stock feature win of the season here last weekend, strengthening his grip on that division’s standings as he seeks his first career title here. Flynn sits 42 points up on four-time defending champ Nick Oreskovich of Mason and would need a feature finish of 16th or better to take the honors should Oreskovich grab Saturday’s win.

                Theoretically, all Marcus Dunbar of Marenisco, MI, needs to do is start his heat race in order to qualify for the WISSOTA Midwest Modified feature, which in turn would give him his first-ever ABC Raceway title. His closest rivals in the standings, Jimmy Latvala of Solon Springs and Ashland’s Ross Fuhrman, both struggled through difficult nights here last weekend to all but eliminate themselves from contention.

                Rookie Tanner Gehl of Solon Springs will have his hands full to maintain as much of his 17-point advantage as he can over defending WISSOTA Pure Stock champ Randy Graham of Trego with one night left. A feature win by Graham on Saturday means Gehl would have to finish in the top-five for his first-ever title – becoming the first divisional rookie to win a championship at Ashland since Jeff Klopstein Jr took the Super Stock crown in 2015.

                Graham stands a pretty fair chance to successfully his Six-Cylinders title, though, bringing a 34-point advantage on Ashland’s Forrest Schultz into the final night of the season after winning his second-straight Sixes feature and sixth of the year in the class last Saturday. Graham would need to finish 12th or better if Schultz should win the division’s finale.

                After capturing his fourth feature of the season here last weekend, AJ House of Cloquet, MN, picked up his fourth WISSOTA Hornets feature win of 2020 at ABC and pushed his points lead over DeJay Jarecki of Ashland to 33. House has to finish 12th or better in Saturday’s finale to lay claim to his first championship here.

                After Saturday, the Raceway staff will prepare for its two “post-season” special events – its first-ever “Prelude to the Clay,” presented by Ashland Ford-Chrysler Center, on Thursday, September 3, and the 45th annual Red Clay Classic on Friday and Saturday, October 2-3.

                Grandstand admission tickets for adults for this Saturday’s season finale are just $11, and kids ages 12 and under will be admitted free when accompanied by a paying adult. Tickets are available either at the gate on race night or in advance online via www.myracepass.com.

                The pit gates will open at 4:30 pm, the grandstands will open at 5, hot laps will start at 6:15 and the first heat race of the night gets the green flag at 7 pm. “Race Reports” will air on WBSZ, 93.3 FM, as well as online at www.wbszfm.com, from 4:30 until 6 pm with the latest news and weather information from the track.

                The ABC Raceway is located 3-1/2 miles south of Ashland on State Highway 13 and one mile west on Butterworth Road. For raceday information call (715) 682-4990, log on to the track’s website, www.abcraceway.com, or check out the track’s FaceBook page.