ABC Raceway Welcomes FastLane Super Stock Series on Saturday

by Nick Gima

                Ashland, WI, July 23 — Due to last weekend’s storms and a precautionary measure with respect to the coronavirus pandemic, action at the ABC Raceway will kick in once again on Saturday night with one of the season’s spotlight programs.

                The FastLane Motorsports Northland Super Stock Series will make its annual stop at the venerable northern Wisconsin speedplant. WISSOTA Super Stocks will be racing for their share of over $30,000 in purses and contingencies as part of the overall five-race tour, including a $700 cut for winning Saturday’s feature at Ashland.

                The program, to be presented by Chicago Iron & Supplies of Ashland, will also include full programs for the WISSOTA Modifieds, Midwest Mods, Pure Stocks and Hornets, and the ABC Six-Cylinders.

                “ABC is one of the three charter tracks of the FastLane Series, so having the Raceway on this year’s schedule was a must,” stated Series director Dennis McCauley earlier this week.

                “Of course, it would have been appropriate to hold the championship round of the Series in Ashland, as that is also the home base for our title sponsor, FastLane Motorsports & Custom Powdercoating. But with the way this past weekend unfolded, we had to rearrange the tour schedule a little.”

                Oglivie (MN) Raceway was to host the second night of the Series last Saturday, after the tour opener at Princeton, MN, on Friday, July 17, but the violent storms that blew across east-central Minnesota and into northwestern Wisconsin on Saturday forced that track’s officials to cancel their program. The Series is now scheduled to conclude in Oglivie on Saturday, August 1.

                Other event sites included Grand Rapids, MN, and Superior this past Thursday and Friday.

                The decision not to race at ABC last Saturday was primarily due to the recent announcement made jointly by the Health & Human Services Departments of Ashland and Bayfield Counties, which urged venues hosting large gatherings to limit the number of attendees, or postpone or cancel their events entirely. The Raceway’s Board of Directors made the call to cancel the July 18 show during a meeting held the night before; the heavy winds and rain that passed through the area helped justify the decision.

                The Board, which has been pro-active in its efforts to keep the Raceway property as safe from the spread of the COVID-19 virus as possible, will implement several more precautions for this Saturday’s show.

                “We will encourage more social distancing by sectioning off certain portions of our grandstands, which we hope will minimize larger numbers of fans all sitting in single areas,” explained Raceway president Eric Erickson on Thursday. “We’re also going to ask our race teams to space themselves out a little more in our pit area. We will ask them to park at least a pit spot apart.

                “We hope that these measures, plus increasing our efforts to clean and sanitize the areas of our facility most commonly used by our guests, as well as encouraging fans and workers to wear masks and use hand sanitizers, will help minimize the spread of the virus while still making fans and racers feel welcome at the track on Saturday nights.”

                One minor adjustment was also announced this week regarding ABC Raceway’s August 1 event, which will be headlined by a visit from the Interstate Racing Association’s 410 winged outlaw sprints. The Modifieds will replace the Super Stocks on that night, along with the Midwest Mods and Hornets.

                For this Saturday’s show, the pit gates will open at 4:30 pm and the grandstands will be open at 5, with hot laps set for 6:15 and green-flag racing scheduled for 7 pm. Adult grandstand admission tickets are just $11 per person, either at the gate or online via www.myracepass.com, and kids ages 12 and under are admitted free when accompanied by a paying adult. Ten-race punch passes are also available at the Raceway’s ticket window on race nights, and advance pit passes are also available online.

                “Race Night” 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.