Basina, Hudack Win ABC ‘Sixes Slam’ Features, but Swanson Takes the Belt
by Nick Gima
Ashland, WI, July 29 – Washburn’s Shane Basina and Tiffany Hudack of Ashland may have won the two Six-Cylinder “Summer Slam” features, but a strong combined showing in the heats and features by Ashland’s Travis Swanson earned him the WWE-style belt awarded to the event’s overall champion at the ABC Raceway on Saturday night.
The unique event for the Lightning Storm Graphics ABC Six-Cylinders was part of a busy night at the award-winning northern Wisconsin red-clay oval, presented by the Safari Tavern of Ashland, which also included a half-hour “Meet the Drivers” session for the fans on the track’s front straightaway and a bike giveaway for the kids on a warm, comfortable mid-summer evening.
After a WWE-style introduction of the starting line-up, complete with wrestling-themed nicknames for each driver, the first 15-lap feature started with Hudack getting spun before a lap could be recorded. Polestarter Jakob Bond then led Mathew Rohlfing away from a congested group of cars battling for third for a lap before Adam Traaholt’s spin slowed the pace again. Basina then slipped low on Bond to steal first away after that restart and was never to be bettered again in the run, with Swanson taking second four circuits later.
But Basina would be challenged, as after building a lead of over 1.3 seconds the field was brought back to his rear bumper by another Hudack spin, this time caused by contact from Trenton Bond on lap 6. Hudack, who was running fifth prior to the spin, took third one lap after the restart with a low-lane, three-wide move that startled several in the field, including Rohlfing, who pushed out coming off turn 2 and slapped the back-straight guardrail hard enough to force him back across traffic, collecting Jakob Bond and Dalton Truchon hard enough to end both Rohfing’s and Truchon’s nights.
Over the final seven laps Basina held off determined challenges from both Swanson and Hudack for his third win of the season here. Austin Olby battled with Jakob Bond to claim fourth.
Carnage from the first feature thinned the field significantly for the second 15-lapper, but the same cast of contenders ran out front – just in a different order after a starting line-up invert. Hudack, a three-time ABC Sixes champ, trailed Olby at short range early in the second run, while Swanson closed and looked outside to try for the lead. But it was Hudack who made a three-wide move for the lead work with a bottom-lane pass on lap 2.
From there Hudack worked hard to keep Swanson at bey, never running more than a car-length ahead until the final stages. Basina fought his way back from an early deficit to make it a three-car battle for the lead, and when he drew alongside Swanson for second, it allowed Hudack to finally pull away over the final five laps for the 26thwin of her career at ABC, and her first in two years, by a second-and-a-quarter.
Swanson grabbed second just ahead of Basina, and with that finish the pair tied for final points in the “Summer Slam” standings. Swanson was determined the overall event champ by awarding him a bonus point for more total cars passed during all heats and features combined. Jakob Bond and Olby completed the top five in the second feature.
Basina’s two top-three showings, combined with Truchon’s DNF and DNS in the two features, moved Basina to the top of the Sixes’ points standings with three shows remaining.
Ashland’s Tyler Vernon survived two duels to capture his first Outlaw Wraps & Apparel WISSOTA Modified feature here since August 2020.
Vernon started on the pole and spent the first seven laps of the 20-lap event running side-by-side with Canadian visitor Colin Chaschuk, each nosing ahead of the other for the lead on practically every lap. Once Vernon cleared Chaschuk, however, he established a strong advantage, leading Cole Spacek and Chaschuk by 2.25 seconds at mid-race.
Pat Cook’s spin on lap 11 changed Vernon’s race from a runaway to a tooth-and-nail battle with Spacek the rest of the way, interrupted only by Spacek’s spin after contact from Jake Hiatt on lap 12. Spacek chased and challenged the leader furiously, but Vernon held true to his line and edged Spacek by a mere three-tenths of a second for his 13th career win here but only second in a “big Mod.”
Shane Sabraski used an outside three-wide pass of Chaschuk and Mod points leader Brandon Copp for third on the white-flag lap as they completed the top five.
Sabraski showed his strength in the Superior Floral WISSOTA Super Stocks, which ran their 20-lap feature non-stop. The Rice, MN, star bided his time, gained the point at mid-race, and was uncatchable.
Sabraski started the run fifth and was firmly entrenched in the middle of a seven-car cluster at the front of the field, waiting his turn as Patrick Beeksma and polestarter Shawn McFadden led the way. Steve Stuart, the division’s points leader, worked his preferred high line to sweep by both Beeksma and McFadden for the lead on lap 2, and Beeksma, Andrew Mackey and Sabraski each eventually followed on their way forward.
Stuart was better than a half-second ahead of the pack when Sabraski changed lanes and slipped low to work past Mackey and Beeksma for second on lap 9, but he quickly erased that deficit within another lap and worked low-side again to complete the winning pass. From there it was only a matter of determining how much Sabraski was going to win by, which turned out to be a lot.
On lap 16 the leader began to put slower traffic in arrears, and over the final laps Sabraski built on his lead while weaving his way through the backmarkers, eventually finishing a full 3.5 seconds ahead of Stuart for his 13th career ABC Raceway feature win – his eighth in a Super Stock – and his 34th overall this season. Beeksma, Mackey and McFadden followed at a distance to complete the top five.
Ashland’s Tanner Hicks grabbed the lead early and held off a determined charge by visiting Shane Howell to win his second Harmony Wealth Management WISSOTA Midwest Modified feature of the season. Hicks trailed polestarter Kolby Reed and battled for second with Ross Fuhrman for a couple of laps before taking advantage of an opening and powering by, eventually pulling away to a nearly full-second lead in just three more laps.
Hicks surprised Codii Young by passing him to put him a lap down after just five laps – so much so that Young spun right in front of the rest of the field and collected the second- through fourth-place runners. Fortunately all were able to continue, and it gave Howell and Marcus Dunbar a chance to stay with Hicks and develop a tense three-car battle for the lead.
A Jesse Young-Cory Jorgensen get-together on lap 11 marked the last of the two yellow-flag slowdowns of the run, after which Hicks had his hands full with Howell’s steady pressure. But eventually the leader drew away in the late stages of the 20-lapper to win by 1.5 seconds, with Howell, divisional points leader Paul Suzik, Dunbar and Vernon following in close formation.
The Patsy’s Bar & Grill WISSOTA Pure Stocks continued their season-long trend of caution-free feature racing, and Travis Hazelton of Chippewa Falls continued his trend of winning features here, collecting his track-leading fourth of the season on Saturday. Starting fourth for the ten-lap A-main, Hazelton wasted little time getting to the front, working past RJ Holly for second just two laps in and then elbowing his way by polestarter Tyler Kachinske on lap 3 for the lead.
Aaron Bernick grabbed third from Holly on that same lap and, with Pure Stock points leader Brent Mindock in tow, drove hard to chip away at their deficit to Kachinske, as Hazelton sped away to what resulted in a 2.8-second margin of victory. Bernick and Mindock caught Kachinske over the closing laps, with Mindock slipping by Bernick on the final lap to take third just behind Kachinske. Rookie Katlin Pritzl came home a distant fifth.
A pass-the-helmet collection during intermission raised nearly $1,200 for a donation to Late Model driver Dave Flynn’s wife Amanda and Midwest Mod star Ryan Savoy and his wife Bre, each of whom suffered significant injuries during an accident last weekend.
The generous parties that donated nearly 20 kids’ bikes for the giveaway included 22RVR Racing, Basina Racing, Deragon Racing, FastLane Motorsports, Jake Nevala Racing, Mashlan Racing and Mashlan Business Services, McFadden Racing, Mindock-Pritzl Racing, Oreskovich Farms, an anonymous race fan, and the ABC Raceway.
Next on the schedule at the ABC Raceway is the second annual “Small Car Classic” on Saturday, July 29. WISSOTA Street Stocks will join the track’s five regular weekly offerings in a program to be presented by the Ashland-Bayfield County Sportsmen’s Club and Heartland Communications Group of Ashland and Iron River.
The grandstand gates and pits will open at 5 pm, with hot laps starting at 6:15 followed by the first green flag of the night at 7 pm. The ABC Raceway is located 3-1/2 miles south of Ashland on State Highway 13, then 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 Raceway’s FaceBook page.
Results
Outlaw Wraps & Apparel WISSOTA Modifieds
Feature: 1-10: Tyler Vernon, Mason; Cole Spacek, Phillips; Shane Sabraski, Rice, MN; Colin Chaschuk, Thunder Bay, ON; Brandon Copp, Brule; Nick Oreskovich, Mason; Justin Weinberger, Elk Mound; Marcus Dunbar, Marenisco, MI; Jeff Spacek, Phillips; Bill Byholm, Glidden.
11-14: Pat Cook, Washburn; Jake Hiatt, Mason; Chris Oertel, Marshfield; Kyle Copp, Brule.
Heat 1: Sabraski; Chaschuk; Vernon; Hiatt; Cook; Byholm; K Copp.
Heat 2: Oreskovich; B Copp; C Spacek; Dunbar; J Spacek; Weinberger; Oertel.
Superior Floral WISSOTA Super Stocks
Feature: 1-10: Shane Sabraski, Rice, MN; Steve Stuart, Ashland; Patrick Beeksma, Ironwood, MI; Andrew Mackey, Duluth, MN; Shawn McFadden, Ashland; Kyle Copp, Brule; Terran Spacek, Phillips; Nick Oreskovich, Mason; Matt Deragon, Ashland; Don Livingston, Washburn.
11-17: Darin Meierotto, Superior; Chris Johnson, Superior; Charlie Anderson, Ironwood, MI; Randy Graham, Trego; Aaron Mashlan, Ashland; Myron Basina, Bayfield; David Simpson, Thunder Bay, ON.
Heat 1: McFadden; Sabraski; Beeksma; Meierotto; Copp; Graham; Basina; Spacek; Simpson.
Heat 2: Oreskovich; Stuart; Deragon; Mackey; Livingston; Anderson; Johnson; Mashlan.
Harmony Wealth Management WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds
Feature: 1-10: Tanner Hicks, Ashland; Shane Howell, Buffalo, MN; Paul Suzik, Ironwood, MI; Marcus Dunbar, Marenisco, MI; Tyler Vernon, Mason; James Vendela, South Range; Paul Ripley, Duluth, MN; Evan Checkalski, Duluth, MN; Kolby Reed, Kakabeka Falls, ON; Ross Fuhrman, Ashland.
11-15: Matt Jacobson, Bessemer, MI; Ryan Barningham, Bayfield; Cory Jorgensen, Duluth, MN; Jesse Young, Stone Lake; Codii Young, Hayward.
Heat 1: Vendela; Reed; Dunbar; Vernon; Suzik; Jacobson; C Young; Jorgensen.
Heat 2: Checkalski; Fuhrman; Howell; Hicks; Ripley; Lund; Barningham; J Young.
Patsy’s Bar & Grill WISSOTA Pure Stocks
Feature: 1-10: Travis Hazelton, Chippewa Falls; Tyler Kachinske, Duluth, MN; Brent Mindock, Prentice; Aaron Bernick, Duluth, MN; Katlin Pritzl, Park Falls; RJ Holly, Marengo; John Hazelton, New Auburn; Hope Eisel, Rhinelander; Kristy Rose, Duluth, MN; Don Cain, Park Falls.
11: Zene Anderson, Superior.
Heat 1: T Hazelton; Holly; Pritzl; Eisel; Rose; Cain.
Heat 2: Bernick; Kachinske; Mindock; J Hazelton; Anderson.
Lightning Storm Graphics ABC Six-Cylinders
Feature 1: 1-10: Shane Basina, Bayfield; Travis Swanson, Ashland; Tiffany Hudack, Ashland; Austin Olby, Ashland; Jakob Bond, Mason; Brad Hanson, Glidden; Trenton Bond, Mason; Jimmy Stearns, Superior; Dalton Truchon, Ashland; Mathew Rohlfing, Cable.
11-13: Cameron Bond, Mason; Alex Bond, Iron River; Adam Traaholt, Ashland.
Feature 2: 1-9: Hudack; Swanson; Basina; J Bond; Olby; C Bond; T Bond; A Bond; Hanson.
Heat 1: Swanson; Rohlfing; J Bond; T Bond; A Bond; C Bond; Hanson; Traaholt.
Heat 2: Basina; Hudack; Stearns; Olby; Eichmann; Truchon.