Exciting Features, Generous Fundraising Highlight ABC Raceway Program
by Nick Gima
Ashland, WI, June 3 – The biggest crowd of the 2023 season by far filled the grandstands at the ABC Raceway on Saturday, as Northern Clearing Inc presented its annual “Racing for a Reason” race program to help raise funds for the American Cancer Society.
The huge crowd was treated to free grandstand admission and an exciting sub-three-hour, 14-race program with 68 entries under brilliant blue skies and comfortable conditions.
Six-time ABC Raceway points champion Jeff Spacek of Phillips insisted in Victory Lane that Brandon Copp was the star of the non-stop 20-lap Outlaw Wraps & Apparel WISSOTA Modified A-main. But Spacek sure didn’t have to settle for Best Supporting honors, as he and Copp put on quite a show for the fans.
Spacek started on the outside of the front row and, after a couple of laps, edged ahead of polestarter Jake Hiatt to take the early lead. Over the next six laps Spacek drew away from the rest of the pack, which was putting on several dramatic moves of its own for position, such as Marcus Dunbar’s pass around Pat Cook for third on lap 3, and Copp’s fierce charge from his eighth starting spot to get past Cook and Hiatt on laps 5 and 6.
Copp’s big move came when he “threaded the needle” between Hiatt and Dunbar to steal second on lap 8, as Spacek was a full 2.1 seconds ahead and running smooth, steady laps. But Copp ran the same upper-groove line as Spacek for the next half-dozen circuits, and by lap 14 he was on the leader’s rear bumper.
Copp looked inside and out for a way to get by, but the cagey Spacek threw every defensive move in the book at the hard-charger. Copp even pulled off a clean “slide-job” pass in turn 2 with less than two laps remaining, but he couldn’t make it stick, and Spacek fended him off in the closing stages for his 62nd career feature win here – second all-time at ABC – by a scant .284 seconds.
Dunbar held on for a solid third, a full three seconds back of the lead pair but nearly four full seconds ahead of Jeff’s son Cole Spacek, who edged Cook for fourth.
The Superior Floral WISSOTA Super Stock feature field struggled often to find its rhythm, but veteran patience paid off for defending divisional champ Steve Stuart of Ashland, who collected his first win of the season and 45th of his career at ABC.
Front-row starters Andy Grymala and Patrick Beeksma waged a thrilling war for the early advantage, with the third-starting Stuart waiting just a few feet back for an opening. After rookie Jake Nevala’s lap 2 spin, though, the yellow flag waived more than the green one for a spell, as first-nighter Jason Garner’s car stalled and then Kyle Copp spun on subsequent attempts to complete the next circuit.
The next eight laps clicked off quickly, with the high-side-flying Beeksma and the bottom-groove-running Grymala continuing their door-to-door battle a few lengths ahead of Stuart, who had to contend with a pack of about a half-dozen challengers. The leaders swapped the point with every lap until mid-race, when Aaron Mashlan’s ride stalled just inside the front straightaway grass to slow the pace.
The restart was just what Stuart needed, as he worked outside on Grymala and then stayed high to sweep by Beeksma to take the lead for good on lap 11. A lap 14 get-together involving Mashlan and Rita Anderson, followed by a Shawn McFadden spin on that restart, kept things close, but Stuart eased away over the remaining laps to a 1.069-second final margin of victory.
Grymala got by Beeksma for second, followed by Matt Deragon and Andrew Mackey, as Beeksma faded to fifth at the checkers.
Ashland’s Tanner Hicks was filled with emotion after capturing the Harmony Wealth Management WISSOTA Midwest Modified feature – and with plenty of good reasons. His 2022 season was cut short by a horrible wreck in a race here that destroyed his car, and his chief sponsor on his new car was also the sponsor of this night’s event.
In what became a recurring theme throughout the night, the Mid-Mod main started with the front-row starters – this time, polestarter Hicks and Evan Checkalski – battling for the initial lead. Hicks claimed the point after two laps, but Checkalski battled back on the middle groove to edge ahead on lap 4, only to lose the spot again to Hicks on lap 7.
At mid-race it became a three-car fight for the lead, as Dalton Mains joined in. But over the next six laps Hicks established a 1.15-second lead before Ryan Barningham’s spin in turn 4 brought about the race’s only slowdown with four laps left.
On the restart, the 12th-starting Dunbar made a daring move below both Mains and Checkalski to steal second away, and while he made the leader work for it, Hicks held on for a narrow .33-second win – the third of his career and first in nearly two years here. Checkalski fended off Mains for third, with a fast-closing Paul Suzik claiming fifth.
For the third straight Saturday, the Patsy’s Bar & Grill WISSOTA Pure Stock feature ran non-stop, and for the second straight week Travis Hazelton of Chippewa Falls grabbed the lead late and held on for the win.
Close-quarters racing was the theme again for the Pure Stocks, as Hazelton started outside on the front row but had to step back to avoid contact with polestarter Katlin Pritzl. This opened the floodgates, as Aaron Bernick, Brent Mindock and Tyler Kachinske rushed by into the top spots within the first lap. But Mindock’s car broke loose and slipped back on lap 2, allowing the recovering Hazelton to get back into the thick of things.
Kachinske worked inside against Bernick for the lead on the next tour, and Hazelton followed into second, and over the next four laps the youngster Kachinske had all he could handle to fight off the challenges from the veteran Hazelton. Eventually, on lap 7, Hazelton nosed ahead, and he held on for a two-thirds-of-a-second edge for his seventh career ABC Raceway win. Bernick was a distance back in third, Tom Treviranus came home fourth, and rookie Pritzl failed to report to the infield scale and teching area immediately after taking the checkers, giving up his fifth-place finish to Dylan Shelton.
Dalton Truchon of Ashland ran away from the Lightning Storm Graphics ABC Six-Cylinder feature field to claim his second win in a row and seventh of his young career here. After contact from Shane Basina caused a Bubba Anderson spin on the opening lap, the third-starting Truchon slipped by polestarter Brad Hanson, and after three laps, he worked inside on Anderson to take a lead which he would not relinquish.
Adam Traaholt’s racer stalled on the front chute to stop the race on lap 4, and on the restart Anderson’s car tapped Truchon’s in the first turn, spinning the leader in front of the field and forcing another re-do. But Truchon would not be touched again over the balance of the 15-lap event, pushing his lead out to a huge 4.6 seconds by lap 10.
The hardest hit of the night came at this point, when at least four cars tangled deep in the field. Anderson’s car got the worst of it, as it struck the front-straight wall hard; fortunately, the driver walked away. From there Truchon easily pulled away to a 2.75-second margin.
Former three-time ABC Sixes champ Dale Coddington came back from a two-year hiatus to nip teammate Mathew Rohlfing by a foot or so at the stripe for second, and Jakob Bond came home fourth ahead of Austin Olby.
On Saturday, June 10, the ABC Raceway will host its popular annual Kids’ Meet the Drivers Night, to be presented by Heartland Communications Group of Ashland and Iron River. The drivers will park their race machines out in the grandstand parking area and invite fans young and old to visit with them, collect autographs, and maybe pick up a treat or two. WISSOTA Street Stocks will join the program, while the Super Stocks will get the night off.
The grandstand gates and pits will open at 5 pm on Saturday, with hot laps starting at 6:30 followed by the “meet-and-greet” session. The first green flag of the night will fly shortly after 7 pm. The ABC Raceway is located 3-1/2 miles south of Ashland, then just one mile west of State Highway 13 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: Jeff Spacek, Phillips; Brandon Copp, Brule; Marcus Dunbar, Marenisco, MI; Cole Spacek, Phillips; Pat Cook, Washburn; Nick Oreskovich, Mason; Jake Hiatt, Mason; Bill Byholm, Glidden; Tyler Vernon, Mason; Justin Weinberger, Elk Mound.
11-13: Brady Uotinen, Superior; Rick Rivord, Superior; Mike Klippenstein, Duluth, MN.
Heat 1: Copp; Hiatt; J Spacek; Dunbar; Vernon; Uotinen; Klippenstein.
Heat 2: Oreskovich; Weinberger; Cook; C Spacek; Rivord; Byholm.
Superior Floral WISSOTA Super Stocks
Feature: 1-10: Steve Stuart, Ashland; Andy Grymala, Superior; Matt Deragon, Ashland; Andrew Mackey, Duluth, MN; Nick Oreskovich, Mason; Kyle Copp, Brule; Patrick Beeksma, Ironwood, MI; Randy Graham, Trego; Don Livingston, Washburn; Shawn McFadden, Ashland.
11-15: Aaron Mashlan, Ashland; Rita Anderson, South Range; Jake Nevala, Ashland; Dan Peterson, Foxboro; Jason Garner, Iron River.
Heat 1: Beeksma; Deragon; Stuart; Garner; Livingston; Peterson; Anderson; Nevala.
Heat 2: Mackey; Oreskovich; Grymala; Copp; McFadden; Graham; Mashlan.
Harmony Wealth Management WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds
Feature: 1-10: Tanner Hicks, Ashland; Marcus Dunbar, Marenisco, MI; Evan Checkalski, Duluth, MN; Dalton Mains, Foxboro; Paul Suzik, Ironwood, MI; Tyler Vernon, Mason; David Simpson, Thunder Bay, ON; George Dalbeck, Wakefield, MI; James Vendela, South Range; Ross Fuhrman, Ashland.
11-17: Jesse Polson, Superior; Cory Jorgensen, Duluth, MN; Matt Jacobson, Bessemer, MI; Bryan Lund, Ashland; Zach Slayton, Hayward; Paul Hari, Neebing, ON; Ryan Barningham, Bayfield.
Heat 1: Vendela; Dalbeck; Hicks; Mains; Fuhrman; Barningham; Lund; Hari; Slayton.
Heat 2: Vernon; Suzik; Checkalski; Simpson; Polson; Dunbar; Jacobson; Jorgensen.
Patsy’s Bar & Grill WISSOTA Pure Stocks
Feature: 1-7: Travis Hazelton, Chippewa Falls; Tyler Kachinske, Duluth, MN; Aaron Bernick, Duluth, MN; Tom Treviranus, Hawthorne; Dylan Shelton, Hermantown, MN; Zene Anderson, Superior; Brent Mindock, Prentice.
Heat: Kachinske; Hazelton; Mindock; Shelton; Bernick; Treviranus; Katlin Pritzl, Park Falls; Anderson.
Lightning Storm Graphics ABC Six-Cylinders
Feature: 1-10: Dalton Truchon, Ashland; Dale Coddington, Hayward; Mathew Rohlfing, Cable; Jakob Bond, Mason; Austin Olby, Ashland; Shane Basina, Bayfield; Brad Hanson, Glidden; Chris Bretting, Washburn; Alex Bond, Iron River; Bubba Anderson, Trego.
11-14: Trenton Bond, Mason; Cameron Bond, Mason; Jimmy Stearns, Superior; Adam Traaholt, Ashland.
Heat 1: J Bond; Basina; Olby; Anderson; A Bond; Coddington.
Heat 2: Truchon; Rohlfing; Hanson; Bretting; Stearns; Traaholt.