First-Time Champs Capture Spotlight on Night 1 of Northern Nationals
by Nick Gima
Superior, WI, September 7 – Four of the five feature winners during night 1 of the Northern Nationals at the Gondik Law Speedway were first-time event champions.
Thursday’s opening round of the 35th annual Northern Nationals, presented by Bay Lock & Security, saw 83 entries – including 37 WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds – take to a fast but challenging racing surface on a brisk early-Autumn night at the northwestern Wisconsin oval. Unfortunately, over 2.5 inches of rain fell on the area during the prior overnight, causing a soft, rough surface that took its toll on both driver and equipment.
The Northern Renegades’ winged sprints made their lone visit of the 2023 season here and provided a thrilling 20-lap A-main, with Amery’s Brett Peterson capturing not only his first-ever win here but also his first Northern Nationals crown.
Peterson started on the pole and drove by Austin Phillips to take a lead he would not relinquish. Before the end of three laps Peterson held a one-second lead on Phillips, who himself was well ahead of Ken Hron, seventh-starting Jamey Ogston, and eighth-starting Jack Berger.
Over the course of the next lap Berger sliced his way by Phillips into second, and although Peterson’s lead had grown to over 1.6 seconds by lap 5, Berger chewed away half of that deficit over the next two circuits. By lap 8 Berger had pulled up to Peterson’s tail-tank, and at mid-race he was threatening to take the lead as the leaders caught the back of the running order.
But Peterson used the backmarkers to his advantage, rebuilding his edge to .8 seconds by lap 15, and he caught a big break when John Breitenfeldt’s motor expired just ahead of him. On the restart Phillips swiped second from Berger and hung with Peterson for the next three laps, with Ogston diving low to take third. Phillips drew to within .16 seconds on Peterson, but a huge plume of bluish-white smoke puffed from the back of Phillips’ car, and although he nursed it home to a second-place finish, he was no longer a threat as Peterson cruised to a 1.37-second margin of victory.
Ogston, Berger and John Vaillancourt completed the top five.
The other guest spot of the evening belonged to the WISSOTA Street Stocks, with Janesville, MN’s Keith Tourville capturing his first-ever Northern Nationals title after a race-long battle with Nick Traynor.
Tourville, who earned a track points championship here twenty years ago, was strong from the drop of the green flag, beating polestarter Kyle Bolt to the lead and never faltering. Traynor, who started directly behind Tourville, followed him to the front, with Tom Worth moving up quickly from eighth to third on lap 2. But just as Worth got into the top-three his car failed him and he stalled, bringing out the first of two caution stops.
Braden Brauer hammered the heavy, rough track hard, often looking to be on the brink of disaster, as he moved into third on the restart. But with Traynor following in his tire tracks, Tourville seemed to find all the best lines around the four-tenths-mile oval as he pulled to a half-second margin.
Debris on the track – an unfortunate but common theme throughout the features – brought the fields back to Tourville’s trunklid for the final eight-lap sprint, but the former champ pulled away again for a final 1.9-second cushion over Traynor. Brauer held off a determined Kyle Howland for third, and Andrew Hanson worked his way from his 11th starting spot to fifth.
Scandia, MN’s Jason VandeKamp, one of the region’s strongest WISSOTA Midwest Modified runners and a threat to win whenever he visits Gondik Law Speedway, earned what was surprisingly his first Northern Nationals win on Thursday, leading that division’s 20-lap headliner flag to flag.
VandeKamp outran polestarter Paul Ripley to the first turn and was chased down by a very fast Jimmy Latvala during the first circuit. But Latvala caught a rut in turn 1 on the second lap and nearly bounced onto VandeKamp’s car, bringing a very promising run to an early end. Cole Chernosky got by Ripley on the next restart and tried to stay with the leader, but VandeKamp was as strong and as smooth as possible on the difficult surface, building a 2.3-second lead as he caught the tail of the field by lap 13.
The racing behind VandeKamp and Chernosky was intense, with Ripley trying in vain to vend off heavy pressure from James Vendela and 11th-starting Dave Flynn. Things settled down momentarily when the caution flag was thrown for debris on lap 13, but the heat was turned up by Evan Checkalski over the final four laps, when the third-generation driver powered his way around Ripley, Flynn and Vendela to third.
VandeKamp was again up by a huge margin – 2.66 seconds – when the final caution stop occurred for debris on lap 18. Checkalski threw his car with abandon into the turn coming to the white flag to get by Chernosky for second, but he ran out of time as VandeKamp edged him by a third of a second at the checkers. Flynn grabbed third from Chernosky on the final go-around, and Vendela held on for fifth.
Ryan Olson of Ladysmith was the fourth of the first-time Northern Nationals champs as he scored the win in the WISSOTA Pure Stock feature. Polestarter James Rahn and Olson battled for the early lead over the first two laps before debris from Zene Anderson’s broken car brought about the first of two caution slowdowns. Olson and Rahn then had to do some quick recovering as Guy Gaskill, running in his first race night of the season, snuck between the lead pair to try to steal the pacesetting duties on the restart. But before the lap was completed Rahn and Olson ganged up on and overtook Gaskill, with Olson resuming the lead.
Rahn was pesky in his threats for the lead, but his night ended after scraping the back-straight wall and suffering a flat right-front tire while trying to work around Olson on lap 7. That gave Aaron Bernick a chance to work on Olson over the final eight laps, and Bernick was persistent – on lap 12 he was scored only 28 one-thousandths of a second behind the leader – as he looked to make an inside move for the win. But Olson showed impressive poise for a youngster as he held on for a .213 final margin of victory.
Gaskill was not far back in third, while Brent Mindock nursed his ailing ride home a distant fourth as the only remaining runner in the event. Rahn was credited with fifth.
The only repeat event champ was Justin Schelitzche of Chaska, MN, who successfully defended his WISSOTA Hornets title from a year ago. Schelitzche endured what might have been one of the longest 15-lap features he has ever run, as damaged cars and debris slowed the pace of this race significantly.
Schelitzche outran polestarter Michael Teggatz into and out of the first turns to set the pace, with Derek Dunbar moving by Ricky Reid to third. Teggatz’s race ended too early when his car broke on lap 2, after which Dunbar made a couple of attempts to dive under Schelitzche for the lead before debris brought about another stoppage on lap 6.
The field completed a couple more tours of the big oval, with Riley Ament pestering Dunbar for second, before more car parts were spotted on the racing surface on lap 9, drawing another yellow flag, and on that restart a surprising Joe Puidokas charged by Ament into third. Ament’s stalled car at the top of turn 1 brought about the final caution stop, and over the remaining green-white-checkered run Schelitzche held true to his line for his fifth feature win at GLS this season.
Dunbar came home second a few car-lengths back, Ryan LaBorde claimed the best finish of his brief career with a third-place run, Puidokas faded late to fourth, and Patrick Passari came home fifth.
Action continues on Friday, September 8, with night number 2 of the 35th annual Northern Nationals, featuring the IRA 410 “outlaw” winged sprints coming to Superior for the first time since 2019. WISSOTA Modifieds and Super Stocks will also join the Midwest Mods for this event.
The Northern Nationals conclude on Saturday, September 9, with WISSOTA Late Models joining the Mods, Super Stocks and Midwest Mods, plus USRA Late Models will make their first-ever appearance here.
For information on advance tickets and camping info for this and other upcoming events, log on to the track’s website, www.gondiklawspeedway.com, or its FaceBook page.
Results
Northern Renegades Winged Sprints
Feature: 1-10: Brett Peterson, Amery; Austin Phillips, Osceola; Jamey Ogston, Duluth, MN; Jack Berger, Lake Elmo, MN; John Vaillancourt, Forest Lake, MN; Ken Hron, Grand Rapids, MN; Ryan Lilliberg, Esko, MN; John Breitenfeldt, Isanti, MN;
Jamie Reberg, St Stephens, MN; Mike Mueller, Oak Grove, MN.
11-12: Josh, Grand Rapids, MN; Patrick Heikkinen, Eveleth, MN.
Heat 1: Ogston; Berger; Hron; Breitenfeldt; Mueller; Lilliberg; Vaillancourt.
Heat 2: Heikkinen; Peterson; Reberg; Phillips; Braford.
WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds
Feature: 1-10: Jason VandeKamp, Scandia, MN; Evan Checkalski, Duluth, MN; Dave Flynn, Superior; Cole Chernosky, Thunder Bay, ON; James Vendela, South Range; Tanner Ulakovic, Murillo, ON; Cole Boston, Lindstrom, MN; Dalton Mains, Foxboro; Bill Speak, Thunder Bay, ON; Joey Wagemon, Blaine, MN.
11-20: Glen Brown, Rosslyn, ON; Reagan Ruffi, Lake Nebagamon; Paul Ripley, Duluth, MN; Landyn Randt, Siren; Shane Howell, Buffalo, MN; Patrick Davis, Sioux Lookout, ON; Justin Bassa, Cotton, MN; Kevin Monteith, Rosslyn, ON; Jesse Polson, Superior; Kolby Reed, Kakabeka Falls, ON.
21-25: Zach Benson, Princeton, MN; David Swearingen, Stacy, MN; Jimmy Latvala, Solon Springs; Taylor Madrinich, Duluth, MN; William Moelter, Elk Mound.
Heat 1: Ripley; VandeKamp; Polson; Madrinich; Reed; Ruffi; Davis; Andrew Opas, Murillo, ON; Brady Larson, Amery; Wayne deBruin, Murillo, ON.
Heat 2: Latvala; Checkalski; Flynn; Howell; Tony Bahr, Haugen; Boston; Bassa; Benson; Swearingen.
Heat 3: Wagemon; Randt; Brown; Vendela; Ulakovic; Jeff Kelly, Murillo, ON; Deven VanHouse, Silver Bay, MN; McLean Andrews, Duluth, MN; Cory Jorgensen, Duluth, MN.
Heat 4: Chernosky; Monteith; Speak; Mains; Keegan Kough, Proctor, MN; Chris Bretting, Washburn; Jason Hobbs, Ham Lake, MN; Ross Siiter, Esko, MN; Moelter.
Semi-Feature 1: Reed; Swearingen; Boston; Davis; Kelly; Hobbs; Larson.
Semi-Feature 2: Ulakovic; Bassa; Benson; Ruffi; Opas; Kough; Bretting; deBruin; Moelter.
WISSOTA Street Stocks
Feature: 1-10: Keith Tourville, Janesville, MN; Nick Traynor, Barron; Braden Brauer, Eyora, MN; Kyle Howland, Zimmerman, MN; Andrew Hanson, Iron River; Kyle Bolt, Rosslyn, ON; Courtney Rose, Gordon; Eric Haupt, Trego; Rachel Boston, Lindstrom, MN; Aden Saunders, Spooner.
11-13: Levi Randt, Siren; Kat Luretig, Kamanistiqua, ON; Ty Agen, Chippewa Falls; Tom Worth, Milaca, MN.
Heat 1: Bolt; Tourville; Boston; Rose; Haupt; Luretig; Sanders.
Heat 2: Agen; Traynor; Brauer; Worth; Howland; Hanson; Randt.
WISSOTA Pure Stocks
Feature: 1-8: Ryan Olson, Ladysmith; Aaron Bernick, Duluth, MN; Guy Gaskill, Duluth, MN; Brent Mindock, Prentice; James Rahn, Poskin; Travis Hazelton, Chippewa Falls; Jonny Nowak, Proctor, MN; Zene Anderson, Superior
Heat: Rahn; Olson; Gaskill; Bernick; Nowak; Rob Christman, Superior; Mindock; Anderson; Hazelton.
WISSOTA Hornets
Feature: 1-8: Justin Schelitzche, Chaska, MN; Derek Dunbar, Iron River; Ryan LaBorde, South Range; Joe Puidokas, Cloquet, MN; Patrick Passeri, Duluth, MN; Riley Ament, Mahtowa, MN; Ricky Reid, Kakabecka Falls, ON; Michael Teggatz, Mahtowa, MN.
Heat 1: Schelitzche; Passeri; Dunbar; LaBorde; Derek Ament, Mahtowa, MN.
Heat 2: Teggatz; DeJay Jarecki, Ashland; Reid; R Ament; Puidokas.
