Northern Renegade Sprints to Return to ABC Raceway on Saturday
by Nick Gima
Ashland, WI, August 13 – For the second time this season, race teams from the northeastern Minnesota-based Northern Renegade traditional sprints tour will invade the ABC Raceway. Zar’s Bar & Banquet Hall of Ashland will present the special seven-division race program this Saturday.
Back on June 27, Jori Hughes of Tower, MN, became the first driver to win a Northern Renegades series A-feature at Ashland, taking the lead prior to midrace after Caley Emerson’s car suffered a mechanical issue while leading and pacing the field the rest of the way. Fourteen member drivers from the series competed at ABC that night, and more are expected for this Saturday’s show.
Along with Hughes, other series drivers expected to return to Ashland include former WISSOTA Late Model stars Emerson of Grand Rapids, MN, and Harry Hanson of Eveleth, MN; and WISSOTA Modified racers Ken Hron and Paul Schultz of Grand Rapids.
All six regular ABC Raceway weekly divisions will also be in action, and with only three scheduled race nights remaining all six points championships are still very much up for grabs. In the WISSOTA Modifieds the top five in the standings are separated by less than 85 points, with Cole Spacek of Phillips leading Washburn’s Pat Cook by just 21. In the WISSOTA Super Stocks, Dave Flynn of Superior used last Saturday night’s feature win to extend his tenuous points lead over four-time defending track champ Nick Oreskovich of Mason to just 30, with the next four in the standings behind them all within 100 points of the lead.
In the WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds, Marcus Dunbar of Marenisco, MI, holds a 31-point edge on Jimmy Latvala of Solon Springs, with Ashland’s Ross Fuhrman just 45 points out of the championship. Rookie Tanner Gehl of Solon Springs lost the feature win last Saturday due to a technical infraction but still holds a 38-point cushion on defending division champ Randy Graham of Trego. And Graham’s lead in the ABC Six-Cylinders is just 20 points over Ashland’s Forrest Schultz, with the red-hot Dalton Truchon of Ashland, who has won the last two Sixes features, now just 27 points behind Graham.
The most entertaining points race may be in the entry-level WISSOTA Hornets, where DeJay Jarecki of Ashland has won the last three straight features. But points leader AJ House of Cloquet, MN, has finished second to Jarecki all three times, and with a 19-point edge heading into Saturday, House needs to at least maintain that pattern to nip Jarecki for the season crown.
Grandstand admission tickets will be just $13 for adults for this Saturday’s show, while 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 online via www.myracepass.com.
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 the first heat race of the night getting 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.