COPP, RIVORD, AKERVIK AND GOTALAERE TOP GONDIK SPEEDWAY WISSOTA FEATURES

by · June 28, 2021

By Jerry O’Brien

Superior, WI

It promised to be an extremely busy night at Gondik Law Speedway on Friday

night the 25th of June. If things went as planned, there would be a total of eight

classes of cars in competition. The WISSOTA Super Stocks and Late Models had

the night off leaving WISSOTA Modifieds, Midwest Modifieds, Pure Stocks and

Hornets to soldier on for WISSOTA. It was a special night as, also on the card

were Sprint cars, the UMSS Winged Sprints and the Northern Renegade Sprint

Cars (No wings). To top off the evening the Northern Vintage Stockcar Racers

were also on hand.

This placed a total of 130 cars in all divisions with each scheduled to race at

least one heat and a feature. Totaling up the number of cars it appeared there was

134 cars in competition but, on closer inspection, four of the Northern Renegade

crowd bolted on wings and raced in both classes.

The evening’s racing started out with a pair of makeup features from the rain

out the previous week, Friday June 18th. The first makeup event was for the

WISSOTA Pure Stocks with everyone who was eligible there to take part. The 19J

of Jared Akervik grabbed the win, his third of the season over Cory Jorgensen,

Trevor Treviranus, AJ House and Tom Treviranus in the top five. In the

WISSOTA Hornet division it was Kristy Marken who held off Dejay Jarecki for

the win. Carson Gotelaere, Reid Johnson and Hunter McDougall filled out the top

five.

Then it was time for the program begin with heat races in all divisions. Brady

Uotinen and Jimmy Latvala were victorious in the Midwest Modified heats, Shaun

Kreyer and Dave Cain were the winners. Aaron Bernick and Tim Carlson won

Pure Stock heats and Jarecki and Gotelaere topped the Hornet heats. Chase

Viebrock and Caley Emerson won Winged Sprint heats and Jori Hughes and Chris

Lewis won those. Then came the NVSR heats, the first for the Full Bodied cars

went to Todd Doyle ahead of Austin Hudyma. The second heat was for the Super

Modified vintage cars, a race that never finished. During the event Dave Whirley

of Grand Rapids, MN went straight in the fourth turn, hit the wall and another car

and rolled the car on top of the wall. It took quite a while to extract him from the

car, even calling for the rescue truck from the near by Superior Fire Department to

the track to aid the EMT’s already on the scene. Whirley was taken by ambulance

to Essentia Health St. Mary’s Hospital, also very close to the track. As this is

written no word on his condition is available. The seriousness of the incident

caused the Club to withdraw from their part in the show.

It was 20 laps for the WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds with Tanner Gehl and

Jack Rivord lined up on the front row. At the green Rivord shot into the lead with

Gehl, Brady Uotinen, Jimmy Latvala, Dalton Main and last week’s winner Shane

Howell in the mix. Rivord was comfortably in the lead with Uotinen behind as

Gehl, Latvala, Mains and Howell battled for position. The caution flag flew for

what would be the only time as Chris Bretting stopped entering turn three and

needed to be towed back on the racing surface. From there forward, Rivord

couldn’t be caught as Uotinen and Latvala chased after the 16 year old with little

progress. Some movement occurred in the pack as Gehl raced perhaps his

strongest event, but lost fourth place to Howell which began a slide that saw him

finish in the 10th spot. As the laps continued to roll by, the front four of Rivord,

Uotinen, Latvala and Howell pulled away from the rest of the pack and finished in

that order. Racing his way into the top five was Paul Ripley who had started in the

13th spot.

It was also a 20 lap go for the WISSOTA Modifieds, the 13 car field led to the

green by pole sitter Shaun Kreyer and Skeeter Estey making his first appearance of

the season. Estey took the lead over Kreyer, a fast moving Brandon Copp quickly

up from 8th to fourth and Johnny Broking also on the move. Estay held onto the

point as Copp closed to second with Kreyer hanging onto third ahead of Broking,

Jody Bellefeuille and Al Uotinen. The caution flag flew when Donnie Lofdahl

collided with the back stretch wall just out of turn two. Losdahl was uninjured but

off on the hook. The restart came with four of 20 completed. It continued to be a

cat and mouse game for the lead with Estey in front and Copp snapping at his

heels. Behind the lead duo who began to distance themselves from the rest, a battle

between Broking, a quickly moving Dave Cain, Bellefeuille, Uotinen, Danny

Vang and Dan Kingsley raged. Estey continued to foil any attempt by Copp to take

the lead and Cain landed in third ahead of Bellefeuille and Broking. With five laps

remaining, Copp finally found something that worked and slipped past Estey to

the lead. Cain also got a run on Estey and moved to second behind Copp. The final

tally was a second win of the week for Copp, Cain in second, Estey third,

Bellefeuille fourth and Broking in the top five.

Next came a 20 lap main event for the UMSS Winged Warriors with 14 of 16

cars starting. For the third time, the initial lead was taken by the outside pole sitter,

in this case Patrick Heikkinen whom many remember as a WISSOTA Super Stock

racer a few season ago. Giving chase was the #50 of Chase Viebrock, Lance

Solem, Caley Emerson and Mark Chevalier in the front five. This order stayed in

place lap after lap until just before half way when a caution flag slowed the action

when the 15c of Carter Chevalier got turned around in turn one with 11 to go.

Heikkinen was quick on the trigger on the restart and never came close to

relinquishing his lead. Viebrock continued his valiant but, it turned out, futile

pursuit of Heikkinen. Up front, after the restart, nothing changed in the top five of

Heikkinen, Viebrock, Solem, M. Chevalier and Emerson. Heikkinen led every lap

for a convincing first win in a Sprint Car.

Up next was a 12 lap feature for the WISSOTA Pure Stocks. It seemed as

though it became a breakout night of sorts for 13 year old Eric Lillo. After a nice

third place run in his heat, he started the feature with the pole position alongside a

veteran racer in Nate Rose who is a rookie in the Pure Stocks. It started out a bit

rough as Cory Jorgensen spun in turns three and four bringing iut the caution flag.

The restart saw Tim Carlson who is back racing after a few years absence, grab the

lead with Aaron Bernick, Jorgensen and Jared Akervik overwhelming Lillo who

slipped back to fifth. While Carlson led, Akervik, Bernick, Jorgensen and Tom

Treviranus battled for position. Akervik quickly closed in on Carlson and the

skirmish for number one was on. Akervik squeezed past Carlson to the front and

went on to take the win, his fourth of the season here. Jorgensen, Carlson, Bernick

and Tom Treviranus were the top five. Lillo made a good showing and finished

seventh.

The WISSOTA Hornets usually put on a good show with few caution flags for

minor incidents. Nathan Rose took the lead at the green flag from the outside of

the front row. Ried Johnson, Carson Gotelaere, Tyler Schramm and Patrick

Passieri were joined by DeJay Jarecki and Justin Barsness. Rose led harassed by

Gotelaere and Jarecki until a quick flag for debris on the front stretch slowed the

action. The restart came with six laps to go at the half way point. Gotelaere took

over the point and found himself with Schramm on his tail. A rare red flag

condition occurred when Rose lost control just after the turn four exit. Hunter

McDougall was faced with the broad side of the #19j and Ken Hapy spun to avoid

the incident and came within a whisker of hitting the inside wall. There were no

injuries reported and racing resumed with Gotelaere leading, this time with

Schramm and Barsness trying to go inside and outside in search of a way past.

Goetelaere was equal to the task with a steadiness that belied his 16 years as he

completed his first feature win and a sweep to boot.

The finale of the busy night was 20 laps for the Northern Renegade Traditional

Sprints. Chris Lewis led off the field to the lead with Zach Olson trailing in second

but a caution flag forced the field to realign. Lewis led for five laps as Ken Hron

put on the pressure. The second caution flag flew for a second time when Casey

Lang spun in turn two. The restart was just what Hron needed as the veteran wheel

man took over the lead which he would never relinquish as he raced away from the

field. Lewis maintained second through to the end also as did Jori Hughes and

Caley Emerson. Olson finish fifth and Paul Schultz finished sixth. It was Hron’s

first feature win at Gondik Law Speedway where he had raced several times in his

WISSOTA Modified.