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