DAY 1 OF GONDIK LAW SPEEDWAY DOUBLEHEADER PRESENTED BY BROKING TRUCKING
By Jerry O’Brien
6-4-20
With the State of Minnesota still shut down preventing local stock car racing
from being presented, Gondik Law Speedway and several others in the northern
reaches of Wisconsin have been presenting racing events under strict Social
Distancing measures.
The Head of the Lakes Management Group had already presented three events
at the end of May including the official season opener at GLS. With four area
Minnesota tracks unable to open, the Management Group decided to present a
Thursday/Friday Doubleheader on June 4th and fifth. The Saturday show would
present a full six class WISSOTA sanctioned event including the WISSOTA Late
Models. The Thursday show was an experiment and presented a five class show
with WISSOTA Modifieds as the headliner.
The weather for the Thursday show was peefect, partly cloudy with
temperatures in the upper 70’s. The show drew a total of 78 cars in the five classes.
The usual qualifying heat races were run filling out the fields for the five feature
events. The first to take to the speedway was the WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds
23 strong set to go for 20 laps. Ryan Savoy was the pole sitter flanked by 2019
track champion Andrew Inman. At the green Inman bolted to the front followed by
Savoy, Jack Rivord, Brandon Mehrweth and Jason VandeKamp. The initial circuit
was not completed before Joey Krause turned around in the second turn. The
restart saw a scramble with the same participants in the top five. It lasted a lap
before Jesse Krause spun in turn two. With one lap down the event restarted only
to have the third caution flag fly as Jimmy Latvala and MWM rookie Paul Ripley
tangled in the infamous turn two. The restart came with 18 laps remaining and the
competitors seemed to settle down and run off several laps. Inman clung to the
front while Mehrweth, Rivord, McLean Andrews and the fast moving Cody
Carlson up from 9th to 5th. While Inman led, Rivord got by Mehrweth for second
and Carlson took fourth. The caution flag flew for the fourth time, this time for a
tangle in the fourth turn which included Andy LaBarge, Jesse Young and Jesse
Polson. It should be noted that, at this time Shane Howell was ninth after starting
in the 112th row. One more lap was completed before the sixth caution flag
appeared for another incident involving Paul Ripley in the second turn. By this
time, Mehrweth had wrestled the lead from Inman. Once again the caution flag
flew for the 7th time for another second turn tangle. This time Carlson was charged
and sent to the rear. Officials decided the race was taking too much time and
shortened the laps up to five more from eleven. Mehrweth held onto the lead to the
checkered flag for the win over Wyatt Boyum, Mark Kangas, Rivord and Howell.
Carlson was able to make his way forward to finish in the top ten in ninth.
The WISSOTA Super Stocks rolled onto the speedway for their 20 lap main
event. 2019 Rookie of the Year Kyle Copp holding down the pole with Chad
Fouquette on his flank. Copp surged into the lead over Fouquette at the green
followed by Kevin Burdick, Shane Sabraski and Doug Koski in the front five.
Going down the back stretch Scott Lawrence and DJ Keeler got together. Brian
Carl appeared to try to avoid the pair, turned sideway, rolled upon his side, turned
turtle and slid for several yards on his roof. Carl was uninjured but the red flag
brought everything to a halt. Keeler was able to continue but Lawrence’s car went
off on the rollback. At the restart Copp led Burdick, Fouquette, Sabraski and
Flynn. Copp clung to the lead foiling Burdick’s every move. Soon Copp and
Burdick were joined by Sabraski and Flynn and they began to draw away from
Fouquette in fifth. As the laps wore on, Burdick began to pull away from top three.
Then Flynn bore down and closed on Burdick and grabbed the lead right at the
half way point. Burdick gave chase and was joined by Sabraski as they got away
from Copp in fourth and Fouquette a bit further back in fifth. Flynn gavei all he
had and began to widen the gap over Burdick who soon fell to Sabraski. The top
three ran nose to tail to the checkered flag while gapping Copp and Fouquette.
Flynn had a firm grip on the lead and completed the strong run for the feature win.
Thirteen of the sixteen WISSOTA Modifieds finished their 20 lap main event.
It was a very familiar front row to many fans as Hermantown’s Darrell Nelson sat
on the pole with Superior’s Al Uotinen to his outside. At the green Nelson grabbed
the lead with Uotinen second. Clayton Wagemon, Shane Sabraski and Johnny
Brokingwere the top five. Nelson held onto the lead as Uotinen, Sabraski,
Wagemon and Johnny Broking battled for position amongst themselves. At the
half way point Nelson led Sabraski, Wagemon, Uotinen and Broking. What would
prove to be the only caution flag of the event flew right at the half way point, ten
in and ten to go when Jeremy Nelson spun in turn two. This was what Sabraski
was looking for. After the restart he worried at Nelson’s back bumper until he was
able to slide by with eight circuits remaining. Sabraski rocketed out to a big llead
with two to go and took the win. Darrell Nelson hung on for second while Bob
Broking made his way through in the waning laps to finish a strong third.
Wagemon and Uotinen rounded out the top five.
Trevor Treviranus picked up the slack in the 12 lap WISSOTA Pure Stock main
event when early leader Jared Akervik suddenly dropped from the lead with two
laps remaining dropping back to 13th at the checkered flag. Former champion
James Vendela, defending champion Cory Jorgensen, Dusty Caspers and McLean
Andrews finished in the top five.
Grayson Pratt continued his winning ways. He doesn’t show up to race in the
Hornets every week, but when he does the result is usually the same…he wins!
This time it was a sweep as he won the first heat and topped the 12 lap feature.
Brennan Schmidt, Hunter McDougall, Jase Wiarda and Kristy Marken were the
top five.
