FIRST TIME FEATURE WINNERS AND TRACK RECORDS HIGHLIGHT GONDIK LAW SPEEDWAY ACTION
By Jerry O’Brien
(5-21-21) Superior, WI
Throughout the week leading up to the scheduled second “Friday Night at the
Races” soaking rain cast doubt that the event would be held at all. The rain fell
lightly but persistently all day and night Thursday but diminished to nothing early
Friday a.m. The sun proceeded to make sporadic appearances nad the temperature
climbed to the low 70’s. Officials decided to go ahead with the program and the
track crew work their magic before and during the show to produce a raceable and
extremely fast surface.
Due to the rainouts further south some fans and racers decided a trip north out
of the wet would be preferable to staying home. Also a number of fans headed that
direction. As a result the car count, though not as high as opening night, topped
out at 94 cars.
Racing, starting with Hot Laps started about 30 minutes late followed by
qualifying heat races. Heat winners in the WISSOTA Late Models were #6 Jeff
Massingill and #11 Pat Doar. A pair of WISSOTA Modified heats went to #45J
Johnny Broking and #11 Jody Bellefeuille. There were three heats of WISSOTA
Midwest Modifieds won by #3M McLean Andrews, out-of-towner Shane L1
Howell and local favorite #16 Ryan Savoy. One of those racers that took the left
out of town to head north #2 Tristan Scheuermann won the first WISSOTA Pure
Stock heaat and former track champ #16 Cory Jorgensen topped the second one.
WISSOTA Hornet heats went to #0 DeJay Jarecki and #13 Casey Fitzpatrick.
With qualifying done, features alignment and more track work, it was time to
roll out the six features. First up was the 20 lap Midwest Modified main event led
to the green by the front row of Wyatt Boyum and Dalton Mains. Mmains led the
first lap with Mains, Andrews, Kennedy Swan and Howell. Mains was moving
quickly and soon found himself in the lead. On the prod was Howell slicing past to
Mains’ rear bumper. Savoy and Swan were also closing fast. Four laps in Andrews
brought out the first caution. At the same time Cody Carlson pulled into the pits.
With 16 laps remaining, the green flag waved and Mains was overwhelmed by
Howell and Savoy with Swan fending off opening night winner Brady Uotinen.
Howell took over the lead with Savoy second. Howell put a gap on Savoy who, in
turn, drove away form Mains. Howell had the race well in hand and expanded his
lead while Savoy did the same over the battle between Swan and Uotinen. The
second and final caution flag flew, apparently, for Zach Benson who pulled into
the pits. Turned out the caution was for Howell who was stalled most of the way
down the front stretch. He was taken off on the hook leaving the lead to Savoy
with six laps remaining. Savoy made the most of Howell’s bad luck and led the
rest of the way for the win and the sweep. Uotinen was on the prowl and finished
second after winning the pitched battle with Swan who finished third. Kyle
Kirberger and Mains were the top five.
Next up it was 20 circuits for the Super Stocks with the always dangerous Dave
Flynn on the pole alongside Brian Carl. At the green Carl jumped to the lead
chased by Flynn, Mackey, DJ Keeler, Kevin Burdick and Kyle Copp. The first
caution flag appeared and the pack then took the restart green which resulted in a
big crash on the front stretch. Caught up in the mele’ were Rita Anderson,
Matthew Dibb and Keeler. The next restart came with 11 laps remaining. Burdick
remained out front leading Nick Oreskovich, Carl, Keeler with a damaged front
end. With one more lap in the books the caution flag again flew and the restart
came with 10 to go. Burdick then just flat drove away from the pack with Carl,
Oreskovich, Scott Lawrence, Dibb, Keith Kern and Doug Koski chasing. Burdick
raced away to a huge lead as the laps wound down. Oreskovich held onto second,
Carl, Dib and Koski rounded out th top five. High attrition cut the field in half
with ten running and the same in the pits.
The time was getting late due to the late start and officials decided to cut laps
from the remaining features meaning the WISSOTA Late Models would run only
a 15 lap main event. Derek Vesel took the point from the pole followed by Jamie
Lautigar, Terry Lillo, Pat Doar, Kevin Eder and Jeff Massingill. Three laps in the
caution flag flew for debris in turn 3. Vesel hung onto the lead at the restart as
Doar moved past Lillo to second but Lillo was having none of thet and retook the
spot. Coming forward quickly from the fourth row was many time winner Darrell
Nelson picking ‘em off one by one until he arrived in second and set about looking
for a way past Vesel. With a couple laps remaining Nelson found his way past
Vesel for the lead and the win. Doar also got by Vesel kicking him back to third.
Doar tried to steal the win from Nelson but he was unsuccessful. Terry Lillo, and
Keith Niemi were the top five. Nelson set a new track record set in a feature race
wit a quick lap of 15.805 seconds which translated to a tick over an average of 91
mph.
On the WISSOTA Modified side, all 16 cars started what now was a 15 lap
feature. On the pole was Craig Lofdahl better known as Crazy 1 flanked by the
#47 of Danny Vang. Vang wasted little time blowing by Lofdahl to the lead.
Snapping at Lofdahl’s heels were the Broking family led by son Johnny ahead of
Dad Bob. Brandon Copp and Mike Anderson trailed ahead of Shane Sabraski and
Al Uotinen. The status quo remained in effect as the Brokings gave chace with
Johnny in the lead. Lofdhal had dropped out, Copp stayed in fourth while Sabraski
moved to fifth. Vang stayed out in front while behind him things began to ripple.
First Copp was able to split up the family by getting by Bob Broking. The only
caution flag of the event then flew an, on the restart, Copp got by Johnny Broking
and closed rapidly on Vang as ther were only four laps left. Copp made a strpng
move on Vang and managed to pull off the win over Vang, Johnny and Bob
Broking and Uotinen who finished fifth. Earlier Uotinen had lost contact with the
leaders but the caution allowed him to close up and grab the fifth spot.
It was time for the Pure Stock feature which was cut to ten laps. The race got
off to a slow start when the initial one was called back. Pole sitter Dylan Shelton
took over the lead trailed by Tom Treviranus, Aaron Bernick, Tristan
Scheuermann and Jared Akervik. Shelton staked a claim on the lead while there
was a battle for second amongst several cars. Scheuermann won out on that
skirmish and eased into second. With two laps to go he closed up on Shelton and
made the pass for his first ever feature win as well as his first ever sweep in the
Pure Stocks. Trevor Treviranus also got by Shelton to finish second, Bernick was
fourth and Jorgensen was fith.
The evening’s festivities finished up with 10 laps for the WISSOTA Hornets.
Casey Fitzpatrick held off a determined DeJay Jarecki for his first feature win as
well as his first sweep. Nathan Rose, Jr, Kristy Marken and Reid Johnson ran in
the top five.
Coming up at Gondik Law Speedway next week is a two day show dubbed the
Wisconsin Modified Nationals. For mor information see the Gondik Law
Speedway website.
