NORTHERN NATIONALS DAY 3
By Jerry O’Brien
Superior, WI
The final day of the 31st Annual Northern nationals at Gondik Law Speedway
contrasted with Friday in that while Friday was partly cloudy and in the mid 70’s,
Saturday dawned under cloudy skies and temperatures that barely rose above the
60 degree mark.
The track preparation crew worked very hard overnight and were still packing
the track almost right up to the first race. They were quite successful as the
surface, while still showing some shallow spots after hot laps, was much better
than the previous night and it would improve even more as the night progressed.
Racing picked up where it ended the night before as the first feature, a 20 lap
event for the Midwest Modifieds took to the track with Tyler Vernon and Marcus
Dunbar on the front row, but Vernon did not start. The event got off to a bad start
when cars wrecked on the start in the first and second turn, an incident caused by
Jason Haugerud. Dunbar jumped to the lead over Jimmy Latvala with David
Simpson, Mark Kangas and Skeeter Estey following. Caution flag number two
flew when Wyatt Boyum, Adam Shinn and James Kannegiesser tangled. On the
restart David Swearingen shot past Latvala to pull up on Dunbar in second. Those
two proceeded to pull away from the battle between Estey, Kangas and Latvala for
third. Dunbar and Swearingen gapped the third place battle and they all pulled
away from Jason Vandekamp who was running sixth. Just at the halfway mark,
Swearingen made his move and slipped past Dunbar to the lead. Swearingen
maintained the point to the checkered flag with Dunbar, Kangas, Estey and
Latvala finishing in the top five.
Next up it was 25 laps for the WISSOTA Super Stocks with rookie Kyle Copp
on the pole next to veteran racer Scott Lawrence. This race would prove to be a
difficult one as eight caution flags broke up the action. Lawrence grabbed the lead
at the green with Copp and Kevin Burdick behind. The caution flag came out for
Dan Severson. On the restart Copp got the jump and took the lead which lasted for
a lap before a debris caution again slowed the action. Lawrence regained the lead
on the restart over Copp and Burdick, but then trouble hit Lawrences’ car and he
began to slow drastically on the back stretch. It seemed everyone would miss him
as he hugged the wall, but DJ Keeler apparently didn’t see the almost stopped car
and slammed into the back of it. Both were out, as it turned out, for the rest of the
night. Copp then retained the lead on the restart as first Burdick then Matt
Deragon continued to chase him through two more caution periods until, with 13
laps remaining, Burdick took the top spot. Seventh starting Dave Flynn was
moving through the field to third behind Copp while Nick Oreskovich who had
started 16th had found his way to the top five. Soon after deragon spun on his own
in turn two bringing out caution flag number seven. With eight laps to go, Burdick
had the lead with Flynn second. Burdick bobbled in turn four and Flynn shot
through the open door to the lead. One more debris caution slowed the action and
the restart came with four laps to go. Flynn stayed in front beating Burdick to the
checkered flag for his first Northern nationals feature win. Oreskovich, Copp and
Dexton Koch rounded out the top five.
The final feature from the previous day was for the WISSOTA Modifieds. Greg
Chesley driving his own car recently purchased from Kevin Eder sat on the pole
next to cody Wolkowski. Chesley took the lead at the green with Wolkowski, Rick
Niemi, Kelly Estey and Cody Carlson trailing. Carlson slowed on the back stretch
and brought out the caution flag. The restart came with two laps in the books. The
restart saw Wolkowski get the jump on Chesley for the point. Then Estey, Darrell
nelson and Scott Lawrence got past Chesley leaving him in fifth. Charging
through from the fourth row was Johnny Broking through to second and, on lap
seven took over the top spot. Nelson, Estey, and Lawrence were next with Donnie
Lofdahl up to fifth from tenth. Another debris caution set the restart with 19 laps
to go. Nelson chased Broking for severl laps with Estey, Lawrence and Lofdahl
close behind. Caution number three appeared when something may have broken
on Broking’s car as he spun in turns one and two and retired. Yet another caution
flag flew when Cole Spacek spun collecting Paul Niznik with Todd Gehl narrowly
missing Niznik. Nelson was now in control and pulled away from estey who, in
turn pulled away from Lawrence. Steve Lavasseur had been on the move from 14th
and was now in fifth. Also Mike Anderson had come from 18th to get by Lavasseur
and Lawrence to finish fourth behind Lofdahl. It was Nelson’s first Modified win
at the speedway of 2019 and his sixth Northern Nationals Championship.
With all of the features from the previous day completed it was time to get
down to the business of the scheduled events.
It would be a busy rest of the evening as there were a total of 129 cars in
competition including two dozen WISSOTA Late Models. After the required heat
races and B Features, the first to take to the track was the 20 lap main for the
Midwest Modifieds. Marl Kangas and Colin Chaschuk led the 25 car field to the
green with Chaschuk to the lead. Though there were four caution flags, Chaschuk
was able to maintain the lead despite tries by Kangas, Skeeter Estey and Jason
VandeKamp to take the lead. In fact he was able to lead every circuit to win by 2.6
seconds over second place Kangas. It was the first win at the speedway for
Chaschuk.
Next up were the Super Stocks and this time Kevin Burdick did not let the win
get away from him as he led every lap to win going away despite three caution
flags. In the early going he was hounded by Matt Deragon, Dexton Koch, Kyle
Copp, Shane Sabraski, Cory Casari and Dave Flynn. None were able to make get
close enough to make a pass for the lead. Burdick captured his 33 feature win on
the 2019 season and his third Northern nationals title. The two time track
champion won the Nationals twice in a row. Copp, Flynn, Koch and Deragon were
the top five.
The WISSOTA Modified feature was cut to 25 laps in the interest of time
savings. Jeremy Nelson and Al Uotinen found themselves on the front row and, at
the green it was Uotinen who got the big jump to the lead a position he would
never give up as he led from flag to flag through a pair of caution flags. He led
Jermy Nelson and darrell nelson along with Ashley Anderson and Andy Jones in
one combination or another for several laps. Some of them were then replaced by
Dan Ebert, Scott Lawrence, Cody Carlson and Greg Chesley. In the waning laps it
came down to a familiar sight, Al Uotinen’s #98 dueling with Nelson’s #44. This
time Uotinen prevailed over Nelson with Jones, Lawrence and Ebert in the top
five. His margin of victory was 3.1 seconds.
The 31st Northern Nationals finished up the regular program with 30 laps of
Late Model action. Darrell Nelson led from the pole with Dan Ebert aboard the
#66 usually driven by Eric Breeschoten. This time Nelson was determined and
dueled with former track champ Travis Budiaslovich the entire distance after
getting by Ebert who led the first lap. There was a single caution flag seven laps
into the event for Jeffery Lein, Jr racing in one of his first Late Model races.
Though Budiaslovich threatened for a while, nelson prevailed for his sixth
Northern Nationals Late Model championship. Budiaslovich, Ebert, Terry Lillo
and Mike Prochnow finished in the top five.
For the past several years at the Northern Nationals to show appreciation for
the support by our Canadian neighbors, they have run what is called a Canadian
Dash. Money is solicited from the crowd and added to seed money out up by the
track to raise the purse for a race between the Canadian Midwest Modified drivers
on hand since they are the division that brings the most Canadian drivers. This
year there were an even dozen drivers from north of the border and the purse for
the 12 lap dash was up over three thousand dollars with $700 going to the winner.
Tanner Williamson in the #88t Midwest Modified was the winner ahead of Colin
Chaschuk, David Simpson, Scott McKinnon and Jeff Kelly in the top five.
