Photos below story
by Nick Gima
Ashland, WI, July 26 – On a hot, humid late July Saturday night at the ABC Raceway, four of the five features were won in runaway fashion, the other was won by inches, and six more inductees were added to the track’s Hall of Fame.
The program, presented by Boomer’s Bar & Grill of Ashland, was completed in just over three hours on a sticky-fast, multi-groove track. Temperatures were in the upper 80s to low 90s at race time and didn’t ease much from there by the show’s end.
The inductees into the ABC Raceway Hall of Fame included AH Roffers Construction Co in the Contributor category, drivers Bonnie Berndt, Shawn McFadden and Willie Rahko, and Jane Asbach and Kevin MacArthur in the Volunteers category.
The one close feature came in the Dalbeck Sales WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds, where former four-time track champ Paul Suzik of Ironwood, MI, eeked out his first feature win of the season here by the absolute slimmest of margins – .001 seconds – over national Mid-Mod points leader Tyler Vernon in a thrilling finish.
Impressive rookie Jacob Anderson led from the pole over the first half of the 20-lap run, despite challenges first from Canadian visitor Mike Jacques and later from defending track champ Marcus Dunbar. Suzik, who started on the inside of row 5, raced with Jimmy Latvala for a time for fourth before claiming the position, then took third from Jacques on lap 7, but was well back of the lead pair.
Dunbar overtook Anderson for the lead on a clean pass on lap 11 and pulled away to a 1.1-second margin before Matt Jacobson’s spin on lap 13 brought the field back together. Then, a lap after the restart, several of the frontrunners got clogged up along the front straight, with Dunbar scraping the outside wall and Suzik slipping by into the lead. The chaos caused a ripple effect through the field that ended with Kolby Reed spinning and collecting Tad Schoonover in turn 2.
Suzik led the field on that restart and had Dunbar on his heels for the next four laps. But Dunbar got a little too close as the pair came out of turn 4 with the white flag in the air; Suzik spun and Dunbar was penalized to the back, setting up a green-white-checkered sprint. Vernon opted for the outside of the row directly behind Suzik and pulled alongside to challenge for the win. Suzik held firm to the inside line, Vernon swept off the top of the final turn, and in the photo finish Suzik was recorded as the winner by less than a foot, for his 12th career feature win here but first since August of his 2023 championship season.
Current track points leader James Vendela clawed his way through over the final two laps to finish third, just ahead of Anderson and Latvala.
Brandon Copp of Brule won a Fuhrman Designs WISSOTA Modified feature at ABC for the first time since August 19, 2023 – the same night at Suzik’s last win here. The division’s 2022 champ started outside on the front row and led every lap, with only a late-race caution slowing his pace.
Copp outran polestarter Dunbar out of the first pair of turns, with Brady Uotinen working the lower line to get by Dunbar for second a lap later. It took Copp a good seven laps before he had a full-second margin over Uotinen, while car issues dropped Dunbar from the event, allowing Vernon to move up to third, with Nick Oreskovich and divisional points leader Justin Weinberger well behind.
Copp hit his marks perfectly and increased his lead to nearly two seconds by lap 15 of the 20 scheduled, but Jake Hiatt’s spin brought Uotinen and the rest of the field back to the leader’s rear bumper. As Copp later said in Victory Lane, “I saw Brady’s nose in every corner during those last five laps,” but he held off Uotinen’s threats for his 14th career ABC Raceway feature win, by less than half a second.
Vernon and Oreskovich came home third and fourth, respectively, and Pat Cook used a late pass of Weinberger to claim fifth.
Ashland’s Steve Stuart put on another clinic in how to dominate a Lightning Storm Graphics WISSOTA Super Stock A-main, leading all 20 laps from the pole for his third feature win of the year here this summer and 51st of his career, while closing the gap in the standings on points leader Terran Spacek.
After Randy Graham’s car stalled on the front straight on the initial green flag, Stuart beat everyone into turn 1 and immediately swept up to his favored high line, with Shawn McFadden following him into second ahead of Don Livingston. On lap 2 visiting Canadian veteran Rick Simpson used the upper lane to drive around Jeff Eisner and Trenton Bond to take fifth, and three laps later he used a similar move to take fourth from Livingston.
Stuart’s lead was up to well over four seconds just eight laps in when Eisner spun to bring out the yellow flag. On the restart some aggressive moves by those ahead of him caused Eisner’s car to break loose and collect visiting Travor Arens into the infield for another quick caution stop. Then, on the next restart, Simpson pulled alongside McFadden and Patrick Beeksma in a three-wide attempt to take second, which he successfully completed on lap 14.
Stuart stayed well ahead of the jostling behind him for a final 3.85-second margin of victory, with Simpson, McFadden, Beeksma and Livingston in tight formation for second through fifth.
Amery’s Eric Crosby continued his ownership of this season’s WISSOTA Pure Stocks, leading Saturday’s 10-lap feature flag-to-flag for his fifth win of the season here and seventh of his career here.
Crosby started outside on row 2 and followed Shane Basina past polestarter Michael Pederson during the first lap. On lap 2 Crosby squeezed by Basina for the lead, and with no caution flags to delay him Crosby worked his way to a substantial lead.
The top four in the running order settled into an evenly-spaced alignment of Crosby, Basina, Aaron Bernick and Pederson as the laps clicked off to the checkered flag. The only real battle on the track was for fifth, where rookie Dylan Helget raced side-by-side with 85-years-young Zene Anderson for much of the race’s closing laps. Only on the final circuit did Helget get the better of Anderson for the top-five finish.
Travis Swanson of Ashland led flag-to-flag from his pole-position start in the non-stop 15-lap Berglund Customs Six-Cylinders A-main for his second feature win of 2025 and the 11th of his career here.
The battle for second between Cameron Bond and Cody Eichmann had as much to do with Swanson pulling away to a huge early lead as did Swanson’s smooth line and strong race car. Behind Bond and Eichmann, rookie Kyle Weber led a tight pack of six cars – including divisional points leader Basina and second-in-points Roger Walker – debating fourth place. On lap 3 Eichmann finally displaced Bond for second, while former track champ Dale Coddington worked past Weber for fourth.
Swanson’s lead peaked at about 2.6 seconds on lap 6, but from there Eichmann inched his way closer. A couple of circuits later, some close-quarters bumping, shuffling and checking-up provided Basina with an opening to move from sixth to third, leaving Walker caught behind Bond and causing Coddington to dive his car to the infield and out of contention.
Over the final five laps Eichmann trimmed Swanson’s lead to about a second-and-a-half, but Swanson was still far enough ahead for the win. Basina finished a distant third – his worst feature finish of the season to date – ahead of Bond and Walker.
The sticky track conditions produced some very quick lap times throughout the program. The Basina Racing feature fast-laps were set by Uotinen in the Modifieds (16.340 seconds; 82.619 mph), Stuart in the Super Stocks (16.798; 80.367), Dunbar in the Midwest Mods (16.713; 80.755), and Swanson in the Sixes (18.259; 73.936). No fast lap was recorded in the Pure Stock feature, although Crosby ran a lap of 19.209 seconds (70.280 mph) in his heat race.
On Saturday, August 2, the ABC Raceway will hold a backpack giveaway for 1st-5th grade students attending that night’s program, while WISSOTA Street Stocks will be added to the show, running for $600 to win in their feature. The show will be presented by the Ashland-Bayfield County Sportsmen’s Club. Fans, race teams and businesses are welcome to donate to cover the costs of the backpacks by contacting either Eric Erickson at (715) 209-2102 or Nick Gima at (715) 292-2030.
The pit gates will open at 4:30 pm and the grandstand gate opens at 5, with hot laps starting at 6:30 and green-flag action beginning at 7 pm. The ABC Raceway is located 3-1/2 miles south of Ashland on State Highway 13 and one mile west on Butterworth Road. For raceday information call (715) 682-4990, log on to the track’s website, www.abcraceway.com, or check out its FaceBook page.
Results
Fuhrman Designs WISSOTA Modifieds
Feature: 1-10: Brandon Copp, Brule; Brady Uotinen, Superior; Tyler Vernon, Mason; Nick Oreskovich, Mason; Pat Cook, Washburn; Justin Weinberger, Elk Mound; Cole Spacek, Woodruff; Lance Schilling, Laporte, MN; Cody Carlson, Superior; Jake Hiatt, Mason.
11-12: Marcus Dunbar, Marenisco, MI; Jeff Spacek, Phillips.
Heat 1: Cook; Vernon; Schilling; Dunbar; J Spacek; Hiatt.
Heat 2: Weinberger; Copp; Uotinen; Oreskovich; Carlson; C Spacek.
Lightning Storm Graphics WISSOTA Super Stocks
Feature: 1-10: Steve Stuart, Ashland; Rick Simpson, Thunder Bay, ON; Shawn McFadden, Ashland; Patrick Beeksma, Ironwood, MI; Don Livingston, Washburn; Terran Spacek, Phillips; Jason Melton, Rhinelander; Jeff Eisner Jr, Merrill; Jake Nevala, Ashland; Trenton Bond, Iron River;
11-13: Trevor Arens, Hibbing, MN; Randy Graham, Trego; Rita Anderson, South Range.
Heat 1: Stuart; Eisner; Bond; Simpson; Graham; Matt Deragon, Ashland; Josh Schmidt, Elk River; MN; Dalton Truchon, Washburn.
Heat 2: Spacek; McFadden; Beeksma; Livingston; Melton; Nevala; Arens; Anderson.
Dalbeck Sales WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds
Feature: 1-10: Paul Suzik, Ironwood, MI; Tyler Vernon, Mason; James Vendela, South Range; Jacob Anderson, Superior; Jimmy Latvala, Solon Springs; Tanner Hicks, Ashland; Antonio Pintaro, Osseo; Judd Skubal, Rhinelander; Ryan Barningham, Bayfield; Mason Musel, Cloquet, MN.
11-18: Matt Jacobson, Bessemer, MI; Marcus Dunbar, Marenisco, MI; Tad Schoonover, Eagle River; Cade Johnson, Iron, MN; Mike Jacques, Thunder Bay, ON; George Dalbeck, Wakefield, MI; CJ Hedges Jr, Tripoli; Kolby Reed, Kakabecka Falls, ON.
Heat 1: Suzik; Pintaro; Jacques; Musel; Johnson.
Heat 2: Latvala; Dunbar; Jacobson; Hicks; Barningham; Skubal.
Heat 3: Dalbeck; Anderson; Vendela; Vernon; Reed; Schoonover.
WISSOTA Pure Stocks
Feature: 1-6: Eric Crosby, Amery; Shane Basina, Bayfield; Aaron Bernick, Duluth, MN; Michael Pederson, Duluth, MN; Dylan Helget, South Range; Zene Anderson, Superior.
Heat: Crosby; Basina; Bernick; Pederson; Helget; Anderson.
Berglund Customs ABC Six-Cylinders
Feature: 1-10: Travis Swanson, Ashland; Cody Eichmann, Park Falls; Shane Basina, Bayfield; Cameron Bond, Mason; Roger Walker, Phillips; Mathew Rohlfing, Grand View; Kyle Weber, Drummond; Alex Bond, Iron River; Jim Anderson, Cable; Tyler Gervais, Ashland.
11-12: Dale Coddington, Hayward; Mady Anderson, Cable.
Heat 1: Coddington; Eichmann; Swanson; C Bond; J Anderson; Gervais; Brad Hanson, Glidden.
Heat 2: Basina; Rohlfing; Walker; Weber; A Bond; M Anderson; Jimmy Stearns, Superior.
