ABC Raceway Opens with Wins for Weinberger, Stuart, Ripley, Crosby, & Basina
by Nick Gima
Ashland, WI, May 24 – The Northland’s continued stretch of cool late-May temperatures did not dissuade the crowd of hearty fans on hand at the ABC Raceway anxious for the start of the 61st season of stock-car racing. And that crowd could not have been too disappointed at the action presented on Saturday night.
The season-opening five-division program, presented by the Northern State Bank, included a special Military Appreciation Night salute to those serving and who have served in our Nation’s Armed Forces, presented by the Ashland Area Chamber of Commerce. Despite a 20-minute delay in getting the program underway, the final checkered flag of the night still dropped right at 10 pm.
Justin Weinberger of Elk Mound got his 2025 campaign at ABC off to a very positive start by scoring his first-ever feature win at Ashland in the Fuhrman Designs WISSOTA Modifieds. It was the ninth win of his career overall at the historic northern Wisconsin oval and his first here since July 2020.
Weinberger started on the pole and led every one of the 20 non-stop feature laps, taking the checkers just short of six minutes later on the fast, smooth, racy red-clay track. He built a very healthy advantage early in the run, extending his lead to as much as 1.1 seconds just three laps in, while fifth-starting Nick Oreskovich needed that many laps just to weave his way through into second.
Once in the runner-up spot, however, Oreskovich whittled away at Weinberger’s cushion while himself drawing away from the third-place battle between Cody Carlson and Pat Cook. Just past the halfway point Oreskovich was within three-quarters of a second of the leader, and in the closing laps Weinberger wasn’t much more than a quarter-second ahead. Oreskovich poked the nose of his racer to the inside on Weinberger going through turn 4 as the leaders came to the white flag, but Weinberger maintained a sufficient margin over that final lap for the landmark win.
Tyler Vernon edged past Carlson on the final lap for third-place money, and Cook cruised him a comfortable fifth.
Ashland’s Steve Stuart, the four-time defending Lightning Storm Graphics WISSOTA Super Stock track champion, continued to show his title-winning form by scoring his 49th career victory on Saturday – tying him for sixth on the track’s all-time win list with 1980s-‘90s Six-Cylinder star Jule Wilcox.
Outside front-row starter Jakob Bond slid high through turn 2 on the initial start, allowing Stuart to follow polestarter Matt Deragon into second with Andy Grymala claiming third. Stuart had an early opportunity at the lead on lap 4 as he moved to a higher lane and got a run on Deragon, but Bond and Myron Basina connected to bring about the first of three caution stoppages during the first third of the event’s 20-lap distance.
Stuart continued to work the outside line for the next couple of laps after the restart until a strong drive out of turn 4 on lap 5 earned him the spot. A five-car mess a lap later slowed the pace, followed by a two-car get-together on the ensuing restart, but Stuart used his preferred high-line route to hold off Deragon during the middle stages of the race.
On lap 9 Deragon tried a low-lane challenge for the lead, and although Stuart held him off, he also dropped down to that lower line to protect his lead and foil any further attempts to pass by Deragon. This gave Terran Spacek unhindered use of the upper lanes to gain significant ground on the lead pair over the latter half of the run. Spacek got by Deragon on lap 13 and then trimmed Stuart’s .775-second margin down to less than three-tenths of a second with two tours remaining, but Stuart withstood the threat for the win.
Deragon kept third, with an impressive run by Super Stock rookie Dalton Truchon earning him a fourth-place finish ahead of Shawn McFadden.
Paul Ripley of Duluth, MN, put together the most dominant feature performance of the night, besting David Simpson by nearly three full seconds to win the Dalbeck Sales WISSOTA Midwest Modified A-main.
After a spin by Matt Jacobson in turn 1 during the initial start of the race, the 20 laps were run without further interruption, with Ripley grabbing the lead right away from the pole and not letting go, ahead of Simpson and defending Mid-Mod champ Marcus Dunbar, with Paul Suzik getting by Ryan Barningham for fourth.
Ripley put on a clinic, taking just seven laps to build a lead of over two seconds, and he led Simpson by 2.5 seconds when he put backmarker Jonny Nowak a lap down during the 11th circuit around the three-eighths-mile oval. Ripley worked skillfully through the slower traffic over the final six laps, while Simpson and now-third-running Tyler Vernon seemed to struggle to sift their way through, and Ripley was still 2.5 seconds ahead when he took the white flag.
With a winning margin of 2.984 seconds, Ripley scored his second career win at ABC, with the other coming during the Memorial Day weekend show here in 2023. Simpson held off Vernon for second, Dunbar finished a distant fourth, and Tanner Hicks faded early but fought his way back to finish fifth.
Defending national and ABC WISSOTA Pure Stock champion Eric Crosby of Amery made it very clear – both on the track and in Victory Lane – that he has every intention of defending both titles in 2025, as he withstood several challenges after a late-race restart to take Saturday’s 12-lap feature win.
A last-minute shuffle in the starting line-up put visiting George Richards on the outside of the second row – with Crosby to his left – and he shot past the front-row pair of Zene Anderson and rookie Dylan Helget into the initial lead. Soon thereafter Crosby duplicated Richards’ move into second, then worked his way to the inside on Richards on lap 3 to take over the pacesetting duties.
Further back, Aaron Bernick and Shane Basina were temporarily mired in traffic before finally working past Anderson on lap 4. Bernick and Basina needed a break to eliminate the huge margin that the lead pair had established, and they got it when a two-car tangle on lap 7 erased the big deficit.
Crosby had a few car-lengths on Richards when that caution came out, but he was unable to re-establish that advantage. Nevertheless, Crosby held on to win his third career ABC Raceway feature by four-tenths of a second. Richards had all he could do to fight off Bernick’s challenges for second, while Basina faded back a bit but still maintained fourth, well ahead of fifth-finishing Jason Simonson.
Basina, the two-time defending Berglund Customs Six-Cylinder champ here, had a much better result in that division’s feature, although it still wasn’t a cakewalk. Basina started in row 4 – seventh out of the ten scheduled starters – and had to survive a late restart and threats from Roger Walker throughout the 15-lap run.
Polestarter Mathew Rohlfing edged ahead of Walker to start the event, with Basina following as part of a four-wide formation debating third. After two laps, Basina was in position to slip low to pass Walker, and three circuits later the defending champ used a similar move to take the lead away from Rohlfing.
Walker followed Basina into second and hounded the leader for the next seven laps until they came up on Tyler Gervais to put the rookie a lap in arrears. Just then the rear fender of Gervais’ car flew off, forcing Basina and Walker to each take a lane around the debris to avoid hitting it. The resulting caution stop, as well as a subsequent one for a two-car mess on the restart, gave Walker just three quick final laps to steal the lead, but Basina held on for the 11th feature win of his career.
Rohlfing followed at a distance in third, ahead of former three-time Sixes champ Dale Coddington and tenth-starting Cameron Bond.
The fastest laps in each feature, as presented by Basina Racing, were posted by Weinberger in the Modifieds (16.696 seconds; 80.858 mph), Deragon in the Super Stocks (17.364; 77.747), Ripley in the Mid-Mods (17.123; 78.841), and Richards in the Pure Stocks (18.878; 71.512). A malfunction in the electronic scoring system during the Six-Cylinder feature did not record a fastest-lap time for that race.
Next Saturday the ABC Raceway will host its annual Kids’ Meet the Drivers Night festivities, presented by the Heartland Communications Group of radio stations in Ashland and Iron River. Kids of all ages will be welcomed onto the front straightaway of the red-clay oval to get an up-close look at the race cars, meet their racing heroes, and maybe get a treat or two.
All five divisions will be in action, with the grandstand and pit gates opening at 5 pm and hot laps starting at 6:30, followed by the “meet-and-greet” session. The first heat race of the night should get the green flag shortly after 7. 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: Justin Weinberger, Elk Mound; Nick Oreskovich, Mason; Tyler Vernon, Mason; Cody Carlson, Superior; Pat Cook, Washburn; Marcus Dunbar, Marenisco, MI; Jake Hiatt, Mason; Cole Spacek, Phillips; Brady Uotinen, Superior; Andrew Mackey, Duluth, MN.
11-12: Shaun Kreyer, Hayward; Jeff Spacek, Phillips.
Heat 1: C Spacek; Carlson; Uotinen; J Spacek; Hiatt.
Heat 2: Cook; Vernon; Weinberger; Oreskovich; Dunbar; Mackey.
Lightning Storm Graphics WISSOTA Super Stocks
Feature: 1-10: Steve Stuart, Ashland; Terran Spacek, Phillips; Matt Deragon, Ashland; Dalton Truchon, Washburn; Shawn McFadden, Ashland; Andy Grymala, Superior; Patrick Beeksma, Ironwood, MI; Jason Melton, Rhinelander; Jake Nevala, Ashland; Myron Basina, Bayfield.
11-14: Paul Gucinski, Superior; Trenton Bond, Iron River; Rita Anderson, South Range; Jakob Bond, Mason.
Don Livingston, Washburn; ;
Heat 1: J Bond; Beeksma; Truchon; Grymala; Gucinski; Basina; Anderson.
Heat 2: Stuart; Spacek; McFadden; Deragon; Nevala; T Bond; Melton.
Dalbeck Sales WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds
Feature: 1-10: Paul Ripley, Duluth, MN; David Simpson, Thunder Bay, ON; Tyler Vernon, Mason; Marcus Dunbar, Marenisco, MI; Tanner Hicks, Ashland; Paul Suzik, Ironwood, MI; James Vendela, South Range; George Dalbeck, Wakefield, MI; Ryan Barningham, Bayfield; Tad Schoonover, Eagle River.
11-13: Judd Skubal, Rhinelander; Jonny Nowak, Proctor, MN; Matt Jacobson, Bessemer, MI.
Heat 1: Vernon; Dunbar; Vendela; Barningham; Schoonover; Jacobson, Skubal.
Heat 2: Simpson; Suzik; Ripley; Hicks; Dalbeck; Nowak.
WISSOTA Pure Stocks
Feature: 1-10: Eric Crosby, Amery; George Richards, Mondovi; Aaron Bernick, Duluth, MN; Shane Basina, Bayfield; Jason Simonson, Poplar; Michael Pederson, Duluth, MN; Zene Anderson, Superior; Dylan Helget, South Range; Ryan LaBorde, South Range; Keith Arnett, Frederic.
Heat 1: Crosby; Richards; Anderson; Helget; Arnett.
Heat 2: Bernick; Basina; Simonson; Pederson; LaBorde.
Berglund Customs ABC Six-Cylinders
Feature: 1-10: Shane Basina, Bayfield; Roger Walker, Phillips; Mathew Rohlfing, Grand View; Dale Coddington, Hayward; Cameron Bond, Mason; Jim Anderson, Cable; Tyler Gervais, Ashland; Cody Eichmann, Park Falls; Alex Bond, Iron River; Mady Anderson, Mason.
Heat 1: Eichmann; Walker; Coddington; J Anderson; Gervais; C Bond.
Heat 2: Basina; Rohlfing; A Bond; M Anderson; Travis Swanson, Ashland.