by Nick Gima
Ashland, WI, May 25 – A gorgeous May evening quickly turned soggy when a fast-moving thunderstorm front passed through the Chequamegon Bay area right at the ABC Raceway’s scheduled start time, forcing the track’s Board of Directors to cancel its 2024 racing season opener, to have been presented by Northern State Bank, for the second straight week.
The 60th season under the direction of the Ashland-Bayfield County Racing Association will now try to kick off with the first night of the FastLane Motorsports Northland Super Stock Series, to be held on Saturday, June 1, and to be presented by the NAPA Auto Parts Stores of Ashland and Washburn. The Series, entering its tenth season, will include stops on nine nights over the next three weekends, at eight different tracks in northwestern Wisconsin and northeastern Minnesota, with ABC the only track to host two events.
ABC is offering an unprecedented purse for the opening night of the Series, which includes a Series-record $4,000 feature winner’s share and four-figure paychecks to each of the top five feature finishers. Early estimates are calling for over 50 Superior Floral WISSOTA Super Stock entries coming to Ashland next Saturday to kick off the Series and run for the big money.
The Series will return on Saturday, June 8, for race number 4 of its schedule. The ABC Raceway is one of the three charter tracks of the Series (Superior and Proctor, MN, are the others), having hosted the Series in each of its nine prior seasons. Other tracks hosting races in this year’s Series are in Rice Lake, Menomonie and Superior in Wisconsin, and in Proctor, Grand Rapids, Ogilvie and Sauk Rapids in Minnesota.
Full-program racing in the Lightning Storm Graphics WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds, the Patsy’s Bar WISSOTA Pure Stocks, and the Berglund Design ABC Six-Cylinders will also be part of the June 1 program at ABC.
More information regarding upcoming events at the ABC Raceway is available on the track’s website, www.abcraceway.com, and via its FaceBook page.