by Nick Gima
Ashland, WI, June 1 – They say the third time is a charm. “They” haven’t been hanging around the Northland much this Spring.
Once again, heavy overnight rains created unfavorable conditions at the ABC Raceway, forcing track officials to once again come to the difficult decision to cancel the 60th season opener on Saturday. That’s three straight cancellations, resulting in a rather odd start to the 2024 season.
“We’re more disappointed than our fans and racers that we can’t get this season going,” said Raceway Board president Eric Erickson shortly after the vote came down to cancel. “Our people have been working so hard to get this place ready, but the weather doesn’t want to cooperate.”
The program was to include the opening round of the nine-race FastLane Motorsports Northland Super Stock Series, to be presented by the NAPA Auto Parts Stores of Ashland and Washburn. The Series, in its tenth season, will now consist of eight shows over the next two weekends, at eight different tracks in northwestern Wisconsin and northeastern Minnesota, and could draw as many as 80 different WISSOTA Super Stock entries from throughout the Upper Midwest to its various shows.
ABC is now slated to host race 4 of the series on Saturday, June 8. Track officials will announce an updated purse structure for that event soon.
The ABC Raceway is one of the three charter tracks of the Series – Superior and Proctor, MN, are the others – which has hosted or will host FastLane Series races in each of the tour’s ten seasons. Other tracks hosting programs in this year’s Series are located in Rice Lake and Menomonie in Wisconsin, and in Grand Rapids, Ogilvie and Sauk Rapids in Minnesota.
The Superior Floral WISSOTA Super Stocks will be joined by the Furhman Design WISSOTA Modifieds, Lightning Storm Graphics WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds, Patsy’s Bar WISSOTA Pure Stocks, and Berglund Design ABC Six-Cylinders for the June 8 program.
Fans are advised that wristbands purchased for the rained-out May 25 program will be honored at either the June 8 or June 15 race programs at ABC. Because of the increased admission price for the June 8 show, fans are advised that they will only have to pay the ticket price difference when redeeming their May 25 wristband at the grandstand admission gate that night.
The May 25 wristband is good for a fully-paid admission to ABC’s June 15 show.
More information regarding upcoming events at the ABC Raceway is available on the track’s website, www.abcraceway.com, and via its FaceBook page.
