Balduc, Walker Make Long-Awaited Returns to ABC’s Victory Lane
by Nick Gima
Ashland, WI, June 28 – Neil Balduc of Bessemer, MI, and Roger Walker of Phillips each returned to Victory Lane for the first time in a long while in their respective features on Saturday night at the ABC Raceway.
The fast-paced Educators Appreciation Night program, presented by WIMI, 99.7 FM, of Ironwood, MI, and SuperOne Foods, was run off in just a shade under two-and-a-half hours on a wide, smooth track under warm, humid conditions.
Balduc started on the pole for the 20-lap Fuhrman Designs WISSOTA Modified A-feature and battled early with fellow front-row starter Jake Hiatt, with visiting Jody Bellefeuille joining the pair for what turned into a race-long slugfest for the win. They pulled away from an equally entertaining dogfight between Brady Uotinen, Pat Cook, Cody Carlson, Nick Oreskovich and Andrew Hanson for fourth.
The race stayed under green for the entire distance, which kept the pressure on Balduc. Hiatt worked outside to edge ahead on a couple of different occasions during the first half of the run, and Bellefeuille was never more than a second behind the lead pair, but by lap 7 Balduc finally assumed the point for good, although not by much. Balduc hugged the bottom groove of the red-clay oval for all he was worth, while Hiatt and Bellefeuille continued to chase him around the outermost lane.
Balduc finally pushed his advantage to nearly a second-and-a-half with seven laps remaining, as Cook joined in on the festivities for second. Bellefeuille finally cleared Hiatt, who began to fade back, and chopped Balduc’s lead to less that a half-second at the white flag, but Balduc held on for his 11th career ABC Raceway feature win and first since July 2021, before taking a three-year hiatus from racing.
Bellefeuille’s charge got him to within a third of a second at the checkers, while Cook followed at a distance in third, Uotinen claimed fourth, and Hiatt settled for fifth.
Walker started on the outside of row 1 and made quick work of polestarter Mady Anderson, then led every circuit of the non-stop 15-lap Berglund Customs Six-Cylinders headliner for his first feature win here since August 2006. Shane Basina, the division’s points leader, started outside on row 4 but was up to third within a half-lap, drawing to runner-up Cameron Bond’s trunklid by the end of lap 1.
Walker pushed his lead out to over 2.25 seconds as Basina struggled to get by Bond. But once into second, on lap 5, Basina began to slice big chunks from Walker’s lead, trimming it to a second-and-a-half with six laps left, and then down to two-thirds of a second as Walker reached slower traffic with five to go.
Walker caught a break as Basina struggled to get by one of the backmarkers, extending his lead to nearly a full second a lap before taking the white flag. But Walker himself had to check up behind a slower car on that final lap, allowing Basina to reach the leader’s rear push bar going through the final corners. Walker led by just enough to beat Basina to the final stripe by a quarter-second, while Bond finished up an impressive third, just ahead of Alex Bond and Travis Swanson.
Terran Spacek of Phillips led only the final 50 feet or so of the Lightning Storm Graphics WISSOTA Super Stock 20-lap feature, as he nipped Matt Deragon at the line for his second straight feature win here.
In the only race all night with multiple caution flags, Deragon edged ahead to lead lap 1, before Rita Anderson’s spin brought about the first delay. The 15-car field then clicked off the next 11 laps under green, with Deragon leading Kyle Copp, Steve Stuart, Dalton Truchon and Spacek, who had started eighth.
Spacek worked the low line to get by Stuart for third and began a fierce battle with Copp for second on lap 3, allowing Deragon a little breathing room. But by lap 6 Spacek stole the spot and got to within a car-length of the leader by the race’s midpoint. Just as Spacek pulled alongside Deragon on lap 12, Don Livingston’s spun ride brought about another caution flag, and on that restart Spacek charged past Deragon for the lead, while ninth-starting Shawn McFadden made a great outside move up to third. But those passes were all negated by a Jakob Bond-Jeff Eisner get-together before the lap was completed.
As the lead pair again separated from the rest of the pack over the final eight laps, Deragon protected the low lane while Spacek continued to try to get by. On the final lap Spacek pulled alongside on the back stretch, and with the benefit of outside-line momentum, Spacek edged Deragon at the line by 29 one-thousandths of a second – less than a foot – for his 11th feature win at Ashland.
Copp ran third the entire second half of the race and stayed ahead of Stuart and McFadden to complete the top five.
James Vendela of South Range fought off the threats of a determined Ryan Savoy to win his second Dalbeck Sales WISSOTA Midwest Modified headliner of the season here. Vendela led every lap but never enjoyed a comfortable advantage throughout the 20-lap run, which was stalled only once by a late caution flag.
Vendela started outside on the front row and beat polestarter Savoy through the first pair of turns to claim a lead he would not surrender, while Jimmy Latvala, Paul Ripley and visiting Eric Anderson fought hard for third. Savoy never really fell very far back from the leader, staying less than a second back throughout the run. Ripley eventually won the debate for third and closed on the lead pair as the race stayed under green, and things got interesting as the trio closed on and began to maneuver through slower traffic not long after the halfway point.
On lap 16 visiting Braedyn Kirtland and Antonio Pintaro collided to bring about the race’s only yellow flag – and the first of the night, as the nine heat races ran off non-stop and the Mid-Mods took to the track first for the round of features. Ripley moved low to try to take second from Savoy on the restart but couldn’t make the pass stick, and Vendela beat Savoy to the checkers by a third of a second.
At a distance after Ripley in third, Late Model racer Dave Flynn finished an impressive run from 13th to fourth in Savoy’s spare car, and Anderson came home fifth.
Aaron Bernick of Duluth, MN, outran defending WISSOTA Pure Stock track champ Eric Crosby by a quarter-second for his second win in that division’s non-stop ten-lap A-main tonight.
Crosby started outside on the front row and sped around polestarter Michael Pederson to grab the initial lead, but Bernick, who started directly behind Crosby, followed him to second right away, while visiting Dustin Holub had all he could handle with Basina in a great race for third. Bernick took a couple of looks to the inside on Crosby just before mid-race, to no avail, but he took advantage of a slight bobble by the leader on lap 6 and completed the winning pass.
Crosby had a chance to get back by on lap 7, but Bernick closed the door and held on from there for his second win of the season at Ashland and the fifth of his career here. Holub came home third just ahead of Basina, and rookie Dylan Helget finished a distant fifth.
Prior to heat race action, the Raceway honored Pure Stock driver Zene Anderson, who celebrated his 85th birthday on this night. Members of his family offered cupcakes to the fans, Anderson was presented with a gift certificate to a popular supper club in Superior and an ABC Raceway hoodie, and the crowd on hand serenaded him with a verse of “Happy Birthday to You.”
The ABC Raceway will host a very special night of racing on Thursday, July 3, when White River Ag Products presents the fourth annual Farm Stock Special, honoring the Northland’s farmers and agricultural workers. Northern Clearing Inc will be the presenting sponsor of the WISSOTA Late Models for the first of their three visits here this season, joined by the Modifieds, Midwest Mods, Super Stocks, and the Raceway’s own Six-Cylinders.
As an added attraction, former NASCAR star and Daytona 500 winner Ryan Newman will be at the track, racing in a Late Model, signing autographs, and giving two lucky fans rides in the track’s two-seat Modified.
Tickets are on sale via the My Race Pass website and app, as well as at the track on Thursday. The pit gates will open at 4 pm and the grandstand gate at 5 pm, with hot laps starting at 6:30, and green-flag action beginning around 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: Neil Balduc, Bessemer, MI; Jody Bellefeuille, Carlton, MN; Pat Cook, Washburn; Brady Uotinen, Superior; Jake Hiatt, Mason; Andrew Mackey, Ashland; Nick Oreskovich, Mason; Cole Spacek, Phillips; Justin Weinberger, Elk Mound; Marcus Dunbar, Marenisco, MI.
11-13: John Toppozini, Thunder Bay, ON; Jeff Spacek, Phillips; Cody Carlson, Superior.
Heat 1: Uotinen; Cook; Balduc; Oreskovich; C Spacek; Dunbar.
Heat 2: Carlson; Bellefeuille; Mackey; Hiatt; Weinberger; J Sacek.
Lightning Storm Graphics WISSOTA Super Stocks
Feature: 1-10: Terran Spacek, Phillips; Matt Deragon, Ashland; Kyle Copp, Brule; Steve Stuart, Ashland; Shawn McFadden, Ashland; Andy Grymala, Superior; Patrick Beeksma, Ironwood, MI; Don Livingston, Washburn; Dalton Truchon, Washburn; Trenton Bond, Iron River.
11-15: Jeff Eisner Jr, Merrill; Jake Nevala, Ashland; Rita Anderson, South Range; Jason Melton, Rhinelander; Jakob Bond, Mason.
Heat 1: Spacek; Eisner; Truchon; Deragon; Mcfadden; J Bond; Anderson; Livingston.
Heat 2: T Bond; Stuart; Melton; Copp; Grymala; Beeksma; Nevala.
Dalbeck Sales WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds
Feature: 1-10: James Vendela, South Range; Ryan Savoy, Superior; Paul Ripley, Duluth, MN; Dave Flynn, Superior; Eric Anderson, Chisholm, MN; Paul Suzik, Ironwood, MI; Jimmy Latvala, Solon Springs; Cory Jorgensen, Hermantown, MN; Marcus Dunbar, Marenisco, MI; Antonio Pintaro, Osseo.
11-15: Ross Fuhrman, Ashland; Jonny Nowak, Proctor, MN; Ryan Barningham, Bayfield; Tad Schoonover, Eagle River; Braedyn Kirtland, Mass City, MI.
Heat 1: Vendela; Latvala; Sasvoy; Dunbar; Barningham; Pintaro; Flynn; Schoonover; Kirtland.
Heat 2: Ripley; Jorgensen; Suzik; Anderson; Fuhrman; Nowak; Matt Jacobson, Bessemer, MI; Tanner Hicks, Ashland.
WISSOTA Pure Stocks
Feature: 1-7: Aaron Bernick, Duluth, MN; Eric Crosby, Amery; Dustin Holub, Chetek; Shane Basina, Bayfield; Dylan Helget, South Range; Michael Pederson, Duluth, MN; Zene Anderson, Superior.
Heat: Crosby; Bernick; Basina; Holub; Pederson; Helget; Anderson; Jason Simonson, Poplar.
Berglund Customs ABC Six-Cylinders
Feature: 1-8: Roger Walker, Phillips; Shane Basina, Bayfield; Cameron Bond, Mason; Alex Bond, Iron River; Travis Swanson, Ashland; Tyler Gervais, Ashland; Mady Anderson, Cable; Justin Pratt, Glidden.
Heat 1: S Basina; Swanson; A Bond; Gervais; Myron Basina, Bayfield.
Heat 2: Walker; C Bond; Pratt; Anderson; Cody Eichmann, Park Falls.
