Basina Claims the Belt in ABC Sixes’ Slam
by Nick Gima
Ashland, WI, June 21 – Bayfield’s Shane Basina scored the win in the first of the two features, then came home second in the other, to earn the overall title in Saturday’s third annual Mountain Dew Sixes Slam at the ABC Raceway.
The special event for the unique-to-ABC division, presented by North Star Beverage of Hurley, included two complete points-paying features for the Berglund Customs Six-Cylinders, with a blind-draw inversion of the finishing positions from the first feature to set the starting line-up for the second, and the drivers being introduced to the crowd one at a time, to the theme of a heavyweight prize fight, complete with nicknames and a robe and “championship belt” for the night’s overall champ.
Fourteen cars were scheduled to start the first 12-lap feature, but only 12 made the call, with Basina starting outside on the front row alongside rookie Tyler Gervais. Basina sped out to the initial advantage with Roger Walker in tow, and within a couple quick laps Cody Eichmann completed a top-three that pulled away from a tight group that included Cameron Bond, Dale Coddington and Travis Swanson.
Coddington got caught up in the close-quarters racing and spun on lap 4, drawing the first of the race’s two caution flags and ending his night with damage. Then, three laps after the restart, Alex Bond stopped his car abruptly with mechanical issues in turn 3 to bring about the other yellow-flag stop, erasing Basina’s full-second margin over Walker at the time.
On the last restart of the race Eichmann edged past Walker for second and would fend off every move Walker made to take the spot back for the rest of the run, which allowed Basina to inch away to a second-and-a-half advantage at the final flag and his 14th career feature win, including one in each of the first four shows this season. Well back of the battle for second, 12th-starting Cody Roberts clawed his way past Swanson for fifth.
Basina drew a “5” for the invert, putting him inside on the third row and Swanson on the pole for the second feature, which was trimmed to ten laps, and Swanson wasted no time putting distance on what turned out to be a seven-car field, after the carnage and mechanical woes suffered by half of the field earlier. On the second lap Basina squeezed by Walker and Eichmann for third, and one circuit later Basina got by Roberts for second, with Swanson already two full seconds ahead.
As the race clicked off non-stop Basina couldn’t chop away at much of Swanson’s advantage until the final four laps, when he was able to close to within 1.13 seconds, but that was more than enough of a margin for Swanson to score his tenth career win at Ashland. Roberts concluded a very impressive overall performance with a solid third-place run, just ahead of Eichmann and Walker.
Defending track points champ Mike Anderson of Jim Falls used a dramatic come-from-behind charge to slip past Brandon Copp on the final lap and win his first Fuhrman Designs WISSOTA Modified feature of the season here and seventh of his career at ABC.
Anderson started inside on the third row and had to bide his time during the 20-lap headliner, as Copp, who started on the pole, outran fellow front-row starter Cole Spacek to a full-second lead within the first three laps. Anderson was battling with Justin Weinberger for fourth when Nick Oreskovich’s spun ride stopped on the front straightaway grass, bringing about the only yellow-flag slowdown of the race on lap 7 and eliminating Copp’s 1.9-second lead.
Copp went to the high side of the multi-groove track to try to rebuild his lead, but others – like Spacek, Anderson and visiting Andrew Inman – found the high line to their liking as well, and over the remaining laps of the race Copp was pressured mercilessly. Inman charged around Spacek, Weinberger, and Anderson to steal second by mid-race, and Anderson followed suit to bother both Inman and Copp a couple circuits later.
Anderson dove low late in the race to take second away from Inman, and he was right on Copp’s tail going under the white flag. Copp drove smoothly through turns 1 and 2, hoping to keep his momentum going, but Anderson found some traction coming out of turn 2 and edged ahead for good, holding off Copp’s last-corner charge by a half-second, with Weinberger, Inman and Pat Cook following closely to complete the top five.
Terran Spacek of Phillips dominated the second half of the 20-lap Lightning Storm Graphics WISSOTA Super Stock feature for the tenth feature win of his career at ABC, despite a late-race caution.
Spacek started from the pole, but it was fellow front-row starter Patrick Beeksma who got the upper hand early, slipping away to a half-second advantage and leaving Spacek to do battle with Shawn McFadden for second. After a couple of laps Spacek drew away from McFadden and closed on Beeksma again before Jake Nevala spun his racer on lap 5. On that restart Spacek pulled alongside Beeksma, edged ahead at the stripe to complete lap 7 by less than a foot, and completed the pass for the lead within another half-lap.
By the halfway point Spacek was over a full second ahead of Beeksma, as divisional points leader Steve Stuart worked his preferred outside line to swoop around McFadden for third. Matt Deragon dove low to take fourth on lap 14, just before a Trenton Bond spin bunched the field together and erased Spacek’s 2.2-second lead. But no one could stay with Spacek for the final dash, as he quickly drove off to a 1.8-second final advantage. Beeksma led a tight pack of cars in the battle for second, with Deragon, Stuart and Andy Grymala not far behind.
This night marked the 275th feature race run at ABC for the Dalbeck Sales WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds, and Mason’s Tyler Vernon, the division’s points leader, marked this historic occasion with one of his own – his 40th feature win overall, and the 18th of his career at Ashland.
Vernon, who is enjoying an outstanding season in both the Mid-Mod and the “big Mod,” started outside on the front row, beat James Vendela out of turn 2, and led every one of the 20 laps. The lead pair pulled away from visiting Antonio Pintaro, who had a half-dozen drivers taking multiple shots at stealing third from him throughout the run.
The first fifteen laps ran under green, and Vendela, while not able to close, stayed six-tenths of a second or less behind Vernon as the pair clicked off laps and closed on the tail-end of the running order. Then, with five laps to go, visitor Mason Musel looped his ride to stop the contest. While this didn’t affect the efforts of the lead pair – Vernon went on to win by .87 seconds over Vendela – George Dalbeck took advantage of the restart to dive low on Pintaro and steal third with two laps left. The visitor then got shuffled back, as Paul Ripley and Tanner Hicks also got by to claim fourth and fifth, respectively.
Amery’s Eric Crosby of Amery took his third WISSOTA Pure Stock feature win in four nights of racing here in what turned out to be a hard-fought slugfest decided by a green-white-checkered finish.
Aaron Bernick started from the pole and led visiting Austin Fencl through the early stages of the ten-lapper, while the sixth-starting Crosby threaded his way through thick traffic to move into third by lap 2. The lead trio pulled away within a couple of circuits, with George Richards soon joining the leaders to create an entertaining four-car showdown.
On lap 7 Crosby made an inside move work on Bernick to lay claim to the lead, with Richards repeating the move on Fencl for third, before Basina’s broken ride on the front straight set up the final two-lap sprint. While he couldn’t pull away, Crosby did have a .38-second buffer between him and Richards, who stole second from Bernick on the final lap. Fencl also edged past Bernick as the lead pack finished in close formation just ahead of Caleb Duffey.
The ABC Raceway would like to thank the following for their generous contributions to the Mountain Dew Sixes Slam points fund: Bond Racing, Alex Bond, Basina Racing, Vernon Racing, Weber Racing, Berglund Customs, Wittling Dirt Work, High Winds Beauty, JP Limousine, Synergy Co-Op, Finnlander Corner, Wild Rose Motorsports Marketing, Luger Trucking, Rich Morrison Lucky 7 Racing, Midland Services, Visions First Realty, and Wolff Family Farms. In addition, many fans and other businesses contributed throughout the program to help push the overall points fund for the event to over $2,000.
Day-long temperatures soaring into the low 90s, combined with uncomfortably high humidity, made for some very challenging track preparation conditions, but the red-clay surface was smooth, wide, and sticky-fast throughout the program. The Basina Racing fast laps set in each feature were by Copp in the Modifieds (16.739 seconds; 80.650 mph), Spacek in the Super Stocks (17.255; 78.238), Vernon in the Mid-Mods (17.192; 78.525), Crosby in the Pure Stocks (18.908; 71.398), Walker in the first Sixes feature (18.465; 73.111), and Swanson in the second Sixes run (18.416; 73.306).
Next up at the ABC Raceway will be Educator Appreciation Night, presented by WIMI, 99.7 FM, of Ironwood, MI, and Super One Foods, on Saturday, June 28. The track’s five regular weekly divisions will take to the three-eighths-mile red-clay oval for a full program of heat and feature races.
The grandstand and pit gates will open at 5 pm, hot laps will start at 6:30, and heats will get started shortly after 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: Mike Anderson, Jim Falls; Brandon Copp, Brule; Justin Weinberger, Elk Mound; Andrew Inman, Canyon, MN; Pat Cook, Washburn; Cole Spacek, Phillips; Andrew Mackey, Ashland, WI; Kennedy Swan, Chippewa Falls; Tyler Vernon, Mason; Neil Balduc, Bessemer, MI.
11-14: Marcus Dunbar, Marenisco, MI; Bryan Hessler, Chetek; Nick Oreskovich, Mason; Jeff Spacek, Phillips.
Heat 1: Anderson; Weinberger; Mackey; Cook; Oreskovich; Swan; Dunbar.
Heat 2: Copp; Inman; C Spacek; Balduc; Vernon; J Spacek; Hessler.
Lightning Storm Graphics WISSOTA Super Stocks
Feature: 1-10: Terran Spacek, Phillips; Patrick Beeksma, Ironwood, MI; Matt Deragon, Ashland; Steve Stuart, Ashland; Andy Grymala, Superior; Shawn McFadden, Ashland; Jakob Bond, Mason; Randy Graham, Trego; Dalton Truchon, Washburn; Rita Anderson, South Range.
11-13: Trenton Bond, Iron River; Jason Melton, Rhinelander; Jake Nevala, Ashland.
Heat 1: Stuart; Deragon; Truchon; J Bond; Nevala; Anderson; T Bond.
Heat 2: Beeksma; Grymala; Spacek; McFadden; Graham; Melton.
Dalbeck Sales WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds
Feature: 1-10: Tyler Vernon, Mason; James Vendela, South Range; George Dalbeck, Wakefield, MI; Paul Ripley, Duluth, MN; Tanner Hicks, Ashland; Antonio Pintaro, Osseo; Paul Suzik, Ironwood, MI; Marcus Dunbar, Marenisco, MI; Ryan Barningham, Bayfield; Jimmy Latvala, Solon Springs.
11-16: Matt Jacobson, Bessemer, MI; Mason Musel, Cloquet, MN; Judd Skubal, Rhinelander; Michael Grover, Chetek; Ayden Walker, Rhinelander; Tad Schoonover, Eagle River.
Heat 1: Vernon; Pintaro; Dalbeck; Hicks; Ripley; Dunbar; Musel; Skubal; Barningham; Grover.
Heat 2: Vendela; Suzik; Jacobson; Cory Jorgensen, Hermantown, MN; Bryan Lund, Ashland; Schoonover; Cade Johnson, Iron, MN; Latvala; Walker.
WISSOTA Pure Stocks
Feature: 1-10: Eric Crosby, Amery; George Richards, Mondovi; Austin Fencl, Bruce; Aaron Bernick, Duluth, MN; Caleb Duffie, Chippewa Falls; Dylan Helget, South Range; Jason Simonson, Poplar; Anthony Schultz, Stillwater, MN; Dnae Rose, Gordon; Shane Basina, Bayfield.
Heat 1: Crosby; Bernick; Duffie; Basina; Helget.
Heat 2: Richards; Fencl; Simonson; Schultz; Rose.
Berglund Customs ABC Six-Cylinders
Feature 1: 1-10: Shane Basina, Bayfield; Cody Eichmann, Park Falls; Roger Walker, Phillips; Cody Roberts, Drummond; Travis Swanson, Ashland; Myron Basina, Bayfield; Cameron Bond, Mason; Justin Pratt, Glidden; Tyler Gervais, Ashland; Alex Bond, Iron River.
11-12: Mathew Rohlfing, Grand View; Dale Coddington, Hayward.
Feature 2: 1-7: Swanson; S Basina; Roberts; Eichmann; Walker; C Bond; M Basina.
Heat 1: Swanson; Coddington; Eichmann; C Bond; Rohlfing; A Bond; Jimmy Stearns, Superior.
Heat 2: S Basina; M Basina; Walker; Gervais; Pratt; Mady Anderson, Cable; Roberts.
