Livingston Collects First-Ever Win, Crosby & Basina Double Up at ABC by Nick Gima
Ashland, WI, May 31 – The annual Kids’ Meet the Drivers Night festivities highlighted another fast-paced race program at the ABC Raceway on Saturday night.
Heartland Communications Group of Ashland and Iron River presented a program that drew a large crowd and a season-high car count and resulted in two repeat winners, two drivers returning to ABC’s Victory Lane after brief absences, and a first-time-ever winner. Despite the “meet-and-greet”
festivities pushing the program’s start time well past 7 pm, the last checkered flag of the night dropped at 10:01 pm.
Mason’s Tyler Vernon started on the pole and led every lap of the Fuhrman Designs WISSOTA Modifieds headline event. Vernon raced side-by-side with fellow front-row starter Cole Spacek over the first three laps before gaining a clear advantage that he did not relinquish on his way to his 17th career feature win at Ashland and third in a “big Mod.”
Once clearly out front Vernon pulled away to a 1.4-second margin, while Spacek battled with defending track Mod champ Mike Anderson. That pair was well ahead of fourth-running Justin Weinberger, who likewise was comfortably ahead of Andrew Mackey and visiting Cole Chernosky. This scenario played out consistently throughout the vast majority of the run, as the first 17 of the event’s 20 laps ran under the green flag.
With five laps remaining Vernon began to deal with the tail-end of the running order while still a full second-and-a-half up on Spacek, who had pulled away from Anderson. However, with three laps left Vernon tried to dive inside to pass the slowing Neil Balduc, who was trying to drive his failing racer to the infield after coming off of turn 2. Vernon barely got by, while Spacek and Anderson cleared without issue to Balduc’s outside, but soon after Anderson tangled with another lapped car and spun, bringing about the lone caution-flag stoppage of the race.
Anderson’s car left the track with damage, giving third to Weinberger for the restart, and Weinberger worked on Spacek for the closing laps as Vernon crossed under the checkers with a one-second margin of victory. Weinberger slipped by Spacek in the final corner to steal second, and Mackey and Chernosky completed the top five.
Don Livingston of Bayfield started on the pole of the non-stop Lightning Storm Graphics WISSOTA Super Stock feature and led every lap for the first feature win of his career in any division. Livingston has raced in a number of classes here since 2007 but has never collected a feature win until this night.
The race was never truly in hand for Livingston despite two factors working in his favor – the pole-position start and the fact that the 20-lap A-main ran to its conclusion without a yellow flag. Matt Deragon, Jason Garner, Terran Spacek and Shawn McFadden stayed close early but could not draw on Livingston, whose advantage ranged from a half-second to a full second during various points of the run.
Deragon separated himself from the other chasers by lap 5, Spacek took over third on lap 8, and those two held a brief but intense battle just after mid-race. Livingston got by backmarker Rita Anderson with three laps left, and Spacek grabbed second from Deragon a lap later, but Spacek could get no closer than three-quarters of a second back as Livingston took the checkers.
Deragon finished third for the second straight week here, followed at a distance by McFadden and Trenton Bond.
Like Livingston did a race later, James Vendela of South Range started on the pole and benefitted from no caution-flag stoppages as he claimed his fourth ABC Raceway feature win and second in a Dalbeck Sales WISSOTA Midwest Modified.
Vendela raced with young Canadian hotshoe David Simpson for the first lap before establishing ownership of the lead, but unlike Livingston he was able to run away and hide from any threats for his position, establishing a healthy 1.38-second cushion within just five laps. Vernon, meanwhile, took just the first two laps to advance from his fifth-place starting spot to third.
Vendela was up by nearly 1.9 seconds when he closed on slower traffic at the 20-lap run’s mid-point. This allowed Simpson and Vernon to slice into that significant margin as the front three maneuvered through the tail-end of the field, but fortunately for Vendela he had enough of that healthy lead left over at the final stripe, winning by eight-tenths of a second over Simpson. Vernon was close behind in third, while George Dalbeck and Paul Ripley completed the top-five at a distance.
Amery’s Eric Crosby of Amery took advantage of Shane Basina’s early-race ill fortune to run away with his second straight WISSOTA Pure Stock feature win, already matching his full-season total from his track championship campaign of a year ago.
Basina started on the pole and led the field through the first corner of the ten-lap finale, but his car suddenly slowed entering the back-straight, causing the rest of the field to jam up behind him before he could clear the track. The complete restart put rookie Dylan Helget alongside Jason Simonson for the re-do, but Crosby made quick work of them and assumed the pacesetting duties.
Aaron Bernick followed Crosby into second but couldn’t keep up, as Crosby set a torrid open-field pace. Helget and Simonson, meanwhile, were engaged in the best battle on the track, for third at the time, while running well in front of Zene Anderson.
Crosby took the white flag over 3.78 seconds ahead of Bernick and added another seven-tenths to his winning margin over the final lap.
Simonson edged Helget coming out of the final corner for third-place honors, and Anderson cruised home in fifth.
Basina didn’t go home empty-handed, though, as he took his second Berglund Customs ABC Six-Cylinder feature win in a row.
Basina started outside on row 4 but sliced his way to fourth within the first of the 15 laps, behind polestarter Travis Swanson, Cameron Bond, and first-nighter Cody Roberts. When Bond slipped up the banking in turn 2 on lap 3, Basina pounced on the chance to take over second, and then he caught a break when Roger Walker spun in turn 1, erasing Swanson’s 1.9-second advantage.
Basina opted to stay low behind Swanson for the restart, and that decision paid off with a pass for the lead during lap 8. Basina’s luck continued during the latter portion of the race when, just as he was closing on the tail-end of the field, Justin Pratt looped his ride on lap 11, taking Basina out of trouble.
Swanson chose the inside line on row 2 for the realignment, putting Cody Eichmann alongside, and Eichmann took immediate advantage by driving around Swanson for second one lap after the restart. Eichmann and Swanson continued their battle just behind Basina, who gained a little ground and held a .8-second winning margin. Swanson got Eichmann back for second on the final laps, while Bond and Roberts followed at a distance.
The Basina Racing fast laps were set in each feature by Vernon in both the Modifieds (18.079 seconds; 74.672 mph) and Mid-Mods (18.032; 74.867), Livingston in the Super Stocks (18.418; 73.298), Crosby in the Pure Stocks (19.885; 67.890), and Basina in the Sixes (18.636; 72.247).
The Renegades High Roller Sprint Series will invade the ABC Raceway next Saturday night, as part of what will be a seven-division race program presented by the Bad River Lodge, Casino and Convention Center. Both traditional (non-winged) and winged sprint cars will take to the three-eighths-mile red-clay oval along with the track’s five regular weekly divisions for a full night of heat and feature races.
The grandstand and pit gates will open at 5 pm, hot laps will start at 6:30, and heat race action should get going at 7 pm. Grandstand admission prices are set at $23 for adults and $5 for children.
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: Tyler Vernon, Mason; Justin Weinberger, Elk Mound; Cole Spacek, Phillips; Andrew Mackey, Duluth, MN; Cole Chernosky, Thunder Bay, ON; Pat Cook, Washburn; Cody Wolkowski, Thunder Bay, ON; Jeff Spacek, Phillips; Brandon Copp, Brule; David Simpson, Thunder Bay, ON.
11-20: Brady Uotinen, Superior; Nick Oreskovich, Mason; Cody Carlson, Superior; Evan Checkalski, Duluth, MN; Shane Kisling, Butternut; Jake Hiatt, Mason; Lance Schilling, Laporte, MN; Mike Anderson, Jim Falls; Marcus Dunbar, Marenisco, MI; Neil Balduc, Bessemer, MI.
Heat 1: Anderson; Wolkowski; C Spacek; Dunbar; J Spacek; Carlson; Kisling.
Heat 2: Vernon; Weinberger; Copp; Checkalski; Simpson; Hiatt; Schilling.
Heat 3: Checkalski; Mackey; Cook; Uotinen; Balduc; Oreskovich.
Lightning Storm Graphics WISSOTA Super Stocks
Feature: 1-10: Don Livingston, Washburn; Terran Spacek, Phillips; Matt Deragon, Ashland; Shawn McFadden, Ashland; Trenton Bond, Iron River; Steve Stuart, Ashland; Andy Grymala, Superior; Patrick Beeksma, Ironwood, MI; Jason Melton, Rhinelander; Dalton Truchon, Washburn.
11-14: Jason Garner, Iron River; Jakob Bond, Mason; Jake Nevala, Ashland; Rita Anderson, South Range.
Heat 1: Grymala; McFadden; Spacek; Deragon; Stuart; Beeksma; Truchon.
Heat 2: T Bond; Livingston; Garner; Nevala; Melton; J Bond; Anderson.
Dalbeck Sales WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds
Feature: 1-10: James Vendela, South Range; David Simpson, Thunder Bay, ON; Tyler Vernon, Mason; George Dalbeck, Wakefield, MI; Paul Ripley, Duluth, MN; Cory Jorgensen, Hermantown, MN; Marcus Dunbar, Marenisco, MI; Kolby Reed, Kakabecka Falls, ON; Tanner Hicks, Ashland; Paul Suzik, Ironwood, MI.
11-19: Tad Schoonover, Eagle River; Jacob Anderson, Superior; Mike Jacques, Thunder Bay, ON; Kyle Monteith, Thunder Bay, ON; Keegan Kough, Proctor, MN; Matt Jacobson, Bessemer, MI; Judd Skubal, Rhinelander; Ryan Barningham, Bayfield; Ryan Kough, Isabella, MN.
Heat 1: Vernon; Ripley; Hicks; Simpson; Jorgensen; Suzik; Reed; Schoonover; Skubal; R Kough.
Heat 2: Dalbeck; Dunbar; Vendela; Jacques; K Kough; Monteith; Jacobson; Anderson; Barningham.
WISSOTA Pure Stocks
Feature: 1-7: Eric Crosby, Amery; Aaron Bernick, Duluth, MN; Jason Simonson, Poplar; Dylan Helget, South Range; Zene Anderson, Superior; Keith Arnett, Frederic; Shane Basina, Bayfield.
Heat: Crosby; Bernick; Basina; Simonson; Helget; Anderson; Arnett.
Berglund Customs ABC Six-Cylinders
Feature: 1-10: Shane Basina, Bayfield; Travis Swanson, Ashland; Cody Eichmann, Park Falls; Cameron Bond, Mason; Cody Roberts, Drummond; Alex Bond, Iron River; Jim Anderson, Cable; Tyler Gervais, Ashland; Justin Pratt, Glidden; Mady Anderson, Mason.
11-12: Roger Walker, Phillips; Mathew Rohlfing, Grand View.
Heat 1: Basina; Swanson; Eichmann; Roberts; J Anderson; Gervais; M Anderson.
Heat 2: Walker; A Bond; C Bond; Pratt; Jimmy Stearns, Superior.
