by Nick Gima
Ashland, WI, June 13 – On a cool mid-June evening, the ABC Raceway inducted six new members into its Hall of Fame, while the track’s Victory Lane saw five new winners in 2026.
The Hall of Fame ceremonies were presented by Boomer’s Bar & Grill of Ashland. The inductees for the Class of 2026 were drivers Jim Day, Dave Gillette and Greg Kuklinski; contributor Lloyd Orensten; and volunteers Jack Shubat and Pete Sokolich. Also honored was 2024 driver inductee Brian Mikkonen, who was unable to attend the ceremonies two years ago.
With several other area Saturday night tracks either not running or giving some of their divisions a night off, ABC saw a significant number of visiting racers check into the pits. As a result, a season-high 77 cars took to the track on this night for WISSOTA Dirt Track Series action.
Technically, only four drivers were first-time visitors to Victory Lane here on Saturday, as Tyler Vernon of Mason dominated the Top Groove Racewear WISSOTA Modifieds headliner tonight. Vernon had won the Dalbeck Sales WISSOTA Midwest Modified features on each of the first two nights of the season, but took the “big Mod” feature win for his first in that class in 2026.
Polestarter Kennedy Swan led the field to the green and beat Vernon through the first turns to set the early pace, with Andrew Inman and Cole Chernosky in tow. Swan maintained a little cushion for the first three laps, but Vernon adjusted his line and shot by on the outside to take the lead on lap 4, and from there he would not be bested.
By midrace Vernon was already putting backmarkers a lap down while building on a three-second margin, and not long after that Chernosky worked his way past Swan for second. The non-stop 20-lap run worked to Vernon’s favor, as he cruised to a final winning margin of almost 3.4 seconds over Chernosky for his 25th career feature win at ABC and his fourth here in a Modified.
Swan held on for third-place money just ahead of Inman and a charging Brandon Copp.
Ashland’s Matt Deragon had not won a feature at ABC since August 2023, but starting on the outside of the front row of the Bulldog Auto Repair WISSOTA Super Stocks gave him a favorable opportunity to end that drought, and he took full advantage.
After a caution stoppage on the initial start for a spin by Jakob Bond, Deragon won the battle for the lead with polestarter Kyle Copp and held a half-second edge when the yellow flag waived again on lap 3 for Dalton Truchon’s spin. From there the rest of the 20-lap affair ran without interruption, which worked out well for Deragon.
Copp, who had dominated in Superior the night before en route to a long-time-coming win of his own, lost touch with Deragon while settling into a duel with Terran Spacek over much of the remaining distance. Further back, Canadian visitor Rick Simpson held a solid fourth ahead of a battle between Patrick Beeskma, Steve Stuart and Cole Chernosky for fifth. On lap 7 Shawn McFadden moved past that cluster of cars to take fifth, and just after midrace he took fourth from Simpson.
Deragon led by as much as 1.5 seconds during the closing laps, but working through slower traffic caused him to decrease his pace. It also allowed Copp to close the gap to the leader significantly, but Copp ran out of time as Deragon was a half-second ahead as he took the checkers. Spacek was back a bit in third but safely ahead of McFadden and Stuart.
The Dalbeck Sales WISSOTA Midwest Modified A-main started with a long delay after a five-car melee on the initial start. Then young Canadian hotshoe Kolby Reed took the lead from the pole and surprised many by pacing the next 14 laps of the 20-lap run.
It took just three laps under green for Reed to build up a full-second advantage on first-time visitor Adam Martinson. Marcus Dunbar, the four-time track champ from Marenisco, MI, quickly moved past Vernon and Cade Johnson into third, and one lap later Jimmy Latvala followed suit to take fourth.
Martinson shaved Reed’s margin in half by lap 7, only to see Reed increase his lead to 1.5 seconds two laps later as Dunbar began to work on Martinson for second. Then a series of yellow-flag slowdowns stunted the progress of the race and put Dunbar and Martinson on Reed’s back bumper. On the lap 10 restart Martinson was swallowed up as the result of a slow reaction to the restart, and a circuit later Dunbar slipped past Reed to take over at the point.
On lap 14 Reed’s car coasted to a stop on the front straight, ending his promising run. After one more restart for Ryan Barningham’s wounded racer, Dunbar outran Vernon over the closing laps for his first win of the season and 13th of his career here overall, by a 1.19-second cushion.
Tenth-starting Ryan Savoy overcame the carnage around him for a third-place effort, while Latvala and 15th-starting Paul Ripley also scratched their way into the top five.
Before 2026 not a single member of the well-known and successful Wahlstrom racing family had ever won a feature in the 62-year history of the ABC Raceway. On Saturday night, Simon Wahlstrom of Mikana became the second member of that family to win here in three weeks.
During ABC’s opening-night action Josh Wahlstrom took the win in the USRA Late Models’ first-ever feature here. On this night Simon, the current WISSOTA national Pure Stock points leader, pestered polestarter Dylan Helget and Shane Basina as the threesome broke away to pace the early stages of the Bill’s Collision Center WISSOTA Pure Stocks main event.
In the tight battle for the lead Basina spun his ride on lap 3, leaving Helgut to fend off the challenges of both Simon and his brother Tyler Walstrom – which he did valiantly, until the brothers surrounded him and worked their way by with a three-wide pass on lap 4. Simon gained the eventual advantage and led the rest of the way, 1.4 seconds up on brother Tyler at the checkers for his landmark win.
Helget fell back into another three-car dogfight, but he stayed ahead of Austin Fencl and a recovered Basina for third.
Roger Walker of Phillips started the Berglund Customs ABC Six-Cylinders feature on the pole and led every lap despite constant challenges and three restarts for his ninth career feature win here and third in the Sixes.
As soon as the initial green flag Travis Swanson was taking shots at stealing the lead away from Walker, and restarts for Cameron Bond’s spins on laps 5 and 6 kept the entire field close, allowing Shane Basina to move past Cody Eichmann into third and join Swanson in an effort to shake Walker loose.
Even after Tyler Gervais’ stalled racer resulted in a four-lap dash to the finish, Walker held firm to the point, with Swanson and Basina side by side at his flanks. Walker was a scant quarter-second ahead of Basina as the checkers flew, with Swanson directly alongside Basina in third. Bond and Eichmann completed the top five.
The Sixes will get their time in the spotlight on Saturday, June 20, when the ABC Raceway hosts its annual Six-Cylinder Slam, to be presented by Super One Foods. The division will get run features along with their heats, with the total accumulated points on the night determining who will be awarded the professional wrestling-style championship belt.
All five regular weekly divisions will be in action, with the pit gates opening at 4:30 pm, the grandstand gate opening at 5, hot laps starting at 6:30, and the first green flag set to fly at 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. Advance tickets are always available on the My Race Pass website and app.
Results
Top Groove Racewear WISSOTA Modifieds
Feature: 1-10: Tyler Vernon, Mason; Cole Chernosky, Slate River, ON; Kennedy Swan, Chippewa Falls; Andrew Inman, Canyon, MN; Brandon Copp, Brule; Jack Rivord, Superior; Brady Uotinen, Superior; Andrew Mackey, Ashland; Nick Oreskovich, Mason; Mike Anderson, Jim Falls.
11-19: Cole Spacek, Woodruff; Colin Chaschuk, Thunder Bay, ON; Jake Hiatt, Mason; Lance Schilling, Laporte, MN; Hunter Anderson, Bruce; Jody Bellefeuille, Carlton, MN; Ross Fuhrman, Ashland; Marcus Dunbar, Marenisco, MI; David Simpson, Thunder Bay, ON.
Heat 1: M Anderson, Bellefeuille; Swan; Rivord; Hiatt; Schilling; Pat Cook, Washburn.
Heat 2: Copp; Uotinen; Vernon; Oreskovich; Spacek; H Anderson; Fuhrman.
Heat 3: Chernosky; Chaschuk; Inman; Mackey; Dunbar; Simpson.
Bulldog Auto Repair WISSOTA Super Stocks
Feature: 1-10: Matt Deragon, Ashland; Kyle Copp, Brule; Terran Spacek, Phillips; Shawn McFadden, Ashland; Steve Stuart, Ashland; Rick Simpson, Thunder Bay, ON; Patrick Beeksma, Ironwood, MI; Cole Chernosky, Slate River, ON; Leslie Leu, Medford; Trenton Bond, Iron River.
11-15: Don Livingston, Washburn; Jakob Bond, Marengo; Jason Melton, Rhinelander; Rita Anderson, South Range; Dalton Truchon, Washburn.
Heat 1: Simpson; Deragon; Spacek; Copp; T Bond; Melton; J Bond; Anderson.
Heat 2: Stuart; McFadden; Livingston; Truchon; Beeksma; Chernosky; Leu.
Dalbeck Sales WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds
Feature: 1-10: Marcus Dunbar, Marenisco, MI; Tyler Vernon, Mason; Ryan Savoy, Superior; Jimmy Latvala, Solon Springs; Paul Ripley, Duluth, MN; Hunter Brink, Kakabeka Falls, ON; David Simpson, Thunder Bay, ON; Cade Johnson, Eveleth, MN; Bryan Lund, Ashland; Jonny Nowak, Proctor, MN.
11-20: Tanner Hicks, Ashland; James Vendela, South Range; Adam Martinson, River Falls; Austin Polonoski, Thunder Bay, ON; Ryan Barningham, Bayfield; Kolby Reed, Thunder Bay, ON; Connor Kaseno, Marengo; Joe Swearingen, Eau Claire; Antonio Pintero, Osseo; Mason Musel, Cloquet, MN.
21-22: Paul Suzik, Ironwood, MI; Judd Skubal, Rhinelander.
Heat 1: Vendela; Reed; Latvala; Savoy; Skubal; Barningham; Hicks; Kaseno.
Heat 2: Musel; Martinson; Johnson; Lund; Brink; Pintaro; Nowak.
Heat 3: Vernon; Dunbar; Swearingen; Simpson; Ripley; Suzik; Polonoski.
Bill’s Collision Center WISSOTA Pure Stocks
Feature: 1-9: Simon Wahlstrom, Mikana; Tyler Wahlstrom, Rice Lake; Dylan Helget, South Range; Austin Fencl, Bruce; Shane Basina, Bayfield; Anthony Ravina, Duluth, MN; Alex Larson, South Range; Sean Duffy, Stone Lake; Timmy Kin, Greenland, MI.
Heat: S Wahlstrom; T Wahlstrom; Basina; Helget; Ravina; Fencl; Larson; Duffy; Kin.
Berglund Customs ABC Six-Cylinders
Feature: 1-10: Roger Walker, Phillips; Shane Basina, Bayfield; Travis Swanson, Ashland; Cameron Bond, Mason; Cody Eichmann, Park Falls; Alex Bond, Iron River; Kyle Weber, Drummond; Justin Pratt, Glidden; Tyler Gervais, Ashland; Adam Traaholt, Ashland.
Heat 1: Swanson; Walker; Basina; RJ Holly, Marengo; Pratt; Traaholt.
Heat 2: C Bond; Weber; A Bond; Eichmann; Gervais.
