5-19 Page 14 | ATD Racing News

Gondik Law goes green for the 65th time, and opening night winners are Budisalovich, Bellefeuille, Chernosky, Ruzich, Simpson & Smith

By Nick Gima

SUPERIOR, WI (May 15) - Record temperatures in the low 80s and a full field of 90 racers greeted fans for the 65th season opener Friday night at Gondik Law Speedway.

Other WISSOTA Dirt Track Series winners for the opener included Travis Budisalovich, Jody Bellefeuille, Cole Chernosky, Nick Ruzich, Jake Smith, and David Simpson.

Travis Budisalovich, who was shut out from victory lane at Gondik Law last year, started on the pole of the WISSOTA Late Model feature and dominated nearly all 25 laps. Budisalovich ran away from the field like a thief in the night, building an impressive 3-plus second lead ahead of Skeeter Estey, Jeff Massingill, Darrell Nelson, and Darrell’s son, Cade Nelson, within the first four laps.

Estey’s strong run ended in heartbreak on lap six when his car slowed coming off turn four, but he was able to clear the track and the race stayed under green. Budisalovich extended his lead to over five seconds - more than a full straightaway - when he began to work his way through backmarkers. His time weaving through slower traffic allowed new runner-up Darrell Nelson to trim nearly 2 full seconds off the difference, but the deficit grew again to more than 4 seconds as Budisalovich cleared the slower cars and Nelson began to deal with them.

Budisalovich had clear sailing over the next 10 circuits and had lapped up to seventh-place Dave Flynn on lap 22. But the motor in fifth-running Massingill’s car blew up in a dramatic ball of fire as he took the white flag, forcing a green-white-checkered finish. Nelson gave Budisalovich one last challenge heading into turn one on the subsequent restart, but the leader held firm and sped away to a 1.2-second margin of victory.

Nelson, Billy Kendall, Cade Nelson and Pat Doar completed the top five.

While not quite as dominant, defending track champ Jody Bellefeuille led all 20 laps of the WISSOTA Modified feature. After an initial caution for a spun Andrew Inman, Bellefeuille started his run by beating polesitter Deven VanHouse out of the first pair of turns, as Brandon Copp followed him into second.

The lead pair pulled away momentarily before Riley Matthews’ spin on lap two, and they continued their duel after the restart. Meanwhile Cole Boston moved inside to threaten VanHouse for third. Boston completed the pass by lap seven and reeled in Copp over the next few circuits, as Bellefeuille held a .75-second lead margin.

Brady Uotinen’s spin on lap 11, and another caution for a false start following that slow down bunched the field behind Bellefeuille, but over the final nine laps he used the extreme outer edge of the track to rebuild a 1-second lead ahead of the fight for second between Copp and Boston. Bellefeuille eventually extended that cushion to 1.6 seconds as he took the opening-night win, ahead of Copp, Boston, Jack Rivord and VanHouse in the top five.

Bellefeuille was understandably emotional in victory lane, as he dedicated his win to his good friend and former Mod racer Rick Rivord, who is battling serious health issues.

Like Budisalovich, Cole Chernosky also started on the pole and led every lap of the WISSOTA Super Stock opening-night headliner after he did not score a feature win here in 2025.

After second-starter Dalton Truchon lost a tire in the opening corner and stopped in the turn two pit exit, Chernosky edged ahead of fellow Canadian Rick Simpson and held the lead before Matt Deragon’s car was turned around for the race’s second caution on lap three. Chernosky then led the next 14 laps mostly uncontested, building over a 2-second advantage by mid-race, while ninth-starter Joey Jensen clawed his way past Simpson for second and then battled with Dylan Nelson to hold the position.

With seven laps remaining, Chernosky began putting slower cars a lap in arrears while maintaining his healthy margin, but the field came back to him when Danny Doran spun on the backstretch during that same lap. Nelson stole second from Jensen on the race’s final restart and did not let Chernosky stray too far away, challenging the leader with frequent peeks on the inside lane. Chernosky was up to every threat, however, and held on to win by 1.3 seconds.

Jensen, 13th-starter Scott Lawrence and Simpson rounded out the top-five.

David Simpson kicked off the 2026 feature action at GLS with his flag-to-flag win from the pole in the WISSOTA Midwest Modified 20-lapper. After Jonny Nowak’s car stalled in the race’s first turn, Simpson fended off a determined effort by fellow Canadian and first-night visitor Michael Shalley during the course of the run.

The top five runners during the first half of the race were fairly evenly separated; Simpson maintained a lead of about 1.3 seconds on Shalley, who in turn was well ahead of Paul Ripley, Ryan Savoy and Jacob Anderson in the top five.

As Simpson began dealing with backmarkers, Ryan Kough spun just in front of the leader, which bunched up the field again for the race’s final restart. At the green, Anderson slipped past Savoy and Ripley for third, while Simpson again inched away from Shalley.

With two laps left Simpson began weaving through slower traffic again, allowing Shalley to close in with one last charge to take the win away, but Simpson held on to edge his fellow countryman by .75 of a second for his first feature win in Superior in more than a year. Anderson came home third at a distance, followed by Ripley and Savoy.

The WISSOTA Pure Stock feature field only completed five of its scheduled 12 laps due to several multi-car incidents that eliminated nearly a third of the 17-car field.

Jake Smith started behind polesitter Tom Treviranus, but had to wait through two attempts to get the race going - one stoppage for a two-car incident, and another for Aaron Bernick’s spin. Visiting Simon Wahlstrom slipped low to get by Treviranus for the lead on the next attempt, with Smith following in Wahlstrom’s tire tracks to second. Treviranus then slowed to a stop on lap two, bringing about another yellow flag.

On the subsequent restart Tim Carlson - back behind the wheel after a multi-year hiatus - was turned around and collected several other cars. Smith took advantage of that restart to steal the lead from Wahlstrom on lap three, but shortly after that four cars piled up together in turn three to slow the proceedings again. Smith and Wahlstrom were able to pull away from the field over the next two laps, but a Rob Christman turn-around brought the run to another slowdown, and the race’s time limit had expired.

Carlson, Christman and Derek Ament were scored third through fifth in the final rundown.

Nick Ruzich hauled south from Hibbing and led flag-to-flag to score his first career feature win at Superior in the WISSOTA Hornets. Ruzich, who also won the lone Hornet heat earlier, started on the pole and stayed just ahead of the early battle for second between Nathan Penney and Nikota Larson, which was eventually settled by lap three in favor of Penney.

Ruzich maintained just enough of a cushion on Penney, with Larson not far back, throughout the balance of the 12-lap nonstop run, although Larson lost distance on the lead pair as the race reached its final laps. Ruzich led Penney under the checkers by a couple of car-lengths, with Larson in third just ahead of AJ House and Madisyn Olson.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Late Models:

Feature (25 Laps): 1. 31-Travis Budisalovich[1]; 2. 44-Darrell Nelson[4]; 3. 99-Billy Kendall[5]; 4. 44(N)-Cade Nelson[8]; 5. 11-Pat Doar[6]; 6. 24-Aaron Lillo[11]; 7. 11D-Tim McMann[9]; 8. 29F-Dave Flynn[7]; 9. 16-Cory Jorgensen[12]; 10. 79-Kevin Carlson[10]; 11. (DNF) 6M-Jeff Massingill[3]; 12. (DNF) 37X-Skeeter Estey[2]; 13. (DNF) 88-Steve Hucovski[13]; 14. (DNS) 81W-Anthony Woodhull

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 29F-Dave Flynn[2]; 2. 31-Travis Budisalovich[3]; 3. 99-Billy Kendall[5]; 4. 44(N)-Cade Nelson[4]; 5. 11D-Tim McMann[6]; 6. 24-Aaron Lillo[7]; 7. (DNF) 88-Steve Hucovski[1]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 11-Pat Doar[1]; 2. 37X-Skeeter Estey[2]; 3. 44-Darrell Nelson[5]; 4. 6M-Jeff Massingill[3]; 5. 79-Kevin Carlson[7]; 6. 16-Cory Jorgensen[6]; 7. (DNS) 81W-Anthony Woodhull

WISSOTA Modifieds:

Feature (20 Laps): 1. 11-Jody Bellefeuille[2]; 2. 22-Brandon Copp[4]; 3. 33C-Cole Boston[6]; 4. 19J-Jack Rivord[3]; 5. 17-Deven VanHouse[1]; 6. 11JR-Andrew Inman[5]; 7. 70-David Simpson[9]; 8. 64-Evan Checkalski[10]; 9. 37-Danny Young[13]; 10. 9(M)-Riley Matthews[14]; 11. 7-Andrew Mackey[11]; 12. 32III-Cody Carlson[7]; 13. (DNF) 43-Lance Schilling[12]; 14. (DNF) 9-Brady Uotinen[8]; 15. (DNF) 21F-Nick Oreskovich[15]; 16. (DNS) 33C(C)-Cole Chernosky

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 33C-Cole Boston[2]; 2. 32III-Cody Carlson[6]; 3. 22-Brandon Copp[8]; 4. 17-Deven VanHouse[1]; 5. 70-David Simpson[5]; 6. 7-Andrew Mackey[4]; 7. 37-Danny Young[3]; 8. 21F-Nick Oreskovich[7]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 11JR-Andrew Inman[2]; 2. 19J-Jack Rivord[1]; 3. 11-Jody Bellefeuille[7]; 4. 9-Brady Uotinen[4]; 5. 64-Evan Checkalski[5]; 6. 43-Lance Schilling[3]; 7. 9(M)-Riley Matthews[8]; 8. (DNS) 33C(C)-Cole Chernosky

WISSOTA Super Stocks:

Feature (20 Laps): 1. 33C-Cole Chernosky[1]; 2. 25-Dylan Nelson[5]; 3. 21-Joey Jensen[9]; 4. 77-Scott Lawrence[13]; 5. 77K-Rick Simpson[3]; 6. 12K-Duane (DJ) Keeler[6]; 7. 44-Trenton Bond[11]; 8. 26-Kyle Copp[17]; 9. 27-Matt Deragon[4]; 10. 3B-Austin Blom[10]; 11. 24-Andy Grymala[8]; 12. 6-Dan Peterson[15]; 13. 11R-Rita Anderson[12]; 14. (DNF) 2-Don Livingston[14]; 15. (DNF) 5-Danny Doran[16]; 16. (DNF) 80-Steve Stuart[7]; 17. (DNF) 62D-Dalton Truchon[2]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 12K-Duane (DJ) Keeler[2]; 2. 33C-Cole Chernosky[1]; 3. 24-Andy Grymala[4]; 4. 80-Steve Stuart[9]; 5. 21-Joey Jensen[5]; 6. 44-Trenton Bond[6]; 7. 77-Scott Lawrence[8]; 8. 6-Dan Peterson[3]; 9. (DNF) 26-Kyle Copp[7]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 77K-Rick Simpson[3]; 2. 25-Dylan Nelson[6]; 3. 27-Matt Deragon[4]; 4. 62D-Dalton Truchon[8]; 5. 3B-Austin Blom[7]; 6. 11R-Rita Anderson[1]; 7. 2-Don Livingston[5]; 8. 5-Danny Doran[2]

WISSOTA Midwest Mods:

Feature (20 Laps): 1. 70-David Simpson[1]; 2. 8X-Michael Shalley[3]; 3. 71-Jacob Anderson[5]; 4. 28-Paul Ripley[6]; 5. 16-Ryan Savoy[7]; 6. 15-James Vendela[8]; 7. 17-Deven VanHouse[16]; 8. 89-Kolby Reed[2]; 9. 23DD-George Dalbeck[4]; 10. 15(G)-Eric Gadach[11]; 11. 79-Bryan Lund[14]; 12. 62K-Ryan Kough[13]; 13. (DNF) 69-Justin Bassa[12]; 14. (DNF) 21R-Ross Siiter[10]; 15. (DNF) 8-Jonny Nowak[9]; 16. (DNS) 30-Joey Jensen

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 28-Paul Ripley[1]; 2. 15-James Vendela[3]; 3. 89-Kolby Reed[2]; 4. 23DD-George Dalbeck[6]; 5. 8-Jonny Nowak[7]; 6. 15(G)-Eric Gadach[8]; 7. 62K-Ryan Kough[5]; 8. (DNF) 30-Joey Jensen[4]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 71-Jacob Anderson[2]; 2. 16-Ryan Savoy[8]; 3. 70-David Simpson[5]; 4. 8X-Michael Shalley[4]; 5. 21R-Ross Siiter[6]; 6. 69-Justin Bassa[7]; 7. 79-Bryan Lund[1]; 8. (DNF) 17-Deven VanHouse[3]

WISSOTA Pure Stocks:

Feature (12 Laps): 1. 86J-Jake Smith[3]; 2. 38-Simon Wahlstrom[4]; 3. 31(C)-Tim Carlson[6]; 4. 66X-Rob Christman[5]; 5. 00-Derek Ament[17]; 6. 231-Trevor Treviranus[8]; 7. 44P-Peyton Swenson[13]; 8. 925-Dnae Rose[11]; 9. 5M-Michael Pederson[2]; 10. 131-Jessie Treviranus[14]; 11. 67-Alex Larson[15]; 12. 31-Tom Treviranus[1]; 13. (DNF) 69ER-Shane Basina[16]; 14. (DNF) 52W-Austin Fencl[7]; 15. (DNF) 17-Aaron Bernick[12]; 16. (DNF) 10-Anthony Ravina[10]; 17. (DNF) 83-Tyler Wahlstrom[9]

Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 38-Simon Wahlstrom[4]; 2. 31-Tom Treviranus[6]; 3. 66X-Rob Christman[7]; 4. 52W-Austin Fencl[2]; 5. 83-Tyler Wahlstrom[1]; 6. 925-Dnae Rose[5]; 7. 44P-Peyton Swenson[3]; 8. 67-Alex Larson[8]; 9. (DNF) 00-Derek Ament[9]

Heat 2 (6 Laps): 1. 86J-Jake Smith[3]; 2. 231-Trevor Treviranus[5]; 3. 31(C)-Tim Carlson[2]; 4. 5M-Michael Pederson[6]; 5. 10-Anthony Ravina[1]; 6. 17-Aaron Bernick[7]; 7. 131-Jessie Treviranus[4]; 8. (DNF) 69ER-Shane Basina[8]

WISSOTA Hornets:

Feature (12 Laps): 1. 9-Nick Ruzich[1]; 2. 2X-Nathan Penney[2]; 3. 26N-Nikota Larson[3]; 4. 14A-AJ House[4]; 5. 69-Madisyn Olson[6]; 6. 13T-Tyson DeVente[5]; 7. 205-Curtis Oleksuk[8]; 8. 3-Bobby Kent III[7]

Heat (6 Laps): 1. 9-Nick Ruzich[2]; 2. 26N-Nikota Larson[5]; 3. 14A-AJ House[1]; 4. 2X-Nathan Penney[8]; 5. 13T-Tyson DeVente[4]; 6. 69-Madisyn Olson[7]; 7. 3-Bobby Kent III[6]; 8. 205-Curtis Oleksuk[3]