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Sabraski, Bellefeuille, Star, Paull, Christman and Penney pick up checkers after Gondik Law goes green on Friday night

By Nick Gima

SUPERIOR, WI (May 29) - A second night of clear skies and temperatures in the 80s at race time made for a nearly perfect setting for Friday night’s racing action at Gondik Law Speedway. By the time the final checkered flag flew, three drivers collected their first-ever feature wins in WISSOTA Dirt Track Series racing.

Victors during the beautiful night of action included Shane Sabraski, Jody Bellefeuille, Steve Stuart, Garrett Paull, Rob Christman and Nathan Penney.

Paull started from the pole, led every lap despite some tense moments, and collected his first-ever feature checkers here in the WISSOTA Midwest Modified 20-lapper.

Paull, a second-generation driver, paced the field just ahead of Jacob Anderson, who was busy holding off Ryan Savoy’s inside-lane move for second. Paull put a little distance on the close-knit five-car battle behind him during the first three laps until Jonny Nowak’s racer spun to bring about the first of four caution flags.

During the next five laps Paull had his hands full fending off Anderson, Savoy, James Vendela and David Simpson, but he had just started to break away a bit when Ross Siiter spun for another stop.

The racing became dicey behind the leader over the next four laps as Simpson got by Anderson for third, Vendela passed Simpson for second, and Simpson and Anderson both overtook Vendela again on lap 12, just before contact with Simpson sent Anderson’s car for a spin and collected fifth-place Savoy.

Paull kept his composure through the next seven laps while drivers swapped positions behind him. The leader was up by nearly a full second with the white flag waving, but fourth-place Paul Ripley slowed on the track with a flat tire, forcing a one-lap dash to the checkered. Simpson took one last look at stealing the lead on the restart, but Paull held on to get his landmark win by seven-tenths of a second.

Vendela, Anderson, and an impressive Adam Shinn rounded out the top five.

The WISSOTA Pure Stock feature was in doubt almost to the very end of its 12-lap run, but Rob Christman survived the mayhem and earned his first feature checkered flag at his home track.

Polesitter Jessie Treviranus surrendered the lead to her brother Trevor just after the initial green flag waved, as Austin Fencl followed along to second. Two laps later Jessie’s car began to smoke heavily, and the tight-quarters racing behind her scattered as she stopped to bring about the first of two caution flags.

Shortly after that restart Christman slipped past Fencl into second, and he stayed tight to Trevor Treviranus’ back bumper for the next couple of laps, until Trevor’s car also began puffing a cloud of smoke. As that yellow flag came out, Jessie’s and Trevor’s dad Tom Treviranus pulled into the pits with an ailing racer, leaving Christman to lead the field back to green for the final six laps.

There was plenty of three- and four-wide racing just behind the leader, with at least two drivers scraping the concrete walls around the perimeter of the track, but it was not until the final two laps that Christman began to build a lead, eventually crossing the final stripe 1.2 seconds ahead of ninth-starter Jake Smith, the opening-night Pure Stock winner. Simon Wahlstrom edged Aaron Bernick and Fencl to fill out a tight third through fifth places.

Despite a small turnout of WISSOTA Hornets, the evenly matched field put on a good show in both its heat race and the 12-lap feature, the latter of which resulted in the career-first feature win at GLS for South Range’s Nathan Penney.

Penney and polesitter Nick Ruzich, who won his first feature in Superior two weeks ago, raced side-by-side and just ahead of Nikota Larson and Brady Fosso, who also raced door-to-door for the first couple of laps. On lap two Penney gained the advantage on Ruzich, and on lap five Larson took third when Fosso’s car failed him and he pulled into the pits.

Only once did it look as though Penney might give up the lead, when a bobble in turn one on lap nine turned him sideways in front of Ruzich. But Penney made a nice save and eventually built a three-car margin as the laps wound down for his landmark win, with Ruzich and Larson completing the top three.

The 25-lap WISSOTA Late Model feature seemed to belong to Travis Budisalovich for the second straight show, but a late restart took what looked to be a sure-thing win for Budisalovich and handed it to Shane Sabraski.

Budisalovich, who started on the pole, built a second-and-a-half lead in just two laps, pulling away from a fierce battle for second between Sabraski and Johnny Broking. As the pace settled a bit over the first eight laps, Broking and Sabraski were joined by defending track champ Dave Flynn, with Pat Doar not far back in the top five.

Robbie Cooper’s spin brought the field back together for a restart and a green-flag run of nine more laps, during which Budisalovich drew away once again. Behind him Sabraski, who took over second on the redo, seemed to have the only car capable of staying on pace with the leader, albeit 1.6 seconds back. A strong Kevin Carlson made things interesting in challenging Doar for fourth, before Doar surged ahead to take on Broking.

Cade Nelson’s car failed him on lap 17 to bring about the race’s final stoppage, but on the restart Broking made a strong run under Budisalovich. Broking’s momentum caused him to drift up the racing groove, resulting in heavy contact with Budisalovich and opening up the bottom groove for Sabraski to slip by. Within another lap Sabraski had darted away to a nearly full second lead.

Over the final seven laps Sabraski built an advantage of more than 3 seconds to take his first win here this season, with Broking a distant second. Doar moved into third with a couple laps remaining and held firm there, just ahead of Carlson and 10th-starter Billy Kendall.

For the second straight program here, Jody Bellefeuille led all 20 laps of the WISSOTA Modified headliner. Starting on the outside of the front row, Bellefeuille beat polesitter Andrew Mackey through the first set of corners and was never challenged from there.

Using the high line, Bellefeuille pulled away to a 3-second lead on the battle for second between Mackey and Andrew Inman. Not even a restart after a lap five yellow for John Toppozini’s stalled racer could allow the field to challenge Bellefeuille, who cruised away again over the final 15 laps.

Inman took second away from Mackey on that lap five restart, but Broking charged up and took the runner-up spot during lap 10. Broking did cut into Bellefeuille’s nearly 6-second cushion significantly once the leader began working through slower traffic, but he also had to contend with a hard-charging 12th-starter Brandon Copp, who sped around the upper lane to third over the course of the run.

Bellefeuille’s margin of victory was still significant - 2.75 seconds - ahead of Broking and Copp, while 11th-starter Simpson and Mackey completed the top five.

Ashland’s Steve Stuart continued his white-hot start to the 2026 season by running away to the biggest margin of victory of the night in the 20-lap WISSOTA Super Stock feature. Stuart started outside on the front row and bested polesitter D.J. Keeler during the first circuit before the caution flag flew for Leslie Leu’s spun ride.

Trenton Bond used a nice inside move to take second away from Keeler on the restart, but Keeler got him back with an outside-line pass during lap four. Opening-night winner Cole Chernosky followed Keeler’s line to take third two laps later, and Scott Lawrence joined the dogfight among the top-five within a couple more laps. All the while Stuart motored away, leading by more than 4 seconds as he started lapping the back of the field at the race’s midpoint.

With seven laps left Stuart’s lead was nearly 5.5 seconds, or a full straightaway, and he continued to build on that margin while negotiating slower traffic, eventually finishing with a huge 7.9-second buffer when he took the checkers. Keeler held off Chernosky for second, and Sabraski passed two cars on the final lap to take fourth just ahead of Lawrence.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Late Models:

Feature (25 Laps): 1. 7A-Shane Sabraski[4]; 2. 45J-Johnny Broking[2]; 3. 11-Pat Doar[8]; 4. 79-Kevin Carlson[3]; 5. 99-Billy Kendall[10]; 6. 30-Kevin Burdick[9]; 7. 44-Darrell Nelson[11]; 8. 29F-Dave Flynn[6]; 9. 24-Aaron Lillo[16]; 10. 37X-Skeeter Estey[14]; 11. 68-Mike Prochnow[13]; 12. 16-Cory Jorgensen[12]; 13. 9M-Ronnie Malecki[17]; 14. 11D-Tim McMann[5]; 15. (DNF) 31-Travis Budisalovich[1]; 16. (DNF) 34-Taylor Madrinich[18]; 17. (DNF) 44(N)-Cade Nelson[7]; 18. (DNF) 7C-Robbie Cooper[15]; 19. (DNS) 2-Todd Gehl; 20. (DNS) 81W-Anthony Woodhull

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 7A-Shane Sabraski[2]; 2. 30-Kevin Burdick[3]; 3. 79-Kevin Carlson[1]; 4. 99-Billy Kendall[5]; 5. 68-Mike Prochnow[7]; 6. 7C-Robbie Cooper[4]; 7. 9M-Ronnie Malecki[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 44(N)-Cade Nelson[2]; 2. 45J-Johnny Broking[3]; 3. 11D-Tim McMann[1]; 4. 44-Darrell Nelson[4]; 5. 37X-Skeeter Estey[5]; 6. 24-Aaron Lillo[7]; 7. (DNF) 81W-Anthony Woodhull[6]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 31-Travis Budisalovich[1]; 2. 29F-Dave Flynn[5]; 3. 11-Pat Doar[6]; 4. 16-Cory Jorgensen[3]; 5. (DNF) 34-Taylor Madrinich[4]; 6. (DNF) 2-Todd Gehl[2]

WISSOTA Modifieds:

Feature (20 Laps): 1. 11-Jody Bellefeuille[2]; 2. 45-Johnny Broking[5]; 3. 22-Brandon Copp[12]; 4. 70-David Simpson[11]; 5. 7-Andrew Mackey[1]; 6. 98-Al Uotinen[15]; 7. 11JR-Andrew Inman[4]; 8. 9-Brady Uotinen[8]; 9. 19J-Jack Rivord[6]; 10. 30-Matt Leer[19]; 11. 17-Deven VanHouse[14]; 12. 21F-Nick Oreskovich[16]; 13. 64-Evan Checkalski[17]; 14. 224-Cody Wolkowski[9]; 15. T23-John Toppozini[13]; 16. 41-Mark Prueser[18]; 17. (DNF) 32III-Cody Carlson[10]; 18. (DNF) 33C-Cole Chernosky[7]; 19. (DNF) 7A-Shane Sabraski[3]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 9-Brady Uotinen[2]; 2. 7-Andrew Mackey[3]; 3. 7A-Shane Sabraski[5]; 4. 32III-Cody Carlson[7]; 5. T23-John Toppozini[6]; 6. (DNF) 41-Mark Prueser[1]; 7. (DNF) 30-Matt Leer[4]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 45-Johnny Broking[2]; 2. 11JR-Andrew Inman[1]; 3. 19J-Jack Rivord[4]; 4. 70-David Simpson[3]; 5. 17-Deven VanHouse[6]; 6. 21F-Nick Oreskovich[5]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 11-Jody Bellefeuille[3]; 2. 224-Cody Wolkowski[1]; 3. 33C-Cole Chernosky[2]; 4. 22-Brandon Copp[5]; 5. 98-Al Uotinen[6]; 6. 64-Evan Checkalski[4]

WISSOTA Super Stocks:

Feature (20 Laps): 1. 80-Steve Stuart[2]; 2. 12K-Duane (DJ) Keeler[1]; 3. 33C-Cole Chernosky[3]; 4. 7A-Shane Sabraski[8]; 5. 77-Scott Lawrence[6]; 6. 26-Kyle Copp[5]; 7. 44-Trenton Bond[4]; 8. 24-Andy Grymala[7]; 9. 3B-Austin Blom[10]; 10. 14X-Leslie Leu[9]; 11. 36-Tyler Kostecki[11]; 12. 2-Don Livingston[12]; 13. 6-Dan Peterson[13]; 14. 11R-Rita Anderson[15]; 15. (DNF) 62D-Dalton Truchon[14]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 80-Steve Stuart[1]; 2. 33C-Cole Chernosky[2]; 3. 12K-Duane (DJ) Keeler[4]; 4. 44-Trenton Bond[8]; 5. 14X-Leslie Leu[6]; 6. 36-Tyler Kostecki[5]; 7. 6-Dan Peterson[3]; 8. 11R-Rita Anderson[7]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 26-Kyle Copp[1]; 2. 77-Scott Lawrence[2]; 3. 24-Andy Grymala[3]; 4. 7A-Shane Sabraski[5]; 5. 3B-Austin Blom[4]; 6. 2-Don Livingston[6]; 7. 62D-Dalton Truchon[7]

WISSOTA Midwest Mods:

Feature (20 Laps): 1. 16(P)-Garrett Paull[1]; 2. 70-David Simpson[6]; 3. 15-James Vendela[5]; 4. 71-Jacob Anderson[2]; 5. 32-Adam Shinn[9]; 6. 67-Glen Brown[7]; 7. 28-Paul Ripley[8]; 8. 32M-Mason Musel[12]; 9. 21R-Ross Siiter[11]; 10. 8-Jonny Nowak[14]; 11. 04-Rick Peterson[13]; 12. (DNF) 16-Ryan Savoy[3]; 13. (DNF) 69-Justin Bassa[4]; 14. (DQ) 17-Deven VanHouse[10]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 28-Paul Ripley[1]; 2. 70-David Simpson[3]; 3. 16(P)-Garrett Paull[4]; 4. 15-James Vendela[2]; 5. 32-Adam Shinn[6]; 6. 21R-Ross Siiter[7]; 7. 04-Rick Peterson[5]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 71-Jacob Anderson[2]; 2. 67-Glen Brown[1]; 3. 69-Justin Bassa[4]; 4. 16-Ryan Savoy[5]; 5. 17-Deven VanHouse[6]; 6. 32M-Mason Musel[3]; 7. 8-Jonny Nowak[7]

WISSOTA Pure Stocks:

Feature (12 Laps): 1. 66X-Rob Christman[7]; 2. 86J-Jake Smith[9]; 3. 38-Simon Wahlstrom[8]; 4. 17-Aaron Bernick[6]; 5. 52W-Austin Fencl[5]; 6. 31(C)-Tim Carlson[11]; 7. 24-Dylan Helget[2]; 8. 925-Dnae Rose[15]; 9. 3D-Sean Duffy[10]; 10. 10-Anthony Ravina[13]; 11. 67-Alex Larson[12]; 12. (DNF) 31-Tom Treviranus[4]; 13. (DNF) 44P-Peyton Swenson[14]; 14. (DNF) 231-Trevor Treviranus[3]; 15. (DNF) 69ER-Shane Basina[17]; 16. (DNF) 131-Jessie Treviranus[1]; 17. (DNS) 00-Derek Ament

Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 38-Simon Wahlstrom[4]; 2. 17-Aaron Bernick[1]; 3. 31-Tom Treviranus[3]; 4. 231-Trevor Treviranus[2]; 5. 86J-Jake Smith[7]; 6. 31(C)-Tim Carlson[6]; 7. 10-Anthony Ravina[5]; 8. 44P-Peyton Swenson[8]; 9. 925-Dnae Rose[9]

Heat 2 (6 Laps): 1. 131-Jessie Treviranus[3]; 2. 52W-Austin Fencl[5]; 3. 24-Dylan Helget[1]; 4. 66X-Rob Christman[6]; 5. 3D-Sean Duffy[2]; 6. 67-Alex Larson[7]; 7. (DNF) 00-Derek Ament[8]; 8. (DNF) 69ER-Shane Basina[4]

WISSOTA Hornets:

Feature (12 Laps): 1. 2X-Nathan Penney[2]; 2. 9-Nick Ruzich[1]; 3. 26N-Nikota Larson[3]; 4. (DNF) 27-Brady Fosso[4]

Heat (6 Laps): 1. 26N-Nikota Larson[4]; 2. 2X-Nathan Penney[1]; 3. 27-Brady Fosso[2]; 4. 9-Nick Ruzich[3]