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Copp, Stuart, Vernon and Smith spend Saturday night winning at ABC Raceway

By Nick Gima

ASHLAND, WI (May 30) - After two swing-and-miss attempts to get the 2026 stock car racing season underway, ABC Raceway registered a solid base hit in Saturday night’s opener.

WISSOTA Dirt Track Series winners included Brandon Copp, Steve Stuart, Tyler Vernon, and Jake Smith.

Copp, the 2022 WISSOTA Modified track champ, ran away with the 20-lap feature and capped off a sweep of the action. He started outside on the front row, beat polesitter Jake Hiatt through the first pair of turns, and was never challenged after that for his 15th career feature win in Ashland.

The race ran uninterrupted, allowing Copp to pull away from the field with relative ease, while Hiatt, Pat Cook and Andrew Mackey debated their spots in the top five throughout the entire run. They were joined by Vernon, who spent a few early laps exchanging fifth place with Marcus Dunbar.

Copp extended his lead to a third of a lap by midrace, and within the next five laps that margin grew to a full half-lap as he caught Ross Fuhrman to put him a lap down. Cody Carlson’s ailing racer pulled off the track after he was passed by Copp as well, just before Copp took the white flag en route to the impressive win. On that final lap Hiatt’s strong run ended as he was overtaken by Cook, Mackey and Vernon and fell to fifth in the final scoring.

Stuart continued his early-season success in the WISSOTA Super Stocks, as he started outside on the front row and led all 20 laps of his feature.

Stuart overtook polesitter Patrick Beeksma into the first corner at the drop of the green flag, followed by Shawn McFadden. Terran Spacek, the 2025 ABC Super champ, followed suit into third two laps later. McFadden stayed with Stuart for a short while, but as the race continued uninterrupted Stuart increased his advantage ever so slightly with every lap.

By midrace Stuart had about a 1.5-second lead, while Spacek began to threaten McFadden. Matt Deragon overtook Beeksma for fourth on lap 14, just one tour before Don Livingston looped his ride to bring about the first caution stop of the run. On the restart Deragon drove to the inside on McFadden, while Spacek moved to the outside to race three wide; contact forced McFadden into a spin in front of the balance of the field on the backstraight.

The final restart allowed Spacek to use an outside pass of McFadden for second. Spacek stayed close to the leader’s back bumper, but Stuart held strong for his 53rd career win at ABC. Kyle Copp, who ran a distant sixth most of the race, sped around McFadden on the final redo and stayed within a bumper of Spacek in third, while McFadden and Deragon were a couple car-lengths back in fourth and fifth, respectively.

Vernon, the reigning WISSOTA Midwest Mod National Champion and a two-time track champion picked his way through traffic from sixth to put himself in position for the feature win, with a little help from a late caution flag. Jimmy Latvala grabbed the initial lead from polesitter Judd Skubal before Jonny Nowak’s spin brought out the first yellow flag with one lap in the books. After that restart Dunbar stole third from Paul Ripley.

Skubal raised a few eyebrows by staying close to Latvala for a few laps before taking the lead away on lap five, with Dunbar stealing second on lap six. Vernon worked his way to fourth just prior to that and was challenging Latvala for third when they were both overtaken by James Vendela with a strong inside pass on lap seven. Dunbar reeled in Skubal and passed him for the lead on lap 10 as the pair put first-nighter Connor Kaseno a lap down; Dunbar and Kaseno clipped each other during the pass but both continued on.

Antonio Pintaro’s spin on lap 12 bunched the field together and allowed Vendela to take a shot at the lead, while Vernon edged past Skubal for third. Skubal’s impressive run ended with a spin on lap 16, and on that restart Vernon dove inside on Dunbar and Vendela for a three-wide race-winning pass.

Ryan Barningham’s spin on lap 18 brought about a green-white-checkered finish, during which Vernon held off Vendela and Dunbar for his 23rd ABC feature win and 17th here in a Midwest Mod. Latvala came home fourth, and a melee on the front straight caused by heavy bumping between Pintaro and Paul Suzik sent cars scrambling. Suzik slid sideways under the checkers; judges penalized Pintaro and awarded fifth to Suzik.

Smith, a perennial frontrunner in recent years, led flag-to-flag for his second WISSOTA Pure Stock feature win here. The lead pack of polesitter Smith, Dylan Helget, Shane Basina and Tim Carlson separated themselves from the rest of the field during the first four laps, and Smith pulled away after that.

Helget and Basina continued an entertaining duel for second throughout the run, while Carlson faded back a bit to hold fourth. By lap nine of the scheduled 12, Smith passed backmarker rookies Alex Larson and Timmy Kin, and with open track ahead of him Smith drove away to the win with relative ease. Helget fended off Basina for runner-up pay, while Carlson survived a strong late charge by rookie Anthony Ravina for fourth.

In the track’s other action, Travis Swanson had a major mechanical failure during his heat race, but he made the needed repairs and returned to claim his 12th Six-Cylinder feature win.

The United States Racing Association’s (USRA) Late Model division was also on hand for the first time ever, with 13 series drivers making the trek to Ashland. Josh Wahlstrom led every lap for the feature win.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Modifieds:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 22-Brandon Copp[2]; 2. 32-Pat Cook[3]; 3. 7-Andrew Mackey[6]; 4. 40JR-Tyler Vernon[5]; 5. 3H-Jake Hiatt[1]; 6. 7XJR-Marcus Dunbar[8]; 7. 22S-Cole Spacek[9]; 8. 21F-Nick Oreskovich[4]; 9. 00-Ross Fuhrman[10]; 10. (DNF) 32III-Cody Carlson[7]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 7-Andrew Mackey[1]; 2. 21F-Nick Oreskovich[3]; 3. 32III-Cody Carlson[5]; 4. 3H-Jake Hiatt[2]; 5. 22S-Cole Spacek[4]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 22-Brandon Copp[1]; 2. 32-Pat Cook[3]; 3. 7XJR-Marcus Dunbar[2]; 4. 40JR-Tyler Vernon[4]; 5. 00-Ross Fuhrman[5]

WISSOTA Super Stocks:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 80-Steve Stuart[2]; 2. 22T-Terran Spacek[4]; 3. 26-Kyle Copp[7]; 4. 51JR-Shawn McFadden[3]; 5. 27-Matt Deragon[5]; 6. 21C-Patrick Beeksma[1]; 7. 44-Trenton Bond[6]; 8. 24-Andy Grymala[10]; 9. 62-Dalton Truchon[8]; 10. 2-Don Livingston[9]; 11. (DNF) 9-Jakob Bond[12]; 12. (DNF) 11R-Rita Anderson[11]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 51JR-Shawn McFadden[3]; 2. 22T-Terran Spacek[6]; 3. 62-Dalton Truchon[1]; 4. 44-Trenton Bond[2]; 5. 2-Don Livingston[5]; 6. 11R-Rita Anderson[4]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 80-Steve Stuart[4]; 2. 26-Kyle Copp[1]; 3. 21C-Patrick Beeksma[2]; 4. 27-Matt Deragon[6]; 5. 24-Andy Grymala[3]; 6. 9-Jakob Bond[5]

WISSOTA Midwest Mods:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 41-Tyler Vernon[6]; 2. 15-James Vendela[8]; 3. 7XJR-Marcus Dunbar[7]; 4. 21-Jimmy Latvala[2]; 5. 91-Paul Suzik[5]; 6. 79-Bryan Lund[4]; 7. 8-Jonny Nowak[9]; 8. 21+7-Ryan Barningham[12]; 9. 20-Judd Skubal[1]; 10. 15K-Connor Kaseno[13]; 11. 19P-Antonio Pintaro[11]; 12. (DNF) 10Z-Cade Johnson[10]; 13. (DNF) 28-Paul Ripley[3]; 14. (DNF) 76-Mitch Kieber[14]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 28-Paul Ripley[1]; 2. 41-Tyler Vernon[7]; 3. 21-Jimmy Latvala[6]; 4. 15-James Vendela[3]; 5. 8-Jonny Nowak[5]; 6. 19P-Antonio Pintaro[2]; 7. 15K-Connor Kaseno[4]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 91-Paul Suzik[4]; 2. 7XJR-Marcus Dunbar[6]; 3. 20-Judd Skubal[5]; 4. 79-Bryan Lund[1]; 5. 10Z-Cade Johnson[2]; 6. 21+7-Ryan Barningham[3]; 7. 76-Mitch Kieber[7]

WISSOTA Pure Stocks:

A Feature 1 (10 Laps): 1. 86J-Jake Smith[1]; 2. 24-Dylan Helget[2]; 3. 69ER-Shane Basina[5]; 4. 31-Tim Carlson[4]; 5. 10-Anthony Ravina[9]; 6. 67-Alex Larson[6]; 7. 11K-Timmy Kin[7]; 8. (DNF) 33S-Jason Simonson[8]; 9. (DNS) 17-Aaron Bernick

Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 69ER-Shane Basina[9]; 2. 17-Aaron Bernick[3]; 3. 24-Dylan Helget[7]; 4. 86J-Jake Smith[8]; 5. 31-Tim Carlson[6]; 6. 67-Alex Larson[1]; 7. 11K-Timmy Kin[2]; 8. (DNF) 33S-Jason Simonson[4]; 9. (DNF) 10-Anthony Ravina[5]

USRA Late Models:

A Feature 1: 1. 19-Josh Wahlstrom[1]; 2. 73-Larry Fitzsimmons[3]; 3. 52-Jason McFadden[5]; 4. 65-Lucas Peterson[6]; 5. 63-Patrick Kelley[4]; 6. 49-Chad Lederer[8]; 7. T18-TJ Adams[10]; 8. 1Z-Jason Zdroik[2]; 9. (DNF) 87-Caden Steffen Ludwig[9]; 10. (DNF) 55-Clayton Hofteig[7]; 11. (DNF) 26D-Chad Dawson[13]; 12. (DNF) 17J-Jared Bamberger[12]; 13. (DNF) 7XJR-Marcus Dunbar[11]

Heat 1: 1. 73-Larry Fitzsimmons[3]; 2. 1Z-Jason Zdroik[1]; 3. 19-Josh Wahlstrom[6]; 4. 55-Clayton Hofteig[5]; 5. 87-Caden Steffen Ludwig[2]; 6. 7XJR-Marcus Dunbar[7]; 7. (DNF) 26D-Chad Dawson[4]

Heat 2: 1. 52-Jason McFadden[3]; 2. 63-Patrick Kelley[5]; 3. 65-Lucas Peterson[6]; 4. 49-Chad Lederer[1]; 5. T18-TJ Adams[2]; 6. (DNF) 17J-Jared Bamberger[4]

Six Cylinders:

A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 28-Travis Swanson[4]; 2. 92-Cody Eichmann[1]; 3. 69ER-Shane Basina[2]; 4. 5-Roger Walker[5]; 5. 05-Kyle Weber[3]; 6. 42-Cameron Bond[7]; 7. 73-Dale Coddington[6]; 8. 23G-Tyler Gervais[10]; 9. (DNF) 24-Jonathan Popp[8]; 10. (DNF) 97-Alex Bond[9]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 92-Cody Eichmann[1]; 2. 69ER-Shane Basina[3]; 3. 5-Roger Walker[2]; 4. 73-Dale Coddington[5]; 5. 24-Jonathan Popp[4]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 05-Kyle Weber[5]; 2. 42-Cameron Bond[4]; 3. 28-Travis Swanson[3]; 4. (DNF) 97-Alex Bond[2]; 5. (DNF) 23G-Tyler Gervais[1]