6-24 Page 19 | ATD Racing News

Anderson, Vernon, Spacek and Crosby cash in during Saturday night’s action at ABC Raceway

By Nick Gima

ASHLAND, WI (June 21) - Bayfield’s Shane Basina scored the win in the first of the two features, then came home second in the other, to earn the overall title in Saturday’s third annual Mountain Dew Sixes Slam at ABC Raceway.

WISSOTA Dirt Track Series-sanctioned action was also part of the program, and winners in those features included Mike Anderson, Tyler Vernon, Terran Spacek, and Eric Crosby.

Anderson, the defending track points champ, used a dramatic come-from-behind charge to slip past Brandon Copp on the final lap and win his first WISSOTA Modified feature of the season here.

Copp, who started on the pole, outran fellow front-row starter Cole Spacek to a full-second lead within the first three laps. Anderson was battling with Justin Weinberger for fourth when Nick Oreskovich’s spun ride brought about the only yellow-flag slowdown of the race on lap seven.

Copp went to the high side of the multi-groove track to try to rebuild his lead, but others - like Spacek, Anderson and visiting Andrew Inman - found the high line to their liking as well. Over the remaining laps of the race, Copp was pressured mercilessly. Inman charged around Spacek, Weinberger, and Anderson to steal second by mid-race, and Anderson followed suit to bother both Inman and Copp a couple circuits later.

Anderson dove low late in the race to take second away from Inman, and he was right on Copp’s tail going under the white flag. Copp drove smoothly through turns one and two, hoping to keep his momentum going, but Anderson found some traction coming out of turn two and edged ahead for good, holding off Copp’s last-corner charge by a half-second, with Weinberger, Inman and Pat Cook following closely in the top five.

Terran Spacek dominated the second half of the 20-lap WISSOTA Super Stock feature for his 10th career win at ABC, despite a late-race caution.

Spacek started from the pole, but fellow front-row starter Patrick Beeksma had the upper hand early, slipping away to a half-second advantage and leaving Spacek to do battle with Shawn McFadden for second. After a couple of laps, Spacek drew away from McFadden and closed on Beeksma again before Jake Nevala spun his racer on lap five. On that restart Spacek pulled alongside Beeksma, edged ahead at the stripe to complete lap seven by less than a foot, and completed the pass for the lead within another half lap.

By the halfway point Spacek was over a full second ahead of Beeksma, as divisional points leader Steve Stuart worked his preferred outside line to swoop around McFadden for third. Matt Deragon dove low to take fourth on lap 14, just before a Trenton Bond spin bunched the field together and erased Spacek’s 2.2-second lead. No one could stay with Spacek for the final dash, as he quickly drove off to a 1.8-second final advantage. Beeksma led a tight pack of cars in the battle for second, with Deragon, Stuart and Andy Grymala not far behind in the top five.

This night marked the 275th feature race run at ABC for the WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds, and Mason’s Tyler Vernon, the division’s points leader, marked this historic occasion with one of his own - the 18th of his career at Ashland.

Vernon started outside of the front row, beat James Vendela out of turn two, and led every one of the 20 laps. The lead pair pulled away from visitor Antonio Pintaro, who was under pressure for third from a half dozen drivers throughout the run.

The first 15 laps ran under green, and Vendela, while not able to close, stayed six-tenths of a second or less behind Vernon as the pair clicked off laps and closed on lapped traffic ahead. Mason Musel then looped his ride, bringing out the caution. While the restart did not affect the efforts of the lead pair - Vernon went on to win by .87 seconds over Vendela - George Dalbeck took advantage of the restart to dive low on Pintaro and steal third with two laps left. Paul Ripley and Tanner Hicks also got by to claim fourth and fifth, respectively.

Eric Crosby took his third WISSOTA Pure Stock feature win in four nights of racing here in what turned out to be a hard-fought slugfest decided by a green-white-checkered finish.

Aaron Bernick started from the pole and led Austin Fencl through the early stages of the 10-lapper, while sixth-starter Crosby threaded his way through thick traffic to move into third by lap two. The lead trio pulled away within a couple of circuits, with George Richards soon joining the leaders to create an entertaining four-car showdown.

On lap seven, Crosby made an inside move on Bernick to lay claim to the lead, with Richards repeating the move on Fencl for third, before Basina’s broken ride on the front straight set up the final two-lap sprint. While he could not pull away, Crosby did have a .38-second buffer between himself and Richards, who stole second from Bernick on the final lap. Fencl also edged past Bernick as the lead pack finished in close formation just ahead of Caleb Duffey.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Modifieds:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 57-Mike Anderson[5]; 2. 22-Brandon Copp[1]; 3. 11-Justin Weinberger[3]; 4. 11JR-Andrew Inman[7]; 5. 32-Pat Cook[6]; 6. 22S-Cole Spacek[2]; 7. 7-Andrew Mackey[8]; 8. 18S-Kennedy Swan[11]; 9. 40JR-Tyler Vernon[10]; 10. 99-Neil Balduc[4]; 11. 7XJR-Marcus Dunbar[13]; 12. 3-Bryan Hessler[14]; 13. (DNF) 21-Nick Oreskovich[9]; 14. (DNF) 22J-Jeff Spacek[12]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 57-Mike Anderson[2]; 2. 11-Justin Weinberger[1]; 3. 7-Andrew Mackey[3]; 4. 32-Pat Cook[4]; 5. 21-Nick Oreskovich[6]; 6. 18S-Kennedy Swan[5]; 7. 7XJR-Marcus Dunbar[7]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 22-Brandon Copp[2]; 2. 11JR-Andrew Inman[4]; 3. 22S-Cole Spacek[6]; 4. 99-Neil Balduc[7]; 5. 40JR-Tyler Vernon[3]; 6. 22J-Jeff Spacek[1]; 7. 3-Bryan Hessler[5]

WISSOTA Super Stocks:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 22T-Terran Spacek[1]; 2. 21-Patrick Beeksma[2]; 3. 27-Matt Deragon[6]; 4. 80-Steve Stuart[8]; 5. 24-Andy Grymala[7]; 6. 51JR-Shawn McFadden[3]; 7. 9-Jakob Bond[4]; 8. 57-Randy Graham[10]; 9. 62-Dalton Truchon[5]; 10. 11R-Rita Anderson[11]; 11. 44-Trenton Bond[13]; 12. 7B-Jason Melton[12]; 13. (DNF) 77-Jake Nevala[9]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 80-Steve Stuart[5]; 2. 27-Matt Deragon[7]; 3. 62-Dalton Truchon[4]; 4. 9-Jakob Bond[1]; 5. 77-Jake Nevala[3]; 6. 11R-Rita Anderson[6]; 7. 44-Trenton Bond[2]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 21-Patrick Beeksma[6]; 2. 24-Andy Grymala[2]; 3. 22T-Terran Spacek[3]; 4. 51JR-Shawn McFadden[1]; 5. 57-Randy Graham[5]; 6. 7B-Jason Melton[4]

WISSOTA Midwest Mods:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 41-Tyler Vernon[2]; 2. 15-James Vendela[1]; 3. 23DD-George Dalbeck[6]; 4. 28-Paul Ripley[8]; 5. T17-Tanner Hicks[5]; 6. 19P-Antonio Pintaro[3]; 7. 91-Paul Suzik[7]; 8. 7XJR-Marcus Dunbar[9]; 9. 21+7-Ryan Barningham[12]; 10. 21-Jimmy Latvala[18]; 11. 22-Matt Jacobson[4]; 12. 32M-Mason Musel[10]; 13. 20-Judd Skubal[11]; 14. 101-Michael Grover[13]; 15. (DNF) 5W-Ayden Walker[19]; 16. (DNF) 47-Tad Schoonover[16]; 17. (DNS) 16J-Cory Jorgensen; 18. (DNS) 79-Bryan Lund; 19. (DNS) 10Z-Cade Johnson

Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 41-Tyler Vernon[6]; 2. 19P-Antonio Pintaro[2]; 3. 23DD-George Dalbeck[5]; 4. T17-Tanner Hicks[9]; 5. 28-Paul Ripley[7]; 6. 7XJR-Marcus Dunbar[10]; 7. 32M-Mason Musel[3]; 8. 20-Judd Skubal[4]; 9. 21+7-Ryan Barningham[8]; 10. 101-Michael Grover[1]

Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 15-James Vendela[1]; 2. 91-Paul Suzik[3]; 3. 22-Matt Jacobson[5]; 4. (DNF) 16J-Cory Jorgensen[8]; 5. (DNF) 79-Bryan Lund[7]; 6. (DNF) 47-Tad Schoonover[4]; 7. (DNF) 10Z-Cade Johnson[6]; 8. (DNF) 21-Jimmy Latvala[9]; 9. (DNF) 5W-Ayden Walker[2]

WISSOTA Pure Stocks:

A Feature 1 (10 Laps): 1. 28-Eric Crosby[6]; 2. 5R-George Richards[7]; 3. 52W-Austin Fencl[3]; 4. 17-Aaron Bernick[1]; 5. 55-Caleb Duffie[4]; 6. 24-Dylan Helget[9]; 7. 33S-Jason Simonson[5]; 8. 47-Anthony Schultz[2]; 9. 925-Dnae Rose[10]; 10. (DNF) 69ER-Shane Basina[8]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 28-Eric Crosby[1]; 2. 17-Aaron Bernick[2]; 3. 55-Caleb Duffie[3]; 4. 69ER-Shane Basina[4]; 5. 24-Dylan Helget[5]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 5R-George Richards[1]; 2. 52W-Austin Fencl[3]; 3. 33S-Jason Simonson[4]; 4. 47-Anthony Schultz[5]; 5. 925-Dnae Rose[2]

Six Cylinders:

A Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 69ER-Shane Basina[2]; 2. 92-Cody Eichmann[3]; 3. 5-Roger Walker[4]; 4. 3BBBB-Cody Roberts[14]; 5. 28-Travis Swanson[6]; 6. 69-Myron Basina[8]; 7. 42-Cameron Bond[5]; 8. (DNF) 444-Justin Pratt[10]; 9. (DNF) 23G-Tyler Gervais[1]; 10. (DNF) 97-Alex Bond[11]; 11. (DNF) 23-Mathew Rohlfing[9]; 12. (DNF) 73-Dale Coddington[7]; 13. (DNS) 41-Mady Anderson; 14. (DNS) 103X-Jimmy Stearns

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 28-Travis Swanson[1]; 2. 73-Dale Coddington[4]; 3. 92-Cody Eichmann[5]; 4. 42-Cameron Bond[7]; 5. 23-Mathew Rohlfing[3]; 6. 97-Alex Bond[6]; 7. (DNF) 103X-Jimmy Stearns[2]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 69ER-Shane Basina[7]; 2. 69-Myron Basina[1]; 3. 5-Roger Walker[5]; 4. 23G-Tyler Gervais[2]; 5. 444-Justin Pratt[6]; 6. 41-Mady Anderson[3]; 7. (DNF) 3BBBB-Cody Roberts[4]

Special 1 (15 Laps): 1. 28-Travis Swanson[1]; 2. 69ER-Shane Basina[5]; 3. 3BBBB-Cody Roberts[2]; 4. 92-Cody Eichmann[4]; 5. 5-Roger Walker[3]; 6. 42-Cameron Bond[7]; 7. 69-Myron Basina[6]; 8. (DNS) 444-Justin Pratt; 9. (DNS) 23G-Tyler Gervais; 10. (DNS) 97-Alex Bond; 11. (DNS) 23-Mathew Rohlfing; 12. (DNS) 73-Dale Coddington; 13. (DNS) 41-Mady Anderson; 14. (DNS) 103X-Jimmy Stearns