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Livingston locks up his first-career Super Stock feature win on Kids Night Saturday at ABC Raceway

By Nick Gima

ASHLAND, WI (May 31) - The annual Kids' Meet the Drivers Night festivities highlighted another fast-paced race program at the ABC Raceway on Saturday night.

A large crowd greeted a season-high car count. WISSOTA Dirt Track Series winners included Tyler Vernon, Don Livingston, James Vendela, and Eric Crosby.

Vernon started on the pole and led every lap of the WISSOTA Modifieds feature. Vernon raced side by side with fellow front-row starter Cole Spacek over the first three laps before gaining a clear advantage that he did not relinquish on his way to his 17th career feature win at ABC.

As Vernon pulled away from the field by more than 1 second, Spacek battled with defending track Mod champ Mike Anderson. That pair was well ahead of fourth-running Justin Weinberger, who was comfortably ahead of Andrew Mackey and Cole Chernosky.

With three laps left, as Vernon navigated the back of the field, he tried to dive inside to pass the slowing Neil Balduc, who was trying to drive his failing racer to the infield after coming off of turn two. Vernon barely got by, while Spacek and Anderson cleared without issue to Balduc's outside. Soon after Anderson tangled with another lapped car and spun, bringing about the lone caution-flag stoppage of the race.

Anderson left the track with damage, giving third to Weinberger for the restart, and Weinberger worked on Spacek for the closing laps as Vernon crossed under the checkers with a one-second margin of victory. Weinberger slipped by Spacek in the final corner to steal second, and Mackey and Chernosky completed the top five.

Livingston started on the pole of the nonstop WISSOTA Super Stock feature and led every lap for the first feature win of his career in any division.

Matt Deragon, Jason Garner, Terran Spacek and Shawn McFadden stayed close early but could not draw on Livingston, whose advantage ranged from a half-second to a full second during various points of the run.

Deragon separated himself from the other chasers by lap five, Spacek took over third on lap eight, and those two held a brief but intense battle just after mid-race. Livingston got by backmarker Rita Anderson with three laps left, and Spacek grabbed second from Deragon a lap later, but Spacek could get no closer than .75 of a second back as Livingston took the checkers. Deragon finished third for the second straight week, followed at a distance by McFadden and Trenton Bond.

James Vendela also started on the pole and benefitted from no caution flags as he claimed his fourth ABC Raceway feature win and second in a WISSOTA Midwest Modified.

Vendela raced with David Simpson for the first lap before establishing ownership of the lead; he established a healthy 1.38-second cushion within just five laps. Vernon, meanwhile, took just the first two laps to advance from fifth to third.

Vendela was up by nearly 1.9 seconds when he closed on slower traffic at the 20-lap run's mid-point. This allowed Simpson and Vernon to slice into that significant margin as the front three maneuvered through the tail end of the field. Fortunately for Vendela, he had enough of that healthy lead left over at the final stripe, winning by eight-tenths of a second over Simpson. Vernon was close behind in third, while George Dalbeck and Paul Ripley completed the top-five at a distance.

Eric Crosby took advantage of Shane Basina's early-race ill fortune to run away with his second straight WISSOTA Pure Stock feature win.

Basina started on the pole and led the field through the first corner of the 10-lap finale, but his car suddenly slowed entering the backstretch, causing the rest of the field to jam up behind him before he could clear the track. The complete restart put rookie Dylan Helget alongside Jason Simonson for the redo, but Crosby made quick work of them and assumed the pacesetting duties.

Aaron Bernick followed Crosby into second but could not keep up, as Crosby set a torrid open-field pace. Helget and Simonson, meanwhile, were engaged in the best battle on the track, for third at the time, while running well in front of Zene Anderson.

Crosby took the white flag over 3.78 seconds ahead of Bernick and added another seven-tenths to his winning margin over the final lap. Simonson edged Helget coming out of the final corner for third-place honors, and Anderson cruised home in fifth.

In the Six Cylinders, Basina started eighth, but sliced his way to fourth within the first of 15 laps, took second on lap three, and then used a restart to take the lead on lap eight. At the checkered flag he held a .8-second winning margin. Travis Swanson got Cody Eichmann back for second during the final laps, while Cameron Bond and Cody Roberts.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Modifieds:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 40JR-Tyler Vernon[1]; 2. 11-Justin Weinberger[5]; 3. 22S-Cole Spacek[2]; 4. 7-Andrew Mackey[4]; 5. 33C-Cole Chernosky[6]; 6. 32-Pat Cook[8]; 7. 224-Cody Wolkowski[7]; 8. 22J-Jeff Spacek[13]; 9. 22-Brandon Copp[9]; 10. 70-David Simpson[14]; 11. 9-Brady Uotinen[12]; 12. 21-Nick Oreskovich[18]; 13. 32III-Cody Carlson[16]; 14. 64-Evan Checkalski[11]; 15. 6-Shane Kisling[20]; 16. 3H-Jake Hiatt[17]; 17. 43-Lance Schilling[19]; 18. (DNF) 57-Mike Anderson[3]; 19. (DNF) 7XJR-Marcus Dunbar[10]; 20. (DNF) 99-Neil Balduc[15]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 57-Mike Anderson[3]; 2. 224-Cody Wolkowski[2]; 3. 22S-Cole Spacek[5]; 4. 7XJR-Marcus Dunbar[4]; 5. 22J-Jeff Spacek[6]; 6. 32III-Cody Carlson[7]; 7. (DNF) 6-Shane Kisling[1]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 40JR-Tyler Vernon[1]; 2. 11-Justin Weinberger[6]; 3. 22-Brandon Copp[4]; 4. 64-Evan Checkalski[3]; 5. 70-David Simpson[7]; 6. 3H-Jake Hiatt[2]; 7. 43-Lance Schilling[5]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 33C-Cole Chernosky[2]; 2. 7-Andrew Mackey[1]; 3. 32-Pat Cook[6]; 4. 9-Brady Uotinen[4]; 5. 99-Neil Balduc[3]; 6. 21-Nick Oreskovich[5]

WISSOTA Super Stocks:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 2-Don Livingston[1]; 2. 22T-Terran Spacek[5]; 3. 27-Matt Deragon[3]; 4. 51JR-Shawn McFadden[6]; 5. 44-Trenton Bond[2]; 6. 80-Steve Stuart[9]; 7. 24-Andy Grymala[8]; 8. 21-Patrick Beeksma[11]; 9. 7B-Jason Melton[10]; 10. 62-Dalton Truchon[13]; 11. 2XL-Jason Garner[4]; 12. 9-Jakob Bond[12]; 13. 77-Jake Nevala[7]; 14. 11R-Rita Anderson[14]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 24-Andy Grymala[1]; 2. 51JR-Shawn McFadden[3]; 3. 22T-Terran Spacek[4]; 4. 27-Matt Deragon[5]; 5. 80-Steve Stuart[7]; 6. 21-Patrick Beeksma[6]; 7. 62-Dalton Truchon[2]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 44-Trenton Bond[3]; 2. 2-Don Livingston[6]; 3. 2XL-Jason Garner[7]; 4. 77-Jake Nevala[1]; 5. 7B-Jason Melton[5]; 6. 9-Jakob Bond[4]; 7. 11R-Rita Anderson[2]

WISSOTA Midwest Mods:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 15-James Vendela[1]; 2. 70-David Simpson[2]; 3. 41-Tyler Vernon[5]; 4. 23DD-George Dalbeck[4]; 5. 28-Paul Ripley[6]; 6. 16J-Cory Jorgensen[9]; 7. 7X-Marcus Dunbar[8]; 8. 89-Kolby Reed[13]; 9. T17-Tanner Hicks[7]; 10. 91-Paul Suzik[11]; 11. 47-Tad Schoonover[15]; 12. 71-Jacob Anderson[16]; 13. 31J-Mike Jacques[3]; 14. 3DJR-Kyle Monteith[12]; 15. 45-Keegan Kough[10]; 16. 22B-Matt Jacobson[14]; 17. 20-Judd Skubal[17]; 18. 21+7-Ryan Barningham[18]; 19. 62-Ryan Kough[19]

Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 41-Tyler Vernon[7]; 2. 28-Paul Ripley[9]; 3. T17-Tanner Hicks[4]; 4. 70-David Simpson[8]; 5. 16J-Cory Jorgensen[2]; 6. 91-Paul Suzik[6]; 7. 89-Kolby Reed[10]; 8. 47-Tad Schoonover[3]; 9. 20-Judd Skubal[1]; 10. 62-Ryan Kough[5]

Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 23DD-George Dalbeck[4]; 2. 7X-Marcus Dunbar[1]; 3. 15-James Vendela[7]; 4. 31J-Mike Jacques[3]; 5. 45-Keegan Kough[2]; 6. 3DJR-Kyle Monteith[8]; 7. 22B-Matt Jacobson[5]; 8. 71-Jacob Anderson[9]; 9. 21+7-Ryan Barningham[6]

WISSOTA Pure Stocks:

A Feature 1 (10 Laps): 1. 28-Eric Crosby[4]; 2. 17-Aaron Bernick[5]; 3. 33S-Jason Simonson[3]; 4. 24-Dylan Helget[2]; 5. 5Z-Zene Anderson[6]; 6. 6A-Keith Arnett[7]; 7. (DNF) 69ER-Shane Basina[1]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 28-Eric Crosby[3]; 2. 17-Aaron Bernick[1]; 3. 69ER-Shane Basina[4]; 4. 33S-Jason Simonson[7]; 5. 24-Dylan Helget[5]; 6. 5Z-Zene Anderson[2]; 7. 6A-Keith Arnett[6]

Six Cylinders:

A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 69ER-Shane Basina[8]; 2. 28-Travis Swanson[1]; 3. 92-Cody Eichmann[6]; 4. 42-Cameron Bond[3]; 5. 3BB-Cody Roberts[4]; 6. 97-Alex Bond[5]; 7. 43-Jim Anderson[9]; 8. 23G-Tyler Gervais[10]; 9. 444-Justin Pratt[2]; 10. 41-Mady Anderson[11]; 11. (DNF) 5-Roger Walker[7]; 12. (DNF) 23-Mathew Rohlfing[13]; 13. (DNS) 103X-Jimmy Stearns

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 69ER-Shane Basina[4]; 2. 28-Travis Swanson[1]; 3. 92-Cody Eichmann[2]; 4. 3BB-Cody Roberts[5]; 5. 43-Jim Anderson[3]; 6. 23G-Tyler Gervais[7]; 7. 41-Mady Anderson[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 5-Roger Walker[4]; 2. 97-Alex Bond[2]; 3. 42-Cameron Bond[5]; 4. 444-Justin Pratt[1]; 5. (DNF) 103X-Jimmy Stearns[3]; 6. (DNS) 23-Mathew Rohlfing