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Friday, May 30

Gondik Law Speedway opened up Friday, May 30, a night that turned sour around a half hour after we arrived at the track. About 5:30 p.m. the nice westerly breeze we experienced all day suddenly switched to a nice brisk wind from the northeast off of the “big pond,” aka Lake Superior.

Everyone from Superior knows what that wind switch means - a quick drop in temperature. Those of us who live here are used to it, though not happy about it. The temperature can drop quite a few degrees, making it very uncomfortable.

Most of the fans who come to watch realize this can happen and have proper warm clothing in their vehicles. Joanne and I never go to any race track without heavy coats in our van. We had everything we needed so I went up to my place in the stands where I watch the racing unfold. I had on a nice new sweatshirt that Joanne gifted me with a while ago, plus I brought up gloves, a knit hat and everything I should have needed.

The track was in marvelous condition, with hardly a ripple in it. It also appeared many racers were going to take a shot at the track, no matter what the weather. It was announced we had 106 cars in the packed pits ready to conquer the 4/10ths mile speedway. That included 22 WISSOTA Late Models, 23 WISSOTA Modifieds, 16 WISSOTA Super Stocks, 21 Midwest Modifieds, 13 WISSOTA Pure Stocks, as well as 11 entries in the WISSOTA Street Stocks. WISSOTA Hornets were given the night off.

Things rolled along fairly nicely with few caution flags in most of the heat races. There weren’t too many in the main events either, except the WISSOTA Modifieds. The Mods scored four caution periods in their 20-lap feature.

Feature winners in all WISSOTA divisions included Dave Flynn in the Late Models, Darrell Nelson in the Modifieds, Alex Myers in the Super Stocks, Joey Jensen in the Midwest Mods, Levi Randt in the Street Stocks and Shane Basina in the Pure Stocks.

As mentioned, it was a very good night of racing, featuring lots of fast cars and some unexpected winners.

In news related to the Late Models, Billy Kendall sort of burst onto the scene last season and showed a lot of good stuff during the season. The hot driver thus far (only two races in) has been Dave Flynn. That’s two wins in two appearances for Flynn.

It was a very good crowd, though I did note several spectators watching the feature they were interested in and then leaving because of the cold weather. I guess one can’t expect sweltering temperatures this early in the season. I’m sure there will be enough of them throughout the season so we can complain about them when they happen.

Saturday, May 31

The second part of our triple-play weekend was spent at ABC Raceway over in Ashland, WI. It was the second race of the season at the neat little track, which is almost within sight of Lake Superior.

Having lost the first two races of the season to weather and wet grounds, it was finally time to go racing. “Third time’s the charm” or however that goes. Nice weather but still chilly for my old bones, but great to be there.

I think I heard them announce there were around 80 cars in the five WISSOTA divisions that run on a weekly basis.

Joanne and I kept an eye out for the No. 32III of Cody Carlson. As I’ve written about before, we have a small sponsorship on the car and are always looking for how he runs. He finished seventh in his heat, started 16th in the 20-lap feature, made it forward toward the top 10, before a gaggle of cars caught up with him in the final couple laps pushing him to a 13-place finish. He was involved in a small pileup in the second turn early on which may have affected the car’s handling. This is a brand-new car to him and will take a bit of time to get used to. So far he’s making progress.

As per usual the racing at ABC was very good. I noticed that at GLS on Friday night there were no B features. Same for ABC Raceway on Saturday, which made for some crowded feature events at both places. I like it, as it seems to make the night go faster - unless there was a big pileup. There really wasn’t much of that last night.

Our new friends Lisa and Todd have the seats next to us and roped Joanne into a 25-cent bet on the races sort of deal. You pick a card and whatever the number, that’s your car in the event in each heat and feature. If that car wins the race you win the pot. Jo just told me that she broke even Saturday.

I really hope when we go back there next, the weather won’t be so cold. Maybe it’s just that I’m getting older and am always cold!

In the WISSOTA Modifieds, Tyler Vernon completed a sweep of the division, winning the 20-lap feature event.

In the WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds, South Range’s James Vendela ran off from the pole and stayed ahead of Thunder Bay’s David Simpson for the 20-lap feature win.

The WISSOTA Super Stocks 20-lap feature was won by a very happy Don Livingston, for his first-ever Super Stock feature win. He beat quite a raft of “named” Super Stock drivers including Terran Spacek, Matt Deragon, Shawn McFadden and Trenton Bond - who finished in that order in the top five.

In the WISSOTA Pure Stocks, Eric Crosby of Amery, WI, swept the division with a heat and feature win.

Shortly thereafter we were on the road back home to rest up for our weekly finale at Proctor Speedway Sunday.

Sunday, June 1

We have finally completed a weekend of the normal three race tracks we attend throughout the race season after heading up Thompson Hill to Proctor, MN for the season opener at Proctor Speedway.

It is back to being called Proctor Speedway after several seasons sponsored by the Halvor Lines trucking company out of Superior, WI. They have parted ways and so the speedway reverted to its longtime moniker.

Weather-wise, it was still a cool weekend, featuring a breeze off of the giant Lake Superior. The temp on our vehicle when we left the Proctor Fairgrounds was 61 degrees. Not bad, you might say, but couple it with a wind out of the east off the big lake and it is not pleasant for an old buzzard like me!

There were 87 cars running the gamut of WISSOTA classes, including Late Models, Modifieds, Midwest Modifieds, Pure Stocks and Hornets. Add on a visit from a few Renegade Winged Sprints (not WISSOTA) and you have a nice program though, perhaps, a little long.

There was plenty of racing to go around and their early start at 5 p.m. got us on the way home before 10 p.m.

There were only a couple delays during the program. In the Hornets, a driver got high on the first turn and kept going, headed for the pit exit onto the track. I don’t know if it was a stuck throttle or what. He saw if he kept going as he was pointed, he was going right into the pits and would probably cause a world of trouble and damage. Instead he hit a stout metal pole that props up a watching area for pit crews. The luck gods were watching and the driver was not seriously injured, though he did complain of a sore shoulder. I hope all turned out well and he was able to move on.

In the 15-lap WISSOTA Midwest Mod feature, the winner was Joey Jensen of Forest Lake, MN, who came from the third starting spot to win over Tyler Vernon, Justin Jones and 12th-starter Ryan Savoy. McClean Andrews completed the top five.

The WISSOTA Super Stocks ran 15 laps, and Steve Stuart of Ashland completed the sweep of the Supers, coming from his second row starting spot to take the lead and race away from Curt Myers, Shawn McFadden, Patrick Beeksma and Austin Blom in the top five for his sweep.

The next feature to take to the track was the WISSOTA Modified 20-lap feature. At the end of 20 circuits Brandon Copp managed to hold off Darrell Nelson. Nelson had started fourth but fell back, then fought his way forward to second and was closing on Copp, but ran out of laps to finish a close second! Evan Checkalski was third followed by Nick Oreskovich and Brady Uotinen in the top five.

It was 25 laps for the WISSOTA Late Models. All 19 cars rolled out on the track for their 25-lap go. Kyle Peterlin of Hibbing made a strong move forward in the waning laps to take the win and record the sweep ahead of Darrell Nelson.

The rest of the top five included Kevin Burdick of Proctor, who led quite a bit in the early going and Jayme Lautigar in third. Rounding out the top five was Tim McMann, a former Late Model champ at the speedway. Veteran Harry Hanson led early but dropped back to finish a disappointing eighth.

It was a difficult viewing weekend with all the cold winds at each track we journeyed to, but I guess we have to expect some discomfort while following our favorite sport. We survived another three-day deal just as we have many times before. I must say it looks more difficult now than when I was racing (1971-1989).