6-30 Page 21 | ATD Racing News

On HoF night at Gondik Law, feature winners are Burdick, Bellefeuille, Sabraski, Savoy, Wahlstrom & Larson

By Nick Gima

SUPERIOR, WI (June 26) - Friday night’s program at Gondik Law Speedway included thrilling features races and the induction of five new members into the track’s Hall of Fame.

The new inductees included three retired drivers - Rick Cox, Riece Stewart and Mike Willie - plus active driver Jimmy Latvala and Twin Ports racing pioneer Don Eckstrom, on a sunny but cool final race night of June.

Kevin Burdick survived heavy lapped traffic and serious competition at the front over 25 nonstop laps to claim his first WISSOTA Late Model feature win of the season here. Jody Bellefeuille, Shane Sabraski, Ryan Savoy, Simon Wahlstrom and Nikota Larson also collected WISSOTA Dirt Track Series wins on Friday.

Burdick started on the pole in front of a season-high 26-car field, but was beaten out of the first pair of turns by fellow front-row starter Johnny Broking, who sped away to a nearly 1.5-second lead during the first four laps, leaving Burdick to deal with a very determined Travis Budisalovich.

Eventually Burdick and Budisalovich erased Broking’s lead, with Budisalovich taking second on lap eight using a daring pass.

At midrace the leaders encountered backmarkers and Budisalovich threatened to take the lead from Broking on several occasions as they weaved through increasingly heavier traffic. Meanwhile, ninth-starter Pat Doar worked on Burdick for third. In one particularly tense moment, on lap 14, with all four front-runners within feet of each other, Budisalovich had to check up to avoid contact with a lapped car, which allowed Doar to slip past both him and Burdick. Over the next couple of laps Burdick retook second, and Budisalovich followed into third a lap later.

Burdick and Budisalovich reeled Broking in again as the laps quickly wound down, and on lap 20 Burdick snuck a peek to the inside lane and overtook Broking for what eventually became the winning pass. With three laps remaining Broking, Budisalovich and 14th-starter Darrell Nelson got clogged up among the lapped cars and made contact, nearly sending Nelson into the front-straight wall.

Once finally clear of traffic, Burdick ran off to win the thriller by 2.5 seconds ahead of Broking, while Nelson recovered to nip Budisalovich at the line for third. Doar came home a distant fifth.

If that wasn’t enough edge-of-the-seat excitement, the Late Models were immediately followed by a nonstop 20-lap WISSOTA Modified main event that went down to the wire.

Evan Checkalski started on the pole, beat Cole Boston to the front of the pack through the first turns, and set a strong pace while running the outermost lane. Andrew Mackey offered a couple of early-lap challenges, but Checkalski held serve as the lead pair ran away from Jack Rivord, Boston, and Bellefeuille.

On lap seven Bellefeuille worked an inside-line pass of Boston to take third, but he was still a good 2.75 seconds back of Mackey, who had lost contact with the high-flying Checkalski. However, Bellefeuille took advantage of the open track ahead of him and trimmed the deficit.

Bellefeuille was within a full second of Mackey with just six laps remaining, while Checkalski was another second ahead, but within three laps Bellefeuille had caught and displaced Mackey, while Checkalski had increased his advantage to 1.25 seconds.

During the final three laps Bellefeuille erased that seemingly impossible margin to pull alongside the leader going into the final turn. Bellefeuille’s slide move in front of Checkalski almost allowed Checkalski to answer back coming off the corner, but Bellefeuille had just enough drive off the turn to edge Checkalski by .101 seconds - about a quarter of a car-length.

Mackey held strong to third, well ahead of Boston and 10th-starter Shane Sabraski.

In the WISSOTA Super Stocks, Sabraski started inside on row two, chased front-row starters D.J. Keeler and Steve Stuart during the early stages of the event, then made his move later in the nonstop 20-lap run.

Keeler established the pace early by beating polestarter Stuart through the first pair of turns, although he never really shook loose of the division’s national points leader. Sabraski joined the lead pair shortly after the start and, on lap six, made an inside pass of Stuart stick to secure second.

By mid-race, Sabraski was Keeler’s lone challenger, with Stuart falling back but still well ahead of an entertaining battle for fourth between Don Livingston and Rick Simpson. On lap 14, Sabraski went low again to overtake Keeler for good, and from there the defending WISSOTA National Champion ran off to a commanding 2.9-second margin of victory and his first win here this season.

Stuart held firm to third, while Simpson held off a charging Kyle Copp during the final lap for fourth.

Ryan Savoy, the defending GLS WISSOTA Midwest Modified points champ, scored his first win of the season in a hotly contested 20-lap feature. He started outside of row three and bided his time as positions swapped frequently near the front of the 18-car field.

Polesitter Latvala, the newly-minted Hall of Famer, raced side by side with Adam Shinn in the race’s early stages, until Shinn established himself as the pacesetter. Jacob Anderson grabbed second on lap two, ahead of Deven VanHouse. But Anderson’s car broke loose on the high side of turn three on lap four, bringing about a caution flag.

Savoy, who was running fifth, took advantage of the restart to slip past VanHouse for third behind Shinn and Anderson.

On lap six Savoy and Anderson surrounded Shinn for a three-wide pass, putting Anderson out front, with VanHouse following to third behind Savoy. After Josh Schiffler’s spin, VanHouse gave Savoy a scare for second, and after another caution stop on lap seven for a Ryan Kough-Connor Kaseno get-together, Savoy cleared Anderson for the lead and held on during the final 13 non-stop laps.

VanHouse bobbled on lap eight and fell back, which allowed Savoy to stretch the lead to more than 1.6 seconds with six laps to go, but Anderson and VanHouse hustled back to within a car length of the leader as they took the white flag. Savoy broke free again over the final circuit and won by 1.4 seconds, as VanHouse edged Anderson for second. Ninth-starting James Vendela worked his way through to fourth, just ahead of 10th-starter David Simpson.

A good field of 15 WISSOTA Pure Stocks took the green flag for their feature, and at the end of the 12-lap distance Simon Wahlstrom finally checked a win at Superior off of his bucket list.

Polestarter Aaron Bernick paced the opening laps ahead of Tom Treviranus, but seventh-starter Wahlstrom was on the charge early, taking third from Rob Christman on lap one and then second from Treviranus on lap two before Austin Fencl’s stalled ride brought about the first of four caution stops.

After the restart Bernick slipped up the banking in turn four on lap three, allowing Wahlstrom to sneak by for the lead, and for the next few laps the top five in the running order - Wahlstrom, Bernick, Treviranus, Christman and Dylan Helget - ran in close nose-to-tail formation. Wahlstrom was just starting to expand his margin on lap five when Derek Ament’s car was spun, and after that Wahlstrom needed a couple more laps to build any sort of a cushion ahead of Bernick. But that disappeared, too, when Treviranus’ car spun on lap nine to bring out another yellow flag.

The delay to restart again was compounded by Travis Zembo’s blown motor, which spewed a stream of oil from the flagstand to the turn two pit exit and required a lengthy clean-up.

One more caution stop, this one for a Helget spin, set up a three-lap dash to the checkers, and although Wahlstrom’s winning margin was just shy of a full second, runner-up Bernick never really seemed that far back throughout the run. Christman was a close third, while Shane Basina and a recovering Treviranus completed the top five.

Nikota Larson became the first repeat winner of a WISSOTA Hornets feature at GLS in 2026, leading the 12-lap finale flag to flag.

Larson initially ran away from the field from his pole-position start, with Nick Ruzich, A.J. House and national points leader Brady Fosso running three wide behind him for a couple of laps before Ruzich won that battle. House fell back during the race’s middle stages, leaving Ruzich and Fosso to duke it out for second until Fosso took the spot on lap six.

Larson built up a significant advantage during those first six laps, but over the balance of the run his advantage gradually shrunk, until Fosso was in a position to pull alongside the leader as the white flag flew. Larson maintained as much momentum as he could and just edged ahead of Fosso at the stripe for his second-straight GLS feature win. Ruzich was not far back for a third-place finish, while House and Nathan Penney were a distant fourth and fifth, respectively.

The Northern Vintage Stockcar Racers group also performed for fans Friday. Mike Hudyma drove to a strong win in the Full-Bodied division’s feature, while Brian Vang survived a race-long battle to take the checkers in the Super Mod A-main.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Late Models:

Feature (25 Laps): 1. 30-Kevin Burdick[1]; 2. 45J-Johnny Broking[2]; 3. 44-Darrell Nelson[14]; 4. 31-Travis Budisalovich[3]; 5. 11-Pat Doar[9]; 6. 7A-Shane Sabraski[8]; 7. 6M-Jeff Massingill[7]; 8. 04JR-Adam Ayotte[13]; 9. 54L-Jayme Lautigar[11]; 10. 29F-Dave Flynn[4]; 11. 47-Danny Vang[16]; 12. 99-Billy Kendall[26]; 13. 24-Aaron Lillo[12]; 14. 79-Kevin Carlson[5]; 15. 14N-Keith Niemi[15]; 16. 19-Steve Laursen[24]; 17. 34-Taylor Madrinich[10]; 18. 44(N)-Cade Nelson[19]; 19. 16-Cory Jorgensen[20]; 20. 11D-Tim McMann[17]; 21. 77-Corey Seckerson[21]; 22. 9M-Ronnie Malecki[22]; 23. 81W-Anthony Woodhull[23]; 24. 17T-Talon Seckerson[18]; 25. 9-Eric Lillo[25]; 26. (DNF) 2-Todd Gehl[6]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 45J-Johnny Broking[2]; 2. 7A-Shane Sabraski[4]; 3. 31-Travis Budisalovich[3]; 4. 34-Taylor Madrinich[1]; 5. 04JR-Adam Ayotte[6]; 6. 47-Danny Vang[9]; 7. 44(N)-Cade Nelson[8]; 8. 9M-Ronnie Malecki[5]; 9. 9-Eric Lillo[7]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 30-Kevin Burdick[1]; 2. 2-Todd Gehl[2]; 3. 29F-Dave Flynn[3]; 4. 54L-Jayme Lautigar[6]; 5. 44-Darrell Nelson[9]; 6. 11D-Tim McMann[4]; 7. 16-Cory Jorgensen[7]; 8. 81W-Anthony Woodhull[5]; 9. 99-Billy Kendall[8]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 11-Pat Doar[4]; 2. 6M-Jeff Massingill[8]; 3. 79-Kevin Carlson[7]; 4. 24-Aaron Lillo[6]; 5. 14N-Keith Niemi[5]; 6. 17T-Talon Seckerson[1]; 7. 77-Corey Seckerson[2]; 8. 19-Steve Laursen[3]

WISSOTA Modifieds:

Feature (20 Laps): 1. 11-Jody Bellefeuille[5]; 2. 64-Evan Checkalski[1]; 3. 7-Andrew Mackey[3]; 4. 33C-Cole Boston[2]; 5. 7A-Shane Sabraski[10]; 6. 19J-Jack Rivord[4]; 7. 22-Brandon Copp[12]; 8. 45-Johnny Broking[6]; 9. 17-Deven VanHouse[11]; 10. 33C(C)-Cole Chernosky[13]; 11. 98-Al Uotinen[14]; 12. 224-Cody Wolkowski[8]; 13. 11JR-Andrew Inman[16]; 14. 70-David Simpson[7]; 15. 43-Lance Schilling[9]; 16. (DNF) 32III-Cody Carlson[15]; 17. (DNS) 73-Jeff Helget

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 11-Jody Bellefeuille[6]; 2. 45-Johnny Broking[9]; 3. 7-Andrew Mackey[3]; 4. 70-David Simpson[5]; 5. 43-Lance Schilling[4]; 6. (DNF) 33C(C)-Cole Chernosky[7]; 7. (DNF) 98-Al Uotinen[1]; 8. (DNF) 32III-Cody Carlson[2]; 9. (DNF) 73-Jeff Helget[8]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 64-Evan Checkalski[2]; 2. 33C-Cole Boston[1]; 3. 19J-Jack Rivord[4]; 4. 224-Cody Wolkowski[3]; 5. 7A-Shane Sabraski[5]; 6. 17-Deven VanHouse[7]; 7. 22-Brandon Copp[8]; 8. (DNF) 11JR-Andrew Inman[6]

WISSOTA Super Stocks:

Feature (20 Laps): 1. 7A-Shane Sabraski[3]; 2. 12K-Duane (DJ) Keeler[2]; 3. 80-Steve Stuart[1]; 4. 77K-Rick Simpson[6]; 5. 26-Kyle Copp[5]; 6. 2-Don Livingston[4]; 7. 33C-Cole Chernosky[11]; 8. 24-Andy Grymala[8]; 9. 44-Trenton Bond[10]; 10. 21-Joey Jensen[9]; 11. 40C-Chaston Finckbone[7]; 12. 6-Dan Peterson[12]; 13. 11R-Rita Anderson[13]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 80-Steve Stuart[2]; 2. 12K-Duane (DJ) Keeler[1]; 3. 7A-Shane Sabraski[3]; 4. 77K-Rick Simpson[6]; 5. 21-Joey Jensen[5]; 6. 33C-Cole Chernosky[7]; 7. 11R-Rita Anderson[4]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 40C-Chaston Finckbone[2]; 2. 2-Don Livingston[1]; 3. 24-Andy Grymala[4]; 4. 26-Kyle Copp[5]; 5. 44-Trenton Bond[6]; 6. 6-Dan Peterson[3]

WISSOTA Midwest Mods:

Feature (20 Laps): 1. 16-Ryan Savoy[6]; 2. 17-Deven VanHouse[3]; 3. 71-Jacob Anderson[4]; 4. 15-James Vendela[9]; 5. 70-David Simpson[10]; 6. 8X-Michael Shalley[14]; 7. 28-Paul Ripley[7]; 8. 89-Kolby Reed[11]; 9. 21(L)-Jimmy Latvala[1]; 10. WIN1-Parker Frolik[5]; 11. 32-Adam Shinn[2]; 12. 32M-Mason Musel[8]; 13. 20-Jaxon Helland[16]; 14. 62K-Ryan Kough[13]; 15. 8-Jonny Nowak[12]; 16. 27-Josh Schiffler[15]; 17. 15K-Connor Kaseno[17]; 18. (DNS) 21R-Ross Siiter

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 21(L)-Jimmy Latvala[1]; 2. WIN1-Parker Frolik[2]; 3. 32-Adam Shinn[5]; 4. 32M-Mason Musel[3]; 5. 15-James Vendela[8]; 6. 89-Kolby Reed[4]; 7. 62K-Ryan Kough[7]; 8. 27-Josh Schiffler[9]; 9. 15K-Connor Kaseno[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 16-Ryan Savoy[2]; 2. 17-Deven VanHouse[4]; 3. 71-Jacob Anderson[6]; 4. 28-Paul Ripley[8]; 5. 70-David Simpson[9]; 6. 8-Jonny Nowak[1]; 7. 8X-Michael Shalley[7]; 8. 20-Jaxon Helland[3]; 9. (DNF) 21R-Ross Siiter[5]

WISSOTA Pure Stocks:

Feature (12 Laps): 1. 38-Simon Wahlstrom[7]; 2. 17-Aaron Bernick[1]; 3. 66X-Rob Christman[5]; 4. 69ER-Shane Basina[8]; 5. 31-Tom Treviranus[2]; 6. 24-Dylan Helget[6]; 7. 10-Anthony Ravina[11]; 8. 00-Derek Ament[13]; 9. 44P-Peyton Swenson[9]; 10. 67-Alex Larson[12]; 11. 925-Dnae Rose[14]; 12. (DNF) 53-Travis Zembo[10]; 13. (DNF) 52W-Austin Fencl[3]; 14. (DNS) 31(C)-Tim Carlson; 15. (DNS) 231-Trevor Treviranus

Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 38-Simon Wahlstrom[6]; 2. 66X-Rob Christman[4]; 3. 69ER-Shane Basina[8]; 4. 31(C)-Tim Carlson[5]; 5. 44P-Peyton Swenson[2]; 6. 10-Anthony Ravina[1]; 7. 00-Derek Ament[7]; 8. 925-Dnae Rose[3]

Heat 2 (6 Laps): 1. 17-Aaron Bernick[3]; 2. 31-Tom Treviranus[2]; 3. 24-Dylan Helget[4]; 4. 52W-Austin Fencl[7]; 5. 53-Travis Zembo[6]; 6. 67-Alex Larson[1]; 7. (DNF) 231-Trevor Treviranus[5]

WISSOTA Hornets:

Feature (12 Laps): 1. 26N-Nikota Larson[1]; 2. 27-Brady Fosso[4]; 3. 9-Nick Ruzich[2]; 4. 14A-AJ House[5]; 5. 2X-Nathan Penney[3]; 6. 69-Madisyn Olson[6]

Heat (6 Laps): 1. 27-Brady Fosso[2]; 2. 26N-Nikota Larson[3]; 3. 9-Nick Ruzich[4]; 4. 14A-AJ House[5]; 5. 2X-Nathan Penney[6]; 6. 69-Madisyn Olson[1]