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WISSOTA winners at ABC include the returning Balduc, Spacek, Bernick and Vendetta on Saturday

By Nick Gima

ASHLAND, WI (June 28) - Neil Balduc and Roger Walker each returned to victory lane for the first time in a long while in their respective features on Saturday night at ABC Raceway.

Other winners in WISSOTA-sanctioned action included Terran Spacek, Aaron Bernick, and James Vendela.

Balduc started on the pole for the 20-lap WISSOTA Modified A-feature and battled early with fellow front-row starter Jake Hiatt. Jody Bellefeuille joined the pair for what turned into a race-long slugfest for the win. They pulled away from an equally entertaining dogfight among Brady Uotinen, Pat Cook, Cody Carlson, Nick Oreskovich and Andrew Hanson for fourth.

The race stayed under green for the entire distance, which kept the pressure on Balduc. Hiatt worked outside to edge ahead on a couple of occasions during the first half of the run, and Bellefeuille was never more than a second behind the lead pair. By lap seven Balduc finally assumed the point for good, although not by much. Balduc hugged the bottom groove as Hiatt and Bellefeuille continued to chase him around the outermost lane.

Balduc finally pushed his advantage to nearly a 1.5 seconds with seven laps remaining, as Cook joined in on the festivities for second. Bellefeuille finally cleared Hiatt, who began to fade back, and chopped Balduc’s lead to less than a half-second at the white flag. Balduc remained strong however and held on for his 11th career ABC Raceway feature win. Bellefeuille, Cook, Uotinen and Hiatt were top-five finishers.

Terran Spacek led only the final 50 feet or so of the WISSOTA Super Stock 20-lap feature, as he nipped Matt Deragon at the line for his second straight feature win here.

In the only race all night with multiple caution flags; Deragon edged ahead to lead lap one, before Rita Anderson’s spin brought about the first delay. The 15-car field then clicked off the next 11 laps under green; Deragon led Kyle Copp, Steve Stuart, Dalton Truchon and Spacek, who had started eighth.

Spacek worked the low line to get by Stuart for third and began a fierce battle with Copp for second on lap three, allowing Deragon a little breathing room. By lap six Spacek stole the spot and got to within a car length of the leader by the race’s midpoint. Just as Spacek pulled alongside Deragon on lap 12, Don Livingston’s spun ride brought about another caution flag, and on that restart Spacek charged past Deragon for the lead, while ninth-starter Shawn McFadden made a great outside move up to third. Those passes were all negated by a Jakob Bond-Jeff Eisner get-together before the lap was completed.

As the lead pair again separated from the rest of the pack over the final eight laps, Deragon protected the low lane while Spacek continued to try to get by. On the final lap Spacek pulled alongside on the backstretch, and with the benefit of outside-line momentum, Spacek edged Deragon at the line by .029 seconds - less than a foot - for his 11th feature win at Ashland.

Copp ran third the entire second half of the race and stayed ahead of Stuart and McFadden to complete the top five.

James Vendela fought off the threats of a determined Ryan Savoy to win his second WISSOTA Midwest Modified headliner of the season at the oval. He started outside on the front row and beat polesitter Savoy through the first pair of turns to claim a lead he did not surrender, while Jimmy Latvala, Paul Ripley and visiting Eric Anderson fought hard for third. Savoy never really fell very far back from the leader, staying less than a second back throughout the run. Ripley eventually won the debate for third and closed on the lead pair as the race stayed under green. Things got interesting as the trio closed and began to maneuver through slower traffic, not long after the halfway point.

On lap 16 visiting Braedyn Kirtland and Antonio Pintaro collided to bring about the race’s only yellow flag - and the first of the night. Ripley moved low to try to take second from Savoy on the restart but could not make the pass stick, and Vendela beat Savoy to the checkered flag by a third of a second.

At a distance after Ripley in third, Late Model racer Dave Flynn finished an impressive run from 13th to fourth in Savoy’s spare car, and Anderson came home fifth.

Aaron Bernick outran defending WISSOTA Pure Stock track champ Eric Crosby by a quarter-second for his second win in the division.

Crosby started outside on the front row and sped around polesitter Michael Pederson to grab the initial lead, but Bernick, who started directly behind Crosby, followed him to second right away. Farther back Dustin Holub had all he could handle with Shane Basina in a great race for third. Bernick took a couple of looks to the inside on Crosby just before mid-race, to no avail, but he took advantage of a slight bobble by the leader on lap six and completed the winning pass.

Crosby had a chance to get back by on lap seven, but Bernick closed the door and held on from there for his second win of the season at Ashland and the fifth of his career at the speedway. Holub came home third just ahead of Basina, and rookie Dylan Helget finished a distant fifth.

In the Six Cylinders, Walker started on the outside of row one and made quick work of polesitter Mady Anderson, leading every circuit of the nonstop 15-lap feature for his first feature win here since August 2006.

Prior to heat race action, the raceway honored Pure Stock driver Zene Anderson, who celebrated his 85th birthday Saturday. He was presented with a gift certificate to a popular supper club in Superior and an ABC Raceway hoodie, and the crowd on hand serenaded him with a verse of “Happy Birthday to You.”

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Modifieds:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 99-Neil Balduc[1]; 2. 11B-Jody Bellefeuille[3]; 3. 32-Pat Cook[5]; 4. 9-Brady Uotinen[4]; 5. 3H-Jake Hiatt[2]; 6. 7-Andrew Mackey[8]; 7. 21-Nick Oreskovich[7]; 8. 22S-Cole Spacek[9]; 9. 11-Justin Weinberger[10]; 10. 7XJR-Marcus Dunbar[11]; 11. T23-John Toppozini[13]; 12. (DNF) 22-Jeff Spacek[12]; 13. (DNF) 32III-Cody Carlson[6]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 9-Brady Uotinen[3]; 2. 32-Pat Cook[1]; 3. 99-Neil Balduc[2]; 4. 21-Nick Oreskovich[6]; 5. 22S-Cole Spacek[5]; 6. 7XJR-Marcus Dunbar[7]; 7. (DNS) T23-John Toppozini

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 32III-Cody Carlson[2]; 2. 11B-Jody Bellefeuille[3]; 3. 7-Andrew Mackey[4]; 4. 3H-Jake Hiatt[1]; 5. 11-Justin Weinberger[6]; 6. 22-Jeff Spacek[5]

WISSOTA Super Stocks:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 22T-Terran Spacek[8]; 2. 27-Matt Deragon[1]; 3. 26-Kyle Copp[2]; 4. 80-Steve Stuart[4]; 5. 51JR-Shawn McFadden[9]; 6. 24-Andy Grymala[10]; 7. 21-Patrick Beeksma[12]; 8. 2-Don Livingston[15]; 9. 62-Dalton Truchon[3]; 10. 44-Trenton Bond[6]; 11. 10-Jeff Eisner Jr[7]; 12. 77-Jake Nevala[14]; 13. 11R-Rita Anderson[13]; 14. 7B-Jason Melton[5]; 15. (DNF) 9-Jakob Bond[11]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 22T-Terran Spacek[1]; 2. 10-Jeff Eisner Jr[3]; 3. 62-Dalton Truchon[4]; 4. 27-Matt Deragon[6]; 5. 51JR-Shawn McFadden[8]; 6. 9-Jakob Bond[5]; 7. 11R-Rita Anderson[2]; 8. 2-Don Livingston[7]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 44-Trenton Bond[1]; 2. 80-Steve Stuart[4]; 3. 7B-Jason Melton[2]; 4. 26-Kyle Copp[3]; 5. 24-Andy Grymala[6]; 6. 21-Patrick Beeksma[7]; 7. 77-Jake Nevala[5]

WISSOTA Midwest Mods:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 15-James Vendela[2]; 2. 16-Ryan Savoy[1]; 3. 28-Paul Ripley[5]; 4. 16BRE-Dave Flynn[13]; 5. 7A-Eric Anderson[3]; 6. 91-Paul Suzik[6]; 7. 21-Jimmy Latvala[4]; 8. 16J-Cory Jorgensen[7]; 9. 7XJR-Marcus Dunbar[8]; 10. 19P-Antonio Pintaro[11]; 11. 00-Ross Fuhrman[10]; 12. 8-Jonny Nowak[12]; 13. 21+7-Ryan Barningham[9]; 14. 47-Tad Schoonover[15]; 15. 18K-Braedyn Kirtland[16]; 16. (DNS) T17-Tanner Hicks; 17. (DNS) 22-Matt Jacobson

Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 15-James Vendela[2]; 2. 21-Jimmy Latvala[7]; 3. 16-Ryan Savoy[8]; 4. 7XJR-Marcus Dunbar[5]; 5. 21+7-Ryan Barningham[3]; 6. 19P-Antonio Pintaro[6]; 7. 16BRE-Dave Flynn[1]; 8. 47-Tad Schoonover[4]; 9. 18K-Braedyn Kirtland[9]

Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 28-Paul Ripley[2]; 2. 16J-Cory Jorgensen[4]; 3. 91-Paul Suzik[6]; 4. 7A-Eric Anderson[5]; 5. 00-Ross Fuhrman[7]; 6. 8-Jonny Nowak[8]; 7. 22-Matt Jacobson[1]; 8. (DNF) T17-Tanner Hicks[3]

WISSOTA Pure Stocks:

A Feature 1 (10 Laps): 1. 17-Aaron Bernick[4]; 2. 28-Eric Crosby[2]; 3. 15-Dusten Holub[3]; 4. 69ER-Shane Basina[5]; 5. 24-Dylan Helget[6]; 6. 5M-Michael Pederson[1]; 7. (DNF) 5Z-Zene Anderson[7]; 8. (DNS) 33S-Jason Simonson

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 28-Eric Crosby[1]; 2. 17-Aaron Bernick[4]; 3. 69ER-Shane Basina[6]; 4. 15-Dusten Holub[3]; 5. 5M-Michael Pederson[2]; 6. 24-Dylan Helget[5]; 7. 5Z-Zene Anderson[8]; 8. (DNF) 33S-Jason Simonson[7]

Six Cylinders:

A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 5-Roger Walker[2]; 2. 69ER-Shane Basina[8]; 3. 42-Cameron Bond[3]; 4. 97-Alex Bond[6]; 5. 28-Travis Swanson[5]; 6. 23G-Tyler Gervais[7]; 7. 41-Mady Anderson[1]; 8. (DNF) 444-Justin Pratt[4]; 9. (DNS) 69-Myron Basina; 10. (DNS) 92-Cody Eichmann

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 69ER-Shane Basina[2]; 2. 28-Travis Swanson[5]; 3. 97-Alex Bond[4]; 4. 23G-Tyler Gervais[3]; 5. (DNF) 69-Myron Basina[1]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 5-Roger Walker[1]; 2. 42-Cameron Bond[3]; 3. 444-Justin Pratt[2]; 4. 41-Mady Anderson[4]; 5. (DNF) 92-Cody Eichmann[5]