7-28 Page 22 | ATD Racing News

Treviranus, Ripley, Dragon and Copp claim features on steamy Saturday at ABC Raceway

By Nick Gima

ASHLAND, WI (July 25) - During a warm, muggy WISSOTA Dirt Track Series race night highlighted by close feature finishes, Tom Treviranus dominated the WISSOTA Pure Stock headliner at ABC Raceway on Saturday night.

Brandon Copp, Matt Deragon and Paul Ripley also collected WISSOTA victories during the evening.

Treviranus must have felt snake-bitten as of late, due to Tuesday’s DQ from a top-five run and Wednesday’s photo-finish loss at the checkered flag, both at Superior. He started outside of row two on Saturday and worked the high line to follow front-row starter Jake Smith past polestarter Tim Carlson during the 12-lap race’s first couple of circuits. Then Treviranus used another outside move to get around Smith for the lead just before a lap four yellow-flag stop for Anthony Ravina’s stalled racer on the backstretch.

Carlson got the better of Smith with an outer-line pass on the modified double-file restart, but Smith returned the favor a couple of laps later. But there was no catching Treviranus, who had built up a 2.5-second advantage by lap nine and extended that margin to 3.38 seconds by the time the checkered flew for his second career win here.

Smith was well ahead of Carlson for second, while first-time visitor Bob Klein and rookie Alex Larson completed the top five.

Treviranus’ dominant performance was the exception rather than the rule on this night, as four of the feature winners’ margins of victory were by a second or less.

Copp extended his points lead by winning his third WISSOTA Modified feature of the year, but unlike his other recent wins here, this one was not a blowout.

Pat Cook looked to have the car to beat as he sped away from his pole starting spot over the first couple of laps, with Jake Hiatt, Nick Oreskovich and Copp in hot pursuit. After the restart for Hiatt’s spin on lap two, Copp, who restarted on the outside of the second row, swept around Oreskovich and worked on Cook for several laps before taking over as pacesetter on lap eight.

By midrace Copp held better than a half-second margin on Oreskovich, who had displaced Cook for second a lap after Copp’s pass for the lead. Over the latter half of the 20-lap run Oreskovich reeled in Copp, running the same line as the leader, until he was tapping on the leader’s rear pushbar as they raced to the white flag. Copp and Oreskovich raced nose to tail as they lapped Ross Fuhrman, and Copp was just a third of a second ahead as the two reached the finish.

Cook held on for third, ahead of an entertaining race for fourth won by Brady Uotinen over Andrew Mackey.

In the WISSOTA Super Stock feature, Deragon led every one of the race’s 20 laps for his third feature win of the year. Deragon started outside on the front row and beat polesitter Dan Peterson out of the first pair of turns, but he was never quite able to pull away from Steve Stuart, who dogged him throughout much of the run.

A two-car get-together during lap one provided the race’s only caution stop, after which visiting Michael Blevins, Sr. moved by Peterson for third, just ahead of Shawn McFadden and Trenton Bond. Deragon set a quick, steady pace throughout the uninterrupted balance of the run, but Stuart stayed within striking distance.

Things got a bit interesting with five laps remaining, as Deragon caught backmarkers Rita Anderson and Myron Basina racing side by side for position. Deragon, who had been using the very outer-most racing groove took that route to complete a tight three-wide pass to get by the slower cars, leaving Stuart trapped behind them just long enough to give Deragon about a 1-second cushion as he took the checkered flag for his 21st career ABC Raceway win.

Blevins held fast to his third-place effort, while McFadden stayed just ahead of Bond for fourth to maintain his divisional points lead.

Ripley led every lap of the non-stop WISSOTA Midwest Modified headliner for his first feature win in Ashland this season and third of his career here. Like Deragon in the Supers, Ripley started outside on the front row and beat the polestarter - in this case, Judd Skubal - out of the first pair of turns and was never bested from there.

Visitors Mikey Blevins and Kolby Reed moved into third and fourth in the early going, just ahead of Marcus Dunbar and Jimmy Latvala. Eventually Paul Suzik joined the close-formation battle for third, allowing Ripley and Skubal to pull further away. By the halfway point of the 20-lapper the lead pair were nearly a straightaway ahead of the third-place pack, and Skubal was noticeably shrinking the gap between himself and Ripley.

Ripley and Skubal dealt briefly with tail-end traffic in the waning laps, but once in the clear Ripley maintained about a 1-second advantage for the win. Reed got by Blevins late in the run, but was a full straightway back in third, and divisional points leader Dunbar slipped past Blevins on the final lap for fourth.

Roger Walker padded his points lead atop ABC Six-Cylinders feature, which may have been the wildest of the night, as he eked out one of the closest wins in recent memory here.

Walker’s final margin of victory was .079 seconds, or less than two feet, ahead of Travis Swanson, with Cody Eichmann directly behind them in third. Shane Basina recovered from an incident and moved back up through the field to finish fourth, while Cameron Bond had a strong run to take fifth.

In the USRA Late Model main, Clayton Hofteig fended off Josh Wahlstrom’s persistent late-race threats for his first-ever feature win at ABC.

Jason McFadden and Patrick Kelley put on a similar show for third, albeit a short ways back, with McFadden getting the nod by just .062 of a second. Zack Friske, also running for the first time here, came home a distant fifth.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Modifieds:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 22-Brandon Copp[3]; 2. 21F-Nick Oreskovich[5]; 3. 32-Pat Cook[1]; 4. 9-Brady Uotinen[6]; 5. 7-Andrew Mackey[4]; 6. 22S-Cole Spacek[7]; 7. 3H-Jake Hiatt[2]; 8. 00-Ross Fuhrman[8]

Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 32-Pat Cook[2]; 2. 7-Andrew Mackey[1]; 3. 3H-Jake Hiatt[3]; 4. 21F-Nick Oreskovich[6]; 5. 22-Brandon Copp[4]; 6. 9-Brady Uotinen[5]; 7. 22S-Cole Spacek[7]; 8. 00-Ross Fuhrman[8]

WISSOTA Super Stocks:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 27-Matt Deragon[2]; 2. 80-Steve Stuart[4]; 3. 10-Michael Blevins Sr[6]; 4. 51JR-Shawn McFadden[7]; 5. 44-Trenton Bond[3]; 6. 6-Dan Peterson[1]; 7. 9-Jakob Bond[5]; 8. 7B-Jason Melton[10]; 9. 11-Kevin Salin[8]; 10. 69-Myron Basina[11]; 11. 11R-Rita Anderson[9]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 10-Michael Blevins Sr[1]; 2. 6-Dan Peterson[5]; 3. 9-Jakob Bond[3]; 4. 11-Kevin Salin[6]; 5. 11R-Rita Anderson[2]; 6. (DNF) 69-Myron Basina[4]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 51JR-Shawn McFadden[2]; 2. 44-Trenton Bond[1]; 3. 80-Steve Stuart[4]; 4. 27-Matt Deragon[3]; 5. 7B-Jason Melton[5]

WISSOTA Midwest Mods:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 28-Paul Ripley[2]; 2. 20-Judd Skubal[1]; 3. 89-Kolby Reed[3]; 4. 7XJR-Marcus Dunbar[8]; 5. 10JR-Mikey Blevins[4]; 6. 21-Jimmy Latvala[6]; 7. 91-Paul Suzik[5]; 8. 10-Michael Blevins Sr[7]; 9. 15-Sam Blevins[9]; 10. 21+7-Ryan Barningham[11]; 11. (DNF) 79-Bryan Lund[10]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 21-Jimmy Latvala[2]; 2. 7XJR-Marcus Dunbar[4]; 3. 10-Michael Blevins Sr[1]; 4. 91-Paul Suzik[5]; 5. 15-Sam Blevins[3]; 6. (DNF) 21+7-Ryan Barningham[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 28-Paul Ripley[3]; 2. 89-Kolby Reed[2]; 3. 10JR-Mikey Blevins[1]; 4. 20-Judd Skubal[5]; 5. 79-Bryan Lund[4]

WISSOTA Pure Stocks:

A Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 31T-Tom Treviranus[4]; 2. 86J-Jake Smith[2]; 3. 31-Tim Carlson[1]; 4. 7-Bob Klein[6]; 5. 67-Alex Larson[3]; 6. 33S-Jason Simonson[7]; 7. 69ER-Shane Basina[8]; 8. (DNF) 11K-Timmy Kin[9]; 9. (DNF) 10-Anthony Ravina[5]; 10. (DNF) 24-Dylan Helget[10]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 69ER-Shane Basina[1]; 2. 10-Anthony Ravina[4]; 3. 7-Bob Klein[5]; 4. 31T-Tom Treviranus[2]; 5. (DNF) 24-Dylan Helget[3]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 86J-Jake Smith[5]; 2. 31-Tim Carlson[4]; 3. 33S-Jason Simonson[1]; 4. 67-Alex Larson[2]; 5. 11K-Timmy Kin[3]

USRA Late Models:

A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 55-Clayton Hofteig[1]; 2. 19-Josh Wahlstrom[5]; 3. 52-Jason McFadden[6]; 4. 63-Patrick Kelley[4]; 5. 3-Zack Friske[7]; 6. 90-Hoyt Cournoyer[8]; 7. 18T-Matt Tody[9]; 8. 12-Brian Newville[2]; 9. (DNF) 97-Travis Friske[3]

Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 97-Travis Friske[2]; 2. 63-Patrick Kelley[4]; 3. 12-Brian Newville[1]; 4. 55-Clayton Hofteig[6]; 5. 19-Josh Wahlstrom[9]; 6. 52-Jason McFadden[7]; 7. 3-Zack Friske[3]; 8. 90-Hoyt Cournoyer[5]; 9. 18T-Matt Tody[8]

Six Cylinders:

A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 5-Roger Walker[7]; 2. 28-Travis Swanson[6]; 3. 92-Cody Eichmann[8]; 4. 69ER-Shane Basina[1]; 5. 42-Cameron Bond[9]; 6. 23-Mathew Rohlfing[3]; 7. 7R-RJ Holly[2]; 8. 23G-Tyler Gervais[4]; 9. (DNS) 97-Alex Bond; 10. (DNS) 05-Kyle Weber

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 5-Roger Walker[4]; 2. 28-Travis Swanson[3]; 3. 69ER-Shane Basina[5]; 4. 92-Cody Eichmann[1]; 5. 42-Cameron Bond[2]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 23-Mathew Rohlfing[1]; 2. 7R-RJ Holly[4]; 3. 05-Kyle Weber[5]; 4. 23G-Tyler Gervais[3]; 5. (DNF) 97-Alex Bond[2]