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Lawrence returns from injury to score his 80th career feature win at Gondik Law Speedway; Copp, Randt, Berwick & Larson also score

By Nick Gima

SUPERIOR, WI (July 21) - Scott Lawrence completed a successful recovery from an injury just shy of two months ago by winning his 80th career feature at Gondik Law Speedway on Tuesday.

The speedplant helped open the annual Head of the Lakes Fair in Superior with a WISSOTA Dirt Track Series program. Other winners in sanctioned action included Brandon Copp, Levi Randt, Aaron Bernick, and Nikota Larson.

Lawrence, a multi-time GLS track champion who was sidelined for more than a month by the injury in early June, started fourth in the 20-lap WISSOTA Super Stock headliner and was quickly involved with Alex Myers and Shane Sabraski in a heated discussion over the lead just two laps in. When Myers bobbled a bit in turn four as the field came around to complete lap three, Lawrence was in a perfect position to pounce and led from there on, although not without challengers.

The first 15 laps ran without a yellow-flag delay, but the long run and tight competition never allowed Lawrence to build more than a half-second cushion, as Myers kept the pressure on, with Sabraski, Steve Stuart and eventually Rick Simpson staying close. Just before the race’s midpoint the leaders caught and began negotiating their way through the tail-end of the running order, but Lawrence maintained his poise and a .4-second advantage.

With five laps remaining, third-running Sabraski looped his ride to bring out a yellow flag, and on that restart Stuart slipped low to temporarily take second from Myers, but Myers took the spot back within another lap. Lawrence and Myers then gained a little separation from the rest of the field, and Lawrence edged Myers at the checkers by just .140 seconds for his first win here since 2022.

Stuart held on for third just ahead of polesitter Andy Grymala. Fourteenth-starting D.J. Keeler clawed his way to fifth.

Once he got to the front, Brandon Copp was not to be caught in the 20-lap WISSOTA Modifieds’ spotlight event. Copp started sixth and gained a couple of positions over the first lap before the race’s lone caution flag was thrown for third-place Brady Uotinen’s spin.

After the restart, Evan Checkalski got the better of then-leader Dave Cain and David Simpson to pull out front. As Checkalski pushed his lead out to over 1.1 seconds in a matter of another couple of circuits, Copp charged past Simpson to grab second, and by lap six Copp had erased any margin that Checkalski had earned, swept around the leader, and disappeared from the field.

At midrace Copp had opened up a 1.5 second advantage on Checkalski, while Jody Bellefeuille, Sabraski and Simpson closed their deficit to Checkalski quickly. Copp was over three seconds ahead when Sabraski took second on lap 16, and Copp finished 3.4 seconds ahead of Sabraski at the final stripe. Simpson took third in the waning laps and finished well ahead of Bellefeuille and Checkalski.

Levi Randt, the national points leader in the WISSOTA Street Stocks, survived a one-lap dash to the finish for his 14th feature win at his ninth different track this season.

Randt, who started the 15-lapper on the pole, could not wrestle the initial lead away from Shawn Amundson, but a two-car get-together before the lap was scored brought about a complete restart, after which Randt edged ahead to claim the lead at the completion of lap one.

Randt eventually pulled away as the race stayed under an extended green-flag run and Amundson fended off a persistent Layla Chaplin. Jim Randall joined the battle for second just after midrace, with Randt more than 1 second ahead, but Amundson broke away and reeled in Randt just before Jenna Herrman’s spin with the white flag in the air.

Several frontrunners tangled as the field was given the green, causing damage to the cars of Amundson, Chaplin and Randall, and allowing Tom Treviranus to sneak through to second. Randt ran off to a final margin of 1.3 seconds ahead of Treviranus, and Chaplin charged back to finish third only .016 of a second back of Treviranus. Amundson and Alaina Chaplin completed the top five.

The 12-lap WISSOTA Pure Stock feature ran off non-stop, led from start to finish by Bernick. He took advantage of a pole-position start, worked his way past Rob Christman and was never bested from there.

Jake Smith moved up quickly from his fourth-row starting spot to challenge Christman for second throughout much of the run, while Treviranus got by Austin Fencl for fourth just after the halfway point.

Bernick closed on the backmarkers with two laps remaining and finished the winning run 1.2 seconds ahead of Christman, who held off Smith for second. Treviranus gained a little distance on Fencl in coming home fourth, but his car was later disqualified for a post-race technical infraction, giving Fencl fourth and Shane Basina fifth.

Nikota Larson closed out the first night of the fair’s race program with a dominant WISSOTA Hornets feature win.

National divisional points leader Brady Fosso grabbed the early lead from second-place-in-points Nick Ruzich at the drop of the green; Larson followed to second. After another tour around the big oval, Larson used an inside move to get by Fosso, bringing Ruzich along to second, just before Madisyn Olson’s spin brought about the race’s only stoppage.

Larson sped away from the field from there for his third GLS feature win, with Ruzich winning a short battle after the restart with Nathan Penney to comfortably claim second. Fosso and Olson followed at a distance to complete the top five.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Modifieds:

Feature (20 Laps): 1. 22-Brandon Copp[6]; 2. 7A-Shane Sabraski[9]; 3. 70-David Simpson[2]; 4. 11-Jody Bellefeuille[8]; 5. 64-Evan Checkalski[3]; 6. 57-Mike Anderson[7]; 7. 9-Brady Uotinen[4]; 8. 11JR-Andrew Inman[11]; 9. (DNF) 7-Andrew Mackey[13]; 10. (DNF) 2C-Dave Cain[1]; 11. (DNF) 17-Deven VanHouse[5]; 12. (DNF) 19J-Jack Rivord[10]; 13. (DNS) 98-Al Uotinen

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 17-Deven VanHouse[2]; 2. 64-Evan Checkalski[1]; 3. 11-Jody Bellefeuille[3]; 4. 9-Brady Uotinen[5]; 5. 7A-Shane Sabraski[4]; 6. 11JR-Andrew Inman[7]; 7. 7-Andrew Mackey[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 2C-Dave Cain[2]; 2. 70-David Simpson[1]; 3. 57-Mike Anderson[4]; 4. 22-Brandon Copp[6]; 5. 19J-Jack Rivord[5]; 6. 98-Al Uotinen[3]

WISSOTA Super Stocks:

Feature (20 Laps): 1. 77-Scott Lawrence[4]; 2. 2M-Alex Myers[2]; 3. 80-Steve Stuart[5]; 4. 24-Andy Grymala[1]; 5. 12K-Duane (DJ) Keeler[17]; 6. 77K-Rick Simpson[6]; 7. 26-Kyle Copp[7]; 8. 7A-Shane Sabraski[3]; 9. 76-Doug Koski[8]; 10. 44-Trenton Bond[10]; 11. 2-Don Livingston[12]; 12. 11R-Rita Anderson[13]; 13. 6B-Boyd Gustafson[15]; 14. (DNF) 33C-Cole Chernosky[11]; 15. (DNF) 37-John Garrity[9]; 16. (DNS) 6-Dan Peterson; 17. (DNS) 41-Devan Zembo

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 26-Kyle Copp[5]; 2. 24-Andy Grymala[3]; 3. 80-Steve Stuart[6]; 4. 76-Doug Koski[2]; 5. 37-John Garrity[1]; 6. 33C-Cole Chernosky[7]; 7. 11R-Rita Anderson[4]; 8. 6B-Boyd Gustafson[9]; 9. 12K-Duane (DJ) Keeler[8]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 77-Scott Lawrence[1]; 2. 77K-Rick Simpson[2]; 3. 7A-Shane Sabraski[5]; 4. 2M-Alex Myers[6]; 5. 44-Trenton Bond[7]; 6. 2-Don Livingston[4]; 7. 41-Devan Zembo[8]; 8. 6-Dan Peterson[3]

WISSOTA Street Stocks:

Feature (15 Laps): 1. 11-Levi Randt[1]; 2. 31-Tom Treviranus[4]; 3. 86-Layla Chaplin[3]; 4. 19A-Shawn Amundson[2]; 5. 5-Alaina Chaplin[6]; 6. 15-Jim Randall[5]; 7. 19J-Jenna Herrman[7]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 19A-Shawn Amundson[2]; 2. 15-Jim Randall[1]; 3. 11-Levi Randt[3]; 4. 31-Tom Treviranus[5]; 5. 86-Layla Chaplin[4]; 6. 5-Alaina Chaplin[7]; 7. 19J-Jenna Herrman[6]

WISSOTA Pure Stocks:

Feature (12 Laps): 1. 17-Aaron Bernick[1]; 2. 66X-Rob Christman[2]; 3. 86J-Jake Smith[8]; 4. 52W-Austin Fencl[3]; 5. 69ER-Shane Basina[7]; 6. 10-Anthony Ravina[6]; 7. 24-Dylan Helget[4]; 8. 131-Jessie Treviranus[9]; 9. 31-Nick West[11]; 10. 67-Alex Larson[10]; 11. 67P-Dale Peterson[12]; 12. (DNF) 231-Trevor Treviranus[13]; 13. (DQ) 31T-Tom Treviranus[5]

Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 17-Aaron Bernick[7]; 2. 52W-Austin Fencl[5]; 3. 10-Anthony Ravina[4]; 4. 24-Dylan Helget[6]; 5. 131-Jessie Treviranus[1]; 6. 31-Nick West[3]; 7. 231-Trevor Treviranus[2]

Heat 2 (6 Laps): 1. 86J-Jake Smith[2]; 2. 66X-Rob Christman[3]; 3. 31T-Tom Treviranus[5]; 4. 69ER-Shane Basina[6]; 5. 67-Alex Larson[4]; 6. 67P-Dale Peterson[1]

WISSOTA Hornets:

Feature (12 Laps): 1. 26N-Nikota Larson[4]; 2. 9-Nick Ruzich[2]; 3. 2X-Nathan Penney[5]; 4. 27-Brady Fosso[1]; 5. 69-Madisyn Olson[3]; 6. (DNF) 218-Astion Schelde[6]

Heat (6 Laps): 1. 2X-Nathan Penney[2]; 2. 26N-Nikota Larson[4]; 3. 27-Brady Fosso[1]; 4. 9-Nick Ruzich[5]; 5. 69-Madisyn Olson[3]; 6. 218-Astion Schelde[6]