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VandeKamp, Amundson, Fencl and Larson line up in victory lane during second fair night at Gondik Law Speedway

By Nick Gima

SUPERIOR, WI (July 22) - Dominant performances were a big part of the story at the Gondik Law Speedway during the second night of the Head of the Lakes Fair on Wednesday, but a dash of drama was added for good measure.

WISSOTA Dirt Track Series winners included Jason VandeKamp, Austin Fencl, Nikota Larson and Shawn Amundson.

Kicking off the feature portion of the program was the WISSOTA Midwest Modified A-main. VandeKamp started eighth and ran away to a solid win. Following the drop of the green he quickly worked his way into the top five as front-row starters Jimmy Latvala and Ryan Savoy put on a show while dicing for the lead.

National divisional points leader Blake Adams was on the charge from his own row-four start, moving by James Vendela for third after just four laps. Contact between Adams and Savoy while battling for second caused Savoy to spin and sent Adams to the tail of the field for the restart. VandeKamp, who restarted third, snuck past Latvala on the restart and used the five-lap green flag stretch that followed to build a lead of 1.75 seconds.

Ryan Kough’s stalled car on lap 11 brought the pack back to VandeKamp’s rear push-bar, but within three laps back under green the leader was out front by over two seconds on Savoy and a charging Deven VanHouse. Just as VandeKamp was about to put Connor Kaseno a lap down on lap 17, the rookie spun in front of the leader, setting up a three-lap dash to the checkers, which VandeKamp controlled with a 1.35-second margin of victory.

VanHouse got by Savoy for second and spent the last three laps fending off a determined Adams, while Savoy held on for fourth ahead of Landyn Randt.

The WISSOTA Street Stocks returned for a second night of racing and Amundson more than made up for the lost opportunity for a feature win on Tuesday with an exclamation point of a win in Wednesday’s A-main.

Amundson moved from fourth at the start to slip past polesitter Tom Treviranus to take the initial lead of the 15-lap run, and he built up a 1.8-second lead on Treviranus over the first five laps before the race was halted for Layla Chaplin, who parked her ailing racer in the infield off turn two, but still too close to the track for her safety.

From there it was just a matter of how much of a margin Amundson could build, as the final 10 laps clicked off without further delay. By the time the distance was covered Amundson’s winning margin over Treviranus was 11.7 seconds – roughly a half-lap. Alaina Chaplin, the only other driver still running at the end, was a similarly distant third.

The only driver to “double up” with feature wins on both nights of racing at the fair was Nikota Larson in the WISSOTA Hornets. For Wednesday’s nonstop 12-lap affair, Larson started at the tail of the five-car field and had to work his way past polesitter Nathan Penney, Nick Ruzich, and Brady Fosso – all among the top-five in the division’s national points standings – as well as a determined Madisyn Olson.

Penney grabbed the initial lead, but Olson ran strong on the outside line and swept around first Fosso and then Penney to take over out front. Larson made his move on lap two, taking to the low groove to work through the tight pack and move by Olson to set the pace the rest of the way.

As Larson drew away, the other four cars ran in close formation for a few laps until Olson and Penney gained some separation and debated second. Penney eventually won that argument and pulled away a bit, but there would be no catching the leader the rest of the way, as Larson won his fourth of the year here. Olson held on to take third by a nose over Fosso, with Ruzich directly behind in fifth.

The WISSOTA Pure Stock feature got a little crazy, with a wild crash involving the leaders and a last-lap dash to the checkers that ended with Austin Fencl winning in a photo finish.

Rob Christman grabbed the initial lead from polesitter Derek Ament, but contact between them caused Christman to spin and penalized Ament to the back of the field. One lap later Alex Larson’s motor blew up, putting Christman in front of Fencl and Shane Basina for the next green flag. On that restart, Basina seemed to get a strong run off of turn two and looked to pull up between Christman and the outside wall on the backstretch; the pair made hard contact, which lifted both cars off the ground momentarily before they ground to a stop, with the rest of the field flying past.

Fencl took over pacesetter duties for the next restart, and Treviranus charged around Dylan Helget for second. The next time around Treviranus worked his way past Fencl for the lead, and the lead pair put on a great show just ahead of Aaron Bernick and Helget.

A lap seven spin by Tom’s daughter Jessie Treviranus closed up the field for one final restart and a five-lap sprint to the checkers, during which Fencl turned up the pressure on the leader while Bernick stayed close, looking for an opening. Coming off of the final turn, with the checkers in the air, Treviranus left just enough room to his right for Fencl to sneak by and win by .056 seconds - barely three feet - for his second feature win at GLS this season.

Bernick followed in third, nipping at Treviranus’ rear bumper, while a recovering Basina came home a distant fourth ahead of Helget.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Midwest Mods:

Feature (20 Laps): 1. 16V-Jason VandeKamp[8]; 2. 17-Deven VanHouse[9]; 3. 40D-Blake Adams[7]; 4. 16-Ryan Savoy[2]; 5. 11R-Landyn Randt[4]; 6. 63JR-Brady Larson[5]; 7. 28-Paul Ripley[6]; 8. 21(L)-Jimmy Latvala[1]; 9. WIN1-Parker Frolik[11]; 10. 21R-Ross Siiter[12]; 11. 62K-Ryan Kough[14]; 12. (DNF) 15K-Connor Kaseno[13]; 13. (DNF) 15-James Vendela[3]; 14. (DNF) 71-Jacob Anderson[10]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 16V-Jason VandeKamp[7]; 2. 15-James Vendela[4]; 3. 63JR-Brady Larson[1]; 4. 16-Ryan Savoy[5]; 5. 17-Deven VanHouse[6]; 6. WIN1-Parker Frolik[3]; 7. 15K-Connor Kaseno[2]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 11R-Landyn Randt[2]; 2. 28-Paul Ripley[1]; 3. 21(L)-Jimmy Latvala[3]; 4. 40D-Blake Adams[7]; 5. 71-Jacob Anderson[6]; 6. 21R-Ross Siiter[4]; 7. (DNF) 62K-Ryan Kough[5]

WISSOTA Street Stocks:

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

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 19A-Shawn Amundson[1]; 2. 31-Tom Treviranus[4]; 3. 5-Alaina Chaplin[3]; 4. 19J-Jenna Herrman[5]; 5. (DNF) 86-Layla Chaplin[2]

WISSOTA Pure Stocks:

Feature (12 Laps): 1. 52W-Austin Fencl[4]; 2. 31T-Tom Treviranus[7]; 3. 17-Aaron Bernick[8]; 4. 69ER-Shane Basina[5]; 5. 24-Dylan Helget[6]; 6. 231-Trevor Treviranus[9]; 7. 10-Anthony Ravina[13]; 8. 67P-Dale Peterson[11]; 9. 31-Nick West[3]; 10. 131-Jessie Treviranus[12]; 11. (DNF) 66X-Rob Christman[2]; 12. (DNF) 00-Derek Ament[1]; 13. (DNF) 67-Alex Larson[10]; 14. (DNS) 44P-Peyton Swenson

Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 66X-Rob Christman[2]; 2. 69ER-Shane Basina[7]; 3. 52W-Austin Fencl[1]; 4. 31-Nick West[5]; 5. (DNF) 131-Jessie Treviranus[6]; 6. (DNF) 10-Anthony Ravina[3]; 7. (DNF) 44P-Peyton Swenson[4]

Heat 2 (6 Laps): 1. 17-Aaron Bernick[3]; 2. 24-Dylan Helget[1]; 3. 31T-Tom Treviranus[6]; 4. 00-Derek Ament[7]; 5. 231-Trevor Treviranus[4]; 6. 67-Alex Larson[2]; 7. 67P-Dale Peterson[5]

WISSOTA Hornets:

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

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