7-29 Page 31 | ATD Racing News

Copp, Stuart, Suzik and Crosby cash out Saturday with the most money at ABC Raceway

By Nick Gima

ASHLAND, WI (July 26) - On a hot, humid late July Saturday night at ABC Raceway, four of the five features were won in runaway fashion, the remaining feature was won by inches, and six more inductees were added to the track’s Hall of Fame.

The inductees into the ABC Raceway Hall of Fame included: AH Roffers Construction Co. in the Contributor category; drivers Bonnie Berndt, Shawn McFadden and Willie Rahko; and Jane Asbach and Kevin MacArthur in the Volunteers category.

In the WISSOTA Midwest Mods, four-time track champ Paul Suzik eked out his first feature win of the season here by the absolute slimmest of margins - .001 seconds - ahead of national Midwest Mod points leader Tyler Vernon in a thrilling finish.

Impressive rookie Jacob Anderson led from the pole over the first half of the 20-lap run, despite challenges from Mike Jacques and later from defending track champ Marcus Dunbar. Ninth-starter Suzik raced with Jimmy Latvala for a time for fourth before claiming the position, then took third from Jacques on lap seven, well back from the lead pair.

Dunbar overtook Anderson for the lead with a clean pass on lap 11 and pulled away to a 1.1-second margin before Matt Jacobson’s spin on lap 13 brought the field back together. Then, a lap after the restart, several of the frontrunners were clogged up along the front straight, with Dunbar scraping the outside wall and Suzik slipping by into the lead. The chaos caused a ripple effect through the field that ended with Kolby Reed spinning and collecting Tad Schoonover in turn two.

Suzik led the field on that restart and had Dunbar on his heels for the next four laps. Dunbar got a little too close, though, as the pair came out of turn four with the white flag in the air; Suzik spun and Dunbar was penalized to the back, setting up a green-white-checkered sprint. Vernon opted for the outside of the row directly behind Suzik and pulled alongside to challenge for the win. Suzik held firm to the inside line, Vernon swept off the top of the final turn, and in the photo finish Suzik was recorded as the winner by less than a foot for his 12th career feature win here, but first since August of his 2023 championship season.

Current track points leader James Vendela clawed his way through the field over the final two laps to finish third, just ahead of Anderson and Latvala.

Brandon Copp won the WISSOTA Modified feature, the first time since August 19, 2023 - the same night as Suzik’s last win here. The division’s 2022 champ started outside of the front row and led every lap, with only a late-race caution slowing his pace.

Copp outran polestarter Dunbar out of the first pair of turns, with Brady Uotinen working the lower line to get by Dunbar for second a lap later. It took Copp a good seven laps before he had a full-second margin ahead of Uotinen, as Vernon moved into third, with Nick Oreskovich and divisional points leader Justin Weinberger well behind.

Copp hit his marks perfectly and increased his lead to nearly two seconds by lap 15 of the 20 scheduled, but Jake Hiatt’s spin brought Uotinen and the rest of the field back to the leader’s rear bumper. He held off Uotinen’s threats for his 14th career ABC Raceway feature win, by less than half a second.

Vernon and Oreskovich came home third and fourth, respectively, and Pat Cook used a late pass to claim fifth.

Steve Stuart put on another clinic in the WISSOTA Super Stock A-main, leading all 20 laps from the pole. After Randy Graham’s car stalled on the front straight on the initial green flag, Stuart beat everyone into turn one and immediately swept up to his favored high line, with Shawn McFadden following him into second ahead of Don Livingston. On lap two, Rick Simpson used the upper lane to drive around Jeff Eisner and Trenton Bond to take fifth, and three laps later he used a similar move to take fourth from Livingston.

Stuart’s lead was up to more than 4 seconds just eight laps in when Eisner spun to bring out the yellow flag. On the restart, aggressive moves by those ahead of him caused Eisner’s car to break loose and collect visiting Trevor Arens into the infield for another quick caution. During the next restart, Simpson pulled alongside McFadden and Patrick Beeksma in a three-wide attempt to take second, which he successfully completed on lap 14.

Stuart stayed well ahead of the jostling behind him for a final 3.85-second margin of victory, with Simpson, McFadden, Beeksma and Livingston in tight formation for second through fifth.

Eric Crosby continued his ownership of this season’s WISSOTA Pure Stocks, leading Saturday’s 10-lap feature flag-to-flag. Crosby started outside of row two and followed Shane Basina past polesitter Michael Pederson during the first lap. During lap two, Crosby squeezed by Basina for the lead, and with no caution flags to delay him, he worked his way to a substantial advantage.

Crosby, Basina, Aaron Bernick and Pederson aligned evenly around the track as the laps clicked off to the checkered flag. The only real battle on the track was for fifth, where rookie Dylan Helget raced side by side with Zene Anderson for much of the race’s closing laps. Only on the final circuit did Helget get the better of Anderson for the top-five finish.

Travis Swanson led flag-to-flag from his pole-position start in the nonstop 15-lap Six Cylinders A-main. Cody Eichmann, Shane Basina, Cameron Bond and Roger Walker were top-five finishers.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Modifieds:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 22-Brandon Copp[2]; 2. 9-Brady Uotinen[3]; 3. 40JR-Tyler Vernon[5]; 4. 21-Nick Oreskovich[7]; 5. 32-Pat Cook[8]; 6. 11-Justin Weinberger[4]; 7. 22S-Cole Spacek[12]; 8. 43-Lance Schilling[6]; 9. 32III-Cody Carlson[10]; 10. 3H-Jake Hiatt[11]; 11. (DNF) 22J-Jeff Spacek[9]; 12. (DNF) 7XJR-Marcus Dunbar[1]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 32-Pat Cook[1]; 2. 40JR-Tyler Vernon[3]; 3. 43-Lance Schilling[2]; 4. 7XJR-Marcus Dunbar[6]; 5. 22J-Jeff Spacek[4]; 6. 3H-Jake Hiatt[5]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 11-Justin Weinberger[2]; 2. 22-Brandon Copp[4]; 3. 9-Brady Uotinen[3]; 4. 21-Nick Oreskovich[1]; 5. 32III-Cody Carlson[6]; 6. 22S-Cole Spacek[5]

WISSOTA Super Stocks:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 80-Steve Stuart[1]; 2. 77K-Rick Simpson[8]; 3. 51JR-Shawn McFadden[3]; 4. 21-Patrick Beeksma[6]; 5. 2-Don Livingston[2]; 6. 22T-Terran Spacek[7]; 7. 7B-Jason Melton[10]; 8. 10-Jeff Eisner Jr[5]; 9. 77-Jake Nevala[11]; 10. 44-Trenton Bond[4]; 11. 01-Trevor Arens[12]; 12. 57-Randy Graham[9]; 13. 11R-Rita Anderson[13]; 14. (DNS) 10S-Josh Schmidt; 15. (DNS) 27-Matt Deragon; 16. (DNS) 62-Dalton Truchon

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 80-Steve Stuart[4]; 2. 10-Jeff Eisner Jr[2]; 3. 44-Trenton Bond[1]; 4. 77K-Rick Simpson[3]; 5. 57-Randy Graham[5]; 6. (DNF) 27-Matt Deragon[7]; 7. (DNF) 10S-Josh Schmidt[6]; 8. (DNF) 62-Dalton Truchon[8]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 22T-Terran Spacek[2]; 2. 51JR-Shawn McFadden[4]; 3. 21-Patrick Beeksma[8]; 4. 2-Don Livingston[6]; 5. 7B-Jason Melton[7]; 6. 77-Jake Nevala[3]; 7. 01-Trevor Arens[1]; 8. 11R-Rita Anderson[5]

WISSOTA Midwest Mods:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 91-Paul Suzik[9]; 2. 41-Tyler Vernon[12]; 3. 15-James Vendela[8]; 4. 71-Jacob Anderson[1]; 5. 21-Jimmy Latvala[3]; 6. T17-Tanner Hicks[11]; 7. 19P-Antonio Pintaro[6]; 8. 20-Judd Skubal[16]; 9. 21+7-Ryan Barningham[14]; 10. 32M-Mason Musel[13]; 11. 22-Matt Jacobson[4]; 12. 7XJR-Marcus Dunbar[5]; 13. 47-Tad Schoonover[17]; 14. 10Z-Cade Johnson[18]; 15. 31J-Mike Jacques[2]; 16. (DNF) 23DD-George Dalbeck[7]; 17. (DNF) 01-CJ Hedges Jr[10]; 18. (DNF) 89-Kolby Reed[15]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 91-Paul Suzik[6]; 2. 19P-Antonio Pintaro[5]; 3. 31J-Mike Jacques[2]; 4. 01-CJ Hedges Jr[1]; 5. 32M-Mason Musel[4]; 6. (DNF) 10Z-Cade Johnson[3]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 21-Jimmy Latvala[2]; 2. 7XJR-Marcus Dunbar[1]; 3. 22-Matt Jacobson[3]; 4. T17-Tanner Hicks[4]; 5. 21+7-Ryan Barningham[5]; 6. 20-Judd Skubal[6]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 23DD-George Dalbeck[2]; 2. 71-Jacob Anderson[1]; 3. 15-James Vendela[3]; 4. 41-Tyler Vernon[4]; 5. 89-Kolby Reed[6]; 6. 47-Tad Schoonover[5]

WISSOTA Pure Stocks:

A Feature 1 (10 Laps): 1. 28-Eric Crosby[4]; 2. 69ER-Shane Basina[2]; 3. 17-Aaron Bernick[5]; 4. 5M-Michael Pederson[1]; 5. 24-Dylan Helget[3]; 6. 5Z-Zene Anderson[6]

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

Six Cylinders:

A Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 28-Travis Swanson[1]; 2. 92-Cody Eichmann[2]; 3. 69ER-Shane Basina[8]; 4. 42-Cameron Bond[4]; 5. 5-Roger Walker[7]; 6. 23-Mathew Rohlfing[6]; 7. 05-Kyle Weber[3]; 8. 97-Alex Bond[10]; 9. 43-Jim Anderson[9]; 10. 23G-Tyler Gervais[11]; 11. 41-Mady Anderson[12]; 12. (DNF) 73-Dale Coddington[5]; 13. (DNS) 69-Brad Hanson; 14. (DNS) 103X-Jimmy Stearns

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 73-Dale Coddington[1]; 2. 92-Cody Eichmann[2]; 3. 28-Travis Swanson[7]; 4. 42-Cameron Bond[3]; 5. 43-Jim Anderson[6]; 6. 23G-Tyler Gervais[4]; 7. (DNF) 69-Brad Hanson[5]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 69ER-Shane Basina[4]; 2. 23-Mathew Rohlfing[5]; 3. 5-Roger Walker[6]; 4. 05-Kyle Weber[1]; 5. 97-Alex Bond[7]; 6. 41-Mady Anderson[2]; 7. (DNF) 103X-Jimmy Stearns[3]