8-11 Page 3 | ATD Racing News

Spacek speeds to first Mod win in three years, Baxter wins second straight, and Copp holds off Deragon at ABC

By Nick Gima

ASHLAND, WI (August 8) - Saturday night’s WISSOTA Dirt Track Series program at the ABC Raceway offered up a little bit of everything - close finishes, long-absent winners, surprise repeat winners, and even winged sprint cars, just for good measure.

The six-division race program included 83 entries and WISSOTA Dirt Track Series winners included Cole Spacek, Kyle Copp, David Baxter and Tom Treviranus.

Cole Spacek returned to ABC’s victory lane for the first time in more than three years with a decisive flag-to-flag win in the WISSOTA Modified feature. Spacek has had several opportunities to win races slip away all season long, but neither he nor his racer missed a beat on Saturday.

After Nick Oreskovich stalled in turn one on the initial start, Spacek, who started outside on the front row, beat Jake Hiatt through the first pair of turns to grab the lead, and he took advantage of a long green-flag run to build what looked to be an insurmountable advantage. Divisional points leader Brandon Copp made his way to third early on, while second-in-points Andrew Mackey battled with visiting Cody Wolkowski for fourth.

Copp caught and passed Hiatt for second six laps in, but by then Spacek’s lead was over 1.6 seconds and growing. Mackey and Wolkowski also overtook Hiatt’s fading racer during the race’s middle stages.

Spacek’s advantage had increased to more than 2.5 seconds when, with just four laps remaining, Oreskovich and Hiatt got together to bring about a yellow-flag stop. Then Hiatt and Cole Chernosky hooked bumpers to force another, longer delay, which Spacek admitted later tested his nerves. But the former two-time track champ cruised away from the final restart to a 1.65-second final margin of victory - the ninth of his career at ABC.

Mackey slipped past Copp for second in the closing circuits, with Oreskovich following in Mackey’s tire tracks for third. Wolkowski held strong to fifth.

Kyle Copp started on the pole of the WISSOTA Super Stock headliner, dominated until a mid-race caution, and held off a charging Matt Deragon to score his first feature win at Ashland in over two years.

Copp ran away early from Don Livingston, Steve Stuart, Jakob Bond and Patrick Beeksma, who ran in close single-file formation for several laps. Deragon, who started the night tied for the division’s points lead with Shawn McFadden, clawed his way into the top five within the first half-dozen laps, but the running order stayed fairly steady until lap 12, when Stuart’s car mysteriously slowed and fell back, while at the same time visiting Kevin Salin’s car stopped with significant front-end damage.

Deragon completed a strong inside pass of Livingston for second a couple of laps after the ensuing restart, and although Copp sped away to a 1-second advantage right away, Deragon charged to close the gap over the remaining laps. When the checkered flag flew, Copp held barely a half-second lead, but it was enough for his ninth ABC Raceway feature win overall and third in a Super Stock. Beeksma held off a late threat by McFadden for third, while Livingston edged Trenton Bond at the stripe for fifth.

Deragon moved into the points lead - albeit by a single point over McFadden - with two regular-season shows remaining.

Two drivers accomplished amazing repeat performances Saturday, as both David Baxter and Cody Eichmann followed up their first career wins at Ashland a week ago with a second-straight victory on Saturday.

Baxter used a late-race pass to run away to a dominant win in the non-stop 20-lap WISSOTA Midwest Modified headliner. Baxter started inside on the third row and was soon in the midst of a three-car dogfight for third among Paul Ripley and Jacob Anderson, just behind a great battle for the lead between front-row starters James Vendela and Paul Suzik. Suzik eventually won the spot on lap three.

Suzik pulled away to a relatively comfortable .75-second margin, while Baxter worked his way into a position to challenge Vendela for second. But on lap 12, Suzik’s car suddenly slowed and he coasted into the infield, giving up the lead. Vendela and Baxter then caught the tail-end of the running order, and when Vendela got trapped behind a slower racer, Baxter slipped by and ran away.

Over the final five laps Baxter built an impressive 3-second lead for the victory, with Vendela well ahead of Ripley. Judd Skubal continued his strong late-season efforts with a fourth-place run, while divisional points leader Marcus Dunbar came home fifth.

The WISSOTA Pure Stocks feature ran off in nonstop fashion, with Tom Treviranus earning his second feature win of the season here. Treviranus started outside on the front row, beat polestarter Dustin Follett - making his first start in several years - out of the first pair of corners, and set the pace throughout the 12-lap run, leading by as much as .75 of second in the early going, although he had plenty of challengers as the race reached its conclusion.

Basina, the division’s points leader, moved past Follett for second after just two laps, and visitor Tyler Wahlstrom came from his third-row start to take third just a lap later. The lead trio pulled away to run in close formation for several laps during the race’s middle stages, with second-in-points Dylan Helget - in a car borrowed from Treviranus’ daughter Jessie - moving up to fourth on lap eight.

Over the final couple of laps, Treviranus and Wahlstrom gained a little separation from Basina and debated the lead right up to the checkered flag, where Treviranus edged out Wahlstrom by .4 of a second for an exciting win. Helget kept pace with Basina in the standings by taking third on the final lap, and brought Austin Fencl along to fourth ahead of the points leader.

Brett Peterson held on to win by a mere tenth of a second in the Winged Sprints ahead of Owen Carlson. Jack Berger was a few lengths back in third, followed by Ken Hron and Ashley Williams in the top five.

Cody Eichmann won the Six Cylinders feature by an extremely slim margin, but the race may be remembered by the fact that it took more than 12 minutes to score a single lap, thanks to four restarts and a crash that involved over half of the 11-car field. Eichmann, showing coolness under pressure, stuck to his line and held off determined points leader Roger Walker by .094 seconds - the second time that the margin of victory in a Six’s feature was less than a 10th of a second in the past three weeks.

Travis Swanson raced hard with Shane Basina throughout the green-flag run to claim third, while Mathew Rohlfing nursed his wounded racer home in fifth.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Modifieds:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 22S-Cole Spacek[2]; 2. 7-Andrew Mackey[4]; 3. 21F-Nick Oreskovich[3]; 4. 22-Brandon Copp[5]; 5. 224-Cody Wolkowski[7]; 6. 7XJR-Marcus Dunbar[9]; 7. 11JR-Andrew Inman[8]; 8. 43-Lance Schilling[6]; 9. 33C-Cole Chernosky[10]; 10. 00-Ross Fuhrman[12]; 11. 3H-Jake Hiatt[1]; 12. 3-Bryan Hessler[11]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 11JR-Andrew Inman[3]; 2. 224-Cody Wolkowski[1]; 3. 22-Brandon Copp[5]; 4. 43-Lance Schilling[2]; 5. 7XJR-Marcus Dunbar[4]; 6. 00-Ross Fuhrman[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 22S-Cole Spacek[1]; 2. 7-Andrew Mackey[2]; 3. 21F-Nick Oreskovich[4]; 4. 3H-Jake Hiatt[3]; 5. 33C-Cole Chernosky[5]; 6. 3-Bryan Hessler[6]

WISSOTA Super Stocks:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 26-Kyle Copp[1]; 2. 27-Matt Deragon[7]; 3. 21C-Patrick Beeksma[5]; 4. 51JR-Shawn McFadden[8]; 5. 2-Don Livingston[3]; 6. 44-Trenton Bond[9]; 7. 9-Jakob Bond[2]; 8. 6-Dan Peterson[6]; 9. 11R-Rita Anderson[10]; 10. (DNF) 80-Steve Stuart[4]; 11. (DNF) 11-Kevin Salin[11]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 80-Steve Stuart[1]; 2. 51JR-Shawn McFadden[3]; 3. 27-Matt Deragon[4]; 4. 2-Don Livingston[2]; 5. 44-Trenton Bond[5]; 6. 11-Kevin Salin[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 26-Kyle Copp[1]; 2. 21C-Patrick Beeksma[3]; 3. 9-Jakob Bond[4]; 4. 6-Dan Peterson[5]; 5. 11R-Rita Anderson[2]

WISSOTA Midwest Mods:

Feature (20 Laps): 1. 35B-David Baxter[5]; 2. 15-James Vendela[1]; 3. 28-Paul Ripley[3]; 4. 20-Judd Skubal[6]; 5. 7XJR-Marcus Dunbar[8]; 6. 31-Jason Vokovan[7]; 7. 89-Kolby Reed[9]; 8. 71-Jacob Anderson[4]; 9. 21-Jimmy Latvala[11]; 10. 69-Justin Bassa[14]; 11. 19P-Antonio Pintaro[15]; 12. 21+7-Ryan Barningham[10]; 13. 20-Jaxon Helland[13]; 14. 79-Bryan Lund[19]; 15. 8-Jonny Nowak[17]; 16. 13B-Chris Bretting[12]; 17. 101-Michael Grover[18]; 18. 401K-Mitch Patrick[20]; 19. (DNF) 15K-Connor Kaseno[16]; 20. (DNF) 91-Paul Suzik[2]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 35B-David Baxter[2]; 2. 91-Paul Suzik[4]; 3. 7XJR-Marcus Dunbar[7]; 4. 21+7-Ryan Barningham[3]; 5. 20-Jaxon Helland[5]; 6. 15K-Connor Kaseno[1]; 7. 79-Bryan Lund[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 20-Judd Skubal[2]; 2. 15-James Vendela[5]; 3. 71-Jacob Anderson[6]; 4. 21-Jimmy Latvala[3]; 5. 69-Justin Bassa[7]; 6. 8-Jonny Nowak[4]; 7. 401K-Mitch Patrick[1]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 28-Paul Ripley[2]; 2. 89-Kolby Reed[6]; 3. 31-Jason Vokovan[5]; 4. 13B-Chris Bretting[4]; 5. 19P-Antonio Pintaro[1]; 6. 101-Michael Grover[3]

WISSOTA Pure Stocks:

A Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 31-Tom Treviranus[2]; 2. 83-Tyler Wahlstrom[5]; 3. 131-Dylan Helget[10]; 4. 52W-Austin Fencl[7]; 5. 69ER-Shane Basina[3]; 6. 31C-Tim Carlson[4]; 7. 17-Aaron Bernick[6]; 8. 67-Alex Larson[9]; 9. 77-Dustin Follett[1]; 10. 925-Dnae Rose[8]; 11. 67P-Dale Peterson[13]; 12. (DNF) 11K-Timmy Kin[11]; 13. (DNF) 33S-Eric Crosby[12]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 83-Tyler Wahlstrom[2]; 2. 31C-Tim Carlson[7]; 3. 77-Dustin Follett[6]; 4. 925-Dnae Rose[4]; 5. 67-Alex Larson[5]; 6. 11K-Timmy Kin[1]; 7. 67P-Dale Peterson[3]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 31-Tom Treviranus[2]; 2. 69ER-Shane Basina[1]; 3. 17-Aaron Bernick[5]; 4. 52W-Austin Fencl[6]; 5. 131-Dylan Helget[3]; 6. 33S-Eric Crosby[4]

Winged Sprints:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 42X-Brett Peterson[1]; 2. 07-Owen Carlson[2]; 3. 19B-Jack Berger[6]; 4. 46H-Ken Hron[5]; 5. 25A-Ashley Williams[4]; 6. 19-Lucas Logue[13]; 7. 97-Carl Brunsvold[14]; 8. 076-Edison Aldrich[15]; 9. 390-Mitchell Schoenoff[3]; 10. 4-Mitch Hagen[11]; 11. (DNF) 11-Dalyn Cody[8]; 12. (DNF) 61-Jackson Geragi[10]; 13. (DNF) 13-Patrick Heikkinen[12]; 14. (DNF) 03-Jamey Ogston[7]; 15. (DNF) 9C-Cole Stella[9]; 16. (DNF) C4-Carl Wade[16]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 42X-Brett Peterson[4]; 2. 25A-Ashley Williams[6]; 3. 390-Mitchell Schoenoff[2]; 4. 03-Jamey Ogston[8]; 5. 9C-Cole Stella[5]; 6. 4-Mitch Hagen[1]; 7. (DNF) 076-Edison Aldrich[7]; 8. (DNS) C4-Carl Wade

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 07-Owen Carlson[5]; 2. 19B-Jack Berger[1]; 3. 46H-Ken Hron[3]; 4. 11-Dalyn Cody[7]; 5. 61-Jackson Geragi[2]; 6. 13-Patrick Heikkinen[6]; 7. 19-Lucas Logue[8]; 8. 97-Carl Brunsvold[4]

Six Cylinders:

A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 92-Cody Eichmann[1]; 2. 5-Roger Walker[3]; 3. 28-Travis Swanson[4]; 4. 69ER-Shane Basina[11]; 5. 23-Mathew Rohlfing[5]; 6. 42-Cameron Bond[2]; 7. (DNF) 97-Alex Bond[6]; 8. (DNF) 7R-RJ Holly[8]; 9. (DNF) 444-Justin Pratt[10]; 10. (DNF) 05-Kyle Weber[9]; 11. (DNF) 73-Dale Coddington[7]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 5-Roger Walker[3]; 2. 92-Cody Eichmann[5]; 3. 97-Alex Bond[1]; 4. 73-Dale Coddington[4]; 5. 05-Kyle Weber[6]; 6. 444-Justin Pratt[2]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 28-Travis Swanson[5]; 2. 23-Mathew Rohlfing[1]; 3. 7R-RJ Holly[3]; 4. 42-Cameron Bond[2]; 5. (DNF) 69ER-Shane Basina[4]