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Runaway winners Friday at Gondik Law Speedway: Doar, Bellefeuille, Jensen, Koch and Anderson

By Nick Gima

SUPERIOR, WI (August 8) - Gondik Law Speedway introduced six more members into its Hall of Fame on Friday night, while feature winners put on dominant performances as the Fastlane Motorsports Northland Super Stock Series made its annual stop.

The new Hall of Fame inductees include former track and WISSOTA National Champion Curt Myers in the Active Driver category; longtime track employee Tony Parks in the Pioneer Achievement category; and retired drivers Dennis Almer, Glen Timko, and Mark Granlund. A luncheon sponsored by Gondik Law Office was held during the afternoon prior to the race program to honor the inductees.

All five features were essentially won in runaway fashion, with WISSOTA Dirt Track Series winners including Pat Doar, Jody Bellefeuille, Joey Jensen, Dexton Koch and Parker Anderson.

In the headlining Fastlane WISSOTA Super Stock Series feature, Koch took the lead early and never looked back in the nonstop 30-lap run.

Koch started fourth and followed Trenton Bond past polesitter Doug Koski to gain second, then worked his way past Bond and into the lead with an inside pass during lap two.

The battles for position were fierce behind Koch, with Koski, Jordan Henkemeyer, Joey Jensen, Andy Grymala, Chad Johnson and others holding third over the duration just behind Bond. Koch’s lead was up to over 2.5 seconds on lap seven when Henkemeyer and Jensen ganged up on Bond in a three-wide move; Henkemeyer worked his way by on the high side for second, while Jensen slipped low to steal third.

By mid-race, Koch had caught the tail of the running order, but he weaved his way past the backmarkers expertly to maintain a 3 to 4-second advantage over the dogfight for second between Henkemeyer and Jensen. Farther back, Bond had his hands full fending off the challenges of Matt Deragon, Koski, D.J. Keeler, Myers, Grymala and others in a tight-knit pack battling for fourth.

Koch had little trouble maneuvering through the slower traffic, and the defending Fastlane Series champ ran off to a full 4-second advantage as he took the checkered flag and the $1,000 winner’s check. Henkemeyer overcame Jensen’s persistence for second-place money, while Deragon and Koski completed the top five.

Pat Doar continued to add to his track-record WISSOTA Late Model feature win total, as he led flag to flag for win No. 61 overall and his fourth of the season on Friday night.

Doar started on the pole of the A-main, beat Rick Niemi through the first pair of turns, and established a strong pace throughout the 25-lap run. Fifth-starter Billy Kendall threatened Niemi early until the race was halted for a scary incident on lap three, when Tim Lillo’s car climbed up and over the turn-three concrete wall.

After the long red-flag period, Doar re-established his momentum and pulled away again. One lap later Kendall got around Niemi for second, ahead of Johnny Broking and Ben Heinle. The biggest mover on that restart was Jayme Lautigar; he started last on the 15-car grid, was up to ninth by the red-flag stop, and flew by a pack of cars after the choose-cone restart to steal sixth. He then gained another position within a couple more laps with a pass of Skeeter Estey.

Doar’s margin was up to nearly 1.5 seconds by the time he caught slower traffic with seven laps remaining, with Kendall in pursuit, well ahead of Niemi. Kendall took advantage of some open-field running to close the lead gap, but Doar still held a full second advantage at the final stripe. Niemi was a distant third, while Lautigar took one more spot with a late pass of Broking for fourth.

WISSOTA Modified points leader Jody Bellefeuille was every bit as dominant as Doar, leading every one of his feature’s 20 laps for his second win of the season at the oval.

Like Doar, Bellefeuille started on the pole and immediately established himself as pacesetter, ahead of a good debate for second between Andrew Inman and Andrew Mackey, while Al Uotinen, Brandon Copp and Bob Broking discussed fourth. Bellefeuille’s lead grew to more than 2.25 seconds ahead of the pack just four laps in, and by mid-race his lead was nearly 4 seconds.

Bellefeuille was catching and passing backmarkers by lap 11, while Inman had gained separation from Mackey, who was comfortably in front of Uotinen and Copp. As the race continued without yellow-flag interruption, Bellefeuille worked his way through the back of the field with relative ease and was a full 4.78 seconds ahead of Inman when he took the checkered flag. Mackey was well back in third, and Copp eventually won the discussion with Uotinen for fourth.

The most dominant performance of the night came in the WISSOTA Midwest Modified 20-lap feature, where Jensen was untouchable on his way to his third win of the season in Superior.

Jason VandeKamp went around polesitter Shane Howell through the first pair of turns and grabbed the initial lead, with Jensen in tow to second. The lead pair separated themselves from the rest of the pack over the first half-dozen laps, while Howell outran Jacob Anderson for third just in front of Jimmy Latvala and a charging David Simpson, who got by Latvala for fifth on lap six.

On lap eight, Jensen took advantage of a strong run off of turn four and used an inside move to pass VandeKamp for the lead, and he had just put first-night visitor Robert Squitti a lap down when the race’s lone caution flag was thrown at the halfway lap for the stalled car of Jonny Nowak. Safety crews were quick to the scene to extinguish his engine fire.

Jensen took advantage of the restart to put on a clinic over the balance of the run. By lap 14 the leader had a cushion of over three seconds on the mad scramble for second, where Ryan Savoy, Howell, Simpson, VandeKamp and James Vendela were clogged up. Jensen had no trouble with lapped traffic the rest of the way and motored to a final advantage of a full straightaway over Savoy, while Simpson followed closely in third ahead of Vendela and an impressive run by Canadian youngster Garrett Paull, who had started 15th on the 18-car grid.

The WISSOTA Street Stocks made another visit to Superior on this night, and former national champion Parker Anderson erased some bad memories of his last visit here with a strong performance in the feature.

Anderson, whose last visit here included two rollovers in one night while wheeling a Modified, worked inside polesitter Tom Treviranus to take the lead right away, while Nick Traynor displaced Treviranus for second a lap later. Treviranus returned the favor on the next circuit, but Traynor settled that score on lap four, with Rachel Boston moving past Treviranus for third a couple laps after that.

Anderson set a scorching pace, pulling to a lead of more than 4 seconds by lap nine, while Boston was impressive in threatening Traynor - and even edging ahead on a couple of occasions - during their battle for second. Anderson had things well in hand until the white flag came out, when Danny Richards was sent spinning coming out of turn four to bring about the race’s only yellow-flag stop.

In the one-lap sprint to the finish, Anderson rebuilt an impressive 1.27-second cushion over Traynor, while Richards recovered to grab third ahead of Treviranus and Andrew Piilo.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Late Models:

Feature (25 Laps): 1. 11-Pat Doar[1]; 2. 99-Billy Kendall[5]; 3. 54-Rick Niemi[2]; 4. 54L-Jayme Lautigar[20]; 5. 45J-Johnny Broking[7]; 6. 37X-Skeeter Estey[8]; 7. 6M-Jeff Massingill[9]; 8. 29F-Dave Flynn[6]; 9. 88-Michael Hucovski[10]; 10. 11D-Tim McMann[11]; 11. 81W-Anthony Woodhull[12]; 12. 34-Taylor Madrinich[14]; 13. 12-Mark Heinle[17]; 14. (DNF) 12(H)-Ben Heinle[3]; 15. (DNF) 42-Tim Lillo[16]; 16. (DNS) 31-Travis Budisalovich; 17. (DNS) 7C-Robbie Cooper; 18. (DNS) 79-Kevin Carlson; 19. (DNS) 21-Mike Bellefeuille; 20. (DNS) 36-Darin Meierotto

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 29F-Dave Flynn[3]; 2. 6M-Jeff Massingill[4]; 3. 37X-Skeeter Estey[2]; 4. 88-Michael Hucovski[6]; 5. 81W-Anthony Woodhull[1]; 6. 34-Taylor Madrinich[5]; 7. 42-Tim Lillo[7]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 45J-Johnny Broking[6]; 2. 54-Rick Niemi[4]; 3. 99-Billy Kendall[3]; 4. 11D-Tim McMann[5]; 5. 7C-Robbie Cooper[1]; 6. 79-Kevin Carlson[7]; 7. 12-Mark Heinle[2]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 11-Pat Doar[6]; 2. 31-Travis Budisalovich[4]; 3. 12(H)-Ben Heinle[3]; 4. (DNF) 21-Mike Bellefeuille[5]; 5. (DNF) 36-Darin Meierotto[2]; 6. (DQ) 54L-Jayme Lautigar[1]

WISSOTA Modifieds:

Feature (20 Laps): 1. 11-Jody Bellefeuille[1]; 2. 11JR-Andrew Inman[2]; 3. 7-Andrew Mackey[4]; 4. 22-Brandon Copp[8]; 5. 98-Al Uotinen[7]; 6. 9-Brady Uotinen[11]; 7. 45-Bob Broking[6]; 8. 224-Cody Wolkowski[9]; 9. 17-Deven VanHouse[13]; 10. 2-Tanner Gehl[12]; 11. 9MM-Aiden Hoffman[3]; 12. T23-John Toppozini[14]; 13. 64-Evan Checkalski[17]; 14. 1L-Donnie Lofdahl[15]; 15. (DNF) 33C-Cole Chernosky[10]; 16. (DNF) 32III-Cody Carlson[5]; 17. (DNF) 12-TJ Heinle[16]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 32III-Cody Carlson[2]; 2. 11-Jody Bellefeuille[5]; 3. 22-Brandon Copp[8]; 4. 9MM-Aiden Hoffman[4]; 5. 224-Cody Wolkowski[6]; 6. 9-Brady Uotinen[7]; 7. 17-Deven VanHouse[9]; 8. 1L-Donnie Lofdahl[3]; 9. (DQ) 64-Evan Checkalski[1]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 11JR-Andrew Inman[3]; 2. 7-Andrew Mackey[2]; 3. 98-Al Uotinen[1]; 4. 45-Bob Broking[4]; 5. 33C-Cole Chernosky[5]; 6. 2-Tanner Gehl[7]; 7. T23-John Toppozini[6]; 8. 12-TJ Heinle[8]

WISSOTA Super Stocks:

Feature (30 Laps): 1. 78K-Dexton Koch[4]; 2. 11A-Jordan Henkemeyer[6]; 3. 21-Joey Jensen[3]; 4. 27-Matt Deragon[10]; 5. 76-Doug Koski[1]; 6. 24-Andy Grymala[9]; 7. 25-Dylan Nelson[15]; 8. 1M-Curt Myers[13]; 9. 21M-Alex Myers[24]; 10. 7R-Tommy Richards[18]; 11. 62-Dalton Truchon[14]; 12. 44-Trenton Bond[2]; 13. 14X-Leslie Leu[8]; 14. 26-Kyle Copp[21]; 15. 10X-Josh Schmidt[17]; 16. 33-Austin Niemeyer[16]; 17. 25(X)-Chad Johnson[7]; 18. 74-Noah Shackleton[25]; 19. 11R-Rita Anderson[23]; 20. 4A-Allan Cleveland[20]; 21. 6-Dan Peterson[19]; 22. (DNF) 77-Scott Lawrence[11]; 23. (DNF) 2-Don Livingston[22]; 24. (DNF) 12K-Duane (DJ) Keeler[12]; 25. (DNF) 22T-Terran Spacek[5]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 44-Trenton Bond[2]; 2. 76-Doug Koski[3]; 3. 24-Andy Grymala[6]; 4. 27-Matt Deragon[8]; 5. 1M-Curt Myers[9]; 6. 33-Austin Niemeyer[4]; 7. 6-Dan Peterson[1]; 8. 2-Don Livingston[5]; 9. 74-Noah Shackleton[7]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 21-Joey Jensen[4]; 2. 25(X)-Chad Johnson[2]; 3. 14X-Leslie Leu[3]; 4. 77-Scott Lawrence[1]; 5. 62-Dalton Truchon[5]; 6. 10X-Josh Schmidt[8]; 7. 4A-Allan Cleveland[6]; 8. 11R-Rita Anderson[7]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 78K-Dexton Koch[2]; 2. 11A-Jordan Henkemeyer[4]; 3. 22T-Terran Spacek[6]; 4. 12K-Duane (DJ) Keeler[8]; 5. 25-Dylan Nelson[5]; 6. 7R-Tommy Richards[1]; 7. 26-Kyle Copp[7]; 8. 21M-Alex Myers[3]

WISSOTA Midwest Mods:

Feature (20 Laps): 1. 30-Joey Jensen[4]; 2. 16-Ryan Savoy[5]; 3. 70-David Simpson[7]; 4. 15-James Vendela[9]; 5. 16(P)-Garrett Paull[15]; 6. 21-Shane Howell[1]; 7. 71-Jacob Anderson[6]; 8. 16(V)-Jason VandeKamp[2]; 9. 21(L)-Jimmy Latvala[8]; 10. 28-Paul Ripley[11]; 11. 117-Deven VanHouse[3]; 12. 33C-Cole Boston[14]; 13. 18-Hunter Brink[18]; 14. 14C-Colby Petrunak[16]; 15. 32M-Mason Musel[13]; 16. 57JR-Robert Squitti[17]; 17. (DNF) 8-Jonny Nowak[10]; 18. (DNF) 14-Adam Shinn[12]; 19. (DNS) 16(J)-Cory Jorgensen

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 117-Deven VanHouse[1]; 2. 71-Jacob Anderson[4]; 3. 21-Shane Howell[7]; 4. 8-Jonny Nowak[5]; 5. 32M-Mason Musel[6]; 6. 14C-Colby Petrunak[3]; 7. (DNS) 16(J)-Cory Jorgensen

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 30-Joey Jensen[1]; 2. 21(L)-Jimmy Latvala[3]; 3. 15-James Vendela[4]; 4. 28-Paul Ripley[5]; 5. 33C-Cole Boston[6]; 6. 57JR-Robert Squitti[2]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 70-David Simpson[2]; 2. 16(V)-Jason VandeKamp[1]; 3. 16-Ryan Savoy[3]; 4. 14-Adam Shinn[5]; 5. 16(P)-Garrett Paull[6]; 6. 18-Hunter Brink[4]

WISSOTA Street Stocks:

Feature (15 Laps): 1. 27-Parker Anderson[3]; 2. 40(T)-Nick Traynor[5]; 3. 3R-Danny Richards[7]; 4. 31-Tom Treviranus[1]; 5. 24-Andrew Piilo[4]; 6. 1R-Cole Richards[8]; 7. 12K-Chase Kivi[9]; 8. 12-Cole Soukkala[10]; 9. 40-Travis Loew[6]; 10. (DNF) 17B-Rachel Boston[2]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 40-Travis Loew[2]; 2. 40(T)-Nick Traynor[5]; 3. 31-Tom Treviranus[3]; 4. 3R-Danny Richards[1]; 5. 12K-Chase Kivi[4]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 27-Parker Anderson[5]; 2. 1R-Cole Richards[2]; 3. 17B-Rachel Boston[4]; 4. 24-Andrew Piilo[1]; 5. 12-Cole Soukkala[3]