8-19 Page 23 | ATD Racing News

Massingill, Bellefeuille, Treviranus, Gotelaere, Koch and Savoy speed away to checkers Friday night at Gondik Law Speedway

By Nick Gima

SUPERIOR, WI (August 15) - Friday night, the fans and drivers of Gondik Law Speedway honored and supported those people affected by suicide. The seventh annual Suicide Prevention and Awareness Night included many fundraising activities, raffle drawings, and special presentations of trophies to each of the six feature winners by families and friends of individuals who had lost loved ones to suicide. Nearly $3,000 was donated by racers, fans and businesses to the feature purses in memory of the victims.

On the track, the action heated up on a muggy, sweltering night, with WISSOTA Dirt Track Series winners including Jeff Massingill, Jody Bellefeuille, Tom Treviranus, Carson Gotelaere, Dexton Koch and Ryan Savoy.

Massingill chalked up his first victory of the season in Superior with a strong showing in the WISSOTA Late Model feature.

Polesitter Mike Bellefeuille and fellow front-row starter Mike Prochnow started the 25-lap run with a thrilling side-by-side duel for the first two laps, until contact between the two on lap two caused Bellefeuille to coast to a stop in turn four with significant damage and sent Prochnow to the pits to change a flat tire. This put Travis Budisalovich on the point for the race’s only restart, just ahead of Skeeter Estey and sixth-starter Massingill.

Two laps after the restart Massingill completed a pass of Estey for second, and with the race staying under green Budisalovich pulled away to a 1.8-second advantage by lap 14. But when slower traffic became a factor, Massingill trimmed the deficit down to a half-second within four short laps, and he used an inside pass to take the lead on lap 21.

Massingill proved just how strong his car has been in recent weeks by sprinting away to an impressive 1.6-second winning margin, while Budisalovich was well ahead of 10th-starter Pat Doar, Jayme Lautigar and Dave Flynn.

Ryan Savoy, the points leader in the WISSOTA Midwest Modified division, also scored his first win of the season. Savoy started on the front row and led every one of his race’s 20 laps.

Savoy beat polesitter David Simpson out of the first pair of corners and led a tight pack of cars - including Paul Ripley, McLean Andrews, Jimmy Latvala, George Dalbeck and Joey Jensen - over the first three laps. The run’s only stoppage came when Cory Jorgensen’s ride ground to a halt in turn three with issues on lap three, but from there Savoy’s pace was uninterrupted.

Savoy pushed his lead to 1.5 seconds ahead of Simpson by mid-race and maintained a healthy margin from there. Jensen, who restarted outside of the top five, charged forward over the second half of the run, taking fourth away from Ripley after a two-lap battle, then racing hard with Andrews before claiming third with five laps to go.

Savoy crossed under the checkered flags 1.22 seconds ahead of Jensen, who took second away from Simpson on the white-flag lap. Andrews came home a solid fourth, ahead of Ripley.

One of two drivers who have all but cemented their claims to 2025 GLS divisional crowns, Jody Bellefeuille, stayed white-hot by winning his third-straight WISSOTA Modified feature here on Friday.

Polesitter Bellefeuille raced door to door with Al Uotinen for much of the nonstop 20-lap event, with the pair staying a few lengths ahead of the battle for third between Cody Carlson and Deven VanHouse early on. Andrew Inman, who started 12th on the 16-car grid, moved up to join the race for third on lap seven, and after a half-dozen laps both VanHouse and Inman had displaced Carlson for third and fourth.

Bellefeuille looked to be in control by lap 13, building his lead to nearly a full second, but as backmarkers became a factor Uotinen took advantage to close that distance to the leader by half. With two laps remaining Uotinen was in position to make an inside pass for the lead, but Bellefeuille responded with a pass of his own to reclaim the lead and hang on for a .75-second margin at the final stripe.

Inman held firm to a distant third at the finish, followed by VanHouse and Cody Wolkowski.

The other driver with an inside line on a track championship was Carson Gotelaere, who grabbed the win in the WISSOTA Hornet feature.

Four Hornet drivers made first-time visits from the Fergus Falls, MN, area on this night - all sporting a version of the number 988 on their cars to call attention to the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline emergency number. One of those drivers, Lincoln Miller, started on the pole and led the initial laps. As Gotelaere, Brady Fosso, Nathan Penney and Nick Ruzich clustered around him in a challenge for the lead on lap four, incidental contact with one of the others caused significant damage to the right-rear wheel and suspension of Miller’s car. He spun and a couple of other cars were collected in the incident.

Gotelaere led the field to the restart and fended off a fierce threat by Penney throughout the balance of the run for his second feature win of the season at the oval. Fosso closed quickly during the final stages to try to make it a three-car race for the win, but settled for third-place money, well ahead of Ruzich and Spencer Smith.

Things are not quite decided in the WISSOTA Super Stock standings yet, but while Dexton Koch won the feature for the second straight week in dominant fashion, points leader Andy Grymala helped his cause with a strong second-place finish.

After a four-car incident in turn four of the opening lap eliminated two racers, Scott Lawrence drag-raced with polesitter Grymala during the first couple of circuits before being joined by Koch, who split the gap with a three-wide pass for the lead on lap four. Grymala followed into second place just before visitor Jake Luark’s spin brought about the race’s only other caution.

Koch ran a strong mid-track line and built up a 1.28-second lead by mid-race. Grymala held a steady second, well ahead of a wild four-car scramble for third, in which D.J. Keeler outfought Dylan Nelson, Lawrence, and Jensen. With four laps remaining Koch was nearly 2.5 seconds up on Grymala, as he put Rita Anderson a lap in arrears, and Koch closed things out with a more than 3-second winning margin.

Keeler, Nelson and Jensen completed the top five.

After a redo of the initial start, Treviranus grabbed the lead right away in the WISSOTA Pure Stock feature, while rookie Dylan Helget surprised everyone with a strong outside-line move around Shane Basina and Jessie Treviranus to second. Eric Crosby moved by Basina for third on lap two, just before Helget pushed too hard coming out of turn two and spun to bring about the only other stoppage of the 12-lap run.

After the restart Trevor Treviranus slipped past Basina to third, as Tom held off Crosby’s threats. The elder Treviranus caught a bit of a break when, on lap seven, Crosby bobbled just enough to allow Tom to extend his lead to over a second, and he maintained that margin to the checkered flag. Trevor’s strong effort earned him third, while Rob Christman’s hard tag of the back-straight wall on the final lap allowed Aaron Bernick and a recovering Helget to slip by for fourth and fifth, respectively.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Late Models:

Feature (25 Laps): 1. 6M-Jeff Massingill[6]; 2. 31-Travis Budisalovich[4]; 3. 11-Pat Doar[10]; 4. 54L-Jayme Lautigar[9]; 5. 29F-Dave Flynn[8]; 6. 45J-Johnny Broking[7]; 7. 37X-Skeeter Estey[3]; 8. 11D-Tim McMann[5]; 9. 2-Todd Gehl[13]; 10. 88-Michael Hucovski[11]; 11. 14N-Keith Niemi[15]; 12. 24-Aaron Lillo[14]; 13. 68-Mike Prochnow[2]; 14. 36-Darin Meierotto[17]; 15. 81W-Anthony Woodhull[16]; 16. 34-Taylor Madrinich[12]; 17. (DNF) 21-Mike Bellefeuille[1]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 6M-Jeff Massingill[2]; 2. 31-Travis Budisalovich[1]; 3. 68-Mike Prochnow[3]; 4. 29F-Dave Flynn[7]; 5. 54L-Jayme Lautigar[5]; 6. 88-Michael Hucovski[4]; 7. 2-Todd Gehl[8]; 8. 14N-Keith Niemi[9]; 9. 36-Darin Meierotto[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 11D-Tim McMann[1]; 2. 37X-Skeeter Estey[4]; 3. 45J-Johnny Broking[5]; 4. 21-Mike Bellefeuille[7]; 5. 11-Pat Doar[8]; 6. 34-Taylor Madrinich[2]; 7. 24-Aaron Lillo[3]; 8. 81W-Anthony Woodhull[6]

WISSOTA Modifieds:

Feature (20 Laps): 1. 11-Jody Bellefeuille[1]; 2. 98-Al Uotinen[2]; 3. 11JR-Andrew Inman[12]; 4. 17-Deven VanHouse[3]; 5. 224-Cody Wolkowski[6]; 6. 9-Brady Uotinen[15]; 7. 32III-Cody Carlson[4]; 8. 19J-Jack Rivord[7]; 9. 7-Andrew Mackey[8]; 10. 45-Bob Broking[9]; 11. 74-Shaun Kreyer[14]; 12. (DNF) 64-Evan Checkalski[5]; 13. (DNF) 18S-Kennedy Swan[11]; 14. (DNF) 22-Brandon Copp[16]; 15. (DNF) 2-Tanner Gehl[10]; 16. (DNS) 40D-Blake Adams

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 11-Jody Bellefeuille[1]; 2. 32III-Cody Carlson[2]; 3. 98-Al Uotinen[3]; 4. 19J-Jack Rivord[6]; 5. 45-Bob Broking[4]; 6. 18S-Kennedy Swan[5]; 7. (DNF) 9-Brady Uotinen[7]; 8. (DNF) 22-Brandon Copp[8]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 17-Deven VanHouse[2]; 2. 224-Cody Wolkowski[1]; 3. 64-Evan Checkalski[6]; 4. 7-Andrew Mackey[5]; 5. 2-Tanner Gehl[4]; 6. 11JR-Andrew Inman[8]; 7. 40D-Blake Adams[7]; 8. 74-Shaun Kreyer[3]

WISSOTA Super Stocks:

Feature (20 Laps): 1. 78K-Dexton Koch[3]; 2. 24-Andy Grymala[1]; 3. 12K-Duane (DJ) Keeler[6]; 4. 25-Dylan Nelson[7]; 5. 21-Joey Jensen[8]; 6. 2F-Jeffrey Frey[4]; 7. 77-Scott Lawrence[2]; 8. 62-Dalton Truchon[9]; 9. 44-Trenton Bond[10]; 10. 27-Matt Deragon[13]; 11. 42-Jake Luark[15]; 12. 74-Noah Shackleton[17]; 13. 11R-Rita Anderson[18]; 14. (DNF) 3B-Austin Blom[14]; 15. (DNF) 26-Kyle Copp[12]; 16. (DNF) 10X-Josh Schmidt[16]; 17. (DNF) 6-Dan Peterson[11]; 18. (DNS) 11A-Jordan Henkemeyer

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 21-Joey Jensen[1]; 2. 24-Andy Grymala[3]; 3. 78K-Dexton Koch[5]; 4. 25-Dylan Nelson[7]; 5. 62-Dalton Truchon[6]; 6. 6-Dan Peterson[2]; 7. 27-Matt Deragon[9]; 8. 42-Jake Luark[8]; 9. 74-Noah Shackleton[4]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 12K-Duane (DJ) Keeler[2]; 2. 11A-Jordan Henkemeyer[3]; 3. 2F-Jeffrey Frey[1]; 4. 77-Scott Lawrence[4]; 5. 44-Trenton Bond[5]; 6. 26-Kyle Copp[7]; 7. 3B-Austin Blom[6]; 8. 10X-Josh Schmidt[8]; 9. 11R-Rita Anderson[9]

WISSOTA Midwest Mods:

Feature (20 Laps): 1. 16-Ryan Savoy[2]; 2. 30-Joey Jensen[8]; 3. 70-David Simpson[1]; 4. 3M-McLean Andrews[6]; 5. 28-Paul Ripley[3]; 6. 71-Jacob Anderson[9]; 7. 21(L)-Jimmy Latvala[5]; 8. 23DD-George Dalbeck[4]; 9. 117-Deven VanHouse[7]; 10. 5A-Adam Hansen[11]; 11. 15-James Vendela[18]; 12. 69-Justin Bassa[13]; 13. 00-Joseph Swearingen[15]; 14. 8-Jonny Nowak[17]; 15. 23B-Charles Bistodeau[14]; 16. 27B-Dave DeVente[12]; 17. (DNF) 62K-Ryan Kough[10]; 18. (DNF) 14-Adam Shinn[19]; 19. (DNF) 16(J)-Cory Jorgensen[16]; 20. (DNS) 10Z-Cade Johnson

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 30-Joey Jensen[2]; 2. 71-Jacob Anderson[1]; 3. 70-David Simpson[3]; 4. 62K-Ryan Kough[4]; 5. 69-Justin Bassa[5]; 6. 16(J)-Cory Jorgensen[6]; 7. 15-James Vendela[7]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 117-Deven VanHouse[4]; 2. 3M-McLean Andrews[5]; 3. 28-Paul Ripley[6]; 4. 5A-Adam Hansen[1]; 5. 23B-Charles Bistodeau[3]; 6. (DNF) 14-Adam Shinn[2]; 7. (DNS) 10Z-Cade Johnson

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 23DD-George Dalbeck[1]; 2. 16-Ryan Savoy[6]; 3. 21(L)-Jimmy Latvala[4]; 4. 27B-Dave DeVente[2]; 5. 00-Joseph Swearingen[5]; 6. 8-Jonny Nowak[3]

WISSOTA Pure Stocks:

Feature (12 Laps): 1. 31-Tom Treviranus[1]; 2. 28-Eric Crosby[6]; 3. 231-Trevor Treviranus[7]; 4. 17-Aaron Bernick[5]; 5. 24-Dylan Helget[4]; 6. 69ER-Shane Basina[2]; 7. 5M-Michael Pederson[9]; 8. 15-Ryan LaBorde[10]; 9. (DNF) 66X-Rob Christman[8]; 10. (DNF) 131-Jessie Treviranus[3]

Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 66X-Rob Christman[1]; 2. 28-Eric Crosby[5]; 3. 131-Jessie Treviranus[4]; 4. 5M-Michael Pederson[2]; 5. 69ER-Shane Basina[3]

Heat 2 (6 Laps): 1. 31-Tom Treviranus[2]; 2. 17-Aaron Bernick[4]; 3. 231-Trevor Treviranus[3]; 4. 24-Dylan Helget[1]; 5. 15-Ryan LaBorde[5]

WISSOTA Hornets:

Feature (12 Laps): 1. 9G-Carson Gotelaere[3]; 2. 2X-Nathan Penney[4]; 3. 27-Brady Fosso[6]; 4. 9-Nick Ruzich[5]; 5. 57-Spencer Smith[7]; 6. 988E-Emma Nelson[11]; 7. 69-Madisyn Olson[9]; 8. 22A-Aaron Miller[2]; 9. 988S-Emma Schiesser[10]; 10. (DNF) 988A-Ayden Muchow[8]; 11. (DNF) 988L-Lincoln Miller[1]

Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 988L-Lincoln Miller[4]; 2. 2X-Nathan Penney[6]; 3. 27-Brady Fosso[2]; 4. 57-Spencer Smith[5]; 5. 69-Madisyn Olson[3]; 6. 988E-Emma Nelson[1]

Heat 2 (6 Laps): 1. 9G-Carson Gotelaere[3]; 2. 9-Nick Ruzich[5]; 3. 988A-Ayden Muchow[1]; 4. 22A-Aaron Miller[4]; 5. 988S-Emma Schiesser[2]