8-25 Page 23 | ATD Racing News

Copp, Stuart, Vendetta and Treviranus cap off Saturday’s regular season wrap at ABC Raceway with feature wins

By Nick Gima

ASHLAND, WI (August 22) - Saturday night’s regular season-ending program at ABC Raceway included plenty of drama and excitement, as well as the crowing of its 2026 track points champions.

Championship Saturday Night featured a couple of points battles that were not decided until the closing laps of their respective features, as well as one historic run and a first-time feature winner.

Once the dust settled at the end of the fast-paced WISSOTA Dirt Track Series program, the champions included Brandon Copp in the WISSOTA Modifieds; Matt Deragon in the WISSOTA Super Stocks; Marcus Dunbar in the WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds; Shane Basina in the WISSOTA Pure Stocks; and Roger Walker in the ABC Six Cylinders.

Copp put a decisive cap on his second career WISSOTA Modified title here - his other coming in 2022 - with his fourth feature win of the season and 18th overall at Ashland. Copp, who nailed down the trophy after winning his heat earlier in the program, battled with polesitter Pat Cook over the first three laps of the nonstop, 20-lap feature before sweeping around Cook for what turned out to be the winning pass.

Nick Oreskovich worked his way around Cook on lap four and stayed within a half-second of the leader. Justin Weinberger also stayed close to the lead pair, with the trio swapping slide jobs a handful of times during the middle stages of the run.

As the leaders began to work through slower traffic, Andrew Mackey reeled them in to become part of the discussion in fourth, and Weinberger got by Oreskovich with a couple of laps remaining for second. Out front, Copp held on for a half-second margin of victory. Brady Uotinen got by Cook late to claim fifth.

The battle for the Super Stock title was still up for grabs as their 20-lap feature started, with Deragon holding a slim six-point lead over Shawn McFadden after the heats were completed. But 10-time track champ Steve Stuart stole a bit of their spotlight as he posted his third feature win of 2026 here and the 55th of his career at Ashland, moving him into a tie with ABC Raceway Hall of Famer Dick Christman and 14-time track champion Scott Lawrence for fourth-most all-time.

Stuart started on the pole and, after a Myron Basina spin, decided against his preferred high-groove line in favor of a low-line path around to protect his lead. He exercised great patience as Terran Spacek, McFadden and Deragon stayed close behind him in tight formation. McFadden moved up a lane on lap three to work his way past Spacek, then stayed there to draw alongside Stuart for several laps during the early stages, but Stuart eventually edged ahead to stay.

The lead trio of Stuart, McFadden and Deragon raced nose-to-tail for the uninterrupted balance of the race, with Stuart’s winning margin a mere third of a second. Deragon only lost one point of his championship-winning margin as he claimed his first Super Stock title to go along with his three Pure Stock trophies earned in 2012, ‘14 and ’15. Spacek and Kyle Copp trailed at a distance for fourth and fifth.

Dunbar nailed down his third straight Midwest Mod championship and fifth overall by simply taking the green flag in his heat race, and he finished well ahead of Jimmy Latvala in the final standings.

Polesitter James Vendela, fellow front-row starter Paul Suzik, and Paul Ripley battled for the majority of the 20-lap distance and Vendela eventually scored a hard-fought win. After a four-car mess in the first turn on the initial start, Vendela and Suzik went at it for the lead for a couple of laps before Ripley joined the mix by getting by Suzik on lap three.

Vendela couldn’t get far enough away for comfort as Ripley quickly erased the deficit to the leader, and on lap eight Ripley worked an inside move to take control of the pace. By mid-race the lead pair began putting backmarkers a lap down, while further back Dunbar, who started the run on row four, moved past David Baxter for fourth and was in the process of getting by Suzik for third when the two made contact and spun, sending Suzik to the back and Dunbar to the pits for repairs.

The pace was delayed again for Bryan Lund’s racer on the next green-flag lap, and during the final six laps Vendela fended off a brief challenge by Baxter and then used an outside move to swing around Ripley to edge ahead with two laps left. Vendela then held on for his third feature win of the season and ninth of his career here.

Ripley trailed by a half-second for runner-up honors, with Baxter holding third ahead of 13th-starting Kolby Reed and fellow Canadian visitor Austin Polonoski.

The most dramatic of the points battles came down to the final lap of the WISSOTA Pure Stock feature, where Shane Basina saw his lead trimmed to just three points over Dylan Helget going into the 12-lapper. Helget and Basina stayed close to polesitter Tom Treviranus, who grabbed the lead at the drop of the green flag, and to each other - on lap two Basina and Helget bumped each other while racing side by side in turn four, with Basina slipping back to fourth as Aaron Bernick replaced him behind Helget.

Treviranus pulled away from the three-car dogfight for second and held a .8-second edge when Dnae Rose’s car stopped on lap eight to bunch the field together for the dash to the finish. Bernick worked his way past Helget on the restart for second, and the running order held pat until the white-flag lap, when Helget pushed too hard in turn four in a last-ditch effort to gain positions, spinning directly in front of Basina and the rest of the field.

Treviranus came home with a .75-second margin of victory, his third of the season and fourth of his career here, with Bernick second. Basina followed in third for an eight-point final championship buffer, giving him his fourth championship in as many seasons, after three straight in the Six-Cylinders. Visiting Bob Klein and rookie Alex Larson completed the top five.

The Six-Cylinders’ final feature of the season went to Alex Bond, the first-ever of his four-year career to go along with his first-ever heat win earlier in the program, while Walker already had staked down his second ABC title after heats had been completed, to go with his 2006 WISSOTA Street Stock championship.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Modifieds:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 22-Brandon Copp[2]; 2. 11-Justin Weinberger[3]; 3. 21F-Nick Oreskovich[4]; 4. 7-Andrew Mackey[6]; 5. 9-Brady Uotinen[7]; 6. 32-Pat Cook[1]; 7. 621-Colin Chaschuk[11]; 8. 7XJR-Marcus Dunbar[8]; 9. 22J-Jeff Spacek[5]; 10. 3H-Jake Hiatt[10]; 11. 22S-Cole Spacek[9]; 12. 00-Ross Fuhrman[13]; 13. 3-Bryan Hessler[12]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 11-Justin Weinberger[1]; 2. 7-Andrew Mackey[3]; 3. 32-Pat Cook[2]; 4. 9-Brady Uotinen[5]; 5. 22S-Cole Spacek[4]; 6. 621-Colin Chaschuk[6]; 7. 3-Bryan Hessler[7]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 22-Brandon Copp[3]; 2. 21F-Nick Oreskovich[5]; 3. 22J-Jeff Spacek[1]; 4. 7XJR-Marcus Dunbar[4]; 5. 3H-Jake Hiatt[2]; 6. 00-Ross Fuhrman[6]

WISSOTA Super Stocks:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 80-Steve Stuart[1]; 2. 51JR-Shawn McFadden[3]; 3. 27-Matt Deragon[6]; 4. 22T-Terran Spacek[2]; 5. 26-Kyle Copp[7]; 6. 2-Don Livingston[10]; 7. 21C-Patrick Beeksma[8]; 8. 44-Trenton Bond[5]; 9. 62-Dalton Truchon[9]; 10. 7B-Jason Melton[12]; 11. 9-Jakob Bond[11]; 12. 69-Myron Basina[4]; 13. 11R-Rita Anderson[13]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 80-Steve Stuart[3]; 2. 26-Kyle Copp[7]; 3. 21C-Patrick Beeksma[4]; 4. 69-Myron Basina[1]; 5. 62-Dalton Truchon[2]; 6. 9-Jakob Bond[6]; 7. 11R-Rita Anderson[5]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 51JR-Shawn McFadden[2]; 2. 44-Trenton Bond[1]; 3. 22T-Terran Spacek[3]; 4. 27-Matt Deragon[5]; 5. 2-Don Livingston[4]; 6. 7B-Jason Melton[6]

WISSOTA Midwest Mods:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 15-James Vendela[1]; 2. 28-Paul Ripley[5]; 3. 35B-David Baxter[10]; 4. 89-Kolby Reed[13]; 5. 317-Austin Polonoski[8]; 6. 20-Judd Skubal[3]; 7. 7XJR-Marcus Dunbar[7]; 8. 91-Paul Suzik[2]; 9. 21-Jimmy Latvala[6]; 10. 71-Jacob Anderson[12]; 11. 21+7-Ryan Barningham[9]; 12. 67-Glen Brown[4]; 13. (DNF) 79-Bryan Lund[11]; 14. (DNF) 15K-Connor Kaseno[14]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 91-Paul Suzik[1]; 2. 15-James Vendela[5]; 3. 7XJR-Marcus Dunbar[7]; 4. 317-Austin Polonoski[2]; 5. 21+7-Ryan Barningham[3]; 6. 79-Bryan Lund[6]; 7. (DNF) 15K-Connor Kaseno[4]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 20-Judd Skubal[1]; 2. 67-Glen Brown[2]; 3. 21-Jimmy Latvala[4]; 4. 28-Paul Ripley[6]; 5. 35B-David Baxter[5]; 6. 71-Jacob Anderson[3]; 7. 89-Kolby Reed[7]

WISSOTA Pure Stocks:

A Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 31-Tom Treviranus[1]; 2. 17-Aaron Bernick[5]; 3. 69ER-Shane Basina[3]; 4. 7-Bob Klein[8]; 5. 67-Alex Larson[4]; 6. 925-Dnae Rose[6]; 7. 10-Anthony Ravina[7]; 8. 57-Dylan Helget[2]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 31-Tom Treviranus[1]; 2. 57-Dylan Helget[7]; 3. 17-Aaron Bernick[5]; 4. 69ER-Shane Basina[6]; 5. 67-Alex Larson[3]; 6. 925-Dnae Rose[8]; 7. 10-Anthony Ravina[4]; 8. 7-Bob Klein[2]

Six Cylinders:

A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 97-Alex Bond[1]; 2. 92-Cody Eichmann[4]; 3. 5-Roger Walker[5]; 4. 28-Travis Swanson[3]; 5. 69ER-Shane Basina[2]; 6. 23-Mathew Rohlfing[7]; 7. 42-Cameron Bond[6]; 8. 05-Kyle Weber[8]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 97-Alex Bond[1]; 2. 28-Travis Swanson[4]; 3. 5-Roger Walker[2]; 4. 92-Cody Eichmann[7]; 5. 69ER-Shane Basina[8]; 6. 42-Cameron Bond[5]; 7. 23-Mathew Rohlfing[6]; 8. 05-Kyle Weber[3]