8-5 Page 26 | ATD Racing News

Vernon, Balduc, Beeksma and Basina burn it all up Saturday night at ABC Raceway

By Nick Gima

ASHLAND, WI (August 2) - Shane Basina doubled up on winner’s checks at ABC Raceway on Saturday night. In addition to his WISSOTA Pure Stock victory - the first-ever at ABC Raceway for Basina - he also garnered the victory in the Six Cylinders.

Other WISSOTA Dirt Track Series winners included Patrick Beeksma, Neil Balduc, and Tyler Vernon.

Basina started third in the Pure Stock feature and immediately dove to the inside lane to take the lead away from polesitter Zene Anderson through the first turns. From there Basina led every lap, although not without a challenge.

Divisional points leader Eric Crosby also made a quick move on Anderson and settled into second upon the initial start, while current points runner-up Aaron Bernick grabbed third ahead of Jake Smith, Austin Fencl and George Richards. During lap three, heavy traffic among the lead contenders created contact that sent Smith spinning into the infield, bringing about the race’s only yellow flag.

On the restart Smith moved by Bernick for third, with Richards grabbing fourth. Fencl quickly made his way from the back of the field after the penalty for Smith’s spin and took fifth midway through the 12-lap race.

Basina ran smooth, clean laps and stayed just ahead of Crosby to claim his 17th career feature at ABC, but first in the Pure Stocks. Smith, Richards and Fencl followed closely behind in the top five.

Shawn McFadden led from the pole for about three-quarters of a lap in the WISSOTA Super Stock feature, as Steve Stuart moved immediately from third to his preferred outer groove, beating McFadden to the line to complete lap one. Stuart looked as dominant as ever in the early stages of the 20-lap main event, but a series of caution stops over the first half of the race kept him from running off.

Spins by Codii Young on laps three and six were followed closely by a spin from third-place Tom Hauert into the turn three rail on lap seven, and then spins by Rita Anderson and Jeff Eisner on the subsequent restarts followed. It was on the last restart that Stuart decided to protect the bottom lane, knowing McFadden was already there, and this is when sixth-starter Patrick Beeksma made his move.

Beeksma stayed up on the outer line and, with patience and consistent laps, eventually caught and passed Stuart for the lead on lap nine. Over the remaining nonstop laps Beeksma inched farther ahead of Stuart until the former four-time Sixes champ held a nearly full-second lead at the checkered flag for his second Super Stock win in Ashland and 32nd of his career here overall.

McFadden held third throughout the back half of the run, with Don Livingston besting Matt Deragon in a race-long battle for fourth.

After a span of four years in which he had not raced in Ashland - let alone won a feature here - Neil Balduc scored his second WISSOTA Modified feature win in five weeks on Saturday. After a “false start” for a slowed Jeff Spacek on the initial green, the 20-lap headliner clicked off nonstop.

Balduc got around polesitter Nick Oreskovich and led every lap, running a smooth, consistent line about midway up the racy surface. Tyler Vernon, who started directly behind Balduc in the second row, made his way past Spacek for third on lap four. After four more laps, he dove inside on Oreskovich for second.

Balduc’s advantage began to disappear as the determined Vernon gave chase, dwindling to .4 of a second with five laps remaining. Vernon made a handful of attempts at swiping the lead away, but Balduc kept his cool and hit his marks, holding off Vernon by slightly more than .3 of a second at the checkered for his 12th career win at ABC.

Oreskovich came home a distant third, but ahead of an entertaining father-and-son battle for fourth won by Cole Spacek over his dad Jeff.

Vernon, WISSOTA’s current national points leader in the Midwest Modifieds, helped his championship cause by sweeping both his heat and the 20-lap feature in the division.

David Baxter took the initial lead from Joe Swearingen, while Vernon followed Baxter into second. On lap three Vernon moved by Baxter for the lead, and within two laps he was up by nearly 1.5 seconds, until Ross Fuhrman’s broken racer stopped just off the backstretch to slow the run.

Vernon again extended his lead quickly, to 1.8 seconds, in just three short laps before Jonny Nowak looped his ride to stop the race again. The front seven of Vernon, Baxter, Marcus Dunbar, Swearingen, Jason Vokovan, Paul Suzik and Jimmy Latvala did not change over the next six uninterrupted laps, until Ryan Kough’s spin brought about the race’s third caution slowdown on lap 14, erasing Vernon’s 3 second cushion.

Vokovan took fourth from Swearingen one lap after that restart, and Swearingen spun on the next lap to bring about the final yellow flag of the event.

Over the final four laps Vernon still managed to rebuild a 1.87-second margin ahead of Baxter for his fourth win of the season here and third in the Mid Mod, as well as his 20th career win at ABC and landmark 50th overall. Dunbar, Latvala and Vokovan finished in the top five.

In the Six Cylinders feature, Basina had to chip his way into the top-three to have a chance at winning, but he benefitted from a series of yellow-flag slowdowns that slowed the pace of the race and kept the field together. He drove home for the win ahead of Travis Swanson, Roger Walker, Cameron Bond and Cody Eichmann in the top five.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Modifieds:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 99-Neil Balduc[2]; 2. 40JR-Tyler Vernon[4]; 3. 21-Nick Oreskovich[1]; 4. 22S-Cole Spacek[5]; 5. 22-Jeff Spacek[3]; 6. 11-Justin Weinberger[7]; 7. 11JR-Andrew Inman[10]; 8. 7XJR-Marcus Dunbar[6]; 9. 7-Andrew Mackey[12]; 10. 57-Mike Anderson[11]; 11. 32-Pat Cook[9]; 12. 3H-Jake Hiatt[8]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 22-Jeff Spacek[4]; 2. 11-Justin Weinberger[1]; 3. 99-Neil Balduc[2]; 4. 3H-Jake Hiatt[3]; 5. 32-Pat Cook[5]; 6. 57-Mike Anderson[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 22S-Cole Spacek[1]; 2. 7XJR-Marcus Dunbar[4]; 3. 21-Nick Oreskovich[3]; 4. 40JR-Tyler Vernon[6]; 5. 11JR-Andrew Inman[5]; 6. 7-Andrew Mackey[2]

WISSOTA Super Stocks:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 21-Patrick Beeksma[6]; 2. 80-Steve Stuart[3]; 3. 51JR-Shawn McFadden[1]; 4. 2-Don Livingston[5]; 5. 27-Matt Deragon[4]; 6. 7B-Jason Melton[9]; 7. 57-Randy Graham[13]; 8. 01-Michael Anderson[7]; 9. 44-Trenton Bond[10]; 10. 77-Jake Nevala[11]; 11. 10-Jeff Eisner Jr[16]; 12. 90-Adam Pratt[8]; 13. 11R-Rita Anderson[14]; 14. 11-Kevin Salin[12]; 15. (DNF) 49-Thomas Hauert[2]; 16. (DNF) Y22-Codii Young[17]; 17. (DNS) 22T-Terran Spacek

Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 80-Steve Stuart[4]; 2. 2-Don Livingston[1]; 3. 21-Patrick Beeksma[5]; 4. 51JR-Shawn McFadden[2]; 5. 7B-Jason Melton[8]; 6. 77-Jake Nevala[3]; 7. 57-Randy Graham[6]; 8. 11R-Rita Anderson[7]; 9. (DNS) Y22-Codii Young

Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 90-Adam Pratt[2]; 2. 27-Matt Deragon[8]; 3. 49-Thomas Hauert[5]; 4. 01-Michael Anderson[4]; 5. 44-Trenton Bond[3]; 6. 11-Kevin Salin[7]; 7. (DNF) 22T-Terran Spacek[1]; 8. (DNF) 10-Jeff Eisner Jr[6]

WISSOTA Midwest Mods:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 41-Tyler Vernon[3]; 2. 35B-David Baxter[2]; 3. 7XJR-Marcus Dunbar[6]; 4. 21-Jimmy Latvala[9]; 5. 31-Jason Vokovan[5]; 6. 91-Paul Suzik[7]; 7. 20-Judd Skubal[12]; 8. 79-Bryan Lund[13]; 9. 2J-Kory Jolliff[10]; 10. 22-Matt Jacobson[8]; 11. 8-Jonny Nowak[16]; 12. 00X-Joseph Swearingen[1]; 13. 21+7-Ryan Barningham[4]; 14. 62-Ryan Kough[14]; 15. T17-Tanner Hicks[11]; 16. 18K-Braedyn Kirtland[17]; 17. (DNF) 00-Ross Fuhrman[15]

Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 7XJR-Marcus Dunbar[1]; 2. 00X-Joseph Swearingen[2]; 3. 35B-David Baxter[4]; 4. 22-Matt Jacobson[3]; 5. 21-Jimmy Latvala[5]; 6. T17-Tanner Hicks[8]; 7. 79-Bryan Lund[6]; 8. 00-Ross Fuhrman[9]; 9. (DNS) 18K-Braedyn Kirtland

Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 41-Tyler Vernon[7]; 2. 21+7-Ryan Barningham[2]; 3. 31-Jason Vokovan[1]; 4. 91-Paul Suzik[6]; 5. 2J-Kory Jolliff[3]; 6. 20-Judd Skubal[5]; 7. 62-Ryan Kough[4]; 8. 8-Jonny Nowak[8]

WISSOTA Pure Stocks:

A Feature 1 (10 Laps): 1. 69ER-Shane Basina[3]; 2. 28-Eric Crosby[5]; 3. 86J-Jake Smith[6]; 4. 5R-George Richards[8]; 5. 52W-Austin Fencl[4]; 6. 17-Aaron Bernick[2]; 7. 925-Dnae Rose[10]; 8. 24-Dylan Helget[7]; 9. 5M-Michael Pederson[11]; 10. 01-Jasper Drengler[9]; 11. 5Z-Zene Anderson[1]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 5R-George Richards[2]; 2. 86J-Jake Smith[6]; 3. 28-Eric Crosby[4]; 4. 5Z-Zene Anderson[1]; 5. 01-Jasper Drengler[5]; 6. 5M-Michael Pederson[3]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 52W-Austin Fencl[2]; 2. 69ER-Shane Basina[4]; 3. 17-Aaron Bernick[3]; 4. 24-Dylan Helget[1]; 5. 925-Dnae Rose[5]

Six Cylinders:

A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 69ER-Shane Basina[4]; 2. 28-Travis Swanson[3]; 3. 5-Roger Walker[2]; 4. 42-Cameron Bond[7]; 5. 92-Cody Eichmann[5]; 6. 97-Alex Bond[10]; 7. 23G-Tyler Gervais[12]; 8. 05-Kyle Weber[1]; 9. 41-Mady Anderson[11]; 10. 3BB-Cody Roberts[6]; 11. (DNF) 43-Jim Anderson[9]; 12. (DNF) 23-Mathew Rohlfing[8]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 69ER-Shane Basina[1]; 2. 05-Kyle Weber[2]; 3. 23-Mathew Rohlfing[6]; 4. 3BB-Cody Roberts[4]; 5. 43-Jim Anderson[5]; 6. 41-Mady Anderson[3]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 92-Cody Eichmann[2]; 2. 28-Travis Swanson[5]; 3. 42-Cameron Bond[3]; 4. 5-Roger Walker[4]; 5. 97-Alex Bond[6]; 6. 23G-Tyler Gervais[1]