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Northern Nationals continue on night two; Savoy sprints to a second win and is joined by Koch, Anderson and Doar in victory lane Friday at Superior

By Nick Gima

SUPERIOR, WI (September 11) - The 38th annual RaceXR Northern Nationals at Douglas County Gondik Law Speedway continued on Friday night with a mix of feature results that included both dominant performances and thrilling finishes.

A field of 95 entries signed in for the night’s WISSOTA Dirt Track Series program, with feature wins going to Pat Doar, Mike Anderson, Dexton Koch and Ryan Savoy. The four features, totaling 110 laps, were stopped by just three caution flags.

Doar’s win in the 35-lap WISSOTA Late Model spotlight event was one of the harder-fought affairs of the evening. Although he started on the pole, Doar spent much of the race trying to chase down fellow front-row starter Kevin Burdick, who benefitted from a near-perfect line around the outermost edge of the big northwestern Wisconsin oval, plus a lack of yellow-flag slowdowns, to dart away to a 2.29-second advantage ahead of Doar within just seven laps before catching slower traffic.

Burdick was flawless in negotiating the backmarkers, increasing his lead to more than six seconds by the midpoint of the race, while Doar maintained a bit of a cushion between himself and 2026 GLS divisional champ Travis Budisalovich, who in turn kept some distance between his racer and those of Darrell Nelson and Ashley Anderson, who were scrapping for fourth.

Burdick’s big lead disappeared on lap 22, however, when Budisalovich tangled with one of the lapped cars on the front straight for the race’s only caution stop. Back under green, Doar stuck with Burdick move-for-move until lap 28, when he used an inside pass to take the lead. Then, two laps later, Anderson – who had grabbed third just before the caution – dove low to take second.

Doar took to the high line during the final five laps while Anderson stayed planted to the bottom groove. Although Anderson had several opportunities to slip by, none of them were good enough to gain the advantage as Doar crossed under the checkers a scant .36 seconds ahead of Anderson for his 73rd career feature win in Superior.

Burdick held on for a distant third, and 12th-starter Kevin Eder picked his way forward to fourth, just ahead of Nelson.

Mike Anderson’s third career Northern Nationals victory, in the 30-lap WISSOTA Modified feature, was a bit less in doubt, as he started on the pole, led every lap, and won by more than 3 seconds.

Kaden Blaeser started alongside Anderson and, over the first 10 laps, stayed right in Anderson’s high-line-running tire tracks, falling back by no more than .75 of a second, with 2026 GLS Mod champ Jody Bellefeuille, Andrew Inman and Jack Rivord trailing at a distance. The leaders stayed in this order even after the race’s lone restart, the result of a lap 10 stoppage for Evan Checkalski’s broken racer parked against the turn four wall.

Anderson took advantage of the restart to break away from Blaeser and the rest of the field, pushing his lead to more than 1.5 seconds by mid race and extending it from there. With no traffic to contend with and the wide, dry-slick track to his liking, Anderson pulled away to a final 3.16-second winning margin on Blaeser, while Bellefeuille closed some on the runner-up, but still settled for third. Inman came home fourth, just ahead of Kennedy Swan, who grabbed fifth at the race’s halfway point.

The WISSOTA Super Stocks provided another nailbiter race for Friday night’s program, as Koch slipped past GLS track champ Steve Stuart late for his first Northern Nationals feature victory.

Koch, who also started on the pole, was overtaken in the first set of turns by Rick Simpson, and the duo - joined by Stuart - pulled away in the early stages to discuss the lead. With all three running around the track’s upper groove, Stuart slipped past Koch on lap five for second and then pressured Simpson for three laps before diving inside to claim the lead.

Koch followed Stuart to second on lap 10 of the 25 scheduled, and the pair caught the tail-end of the running order just before mid race. As they weaved their way through the slower traffic, Koch ran a lower line while Stuart stuck to the upper groove; it seemed as though every time Koch had a chance to edge ahead of the leader, a slower car appeared in his lane to hold him up.

Finally, on lap 21, Koch made the bold move to slide up from the low lane to the high one, right in front of Stuart, to steal the lead. Once out front, Koch drove away to a winning margin of 2.12 seconds. Shawn McFadden, who spent much of the race battling with Matt Deragon and Simpson for fourth, reeled in Stuart to get to within car lengths for a third-place effort, while Simpson held off Kolby Kiehl for fourth.

Savoy, who completed a last-corner pass of Joey Jensen for the win here on Thursday night, needed no such dramatics on Friday. He won the WISSOTA Midwest Modified feature for his fourth Northern Nationals title.

Interestingly, Savoy’s closest challenger over the second half of the 20-lapper was Jensen, and a lap 16 caution flag set up a four-lap dash to the finish between Savoy and Jensen, just as was the case the night before.

Savoy went unchallenged early on, scooting away to a lead of just under two seconds over the first four laps ahead of Kevin Monteith and track Midwest Mod champ Paul Ripley, while further back Justin Bassa led a four-car pack hashing it out for fourth. By lap seven Savoy was already putting lapped cars down, as he continued to draw away from Monteith.

Jensen, who was part of that fourth-place battle, broke free to swipe third from Ripley on lap eight, and he moved by Monteith as the pair weaved through lapped traffic together during lap 11. Jensen closed up the gap between himself and the leader over the next five laps, and he was within a half-second of Savoy when the race’s lone yellow flag waved for Bryce Melanson’s spin on lap 16.

Jensen stayed right with Savoy and threatened the leader frequently until the white flag lap, when Savoy used one last burst to break away to a 1.27-second victory. Ripley was not far back in third, while Bassa and Monteith completed the top five.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Late Models:

Feature (35 Laps): 1. 11-Pat Doar[1]; 2. 81-Ashley Anderson[5]; 3. 30-Kevin Burdick[2]; 4. 22E-Kevin Eder[12]; 5. 44-Darrell Nelson[3]; 6. 99-Billy Kendall[7]; 7. 68-Mike Prochnow[13]; 8. 31-Travis Budisalovich[4]; 9. 37X-Skeeter Estey[11]; 10. 29F-Dave Flynn[6]; 11. 21-Mike Bellefeuille[8]; 12. 87-Donnie Lofdahl[15]; 13. 78K-Dexton Koch[14]; 14. 16-Cory Jorgensen[21]; 15. 24-Aaron Lillo[17]; 16. 14N-Keith Niemi[10]; 17. 81W-Anthony Woodhull[23]; 18. (DNF) 7C-Robbie Cooper[16]; 19. (DNF) 9M-Ronnie Malecki[22]; 20. (DNF) 9-Eric Lillo[19]; 21. (DNF) 54L-Jayme Lautigar[18]; 22. (DNF) 19-Steve Laursen[9]; 23. (DNF) 24(L)-Jase Lien[20]; 24. (DNF) 11D-Tim McMann[24]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 44-Darrell Nelson[1]; 2. 29F-Dave Flynn[3]; 3. 19-Steve Laursen[4]; 4. 21-Mike Bellefeuille[8]; 5. 78K-Dexton Koch[5]; 6. 24-Aaron Lillo[7]; 7. 16-Cory Jorgensen[6]; 8. 9M-Ronnie Malecki[2]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 11-Pat Doar[7]; 2. 31-Travis Budisalovich[4]; 3. 14N-Keith Niemi[3]; 4. 37X-Skeeter Estey[6]; 5. 87-Donnie Lofdahl[5]; 6. 7C-Robbie Cooper[8]; 7. 24(L)-Jase Lien[1]; 8. (DNF) 11D-Tim McMann[2]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 30-Kevin Burdick[2]; 2. 99-Billy Kendall[3]; 3. 81-Ashley Anderson[7]; 4. 22E-Kevin Eder[5]; 5. 68-Mike Prochnow[1]; 6. 54L-Jayme Lautigar[4]; 7. 9-Eric Lillo[8]; 8. 81W-Anthony Woodhull[6]

WISSOTA Modifieds:

Feature (30 Laps): 1. 57-Mike Anderson[1]; 2. 73-Kaden Blaeser[2]; 3. 11-Jody Bellefeuille[4]; 4. 11JR-Andrew Inman[5]; 5. 18S-Kennedy Swan[9]; 6. 621-Colin Chaschuk[8]; 7. 95-Jack Rivord[3]; 8. 22-Brandon Copp[11]; 9. 98-Al Uotinen[10]; 10. 7-Andrew Mackey[18]; 11. 10-Mervin Castle III[20]; 12. 224-Cody Wolkowski[13]; 13. 9-Brady Uotinen[12]; 14. 16-Ryan Savoy[7]; 15. 22(S)-Cole Spacek[15]; 16. 43-Lance Schilling[16]; 17. 2-Tanner Gehl[21]; 18. 4E-Tanner Erickson[17]; 19. 15T-Erick Thiesse[19]; 20. (DNF) 44-Darrell Nelson[6]; 21. (DNF) 64-Evan Checkalski[14]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 11-Jody Bellefeuille[1]; 2. 95-Jack Rivord[5]; 3. 98-Al Uotinen[3]; 4. 16-Ryan Savoy[7]; 5. 224-Cody Wolkowski[2]; 6. 4E-Tanner Erickson[4]; 7. 15T-Erick Thiesse[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 57-Mike Anderson[7]; 2. 11JR-Andrew Inman[3]; 3. 18S-Kennedy Swan[1]; 4. 9-Brady Uotinen[4]; 5. 64-Evan Checkalski[2]; 6. 7-Andrew Mackey[5]; 7. 10-Mervin Castle III[6]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 73-Kaden Blaeser[4]; 2. 44-Darrell Nelson[2]; 3. 22-Brandon Copp[3]; 4. 621-Colin Chaschuk[7]; 5. 22(S)-Cole Spacek[5]; 6. 43-Lance Schilling[1]; 7. 2-Tanner Gehl[6]

WISSOTA Super Stocks:

Feature (25 Laps): 1. 78K-Dexton Koch[1]; 2. 80-Steve Stuart[4]; 3. 51JR-Shawn McFadden[5]; 4. 77K-Rick Simpson[2]; 5. 9K-Kolby Kiehl[3]; 6. 27-Matt Deragon[6]; 7. 24-Andy Grymala[13]; 8. 77-Scott Lawrence[8]; 9. 26-Kyle Copp[7]; 10. 25-Dylan Nelson[10]; 11. 76-Doug Koski[12]; 12. 44-Trenton Bond[18]; 13. 22R-Nathan Roy[15]; 14. 2-Don Livingston[20]; 15. 6-Dan Peterson[16]; 16. 3B-Austin Blom[19]; 17. 36-Tyler Kostecki[11]; 18. 9-Jakob Bond[23]; 19. 19-Larry Both[14]; 20. 11R-Rita Anderson[22]; 21. (DNF) 12K-DJ Keeler[9]; 22. (DNF) 37-John Garrity[24]; 23. (DNF) 81-Avery Anderson[21]; 24. (DNF) 19LC-Tristan LaBarge[25]; 25. (DNF) 21-Joey Jensen[17]; 26. (DNS) 6B-Boyd Gustafson

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 9K-Kolby Kiehl[2]; 2. 78K-Dexton Koch[7]; 3. 12K-DJ Keeler[5]; 4. 19-Larry Both[3]; 5. 76-Doug Koski[8]; 6. 44-Trenton Bond[6]; 7. 3B-Austin Blom[9]; 8. 11R-Rita Anderson[4]; 9. (DNF) 6B-Boyd Gustafson[1]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 27-Matt Deragon[1]; 2. 80-Steve Stuart[5]; 3. 77K-Rick Simpson[9]; 4. 25-Dylan Nelson[7]; 5. 24-Andy Grymala[8]; 6. 21-Joey Jensen[4]; 7. 2-Don Livingston[2]; 8. 81-Avery Anderson[3]; 9. 9-Jakob Bond[6]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 26-Kyle Copp[1]; 2. 51JR-Shawn McFadden[5]; 3. 77-Scott Lawrence[7]; 4. 36-Tyler Kostecki[6]; 5. 22R-Nathan Roy[3]; 6. 6-Dan Peterson[8]; 7. (DNF) 37-John Garrity[2]; 8. (DNF) 19LC-Tristan LaBarge[4]

WISSOTA Midwest Mods:

Feature (20 Laps): 1. 16-Ryan Savoy[1]; 2. 30-Joey Jensen[4]; 3. 28-Paul Ripley[5]; 4. 69-Justin Bassa[7]; 5. 3D-Kevin Monteith[3]; 6. 15-James Vendela[11]; 7. 89-Kolby Reed[6]; 8. 71-Jacob Anderson[2]; 9. 66-Bill Speak[17]; 10. 20-Jaxon Helland[8]; 11. 07-Carter Matthews[24]; 12. 3DJR-Kyle Monteith[13]; 13. 21(L)-Jimmy Latvala[9]; 14. 32M-Mason Musel[15]; 15. 89CH-Jeff Chuchmuch[12]; 16. 9K-Kolby Kiehl[10]; 17. 723-Wayne deBruin[20]; 18. 44-Bryce Melanson[16]; 19. 67-Glen Brown[18]; 20. 11-Carrie Allen[14]; 21. 62K-Ryan Kough[22]; 22. 15K-Connor Kaseno[19]; 23. 401K-Mitch Patrick[23]; 24. (DNF) 47-Don Craig[21]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 71-Jacob Anderson[4]; 2. 28-Paul Ripley[5]; 3. 9K-Kolby Kiehl[1]; 4. 15-James Vendela[6]; 5. 11-Carrie Allen[7]; 6. 44-Bryce Melanson[8]; 7. 15K-Connor Kaseno[3]; 8. 401K-Mitch Patrick[2]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 3D-Kevin Monteith[2]; 2. 89-Kolby Reed[4]; 3. 69-Justin Bassa[6]; 4. 21(L)-Jimmy Latvala[7]; 5. 89CH-Jeff Chuchmuch[8]; 6. 66-Bill Speak[3]; 7. 723-Wayne deBruin[5]; 8. 62K-Ryan Kough[1]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 30-Joey Jensen[2]; 2. 16-Ryan Savoy[8]; 3. 20-Jaxon Helland[4]; 4. 3DJR-Kyle Monteith[1]; 5. 32M-Mason Musel[7]; 6. 67-Glen Brown[3]; 7. 47-Don Craig[6]; 8. 07-Carter Matthews[5]