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Eder dominates Late Model headliner on final night of Northern Nationals while Blaeser, McFadden and Kiehl cash in with their own wins at Gondik Law Speedway

By Nick Gima

SUPERIOR, WI (September 12) - Last year, Kevin Eder began a strong run through this area’s invitational season with a huge feature win at the Northern Nationals.

Might be time to start calling him Mr. September.

Eder obliterated a stout WISSOTA Late Model feature field on Saturday night during the finale of the 38th annual Northern Nationals at Douglas County Gondik Law Speedway.

Saturday night’s other WISSOTA Dirt Track Series winners were all first-timers at the annual end-of-season event - Kaden Blaeser, Shawn McFadden, and Kolby Kiehl. The wins were the first-ever at Superior for Blaeser and Kiehl, while McFadden’s victory was his first here since 2013.

A total of 105 entries took to the track on a cool but comfortable early fall evening, after overnight rains helped provide a slightly stickier race surface than the night before.

Eder started the Late Model feature from the pole and took very little time to build what would be an insurmountable lead. By lap three, Eder was a full 1.6 seconds ahead of a heated race-long battle between Kevin Burdick and Ashley Anderson, and in just six short laps the leader began dealing with backmarkers while enjoying a 2-second cushion.

The 35-lapper clicked off without a caution-flag slowdown, which allowed Eder to continue to build on his advantage despite the heavy slower traffic. Burdick and Anderson seemed to struggle more in negotiating the lapped traffic, while also dueling with each other for position. Darrell Nelson and Dave Flynn trailed at a great distance in the remaining top five.

Over the final 10 laps, Eder began putting some top-10 runners a lap down as he continued to weave his way through the field, all the while increasing his margin over the Burdick-Anderson battle. When the checkered flag finally flew, Eder was on the back bumper of Dave Flynn’s sixth-place car while finishing an incredible 8.35 seconds - nearly half a lap - ahead of Burdick, who barely held off Anderson. Nelson came home a very distant fourth, while 2026 GLS Late Model champ Travis Budisalovich got by Flynn for fifth.

The win was Eder’s fifth at the Northern Nationals and second in a Late Model.

Blaeser swapped finishing positions from the night before with Mike Anderson for his first-ever win at Superior in the WISSOTA Modified 30-lap feature. Blaeser started outside on the second row and, after a lap-one spin by Mervin Castle, joined polesitter Colin Chaschuk, Jack Rivord and Andrew Inman in an early discussion at the front.

Anderson, who started inside on row three, charged forward to “thread the needle” between Blaeser and Chaschuk for a three-wide pass for the lead on lap three, but Blaeser battled back around the outermost lane of the wide, smooth, black-slick track to retake the point just before Brandon Copp’s spin on lap four stopped the show.

Chaschuk got by Anderson before Brady Uotinen’s spin on lap five brought about another yellow flag, but Anderson returned the favor on the subsequent restart. From there Blaeser and Anderson pulled away from the rest of the pack to settle things, with Blaeser holding not much more than a half-second edge.

The leaders were working through backmarkers just prior to the race’s mid-point, but a couple of caution-flag slowdowns – one for Nelson’s spin on lap 13, and another for Jennie Krause’s spin on the restart due to oil on the track from Erick Thiesse’s blown motor – kept the field close. From there, however, Blaeser ran away from Anderson and the rest for the next 10 laps, stretching his advantage to more than 1.3 seconds.

Anderson trimmed the gap to about a half-second in the closing laps as the leader dealt with slower traffic again, but Blaeser held on for the landmark win. An impressive run by Rivord earned him a third-place paycheck, while Chaschuk and Copp followed at a distance in the top-five.

Prior to the Mod feature, Al Uotinen was honored by the speedway staff and fans, and his fellow racers, who followed him around the track in four-wide formation. Uotinen, a multi-time track and Northern Nationals champion who had announced his retirement earlier this week after over 40 years of racing, also took a couple of solo laps around his longtime home track after the race was completed in a salute to the fans.

McFadden, who is enjoying by far his best season of his 23-year career, started the WISSOTA Super Stock feature on the inside of row four and worked the bottom groove to his first Northern Nationals feature win.

Rick Simpson outran polestarter Dylan Nelson through the first pair of turns to grab the initial lead, and he stayed there throughout the first half of the 25-lap run. Nelson battled with Dexton Koch about a half-second back of the leader, with McFadden already up to fifth behind Kyle Copp. On lap four, a two-car tangle involving Elizabeth Nord and Dan Peterson brought about the first of the race’s two caution flags.

McFadden got by Nelson a couple laps after the restart to move into third, and he stayed planted on the track’s low groove to eventually work his way up into a three-car battle for the lead with Simpson and Koch. On lap 13, McFadden finally snuck by both as they ran nose-to-tail on the outer lane, and within a couple of laps he was ahead by a full second, before debris was spotted in turn three to bring about the other yellow-flag stop on lap 16.

Another driver working the bottom lane to move forward was Matt Deragon, who had started the race from the inside of the seventh row. He was scored fourth on the final restart and moved past Koch one lap later, then swapped second with Simpson before settling in the spot with two laps remaining.

McFadden had a full-second lead on the charging Deragon, but saw that dwindle to just a third of a second when he took the checkered flag for just the second time in his career at Superior. Simpson and Koch followed just behind them, and Nelson completed the top five.

Kiehl started the WISSOTA Midwest Modified feature on the outside of the front row, worked his way around polesitter Michael Shalley, and led all 20 laps on his way to not just his first-ever win here, but first ever in a Midwest Mod.

After three laps Kiehl was .75 of a second ahead of Shalley, with Adam Shinn and Paul Ripley close behind battling for third, when several cars piled up on the front straight to avoid a slowing Glen Brown on lap three. Kiehl tried to get away on the restart, but Carrie Allen’s spin erased Kiehl’s full 1 second lead on lap five, and a four-car tangle on lap six kept the pack close again.

David Simpson, driving Kyle Monteith’s car on this night, moved low to pass Shinn for third on the lap six restart and was challenging Smalley for second on lap 10 when Shinn’s slowing racer drew another yellow flag. After Tyler Kintner got by Simpson to take third on lap 12, one last stoppage, for Garrett Paull’s spin, set the stage for a shootout between Kiehl and Kintner for the final eight laps, and although Kintner made it very tough on the leader, Kiehl held on by less than half a second for his landmark victory.

Shalley held tight to third, followed by Simpson and Ryan Savoy, who, after winning the first two nights of the weekend, clawed his way forward from the eighth row.

The weekend ended with the event’s traditional “Canadian Challenge” race, with all Midwest Mods from north of the border invited to compete for a fan-bolstered purse. Paull, who started sixth, got around front-row starters Brown and Bryce Melanson to quickly take the lead on lap one.

A spin by Allen stopped the progress on the next lap, but Paull sped away again before Shalley’s scary spin across the wet grass through the turn-one infield brought about another delay on lap three.

Paull led the remainder of the 11-lap run, although Kolby Reed provided a stiff challenge throughout. As the two youngsters sped away from the rest of the pack, Reed showed his car’s nose to Paull on several occasions, and with three laps remaining Paull’s lead was a slim .016 of a second, but Paull held on for a very thrilling win.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Late Models:

Feature (35 Laps): 1. 22E-Kevin Eder[1]; 2. 30-Kevin Burdick[2]; 3. 81-Ashley Anderson[3]; 4. 44-Darrell Nelson[4]; 5. 31-Travis Budisalovich[16]; 6. 29F-Dave Flynn[7]; 7. 19-Steve Laursen[6]; 8. 11-Pat Doar[9]; 9. 54L-Jayme Lautigar[5]; 10. 68-Mike Prochnow[12]; 11. 99-Billy Kendall[8]; 12. 04JR-Adam Ayotte[13]; 13. 71(H)-Rick Hanestad[17]; 14. 78K-Dexton Koch[11]; 15. 87-Donnie Lofdahl[19]; 16. 21-Mike Bellefeuille[15]; 17. 71-Zach Wohlers[20]; 18. 16-Cory Jorgensen[26]; 19. 24-Aaron Lillo[10]; 20. 14N-Keith Niemi[22]; 21. 81W-Anthony Woodhull[21]; 22. 55S-Ryan Schaufler[25]; 23. 9-Eric Lillo[24]; 24. (DNF) 9M-Ronnie Malecki[18]; 25. (DNF) 6M-Jeff Massingill[23]; 26. (DNF) 37X-Skeeter Estey[14]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 81-Ashley Anderson[1]; 2. 54L-Jayme Lautigar[3]; 3. 29F-Dave Flynn[5]; 4. 24-Aaron Lillo[7]; 5. 21-Mike Bellefeuille[4]; 6. 71(H)-Rick Hanestad[2]; 7. 87-Donnie Lofdahl[9]; 8. 6M-Jeff Massingill[6]; 9. 55S-Ryan Schaufler[8]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 22E-Kevin Eder[6]; 2. 19-Steve Laursen[3]; 3. 11-Pat Doar[4]; 4. 68-Mike Prochnow[1]; 5. 78K-Dexton Koch[8]; 6. 9M-Ronnie Malecki[5]; 7. 71-Zach Wohlers[9]; 8. 14N-Keith Niemi[2]; 9. 9-Eric Lillo[7]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 30-Kevin Burdick[3]; 2. 44-Darrell Nelson[4]; 3. 99-Billy Kendall[5]; 4. 04JR-Adam Ayotte[2]; 5. 37X-Skeeter Estey[6]; 6. 31-Travis Budisalovich[8]; 7. 81W-Anthony Woodhull[1]; 8. (DNF) 16-Cory Jorgensen[7]

WISSOTA Modifieds:

Feature (30 Laps): 1. 73-Kaden Blaeser[4]; 2. 57-Mike Anderson[5]; 3. 95-Jack Rivord[2]; 4. 621-Colin Chaschuk[1]; 5. 22-Brandon Copp[9]; 6. 18S-Kennedy Swan[8]; 7. 11JR-Andrew Inman[3]; 8. 22(S)-Cole Spacek[22]; 9. 40-Tanner Henderson[17]; 10. 7-Andrew Mackey[6]; 11. 98-Al Uotinen[11]; 12. 10-Mervin Castle III[21]; 13. 224-Cody Wolkowski[12]; 14. 16-Ryan Savoy[14]; 15. 22(J)-Jeff Spacek[15]; 16. 9-Brady Uotinen[13]; 17. 2-Tanner Gehl[20]; 18. 43-Lance Schilling[19]; 19. 8E8J-Jennie Krause[24]; 20. 8E8-Jessy Krause[23]; 21. (DNF) 15T-Erick Thiesse[16]; 22. (DNF) 44-Darrell Nelson[10]; 23. (DNF) 11-Jody Bellefeuille[7]; 24. (DNF) 4E-Tanner Erickson[18]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 57-Mike Anderson[1]; 2. 11-Jody Bellefeuille[3]; 3. 22-Brandon Copp[4]; 4. 98-Al Uotinen[6]; 5. 22(J)-Jeff Spacek[5]; 6. 15T-Erick Thiesse[2]; 7. 43-Lance Schilling[8]; 8. 22(S)-Cole Spacek[7]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 95-Jack Rivord[2]; 2. 621-Colin Chaschuk[6]; 3. 7-Andrew Mackey[7]; 4. 224-Cody Wolkowski[4]; 5. 9-Brady Uotinen[3]; 6. 4E-Tanner Erickson[5]; 7. 2-Tanner Gehl[1]; 8. 8E8-Jessy Krause[8]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 11JR-Andrew Inman[2]; 2. 73-Kaden Blaeser[5]; 3. 18S-Kennedy Swan[6]; 4. 44-Darrell Nelson[7]; 5. 16-Ryan Savoy[3]; 6. 40-Tanner Henderson[4]; 7. 10-Mervin Castle III[1]; 8. 8E8J-Jennie Krause[8]

WISSOTA Super Stocks:

Feature (25 Laps): 1. 51JR-Shawn McFadden[7]; 2. 27-Matt Deragon[13]; 3. 77K-Rick Simpson[2]; 4. 78K-Dexton Koch[4]; 5. 25-Dylan Nelson[1]; 6. 9K-Kolby Kiehl[5]; 7. 80-Steve Stuart[6]; 8. 26-Kyle Copp[3]; 9. 77-Scott Lawrence[8]; 10. 76-Doug Koski[11]; 11. 24-Andy Grymala[10]; 12. 91-Jordan Henkemeyer[18]; 13. 12K-DJ Keeler[17]; 14. 21C-Patrick Beeksma[14]; 15. 10-Jeff Eisner Jr[21]; 16. 19LC-Tristan LaBarge[9]; 17. 44-Trenton Bond[20]; 18. 2-Don Livingston[24]; 19. 22R-Nathan Roy[25]; 20. 6-Dan Peterson[27]; 21. 9-Jakob Bond[19]; 22. 11R-Rita Anderson[23]; 23. 36-Tyler Kostecki[16]; 24. 19-Larry Both[26]; 25. 28-Elizabeth Nord[22]; 26. (DNF) 3B-Austin Blom[12]; 27. (DNF) 81-Avery Anderson[15]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 77K-Rick Simpson[3]; 2. 77-Scott Lawrence[1]; 3. 19LC-Tristan LaBarge[5]; 4. 51JR-Shawn McFadden[9]; 5. 76-Doug Koski[8]; 6. 91-Jordan Henkemeyer[4]; 7. 9-Jakob Bond[2]; 8. 2-Don Livingston[7]; 9. 22R-Nathan Roy[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 25-Dylan Nelson[4]; 2. 26-Kyle Copp[6]; 3. 78K-Dexton Koch[9]; 4. 3B-Austin Blom[2]; 5. 81-Avery Anderson[1]; 6. 36-Tyler Kostecki[8]; 7. 44-Trenton Bond[7]; 8. 28-Elizabeth Nord[5]; 9. (DNF) 6-Dan Peterson[3]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 9K-Kolby Kiehl[1]; 2. 80-Steve Stuart[3]; 3. 24-Andy Grymala[4]; 4. 27-Matt Deragon[2]; 5. 21C-Patrick Beeksma[6]; 6. 12K-DJ Keeler[8]; 7. 10-Jeff Eisner Jr[7]; 8. 11R-Rita Anderson[5]; 9. 19-Larry Both[9]

WISSOTA Midwest Mods:

Feature (20 Laps): 1. 9K-Kolby Kiehl[2]; 2. 22-Tyler Kintner[7]; 3. 8X-Michael Shalley[1]; 4. 3DJR-David Simpson[8]; 5. 16-Ryan Savoy[16]; 6. 15-James Vendela[5]; 7. 20-Jaxon Helland[17]; 8. 71-Jacob Anderson[3]; 9. 16(P)-Garrett Paull[11]; 10. 28-Paul Ripley[6]; 11. 89-Kolby Reed[22]; 12. 69-Justin Bassa[19]; 13. 89CH-Jeff Chuchmuch[10]; 14. 3D-Kevin Monteith[18]; 15. 32M-Mason Musel[23]; 16. 67-Glen Brown[12]; 17. 723-Wayne deBruin[20]; 18. 62K-Ryan Kough[9]; 19. 44-Bryce Melanson[13]; 20. 401K-Mitch Patrick[25]; 21. (DNF) 21(L)-Jimmy Latvala[14]; 22. (DNF) 32-Adam Shinn[4]; 23. (DNF) 11-Carrie Allen[15]; 24. (DNF) 66-Bill Speak[21]; 25. (DNF) 13-Chris Bretting[24]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 32-Adam Shinn[1]; 2. 3DJR-David Simpson[3]; 3. 62K-Ryan Kough[6]; 4. 16(P)-Garrett Paull[7]; 5. 20-Jaxon Helland[4]; 6. 47-Don Craig[5]; 7. 401K-Mitch Patrick[2]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 8X-Michael Shalley[6]; 2. 15-James Vendela[4]; 3. 67-Glen Brown[2]; 4. 11-Carrie Allen[3]; 5. 66-Bill Speak[1]; 6. 69-Justin Bassa[5]; 7. 89-Kolby Reed[7]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 71-Jacob Anderson[2]; 2. 28-Paul Ripley[4]; 3. 22-Tyler Kintner[7]; 4. 16-Ryan Savoy[3]; 5. 21R-Ross Siiter[1]; 6. 10Z-Cade Johnson[5]; 7. 723-Wayne deBruin[6]

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 9K-Kolby Kiehl[4]; 2. 89CH-Jeff Chuchmuch[2]; 3. 44-Bryce Melanson[3]; 4. 21(L)-Jimmy Latvala[1]; 5. 3D-Kevin Monteith[5]; 6. 32M-Mason Musel[7]; 7. 13-Chris Bretting[6]

B Feature (12 Laps): 1. 20-Jaxon Helland[3]; 2. 3D-Kevin Monteith[4]; 3. 69-Justin Bassa[7]; 4. 723-Wayne deBruin[10]; 5. 66-Bill Speak[1]; 6. 89-Kolby Reed[12]; 7. 32M-Mason Musel[5]; 8. 13-Chris Bretting[11]; 9. 401K-Mitch Patrick[9]; 10. (DNF) 21R-Ross Siiter[2]; 11. (DNF) 47-Don Craig[6]; 12. (DNF) 10Z-Cade Johnson[8]

Canadian Challenge (10 Laps): 1. 16(P)-Garrett Paull[6]; 2. 89-Kolby Reed[4]; 3. 3D-Kevin Monteith[10]; 4. 89CH-Jeff Chuchmuch[8]; 5. 8X-Michael Shalley[9]; 6. 11-Carrie Allen[5]; 7. 67-Glen Brown[1]; 8. 47-Don Craig[7]; 9. 723-Wayne deBruin[3]; 10. (DNF) 44-Bryce Melanson[2]; 11. (DNS) 66-Bill Speak