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Giossi, Copp & Jensen finish strong at 2025 Gondik Law Speedway Northern Nationals

By Nick Gima

SUPERIOR, WI (September 6) - The 37th annual Northern Nationals concluded at Gondik Law Speedway Saturday, with WISSOTA Dirt Track Series winners including James Giossi, Brandon Copp, and Joey Jensen.

A cool night and 135 race cars greeted fans in the stands, who also endured a more than 1 hour rain delay alongside the drivers in the pits

James Giossi became one of two first-time Northern Nationals champions, winning the 35-lap WISSOTA Late Model feature that was only interrupted twice — once for an off-track medical emergency, and once for debris.

Front-row starter Pat Doar was the initial pacesetter, beating polesitter and GLS points champ Dave Flynn through the first turn. Giossi, who started sixth, was locked in a battle for fourth with Kyle Peterlin for the first five laps, then moved up to challenge Billy Kendall for third. By the time Doar caught slower traffic on lap 11, he was nearly 1.5 seconds ahead of Flynn, who was being pressured by Kendall and Giossi.

Doar’s lead began to shrink once he began dealing with backmarkers, as Kendall and Giossi each displaced Flynn over laps 12 and 13. By lap 20, Kendall was within a car length of Doar, and after a couple of swaps for the position among the lapped traffic, Kendall took over the top spot, while Giossi and a charging Kevin Eder worked on Doar.

On lap 25 the first of the race’s two stops occurred, when the on-site ambulance team was called for an emergency just outside of the track.

Back under green Giossi — who restarted third — drove around Kendall for the lead, with Doar threading between them for a three-wide pass to second. Ashley Anderson, who was fifth on the redo, dove low to pass Doar four laps later, just before debris on the track slowed the pace on lap 29.

Over the final six laps Giossi pulled away, while Anderson and Doar exchanged second almost with every lap turned. At the checkered Giossi’s lead was nearly 1.9 seconds, with Anderson following at a distance. Doar, Kendall and Eder completed the top five in close formation.

Brandon Copp joined his father, three-time winner Don, and uncle John as a Northern Nationals champion, taking the WISSOTA Modified feature win in dramatic fashion.

Polestarter JT Johnson took the lead from fellow front-row starter Cody Carlson on lap two and looked to be fully in charge of the 30-lapper, pushing his lead to nearly 1.75 seconds by the mid-race point. Carlson fended off a persistent Andrew Inman over the first half of the run, while Andrew Mackey and David Simpson stayed within range.

Copp, who started seventh, began his surge to the front by slicing between Inman and Simpson to take fourth on lap 19, then caught and passed Mackey for third two circuits later. By that time Carlson had quickly closed much of the gap between himself and Johnson, and on lap 24 Carlson swept outside around Johnson and took the lead.

Copp had also closed up on Johnson, and on lap 26 he got by on the high side for second, while Carlson worked his way around the tail-end of the running order. One lap later Copp drove hard but clean into the corner in an attempt at the lead, and once he cleared Carlson he pulled away over the remaining three laps for his landmark win.

Carlson was 1.17 seconds back of Copp at the final stripe of the nonstop affair, followed at a brief distance by Johnson, 14th-starter Jody Bellefeuille, and Mackey.

Joey Jensen came into the weekend as having never won a Northern Nationals feature. But after winning the WISSOTA Midwest Modified A-main on Friday night, Jensen made some history in becoming only the third driver in event history to win features in two different divisions on the same night, joining Darrell Nelson and Shane Sabraski.

In the 20-lap Midwest Mod feature, which ran off nonstop, Jensen won the race with polestarter Dylan Miller on the initial green flag and was never to be challenged. Within four laps Jensen had built a lead of nearly three full seconds on James Vendela, while Tyler Vernon ran a close third, well ahead of Miller and Joey’s brother Brandon Jensen.

Joey pushed his advantage to nearly 3.5 seconds by lap nine, and three circuits later he was beginning to work his way through backmarkers. This allowed Vendela to close in somewhat on the leader, but once Vendela began dealing with the lapped traffic, Jensen rebuilt his advantage again.

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