8/21/2020
Gondik Law Speedway
THIRTY-EIGHT RACECARS ENTER INITIAL WISSOTA HORNET NATIONALS
THIRTY-EIGHT RACECARS ENTER INITIAL WISSOTA HORNET NATIONALS
By Jerry O'Brien 8-22-20 (Superior. WI)
Officials at the Gondik Law Speedway decided that one of their WISSOTA divisions should have a special event of their own, hence, the first WISSOTA Hornets Nationals kicked off on Friday August 21st. It was unknown as to the number of cars the event would draw, but a nice field of 38 Hornets showed up to race despite the cool, damp weather along with five other classes including a visit from the WISSOTA Street Stocks making the total car count a nice 108 racers.
The Hornets ran four heats, two B Features and a 20 lap main event. Heat winners included Carson Gotelaere, AJ House, DeJay Jarecki and Tyler Schramm. The B features went to Mitch Kieber and Corey Mehrwerth.
A solid field of 21 Midwest Modifieds ran three qualifying heats won by McLean Andrews, Skeeter Estey and Jimmy Latvala. There were a pair of heats in the WISSOTA Modifieds that went to Johnny Broking and Kelly Estey. Trevor Treviranus and Randy graham topped the Pure Stock heats while Kevin Burdick and Keith Kern won the two Super Stock qualifying heats and Cody Kummer was the winner of the single Street Stock heat.
After qualifying was finished, the first division to take to the track was the Midwest Modifieds with Skeeter Estey and Jimmy Latvala making up the front row. At the green Estey shot to into the lead closely followed by Latvala. McLean Andrews move from his sixth starting spot to third, Ryan Savoy one spot forward to fourth and Ashley Mehrwerth from eighth to fifth. That order remained the same up to the only caution flag of the 20 lap main flew for a Chris Bretting spin in turn two. The top four soon pulled away from the fifth place spot which became a battleground for the spot as Andrew Inman, George Dahlbeck and Clay Passeuello battled with Mehrwerth. Meanwhile point leader Cody Carlson who started deep
in the field at 17th, was working his way forward to finish ninth. Estey led the entire distance, Latvala, Andrews, Savoy and Inman were the top five. Andrews' third place finish put into the points lead over Carlson by seven points going into the final weekly race.
In the Super Stock Main event, Andrew Mackay who has been knocking on the door of a feature win in his sophomore season, led every lap of the 20 lap main event from the outside of the front row for his first ever Super Stock feature win. Kyle Copp dogged his tracks almost the entire distance which was only broken by a late race caution flag for the slowing and heavily smoking #32H of Matt Hammitt. On the restart, Shane Sabraski who had started 9th, had worked his way forward to third, got by Copp for second but could not catch Mackey who went on for the win. Nick Oreskovich and Keith kern rounded out the top five.
The 20 lap WISSOTA Modified feature proved to be a difficult one to finish. The racetrack surface was much different than it had been throughout the season due to the cool temperatures and high humidity that kept the track tacky. The result was everyone was crazy fast with track records being set. Kelly Estey started from outside the front row and took the lead over pole sitter Dan Kingsley. The rest of the event consisted of Estey leading and Kingsley chasing while other players squabbled over the rest of the spots. There were six caution flags in the event with the sixth one turning into a red flag situation.
In the early laps third place went to Jody Bellefeuille until action was slowed when Chuck Olson's #51 spun in turn two. The restart came with 14 laps remaining but the second caution flag appeared immediately as a door panel flew off the #1L of Donnie Lofdahl. No sooner did the restart happen with 13 laps remaining, when the 14w of Clay Wagemon spun on the front stretch. Another attempt at a restart produced another spin on the front stretch by the 4N of Jeremy Nelson who was hit and almost ended up in the first turn settling pond. That incident was called "a racing incident" and no one was charged and Nelson was restored to his position. The front three were the same at the restart with Brandon Copp now fourth, Todd Gehl fifth and Shane Sabraski up from 9th to sixth. At the midpoint, the top five were the same when the fifth caution flag flew for Jeffery Wood who spun in turns one and two. The restart came with nine circuits to go. Estey and Kingsley remained the top two while Copp had gotten around Bellefeuille to third, but then "the Big One" happened as the sixth caution flag turned into a red flag condition for a massive pileup in turns one and two. No one was injured, but when the mess was cleaned up, Todd Gehl, Greg Chesley, Danny Vang, Johnny Broking, Rick Rivord, Shane Sabraski and Clayton Wagemon were all in the pits with various stages of damage. As the remaining eleven cars tried to get lined up, there was a giant false start slowing up the pack for realignment. They ran the final laps without further incident and Estey was the winner followed by Kingsley, Bellefeuille, Copp and Darrell Nelson in the top five.
It was Jimmy Randall all the way in the WISSOTA Street Stock feature. There was a caution on the start for Zach Elward. When racing resumed, Randall led Andrew Hanson, Shawn Amundson, Cody Kummer and Parker Anderson in the top five in the 15 lap event. Coming forward from the back of the pack was Dustin Doughty but his momentum was slowed when he was charged with an incident in turn two. On the restart, with Randall still in charge, Kummer got past Hanson to second with Parker Anderson fourth and Amundson fifth. Randall led all the way for the win, Hanson and Parker Anderson got past Kummer and Hunter Anderson was fifth.
In the Pure Stock 15 lap feature, Trevor Treviranus was unbeatable as he battled with defending track champion Cory Jorgensen for the win. Treviranus managed to lead all 15 laps through three caution periods. Jorgensen worried at Treviranus' rear bumper and even got a nose up to his rear fender but was unable to find enough speed to complete the pass. Treviranus held on to take the $600 win and was also pushed to set a new track record with a lap of 20.166 seconds.
Last to take to the speedway were the WISSOTA Hornets 25 strong, the most to run a feature at GLS in the division this year. Donations from fans and businesses had swelled the feature purse to over $6000. To make things more difficult, fog continued to thicken, then lighten up. In the first half of the 20 lap feature there were three caution flags. Kristy Marken led several laps from the pole, but defending track champion Tyler Schramm was on the move from his fifth starting spot. Just after the first caution flag Schramm took over the lead and just before the half way point, point leader AJ House moved to second and set out after Schramm. With seven laps remaining, there was a nasty accident in turn four that saw several cars involved and Andrew Parendo's #17 roll onto its roof. There were no injuries in the incident that brought out the second red flag of the night. Schramm went on to take the $600 plus feature win over House, DeJay Jarecki, Carson Gotelaere and Kristy Marken in the top five. It took a bit more time to realign the field after each caution flag as Hornets do not have Transponders and had to be scored by hand.
After racing was finished, Schramm's #16 went through Technical Inspection and it was determined there was a rules infraction and the car was disqualified moving up second place AJ House was elevated to the $600 plus win.
Article Credit: Jerry O'Brien
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