Aug. 31—Friday, Aug. 28 marked the end of the ‘regular season’ at Gondik Law Speedway in Superior, as six track championships were claimed in the final night of regular racing.
Travis Budisalovich of St. Paul earned the WISSOTA Late Model championship, his fourth in 11 seasons, with an eighth-place finish but the honors on the night went to Pat Doar of New Richmond, Wisconsin. Friday was Doar’s first win of the season, but his 27th in this class at this location and 72nd overall.
Doar’s first bid to take the lead from Kevin Burdick was short-circuited by a caution, but Doar outdueled Burdick down the stretch of the 25-lap feature and ended up winning by 1.7 seconds.
Jody Bellefeuille of Carlton needed only start to claim a fourth track championship in WISSOTA Modifieds but he did much more, running away to a lead of more than eight seconds (about a half a lap) before cruising home for a 6.5-second margin over runner-up Cole Boston. It was his sixth win of the season for Bellefeuille and 24th of his career.
Steve Stuart of Ashland successfully protected a 10-point lead in WISSOTA Super Stocks to become a first-time track champion, pitching his tent in third place and staying there as front-row starters Shane Sabraski of Rice, Minnesota and Joey Jensen fought it out for the win, with the veteran Sabraski doing the job for a 56th career win in Superior and 1,055th of all time.
The WISSOTA Midwest Modified points race featured an unusual amount of calamity. Paul Ripley of Duluth held a nine-point lead on James Vendela at the green flag only for contact on the very first lap to lead to his car being deprived of its right-front wheel. However, Vendela also suffered a mechanical failure during the ensuing caution-flag period, freezing the points race as it started.
Jensen took the lead with eight laps remaining off polesitter Garrett Paull and went on to a 200th career win and 24th in Superior.
Aaron Bernick of Duluth earned the WISSOTA Pure Stock title but only after a pitched battle for the lead with Rob Christman. As Christman faced pressure from behind, Bernick eventually got 2.27 seconds clear for the win, and finished just one point ahead of Christman in the season standings for a third GLS championship.
Nikota Larson of Kettle River continued his dominance in the WISSOTA Hornets class in a seventh-straight win.
Racing was scheduled to continue in Superior for the “Road to the Silver” event on Wednesday, Sept. 2 ahead of Thursday’s Silver 1000 in Proctor. The 54th running of the historic event features the Duane Caywood Modifieds and the WISSOTA Late Model Challenge Series.
Over in Proctor, Harry Hanson claimed the Late Model track championship. The 71-year-old had eight top-five finishes, eight top-10 finishes and a feature win.
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