Byholm, Haderly Sweep; Uotinen Wins as ABC Opens! By Nick Gima

May 21, 2005; Ashland, WI: -  After a week's delay, the ABC Raceway opened its 2005 racing season with 93 cars in the pit area for the Budweiser-sponsored event and with a threatening forecast in the distance. In fact, within a half-hour after the final checkered flag dropped, the skies opened in force.

Photo Highlights

Bill Byholm (4) works past Al Uotinen (98) en route to his season-opening WISSOTA modified feature win Saturday at the ABC Raceway. Al Uotinen of Superior won his first WISSOTA super stock feature ever at the ABC Raceway Saturday night. Defending ABC Raceway WISSOTA street stock champ Larry Haderly of Marengo earned a clean sweep of action at Ashlend Saturday. Young guns James Eliason (20) and Kevin Eder (20) duel for the pure stock feature win Saturdxay night at ABC Raceway. Clay Passuello (04) leads the field to the start of a WISSOTA Street stock heat Saturday night at ABC Raceway. Shawn McFadden, Jr. (51jr) and Jim Anderson (43) battle for position in traffic during early six-cylinder action Saturday at Ashland. Randy Spacek of Phillips has his car weighed and the wheelbase verified prior to WISSOTA super stock action Saturday at ABC Raceway.

    Bill Byholm opened his campaign in Ashland with a sweep of modified
action, including a feature run that was dominant. After polesitter Rick
Przybylski spun in front of the field to force an early caution flag, Scott Hudack inherited the lead, but Byholm swept around Ross Lightner for second on lap 2 and then repeated the move to take the lead from Hudack one circuit later.

    Byholm built a straightaway lead over the long green-flag run, until Kelly Checkalski spun as Byholm was about to take the white flag, bringing the pack tight to the leader's bumper for the green-white-checkered finish. But Byholm cruised in the final sprint to collect his first win here since August 2002, ahead of Hudack, Jeff Spacek (who started the race last on the grid), defending mod champ Al Uotinen and Dean Yrjanainen.

    One race earlier, Uotinen drove Rick Milinkovich's super stock to his first win ever here in that division. In a caution-filled affair, Uotinen started on the pole and led every lap, but he had constant pressure from Rick Rivord throughout. The best battle on the track during the second half of the event was a fight for fifth between defending champ Scott Lawrence and Randy Spacek, in which Lawrence prevailed. After a final caution with four rounds left, Uotinen pulled away to the win over Rivord, Ken Truscott, Mike Duhr and Lawrence.

    Defending street stock champ Larry Haderly picked up where he left off with a clean sweep of that division's action. Haderly pulled away from a fierce battle for second between Steve Anderson and Roger Walker which ended on lap 9 when the lapped car of Richard Morrison spun in front of Walker, who got turned sideways and rolled his car onto its side in front of Anderson, who couldn¹t avoid him; Walker was uninjured. From there Haderly outran Tim Baum for his ninth career win here, while Randy Vezina, Pete Paulus and Rob Weber completed the top five.

    Two red-flag stops marred an entertaining six-cylinder feature in which Pat Cook earned his second career win. The first stop came on the opening lap when Brian Nevala got loose in traffic, veered right toward the front straight wall, and rolled his car onto its roof, collecting two other cars; Nevala was uninjured.

     Five laps later Shawn McFadden, Jr., was turned sideways on the front straight by contact from Jim Anderson and, after McFadden's car came to a complete stop, was t-boned at full speed by Ron Swanson, who had nowhere to go to avoid the contact. Swanson was transported to a local hospital for treatment for a foot injury, while McFadden was uninjured. The final ten laps ran off non-stop, and Cook fended off furious challenges from Chuck Hawkinson and Dale Coddington for the win. Greg Jaeger passed Steve Walston late in the run for fourth-place honors.

    A great side-by-side battle between two young guns, each looking for their first feature wins, was the story in the pure stock finale. James Eliason outran polesitter Bridgett Pagels to the early lead and tried to pull away, but he was chased down by Al Rapp and Kevin Eder by the halfway point of the race. The lead three pulled away until the caution light flashed on with two laps left for a Marty Passuello spin.

     In the final dash Eder pulled alongside Eliason and even edged ahead on the final go-around, but Eliason nipped Eder at the line for the exciting win. Rapp held strong to third, followed by Tom Morinville and Jim Laessig.

    Racing resumes on Saturday for Miller Lite Night at the Raceway. "Racenight Live" will air from 5-6:30 pm Saturday on WJJH, 96.7 & 102.3 FM, with raceday news and weather updates. The ABC Raceway is located three miles south of Ashland on Highway 13, then one mile west on Butterworth Road. For more information, visit the track website at <www.abcraceway.com> or call (715) 682-4990 for raceday information.

Results

WISSOTA Modifieds
    Heat 1: Scott Hudack, Ashland; Al Uotinen, Superior; Darrell Carlson, Superior.
    Heat 2: Bill Byholm, Glidden; Dean Yrjanainen, Lake Nebagamon; Jerry Hartman, Marenisco, MI.
    Feature: Byholm; Hudack; Jeff Spacek, Phillips; Uotinen; Yrjanainen; Hartman; Ross Lightner, Washburn; Rick Przybylski, Ashland; Kelly Checkalski, Duluth, MN; Mike Sauvola, Iron River.

WISSOTA Super Stocks
    Heat 1: Randy Spacek, Phillips; Al Uotinen, Superior; Ken Truscott, Greenland, MI.
    Heat 2: Rick Rivord, Superior; Wayne Stricker, Highbridge; Charlie Anderson, Ironwood, MI.
    Feature: Uotinen; Rivord; Truscott; Mike Duhr, Hazelhurst; Scott Lawrence, Superior; Spacek; Ron Hmielewski, Washburn; Rick Simpson, Thunder Bay, ONT; Shawn McFadden, Ashland; Don Koivisto, Saxon.

WISSOTA Street Stocks
    Heat 1: Roger Walker, Phillips; Randy Vezina, Duluth, MN; Richard Morrison, Park Falls.
    Heat 2: Larry Haderly, Marengo; Steve Anderson, Ironwood, MI; Tim Baum, Superior.
    Feature: Haderly; Baum; Vezina; Pete Paulus, Phillips; Rob Weber, Washburn; Joe Wolfe, Ironwood, MI; Jordan Kurtti, Bruce Crossing, MI; Clay Passuello, Ironwood, MI; Bill Muhlig, Ironwood, MI; Cory Casari, Hurley.

Six-Cylinders
    Heat 1: Greg Jaeger, Mellen; Ron Swanson, Ashland; Pat Cook, Washburn.
    Heat 2: Shawn McFadden, Jr., Ashland; Dale Coddington, Hayward; Nick Oreskovich, Mason.
    Heat 3: Don Weber, Bayfield; Chuck Hawkinson, Mellen; Chris Lustig, Ashland.
    Semi-Feature: Ken Tyykila, Iron River; Brian Nevala, Ashland; Shawn McFadden, Ashland.
    Feature: Cook; Hawkinson; Coddington; Jaeger; Steve Walston, Marengo; Steve Stuart, Ashland; Steve Tesch, Prentice; Tyykila; Lustig; Mike McKay, Highbridge.

Pure Stocks
    Heat 1: Kevin Truchon, Ashland; Jim Laessig, Wakefield, MI; Bridgett Pagels, Ashland.
    Heat 2: Chad Carlson, Superior; Tom Morinville, Duluth, MN; Al Rapp, Duluth, MN.
    Feature: James Eliason, Ashland; Kevin Eder, Ashland; Rapp; Morinville; Laessig; Don Bush, Washburn; Bruce Kalmon, Ashland; Marty Passuello, Ironwood, MI; Pagels; Michael Huff, Hurley.