Copp, Kuklenski Return to ABC Victory Lane; Vezina Records First Win By Nick Gima

July 23, 2005; Ashland, WI:  - Veteran drivers Don Copp and Greg Kuklenski won features for the first time this season - and for Copp, the first time since 1998 - while Randy Vezina won his first-ever feature at the ABC Raceway during Saturday night’s program presented by Northern State Bank. The program, which drew 100 cars into the pit area, was threatened by rain all night but was pushed through to its conclusion just before ten pm with no sacrifice of races or laps.

Copp, a nine-time ABC modified champion, was engaged in a classic battle with Dean Yrjanainen throughout the mod feature until he finally pulled away after a restart on lap 11 of 20. Copp and Yrjanainen exchanged racing grooves and the lead while drawing away from a surprisingly strong John Frydrych early, but Frydrych eventually dropped back as Jerry Hartman and Bill Byholm argued over third. Within a circuit after the lap 11 restart Yrjanainen lost the lead to Copp, but Copp to pull away until the final few rounds and cruised to his 45th career feature win at Ashland. Yrjanainen held off a heated challenge from Byholm, and Hartman took fourth ahead of Al Uotinen, whose points lead over Jeff Spacek shrank to just one.

Kuklenski inherited the super stock feature lead when race-long leader Ken Truscott tangled with slower traffic with four laps of 20 remaining, then held off a last-corner challenge from Ron Hmielewski for his track-best 73rd career feature win here. Kuklenski’s win also extends a streak in which he has collected at least one feature win every season but two (1988, ‘83) since 1979.

Truscott led from the get-go and pulled to a ten car-length advantage as the race’s first 16 laps ran non-stop, while early challenger Scott Lawrence suffered from broken left-front suspension components and dropped back. Then, as the field began to lap slower traffic, Truscott and Don Koivisto made contact, sending Truscott around and then off the track via the wrecker with damage. Kuklenski restarted at the front of the field and stayed there to the checkers just ahead of Hmielewski, while Lawrence limped his car home third, ahead of Shawn McFadden and Rick Rivord.
Despite his troubles, Lawrence still cut into Randy Spacek’s points lead, trimming it to five.

The street stock feature also saw only one yellow-flag slowdown and ended with race-long leader Vezina becoming a first-time winner here. Vezina led from the get-go and fended off Duane Dunbar and Kirk Bogdonovic until Bogdonovic and Larry Haderly got together and bobbled into the infield grass, allowing Roger Walker to slip through to third. After Clay Passuello stalled on lap 8, Walker worked past Dunbar for second, with Haderly in tow, but no one had anything for Vezina, who has won at Superior once in the past two seasons but commented afterwards that winning at ABC “is tough. These guys (the other street stock drivers) are too good here.” Dunbar held on to fourth at the stripe, ahead of Bogdonovic.

Defending class champ Haderly extended his points lead to 38 over Steve Anderson, who finished seventh.

Greg Jaeger pushed his points lead to 20 over Dale Coddington with his second straight six-cylinder feature lead and third of the season. Jaeger trailed a strong Dan Mihalek early in the 15-lapper while Steve Stuart challenged on the outside. On lap 6 Jaeger got by Mihalek for the lead, and a lap later Jaeger checked up to get by a slower car. Mihalek tried to take advantage of the opening created, but Jaeger still beat him going into turn 1; Mihalek went low to avoid contact and hung his car up on the infield marker tires, and when his car spun around Stuart tagged the back of Mihalek’s car hard. Both cars had to be assisted from the track, and Jaeger held off constant challenges over the final eight laps from Chuck Hawkinson for the win. Coddington worked his way to third in the closing laps, ahead of impressive runs by Scott Ovaska and Warren Beede. Stuart’s DNF knocked him from second in the points to fourth, behind Hawkinson.

Jim Eliason led the pure stock feature after a lap 2 accident for his second win of the season but first since opening night. In the incident, which involved five cars, rookie John Taitt got turned around by contact ahead of him and took a vicious hit which destroyed his car. Eliason gave up the lead only once after the restart - to John Kallas, but Kallas’ car slowed almost immediately after taking the point, giving the lead back to Eliason for the rest of the run. Kevin Truchon assumed second and literally rode Eliason’s bumper across the finish line, while Kevin Eder followed at a distance in third, ahead of Al Rapp and Ricky Davis.

With the win Eliason extended his points lead to 11 over Rapp.

On Friday night the ABC Raceway will host the third stop of the AmsOil Late Model series during its annual Chuck Anderson Race of Champions, with super stocks and sixes also in action, while on Saturday Xtreme Sign and Graphics of Ashland presents the full five-division program with an enhanced purse for the street stocks. On both nights hot laps start at 6:30 and racing begins at 7 pm, and “Racenight” airs live from the track on both nights from 5-6 pm on WJJH, 96.7 and 102.3 FM, with on-track news and weather updates. The ABC Raceway is located three miles south of Ashland on State Highway 13 and one mile west on Butterworth Road. For more information, call the track on racedays at (715) 682-4990 or log on to the track’s website at www.abcraceway.com.

Results

WISSOTA Modifieds
Heat 1: Don Copp, Brule; Jeff Spacek, Phillips; Jerry Hartman, Marenisco, MI.
Heat 2: Dean Yrjanainen, Lake Nebagamon; Scott Hudack, Ashland; John Frydrych, Butternut.
Feature: Copp; Yrjanainen; Bill Byholm, Glidden; Hartman; Al Uotinen, Superior; Hudack; Spacek; Rick Przybylski, Ashland; Ross Lightner, Washburn; Robby Bunkelman, Abbotsford.

WISSOTA Super Stocks
Heat 1: Randy Spacek, Phillips; Wayne Stricker, Highbridge; Charlie Anderson, Ironwood, MI.
Heat 2: Ron Hmielewski, Ashland; Bryan Lund, Ashland; Greg Kuklenski, Ironwood, MI.
Feature: Kuklenski; Hmielewski; Scott Lawrence, Superior; Shawn McFadden, Ashland; Rick Rivord, Superior; Anderson; Stricker; Spacek; Lund; Mike Duhr, Hazelhurst.

WISSOTA Street Stocks
Heat 1: Larry Haderly, Marengo; Kirk Bogdonovic, Phillips; Shane Kisling, Rice Lake.
Heat 2: Tim Carbon, Highbridge; Jordan Kurtti, Bruce Crossing, MI; Benji Ott, Webster.
Feature: Randy Vezina, Duluth, MN; Roger Walker, Phillips; Haderly; Duane Dunbar, Marenisco, MI; Bogdonovic; Kisling; Steve Anderson, Ironwood, MI; Pete Paulus, Phillips; Kurtti; Cory Casari, Hurley.

Six-Cylinders
Heat 1: Steve Stuart, Ashland; Adam Jack, Washburn; Ken Tyykila, Iron River.
Heat 2: Scott Ovaska, Marengo; Shawn McFadden, Jr., Ashland; Greg Jaeger, Mellen.
Heat 3: Andy Grymala, Superior; Warren Beede, Iron River; Chuck Hawkinson, Mellen.
Feature: Jaeger; Hawkinson; Dale Coddington, Hayward; Ovaska; Beede; Don Weber, Bayfield; Tyykila; McFadden; Brent Brevak, Ashland; Steve Tesch, Prentice.

Pure stocks
Heat 1: Kevin Eder, Ashland; John Kallas, Hurley; John Taitt, Ashland.
Heat 2: Kevin Truchon, Ashland; Al Rapp, Duluth, MN; Scott Niemi, Bessemer, MI.
Feature: Jim Eliason, Ashland; Truchon; Eder; Rapp; Ricky Davis, Bruno, MN; Bruce Kalmon, Ashland; Marty Passuello, Ironwood, MI; Glenn Dammer, Duluth, MN; Jim Laessig, Wakefield, MI; Chad Carlson, Superior.