Balog Makes ABC Raceway History with First-Ever IRA Sprint Win
Mikkonen holds on for Super Stock Challenge win; Coddington captures Sixes

by Nick Gima
 Ashland, WI, July 30 - With lightning flashing in the southern skies, Billy Balog of Brookfield scooted through and around traffic and then outran the field to win the first-ever A-feature at the ABC Raceway for the touring Interstate Racing Association Outlaw Sprint Series on Saturday night.
 The northern Illinois-based winged 410 sprint-car group brought 22 long-distance travelers to the northern Wisconsin speedplant for an historic program presented by Wagner’s Ashland Shell and Arby’s Restaurant, and a packed house witnessed a new track record set during qualifying and a 30-lap feature that thrilled the fans on a muggy night during which threatening storms passed close by.
 Also on this night, FastLane Motorsports and Custom Powdercoating of Ashland hosted its sixth annual Super Stock Challenge, during which Iron River’s Brian Mikkonen fought off a determined Scott Lawrence for the $600 feature win, while Dale Coddington of Hayward took advantage of heavy lapped traffic to edge Scott Ovaska for the win in the six-cylinder finale.
 The track was sticky and tough to keep smooth, thanks to heavy rains which soaked the Chequamegon Bay area during the morning hours. But track crews worked diligently throughout the day and all during the race program, including grading twice to provide the racers with a surface that was both fast and tacky.

Balog came into the night as the IRA’s points leader, but after time-trial qualifying and three heat races he started third on the feature grid. Lance Fassbender and polestarter John Sernett duked it out for the initial lead of the 30-lap headliner, with Sernett working inside for the advantage. Balog wasted no time moving up into second spot, while Mike Reinke, who earlier posted the venerable track’s all-time fast lap with a circuit of 12.540 seconds, used a strong sweep around Scott Biertzer to claim fourth.  Fassbender’s spin on lap 2 brought the frantic pace to a quick halt and put Reinke back to fourth behind Biertzer for the restart, but as the green flag flew he repeated his move on the high side for third. It took Balog one more quick tour around the three-eighths-mile red-clay oval to slip around Sernett for the lead, and not much longer to begin weaving his way through slower traffic.  Sernett’s great up-front run ended abruptly when he stalled his ride on the infield marker tires in turn 4 on lap 4, putting Reinke on Balog’s rear push bar for the restart. Over the next eight uninterrupted laps Balog set a torrid pace, while Reinke did all he could to stay within reach, hoping for a shot at the lead.  Reinke’s first real chance came on lap 12, when Sernett plowed his sprinter into the front straightaway wall coming off of turn 4. Once again under green Balog went straight for the cushion, but Reinke stayed right in his tracks. Once the two leaders reached the slower backmarkers again just after mid-race, Reinke drew to the leader’s bumper, but Balog expertly snaked his way through the traffic and again built his margin up to nearly a straightaway.  With the final 18 laps clicking off non-stop Balog was able to keep Reinke at bay. The only other real opportunity Reinke had was when Phillip Mock’s car broke loose just in front of the leader with five laps to go; Balog checked up to avoid possible contact, but Reinke wasn’t close enough to take advantage of the opening. Once Mock regained control and Balog sped by without incident, Reinke was left in his wake.  Balog’s car was stout as he pulled away over the final laps to the historic $2,500 win - his Series-leading eighth on the season - while on the final lap Reinke’s car lost its nose wing, forcing him to slow dramatically. Biertzer ran a distant third throughout much of the race but took advantage of Reinke’s misfortune to claim second, bringing with him Scott Neitzel, Mike Kertscher and John Haeni into the top five. Without the downforce needed to control the car, Reinke lost several spots and coasted across the line in sixth.  Seventh through tenth in the final rundown included Bill Warren, Russell Borland, Mock and Bill Wirth.  Reinke’s fast time is nearly three-and-a-half seconds quicker than the previous fastest lap ever recorded at the Raceway, which was set by Mike Prochnow during the 2008 Red Clay Classic WISSOTA late model feature.
Ronnie Hmielewski battled with Ken Truscott early in the 25-lap WISSOTA super stock main event - so much so that the two tangled coming out of turn 2 on the second lap. The incident sent Truscott to the back and put Mikkonen behind Hmielewski for the restart, but Cory Casari used the outside line to power to the front once the green lights flashed on.  Casari’s pass was negated by debris left on the track during the restart, and on the ensuing try Mikkonen didn’t allow Casari another shot at the lead, opting for the outside of the second row on the “Delaware double-file” alignment and charging around Hmielewski for the lead. Lawrence, who entered the night with a one-point edge over Casari and Dave Flynn in the divisional standings, muscled under Casari and Hmielewski to claim second a lap after the restart, but that pass also did not count, due to a four-car skirmish that knocked Randy Spacek out of contention.  Lawrence again passed Hmielewski as the race resumed, but again a yellow flag ruined his move, this time for Truscott, whose car slowed with a flat tire. Finally Lawrence made a pass that counted during that restart and brought Casari to third, but on lap 4 Hmielewski’s fine run ended when his car spun into the infield and had to be towed to the pits with damage.  From then on the field clicked off 21 laps without a hitch but with plenty of excitement, especially up front, where Casari pulled up alongside Lawrence and the pair raced side by side for second. This allowed Mikkonen to creep away, but on lap 12 Lawrence finally cleared Casari and began a relentless effort to catch Mikkonen and take the lead away.  During the final five laps Lawrence did everything but push Mikkonen out of the way, looking both high and low for a way by, but Mikkonen held steady for his first feature win of the season here. Casari dropped out of the event with car troubles, giving up third spot to Flynn, who stays within three points of Lawrence in the season standings. Joe Olson crossed under the checkers in fourth, while Charlie Anderson came home fifth but failed to report to the post-race weigh-in, giving up the position to Kirk Bogdanovic.
The only delay in the 15-lap six-cylinder A-main was a doozy, as pole starter Tyler Luger’s ride got loose coming off the first turn, causing a chain-reaction of incidents behind him that collected eight of the 22 starters, including as many as five cars parked on top of each other in various ways. The red-flag stoppage took nearly 20 minutes to untangle, but surprisingly only three cars dropped out of the event.  Scott Ovaska joined Coddington on the front row for the restart and pushed to the early lead, although the top six runners stayed in close formation until Ovaska and Coddington broke away on lap 3, as Neil Adamczak and Pat Beeksma raced door to door for nearly two full laps in the debate for third.  Ovaska took advantage of the slower Branden Ottman and gained some breathing room on Coddington at the halfway point of the run, but within another lap Coddington was back on the leader’s bumper and keeping the pressure on. Beeksma and Adamczak also gained ground on the lead pair as the front runners worked through slower traffic.  With four laps remaining the backmarker traffic became thicker, forcing the lead group to use some evasive moves. Contact between Beeksma and Coddington nearly spun both cars and could have been disastrous for several others running in the close quarters, but everyone stayed their respective courses. Finally Coddington found an opening in the traffic jam and dove inside on Ovaska to edge ahead with two laps left, and as the other cars closed ranks Ovaska had no choice but to follow along for the final circuits.  Coddington led Ovaska, Beeksma and Adamczak under the checkered flag in nose-to-tail fashion, while a scramble amongst the lapped traffic created a melee further back which knocked Tad Bretting from his fifth-place run. Bretting was rescored fifth in the final rundown, but he, like Anderson, failed to run his car across the scales, giving Greg Jaeger the position at the pay window.

 The month of August marks the stretch run for the regular season at the ABC Raceway, starting with the program to be presented by Rivord Trucking and Birch Grove Campground coming up on Saturday, August 5. The WISSOTA modifieds and Midwest mods, as well as the track’s pure stock class, will rejoin the supers and sixes for a full five-division show. The pit gates will open at 4:30 pm and the grandstands at 5, with hot laps getting started at 6:30 and green-flag racing getting underway at 7 pm. “Race Night” will air live on WBSZ, 93.3 FM, from 4:30-6 pm with at-the-track news and weather updates.
 The ABC Raceway is located 3-1/2 miles south of Ashland on State Highway 13 and one mile west on Butterworth Road. For raceday information call (715) 682-4990.