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Silverness, Dalbeck Savor First ABC Raceway Feature Wins
by Nick Gima
Ashland, WI, July 8 -- Randy Silverness, Jr., of Superior and George Dalbeck of
Wakefield, MI, worked hard to collect their first-ever ABC Raceway feature
wins Saturday night. They joined Jeff Spacek, Greg Kuklinski and Greg Jaeger
in Victory Lane on a night highlighted by bike races for the younger fans, in
a program presented by Ashland’s County Market.
Silverness, who not long ago dominated WISSOTA super stock action at the
Superior Speedway, followed Randy Spacek and Joe Oliver around polesitter
Bryan Lund and into early contention. Division points leader Scott Lawrence
suffered damage and faded back from a top-ten run, then dropped out just
before Art Hyde and Trevor Wilson came together on lap 9 to force the first
caution of the 20-lap run.
After a second attempt to restart the race, Oliver’s car skipped up the
track and fell back two positions, moving Silverness up to second. Then
Silverness used a strong inside charge to edge past Spacek on lap 12, one
circuit before the yellow lights came on again for Hyde’s stalled car.
Spacek’s car did not respond when the green lights came back on and he fell
from the event, allowing Silverness to scoot away for his landmark win.
A strong night by Bob D’Antonio ended in a second-place finish in the
feature, just ahead of Ron Hmielewski, who moved into second in what has
become a tight divisional points battle. Charlie Anderson enjoyed his second
top-five run of the season, finishing fourth just ahead of Oliver.
After an initial caution slowdown for debris, the pure stocks ran off their
12-lap A-main with only one other delay, but that’s what gave the rookie
Dalbeck his first-ever feature win. Paul Milanowski got his first ride in the
car shared by teammates Ann Erickson and Tammy Bretting and quickly sped into
the lead, while Tim Carbon, in only his third night out this season, roared
into second. Carbon chased down and overtook Milanowski on lap 3 and then
built a healthy advantage, while points leader Tom Morinville and Dalbeck
jostled for third and first-nighter Jim Eliason raced door-to-door with rookie
Derek Milligan for fifth.
But on lap 8 Eliason and Milligan collected in turn 2 to bring out a yellow
flag, and on the restart Carbon’s car was slow to refire, forcing several
cars to scramble past. Dalbeck was first to get around the leader, and from
there he held off fierce challenges from Morinville for his memorable win.
Steve Christman impressed with a late charge to finish fifth, just ahead of
Carbon and Milanowski.
Jeff Spacek, of Phillips, added to his career feature win total with a
badly-needed effort in the WISSOTA modified main. Spacek’s first run for the
lead was thwarted when a three-car pile-up forced a restart, but he repeated
the effort and sped away from polesitter Dennis Checkalski. The rest of the
field drew the leader back to them thanks to a stalled Kelly Checkalski, whose
car suffered front suspension damage, but Spacek used an 11-lap green-flag run
to rebuild his advantage.
With three laps left Bill Byholm cut down a tire, forcing Jerry Hartman to
spin while both were running near the front. In the three-lap dash to the
checkers Spacek cruised away to his 41st career win here and third of the
season, while a surprising Kent Baxter nipped Rick Rivord at the line for
second. Rivord was also surprising; the night before he suffered a severe blow
to the head by debris while racing at Superior, and even after arriving at the
Ashland track he was still recuperating from the effects of the injury.
Hartman regrouped for a fourth-place run - his fifth top-five finish in his
last seven starts - and Scott Hudack followed in fifth. Points leader Al
Uotinen fought his way to a seventh-place effort.
Kuklinski led a caution-filled WISSOTA street stock 15-lap headliner from
start to finish for his track-record 78th feature win and third in the class
this season. The Ironwood, MI, veteran stayed ahead and often pulled away from
Justin Paulsen after every one of the five restarts that littered the first
eight laps, while Paulsen had his hands full holding off a fast Tim Baum.
But on the second attempt to restart lap 9, Paulsen tried to keep his
ill-handling car from hitting another coming onto the front stretch.
Paulsen’s car dove right, directly in the path of John Kallas, and Kallas’
car hit Paulsen’s hard enough to roll Paulsen’s over nearly one full turn
and onto its side. Neither driver was injured, and from there the last seven
laps went without incident, as Kuklinski outran Baum to the final stripe.
Rob Weber ran to a solid third-place finish, his first top-five of the season,
while Roger Walker recovered from an early penalty for a caution cause to take
home fourth-place money. Steve Anderson crossed the line fifth, but a penalty
for jumping a restart dropped him two positions in the final rundown, moving
Pete Paulus to a season-best finish. Despite the penalty Anderson reclaimed
the points lead, as Butch Kummer was scored in ninth at race’s end.
Jaeger picked up his second feature win in three shows by taking the
six-cylinder feature. Ron Swanson led the way early and looked to be dominant,
but a lap 6 caution for a Nick Oreskovich spin put Jaeger on Swanson’s tail
for the restart, and after two more yellow-flag slowdowns on lap 7 Jaeger
worked his way by Swanson with an inside move.
As the last half of the 15-lapper ran off non-stop Jaeger built his lead,
while Chuck Hawkinson capped off another strong feature run by slipping into
second with two laps remaining. Swanson held off division points leader Scott
Ovaska for third, and Pat Cook led a tight-running pack to claim fifth.
In the kids’ bike races, Billy Chatterton won the event for the two-to-four
year-olds, Neil Benson led the field of five-to-seven year-olds, Kyle Koosman
won the race for kids ages eight to ten, and the 11-12-year-old group race
went to Shawn Rivord. All contestants were rewarded with medals and the top
three finishers in each age group received plaques.
Winners in the bike giveaway were Paige Orlowski, Sam Lillie and John Swanson.
Action at the 3/8th-mile red clay oval continues on Saturday, July 15, with
the third annual Pure Stock Special. Over 40 drivers in the entry-level
division from six area tracks are expected to compete for 24 starting berths
in the 20-lapmain event, which will pay in excess of $500 to win and better
than $100 to start. The other four divisions will also be in action.
Hot laps will begin at 6:15 pm and the first green flag will drop at 7. 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, or log on to the track’s website, .
“Racenight Live” will air from 4:30-6 pm on WJJH, 96.7 & 102.3 FM,
with up-to-date track news and weather information.
Results
WISSOTA Modifieds
Heat 1: Jeff Spacek, Phillips; Jerry Hartman, Marenisco, MI; Kent
Baxter, Dorchester.
Heat 2: Scott Hudack, Ashland; Robby Bunkelman, Abbotsford; Dean
Yrjanainen, Lake Nebagamon.
Feature: Spacek; Baxter; Rick Rivord, Superior; Hartman; Hudack; Dennis
Checkalski, South Range; Al Uotinen, Superior; Ross Lightner, Washburn;
Bunkelman; Yrjanainen.
WISSOTA Super Stocks
Heat 1: Scott Lawrence, Superior; Greg Kuklinski, Ironwood, MI; Joe
Oliver, Superior.
Heat 2: Bob D’Antonio, Ironwood, MI; Randy Spacek, Phillips; Randy
Silverness, Jr., Superior.
Feature: Silverness; D’Antonio; Ron Hmielewski, Washburn; Charlie
Anderson, Ironwood, MI; Oliver; Kuklinski; Rob Erickson, Ashland; Brian
Mikkonen, Iron River; Ken Truscott, Greenland, MI; Paul Erikson, Abbotsford.
WISSOTA Street Stocks
Heat 1: Steve Anderson, Ironwood, MI; Greg Kuklinski, Ironwood, MI; Rob
Weber, Washburn.
Heat 2: Kevin Eder, Ashland; Pete Paulus, Phillips; Roger Walker,
Phillips.
Feature: Kuklinski; Tim Buam, Superior; Weber; Walker; Paulus; Cory
Casari, Hurley; Anderson; Kevin Bogdanovic, Phillips; Butch Kummer, Medford;
Joe Wolfe, Ironwood, MI.
Six-Cylinders
Heat 1: Warren Beede, Iron River; Ryan Adamczak, Ashland; Steve Stuart,
Ashland.
Heat 2: Ron Swanson, Ashland; Shawn McFadden, Jr., Ashland; Nick
Oreskovich, Mason.
Heat 3: Greg Jaeger, Mellen; Chuck Hawkinson, Mellen; Andy Grymala,
Superior.
Feature: Jaeger; Hawkinson; Swanson; Scott Ovaska, Marengo; Pat Cook,
washburn; Adamczak; McFadden; Steve Tesch, Prentice; Stuart; Chris Lustig,
Ashland.
Pure Stocks
Heat 1: George Dalbeck, Wakefield, MI; Paul Milanowski, Ashland; Jim
Eliason, Ashland.
Heat 2: Tim Carbon, Highbridge; Derek Milligan, Ashland; Zene Anderson,
Superior.
Feature: Dalbeck; Tom Morinville, Duluth, MN; Steve Christman, Superior;
Carbon; Milanowski; Nathan Dees, Ironwood, MI; Ricky Davis, Bruno, MN; Marty
Passuello, Ironwood, MI; John Taitt, Ashland; Milligan.
Kids’ Bike Races
Ages 2-4: Billy Chatterton, Nikki Swanson, Samantha Rantala.
Ages 5-7: Neil Benson, Terron Spacek, Jordan Wolfe.
Ages 8-10: Kyle Koosman, Tanner Hicks, Marcus Benson.
Ages 11-12: Shawn Rivord, Jacob Morinville, Amy Schmidt.
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