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Fourth Annual Lake Superior Border Battle Wraps Up

SUPERIOR, Wisc. (07/03/20) - The annual Border Battle presented by FYE Motorsports at the Gondik Law Speedway wrapped up Saturday July fourth with competition in six WISSOTA divisions.

Besides the purse money, there was some bonus money at stake, the most prominent being an extra $1,000 if any competitor could win their respective feature events all three days. Only Shane Sabraski in the WISSOTA Super Stocks and Cory Jorgensen in the WISSOTA Pure Stocks had a chance at that bonus money going into the final night of competition. Each had won their respective features the first two nights.

Racing began, as always, with qualifying heat races in all classes followed by a air of B Features in the Midwest Modifieds and Modifieds.

After some track preparation during intermission, it was time for the first of six features starting with 15 laps for the WISSOTA Pure Stocks. Corey Jorgensen started on the outside of the front row and jumped to the lead followed by pole sitter Aaron Bernick. Moving to third was Jeremy Cash behind the wheel of the 3m car that had been piloted by McLean Andrews. Trevor Treviranus, Mike Schnider made up the top five with James Vendela and Tanner Gehl next in line.. The caution flag flew for Treviranus who spun in turn four. At the green flag, Jorgensen maintained his lead over Bernick and Vendela worked his way past Cash to third. That order up front remained the same for several laps as Treviranus made his way back up to fourth. Vendela got past Bernick to second and closed in on Jorgensen and, with the end in sight, Vendela made the pass on Jorgensen for the lead and the win.

Next was another 15 lap feature, this time for the WISSOTA Mod Fours. At the start Robert Holtquist and Tyler Larson battled for the lead running the first three laps side by side with no clear leader until the battle was broken up by a caution flag flew when Trevor Voss spun at the bottom of turn two. The restart came with 12 laps remaining and it appeared that Larson got the better jump, but that good start went by the board when Jordan Fischer spun in nearly the same spot in turn two for caution flag number two. The restart came with still a dozen laps to go and this time Larson made it stick and took the lead over Holtquist. Dustin Holtquist ran third with Justin Pogones fourth
and Justin Hammann fifth. Things settled down and the order stayed the same to the checkered flag as Robert Holtquist secured his first win.

Third on the program was a 20 lap WISSOTA Midwest Modified main event which got off to a rough start. At the green flag outside pole sitter Randy Laage took the EZ1 to the lead, but, at the rear of the 25 car field a mele’ occurred involving four cars from the first B Feature including winner Cody Carlson, Ryan Gerike, Justin Jones and promoters choice Nick Ayotte. Jones and Carlson too badly damaged to continue. The restart came with no laps complete and Laage again took the lead followed by Austi Ellis, Jason VandeKamp, Zach Benson and Andrew In,an. Two laps later VandeKamp got past Benson, then took the lead from Laage. VandeKamp stayed out front to take the win for his second feature of the Border Battle. Benson got by Laage for second, Jack Rivord moved up from eighth to finish fourth and Brandon Mehrwerth rounded out the top five.

The WISSOTA Modifieds were set for 30 laps of competition and Jody Bellefeuille shot out into the lead from the pole with Neil Balduc in hot pursuit. Shane Sabraski, Mike Anderson and Dan Kingsley in the front pack. Sabraski soon slipped into second past Balduc, Kingsley was fourth and Brandon Copp moved into the top five. Sabraski moved forward toward Bellefeuille with Balduc third. Copp got past Anderson to third as Greg Chesley joined the leaders as did Clayton Wageman. With 18 laps remaining, Sabraski caught and passed Bellefeuille for the lead. Bellefeuille was able to maintain second until there were five laps to go when Copp got past to finish second and Mike Anderson also got past to third. Wageman who came from 16th finished fifth. Tenth starting Dave Cain finished sixth, Johnny Broking started 15th and finished 7th, Dan Ebert came all the way from 22nd to 8th, Chesley was 9th and Cole Spacek finished tenth.

It was the second time in three days that the 30 lap Modified Main was completed without a caution flag, in fact, in the 90 laps of Modified action over the three days there was only one caution flag.

The 25 lap Super Stock feature was the last chance for Shane Sabraski to win the $1,000 bonus for any driver who could win three features in one division over the course of the Border Battle. As fate would have it, the front row had Sabraski on the pole and Kevin Burdick on the outside. At the green flag Sabraski took the lead with Burdick right on his tail. Andy Grymala, Ashley Anderson driving Wayne Dean’s number 17, Dexton Koch and Scott Lawrence were in the mix. Burdick won the early skirmish for the lead as Sabraski pulled up and they went side by side for a lap before Burdick secured the lead. Koch moved to third as the race continued without a caution flag. Anderson and Grymala were in the top five as others made their presence felt as the players in the second half of the field began to change. Curt Myers, Jim Campbell, Don Eischens, Doug Koski and DJ Keeler were in the mix. The only caution flag occurred for an incident involving Sabaraski who recorded a DNF. Burdick led the field to the green for the final laps with Koch now second. Burdick went on to take the win, his second feature at the speedway. Koch, Anderson, Myers, and Campbell were the top five. Grymala, Lawrence, Eischens, Tristan LaBarge and DJ Keeler finished out the top ten.

The 2020 Lake Superior Border Battle ended with a ten lap feature for the Hornets who’s number had dwindled over the three days from 19 to just six. Brennan Schmidt completed the sweep as he won the heat and led Hunter McDougall for nearly the entire race until Jase Wiarda took over second. McDougall, Carter Rieland and Patrick Passari were the finishing order.

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