---

Vandy Victorious on Night One of Border Battle

SUPERIOR, Wisc. (07/01/2020) - A sweltering hot day with temperatures nearly in the 90’s. The fourth annual Lake Superior Border Battle commenced with the first of three full shows culminating on the Fourth of July.

A total of 128 cars in the six WISSOTA divisions were on hand including 14 Mod Fours which had not raced here since 2002. Topping the car count were the Midwest Modifieds with 36 followed by the headlining WISSOTA Modifieds with a total of 33.

Qualifying heats as well as four Semi-Features, two each in the Midwest Modifieds and Modifieds were completed and it was on to the main events.

Cory Storck and Brandon Mehrwerth led the full field of two dozen cars to the green flag with Mehrwerth taking the lead. Following were Jason VandeKamp and Mark Kangas. With one lap completed, Brady Uotinen and Wyatt Boyum tangled in turn one. Also caught up in the incident was Cody Carlson. Uotinen and Carlson were out. At the restart Mehrweth retained the lead over Storck, VandeKamp and Scott Splittstosser. Mehrwerth stayed out front as Kangas moved to second, VandeKamp third, Storck fourth while Jack Rivord, Justin Jones and Splittstosser battled for fifth. The top three, Mehrwerth, Kangas and VandeKamp stayed the same while Storck was fourth and Jones won out for fifth. There was a caution flag with four laps remaining and, on the restart, Jones went to third, Storck was in fourth and Rivord got past Kangas for fifth. With two laps left, VandeKamp swept past Mehrwerth to the lead and pulled away for his third win of the season here. Mehrwerth, Jones, Storck and Rivord finished in the top five.

James Vendela had the point for the 15 lap Pure Stock feature but Dusty Caspers grabbed it away on the first lap. Vendela, Aaron Bernick, Cory Jorgensen and Trevor Treviranus followed. Bernick shot past the leaders and raced out front and pulled away. Caspers ran second and Jorgensen moved up to third. Jorgensen got by Caspers for second and began to track down Bernick, caught him on the final lap and took the win, number four for him. Bernick, Treviranus, Caspers and Vendela were in the top five.

Tyler Larson swept the Mod Fours with wins in the second heat and the 15 lap feature. Blake Erickson won the other heat. Robert Holtquist started from the pole and led the first lap. A caution flag slowed the action before another lap could be completed. The restart saw Tyler Larson take over the point where he stayed through three more caution flags taking the first Mod Four feature win since 2002. Sixth starting Tommy Bawden finished second, Holtquist third, Gerrald Nohner fourth and Erickson fifth.

The featured WISSOTA Modifieds brought a full 24 car field to the green flag and Pole sitter Ashley Anderson led the first circuit. Adam Ayotte then took over and led the next seven laps until Anderson went back in front. Quickly moving into contention were Dan Ebert, Jody Bellefeuille, Johnny Broking and Al Uotinen. Two laps before half way of the 30 lap feature, Broking took the lead only to lose it to Anderson the next time by. Ebert was third, Bellefeuille fourth and Uotinen fifth. Anderson stayed in front while 11th starting Shane Sabraski got past Uotinen into the top five. With five laps remaining, Broking again made the pass for the lead and this time made it stick. Anderson began to fade as first Ebert, then Bellefeuille got past. Sabraski suffered a rare DNF, the only starter not to finish, leaving fifth to Uotinen at the checkered flag. The win marked back to back features at GLS for Johnny Broking. In a rare occurrence, the 30 lap main was completed without a single caution period.

Track and WISSOTA National champion Kevin Burdick started from the pole in the 25 lap Super Stock feature. He led the first two laps until frequent visitor Dexton Koch took the lead for two more laps. Sabraski stared fourth in the Super Stock feature and wasted little time taking over out front. In hot pursuit but not making much headway was Burdick, Koch, Willie Johnsen, Scott Lawrence and Kyle Copp. The first caution flag flew with 13 laps to go marking 43 consecutive feature laps without a slowdown. The caution was for the staled car of Rita Anderson in the first turn. The caution flag served to bunch up the field behind Sabraski, but to no avail s he was able to pull away from the pack at the restart. Burdick tried to track him down but was unable to get close enough as Sabraski was too strong. Sabraski recorded his sixth feature win in the Super Stocks at Gondik Law Speedway. Burdick, Koch, Johnsen and Lawrence were the top five. Don Eishens came from 13th to finish just outside the front five in sixth. Tristan LaBarge, Doug Koski, Jim Gullikson and Andy Grymala rounded out the top ten.

The final feature of night one of the Lake Superior Border Battle was 15 laps for the WISSOTA Hornets. Corey Mehrwerth started in sixth and made his way to the lead after a battle with AJ House, DeJay Jarecki, Kyle House, Kristy Marken and Derek Ament. Fifth starting Brennan Schmidt AJ House, Carter Reiland and Jarecki ended up in the top five in an event that only saw two caution flags. Hornet heats went to AJ House ahead of cousin Kyle House and Carter Reiland won the second heat ahead of eventual feature winner Corey Mehrwerth.

Back to News