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Mars Runs Off with GLS Challenge Series Main; Massingill Takes Other ‘Twin 25’

Mars Runs Off with GLS Challenge Series Main; Massingill Takes Other ‘Twin 25’
by Nick Gima
Superior, WI, July 27 -- Menomonie’s Jimmy Mars and Keewatin, MN’s Jeff Massingill dominated in each’s respective WISSOTA Late Model feature on Friday night at the Gondik Law Speedway, with Mars’ win counting toward the standings in the WISSOTA Wollak Construction Late Model Challenge Series.
An outstanding field of 38 Late Models turned out, along with 17 WISSOTA Super Stocks and 13 WISSOTA Pure Stocks, to participate in the annual AmsOil “Twin Ports Twin 25s,” presented by Powers & Associates Optometrists, in front of a huge crowd at GLS on a beautiful mid-summer night under the blood-red full moon. On the wide, smooth track the first 60 laps of feature action flew by without a single caution flag, and the final 25 were slowed only twice under yellow.
Mars dominated his heat race, led the “passing points” tally, and drew the number one in the redraw to start the first of the Twin 25s on the pole. From there it was, for the most part, a foregone conclusion that the national touring star would run away and hide from the field once the starting grid’s four-wide salute to the fans was complete. Mars had nearly a straightaway lead by the end of the first four laps, and by lap 6 he was beginning to thread his way through the backmarkers.
Behind the leader, however, there was plenty of action. Outside front-row starter Tim McMann held the second spot for about a lap before AJ Diemel, driving the car of defending and six-time LMCS champion John Kaanta, got by. Series points leader Pat Doar busted through heavy early-race traffic to displace Don Shaw for fourth by lap 2, and within a couple more circuits Doar moved past McMann to claim third.
Once Mars caught the tail of the field, he showed patience in picking his way through the slow traffic cleanly. This patience, however, allowed Diemel to reel in the leader and, at one point at about lap 7, he was directly on Mars’ pushbar. But Diemel also pared back to bide his time over the next few laps, letting Mars blaze a trail through the tail-end traffic and then following through behind him.
With ten laps remaining Mars and Diemel had found a gap in which they could do a little open-field running, while Doar, McMann and Jake Redetzke duked it out for third. One driver making significant progress through the field, though, was Kyle Peterlin. From his outside-fourth-row starting spot, Peterlin started off rather quietly and even fell just out of the top-ten for a brief time, but he found something to his liking on the high-side of the Speedway and began to pick his way forward in impressive fashion.
Once he got by a stubborn Darrell Nelson for sixth on lap 15, Peterlin made quick work of Redetzke for fifth and then slipped past McMann to grab fourth over the next six laps.
With three to go Mars again broke free from tail-end traffic and from there cruised to the $1,500 win, with Diemel well back in his wake. Peterlin reeled in Doar and, while passing under the flagstand to take the white flag, slipped by on the outside for third. Nelson got by Shaw late for fifth.
As a driver who knows of which he speaks, Mars was complementary to his fellow competitors in Victory Lane when asked about the advances of Diemel and Peterlin. “These are all good drivers out here,” said Mars after the race. “The drivers are as good in WISSOTA as they are anywhere in the country.”
Mars drew the number 16 chip for the invert for the second Twin 25, meaning he would start outside on row 8 and putting Jesse Glenz, who took 16th in race 1, on the pole for race 2. Glenz’s outside-front-row mate Steve Laursen jumped the initial start, bringing about the first of only two yellow flags thrown over the night’s feature action and putting Lance Matthees on the front row, while moving Laursen back a line.
Glenz edged ahead initially, but Massingill quickly took over and sped away, while Matthees dropped down to the low lane to slip into second. Laursen recovered and began to challenge Matthees, allowing Massingill to extend his lead to half a straightaway on Laursen after just five laps.
Laursen worked hard to trim Massingill’s advantage over the next few laps while still maintaining a healthy margin of his own on Matthees. Well behind the leaders, Glenz had his hands full due to threats by James Giossi and Marshall Fegers for his fourth-place standing, and Peterlin, who had started outside on row 7, just ahead of Mars, was again making huge forward strides through the field in gaining seventh.
The only other yellow flag displayed during feature action on this night came on lap 12, when Redetzke’s racer coasted to a stop on the front straight. Laursen and Matthees both dove low on Massingill into the first pair of turns after the restart, but Massingill’s car worked well coming off of the turns and he held the lead, although he did not pull away from Matthees as before.
Mars, who had restarted eighth, dove low to pass several cars over that first lap back under green and followed Giossi into fifth; he then repeated the move to slip past Giossi and Laursen and take third within the next two laps. With seven to go Massingill began to rebuild his cushion over Matthees, who spent a couple laps fending off Mars’ attempts at second. Peterlin continued his forward momentum by sweeping around Giossi for fourth with four laps left and then closed on Mars.
Massingill was comfortably out front when the checkers were displayed, with Matthees solidly in second. Just as in race 1, Peterlin took third place by making a pass under the white flag - this time on Mars - and Giossi held on for fifth in front of a tight pack of cars.
Mars edged Peterlin by one finishing position to earn the $500 bonus for the best average finish between the two Late Model A-mains. In the long history of the Twin Ports Twin 25s, no driver has ever won both features.
Both of the support-class A-features ran green-to-checkered as well on this gorgeous night. In the Super Stock 20-lapper it looked like Dave Mass was going to continue the trend of runaway winners, but Kevin Burdick charged up and made the East Bethel, MN, visitor earn it.
Polestarter Mike Bellefeuille grabbed the early advantage ahead of Scott Lawrence, with the next pack of cars four-wide just behind them. Mass, who started outside on the sixth row, slipped through the logjam into third within a couple of quick laps, and with a low-lane move he made a three-wide pass of Lawrence and Bellefeuille for the lead after the trio crossed under the start-finish line in a dead heat to complete lap 2.
It took a couple more laps to solidly establish himself as the leader, but once out front Mass flexed his car’s muscle, pulling to a half-straightaway cushion by the race’s midpoint. But as he did so, Burdick got past Bellefeuille and Lawrence into second. When Mass reached the tail of the field and slowed to maneuver through traffic, Burdick reeled him in, closing to within a car-length with five laps remaining.
On lap 17 Mass went high to get by the slower Matt Hammitt, while Burdick dove low. The leaders came out from around Hammitt nearly side-by-side, but Mass maintained his momentum and held on to garner his second feature win of 2018 at Superior. DJ Keeler enjoyed another strong performance by driving through to third, well ahead of Dave Flynn and Bellefeuille.
“I didn’t know how close (Burdick) was,” Mass said of those final laps. “I was just trying to hold my line.”
Superior’s James Vendela has suddenly figured this Pure Stock thing out, as he won his third feature in the last four shows at GLS, in this just his sophomore season of racing.
Things stayed close up front throughout the 15-lap run, as Dylan Shelton worked his way by the front-row pair of Jared Akervik and Darrin Lowrey for the initial lead. Jeremy Cash stayed right on Shelton’s heels over the first few laps, while Vendela quickly moved up to third from his row 4 start.
Once Cory Jorgensen got up to join the frontrunners, the lead foursome moved away from fifth-place Kyle Copp and began to shuffle positions with nearly every lap, including when Cash slipped low to take the lead from Shelton on lap 4. On lap 9 it was Vendela’s turn to lead, with a bottom-groove move on Cash, but for the rest of the run he didn’t share the pacesetter’s role, hanging on to the finish in another hotly-contested battle for the entry-level division. Jorgensen edged Shelton for second, with Cash settling for fourth but not far back. Copp was a distant fifth.
During Pure Stock heat race action, Shaina Rapp was battling for position when her car took a nasty side-over-side tumble in turn 2. Fortunately she was unharmed, and she, her father Al, and their crew had the car ready in time to run the feature, in which she finished eighth.
Among the festivities at the Speedway on this night were a candy toss to the kids in the grandstands from Redetzke, a “strong-man” challenge between a local fan and a Canadian challenger, and a fundraiser for the local American Cancer Society chapter through the sale of drawing tickets. Prizes for the drawing included t-shirts, gift certificates, and used and new door panels from race cars.
The Gondik Law Speedway will not host a race program on Friday, August 3, but will be back in action with its “Meet the Drivers” Night for its fans on Friday, August 10. All five regular weekly divisions will be in action, with hot laps at 6:30 and racing at 7 pm. The Gondik Law Speedway is located at 4700 Tower Ave in Superior; for more information log onto the track’s website, www.gondiklawspeedway.com.
Results
WISSOTA Late Models
Feature 1: 1-10: Jimmy Mars, Menomonie; AJ Diemel, Elk Mound; Kyle Peterlin, Hibbing, MN; Pat Doar, New Richmond; Darrell Nelson, Hermantown, MN; Don Shaw, Ham Lake, MN; Tim McMann, Duluth, MN; Jake Redetzke, Eau Claire; Rick Hanestad, Boyceville; Mike Prochnow, Menomonie.
11-20: James Giossi, New Richmond; Marshall Fegers, Mound, MN; Lance Matthees, Winona, MN; Jeff Massingill, Keewatin, MN; Steve Laursen, Cumberland; Jesse Glenz, Altoona; Travis Budisalovich, Minneapolis, MN; Buddy Hanestad, Boyceville; Aaron Lillo, Proctor, MN; Nate Beyenhof, Rock Rapids, IA.
21-25: David Fieber, Neenah; Blake Swenson, Watertown, SD; John Toppozini, Thunder Bay, ON; Terry Lillo, Duluth, MN; Derek Vesel, Hibbing, MN.
Feature 2: 1-10: Massingill; Matthees; Peterlin; Mars; Giossi; Laursen; Nelson; Fegers; Prochnow; Glenz.
11-20: Doar; Diemel; Budisalovich; Shaw; Vesel; B Hanestad; R Hanestad; McMann; A Lillo; Fieber.
21-25: Beyenhof; Toppozini; Redetzke; T Lillo; Swenson.
Heat 1: Shaw; Matthees; Redetzke; B Hanestad; Toppozini; A Lillo; Swenson; Jeff Provinzino, Hibbing, MN; Mark Rose, Dorchester; Robbie Cooper, South Range.
Heat 2: Diemel; R Hanestad; Prochnow; Fegers; Glenz; Fieber; Budisalovich; Joel Collins, Princeton, MN; David Esse, Cloquet, MN; Chris Lillo, Duluth, MN.
Heat 3: Mars; Nelson; Laursen; Massingill; Giossi; Vesel; Jay Kintner, Hibbing, MN; Kevin Carlson, Hermantown, MN; Cole Provinzino, Hibbing, MN.
Heat 4: Doar; McMann; Peterlin; Beyenhof; T Lillo; Mike Nutzmann, New Richmond; Dave Flynn, Superior; Denny Cutsforth, Rice Lake; Steve Hucovski, Corcoran, MN.
Semi-Feature 1: Budisalovich; T Lillo; Vesel; Nutzmann; Flynn; Kintner; Cutsforth; Carlson; Cooper; Hucovski.
Semi-Feature 2: Fieber; Swenson; A Lillo; Esse; Toppozini; J Provinzino; Rose; C Lillo; C Provinzino; Collins.
WISSOTA Super Stocks
Feature: 1-10: Dave Mass, East Bethel, MN; Kevin Burdick, Proctor, MN; DJ Keeler, Superior; Dave Flynn, Superior; Mike Bellefeuille, Duluth, MN; Scott Lawrence, Superior; Andy Grymala, Superior; Willie Johnsen Jr, Superior; Nick Oreskovich, Mason; Keith Kern, Superior.
11-17: Jim Campbell, Two Harbors, MN; Doug Koski, Chisholm, MN; Matt Hammitt, Cloquet, MN; Jon Hammitt, Cloquet, MN; Rita Anderson, South Range; Annika Hammitt, Cloquet, MN; Matt Deragon, Ashland.
Heat 1: Keeler; Grymala; Bellefeuille; Flynn; Johnsen; Koski; Oreskovich; M Hammitt; Anderson.
Heat 2: Mass; Burdick; Lawrence; Campbell; Kern; Deragon; A Hammitt; J Hammitt.
WISSOTA Pure Stocks
Feature: 1-10: James Vendela, South Range; Cory Jorgensen, Hermantown, MN; Dylan Shelton, Wrenshall, MN; Jeremy Cash, Duluth, MN; Kyle Copp, Brule; Aaron Bernick, Duluth, MN; Ryan Lindenfelser, Trego; Shaina Rapp, Saginaw, MN; Darrin Lowney, Superior; Caitlyn Carlson, South Range.
11-13: Tyler Keup, Superior; Michael Blevins, Hibbing, MN; Jared Akervik, Superior.
Heat 1: Shelton; Vendela; Akervik; Lindenfelser; Bernick; Blevins; Rapp.
Heat 2: Jorgensen; Copp; Cash; Lowney; Carlson; Keup.

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