Sep. 9 -- A dominant performance by Elk Mound, Wisconsin driver Ashley Anderson capped the main event of the 36th annual Northern Nationals at Gondik Law Speedway on Saturday, Sept. 7.
Anderson led every lap of the $4,000-to-win WISSOTA Late Model feature, lapping all but four of the 24 other cars in the field. He finished 10.8 seconds, more than a half-lap, ahead of runner-up Kevin Burdick.
Mike Anderson of Jim Lake, Wisconsin also swept the night in the Modifieds, though he had to deal with three restarts over the 35-lap feature, finishing 1.4 seconds ahead of Clayton Wagamon en route to claiming $3,000.
Dylan Nelson of Merrifield, Minnesota cashed a second $2,000 check of the weekend by winning Saturday's WISSOTA Super Stock feature. He took the lead from Kyle Copp, the season points champion, on lap 4. After the field sorted out multiple messy restarts behind him, Nelson ended up in front by 3.6 seconds.
David Simpson of Thunder Bay, the national points leader in WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds, had an adventurous day that included having to drop out of his heat race, then winning his semi-feature from 11th position. He then won the 20-lap A-main from the 18th starting position. The low line paid off for the Canadian, who got to the front in time to move into second on the final restart of a green-white-checkered finish, then pass for the lead under the white flag. He finished just a fraction of a second ahead of Deven VanHouse.
Simpson also won the fan-funded Midwest Mod Challenge, holding off fellow front-row starter Jamie Davis by a half-second.
Friday night's program featured a 25-lap event for 410-winged sprint cars.
Danny Sams III took advantage of the leader's struggles with lapped traffic to get into contention, then after polesitter Christopher Thram received a penalty, took the lead for a 15-lap stint.
A series of late cautions complicated matters and necessitated lengthy clean-up time before Sams, hailing from North Point, Florida, pulled away again to win by 3.8 seconds.
Ryan Savoy of Superior scored a win in a 20-lap WISSOTA Midwest Modified race on Friday night by slipping past Joey Jensen with four laps remaining for an eventual 1.13-second edge.
More sprint-car action paced Thursday's program, as Ken Hron of Grand Rapids won for the first time at the Northern Nationals when he took advantage of a strong restart.
Cody Carlson of Superior also won a Northern Nationals feature on Thursday in the night's Midwest Modifieds action. He had several restarts to negotiate in the second half of the race and grabbed the checkered flag despite a strong bid from Jason VandeKamp.
Nick Traynor of Barron, Wisconsin claimed top honors in WISSOTA Street Stocks, getting past Kyle Bolt on lap four and then repelling polesitter Kolby Kiehl down the stretch.
Top rookie Eric Crosby of Amery, Wisconsin won from the pole in the WISSOTA Pure Stock feature, which included the top four drivers in the division's national point standings.
Justin Schelitzche of Chaska, Minnesota also won from the pole in WISSOTA Hornets without a caution as rivals DeJay Jarecki and Nikota Larson dueled for second place.
The weekend started with a Wednesday open practice night including the "Showdown in Souptown" challenge race featuring the top eight in final track points in Super Stocks and Midwest Mods.
It was the eventual Super Stock champ Nelson who set a pole speed of 17.89 seconds (80.089 mph) and led every lap, though he did have to prove his mettle in a one-lap dash to the finish after a caution, to become the first Super Stock racer to take the prize in the race's three runnings.
Though the Northern Nationals caps the racing season in Superior, attention in the Twin Ports will turn to the rescheduled Silver 1000. After rain fouled the event's traditional Labor Day weekend run, the rain date is set for Thursday, Sept. 26 at Proctor Speedway.