Rice Lake Speedway Racers Wrap Up 2013

Rice Lake WI, March 8 – A full house filled the Elks Club in Rice Lake Saturday night as the Rice Lake Speedway concluded the 2013 racing season with their awards banquet. Honored were the top ten drivers in track points for the five divisions that race regularly on Saturdays at the speedway along with the Rookies of the Year in each class plus a few other special awards.

An excellent meal with desert prepared by the Rowe’s started off the evening.
Track co-owner Dave Adams then started off the awards portion of the event by giving a quick review of what was a severely weather shortened racing season in 2013. He then gave a quick preview of what the 2014 racing schedule at the track would look like.
Loren Miller was the emcee for the evening’s activities and he then introduced the top ten in track points in each division who came forward for their rewards.
Topping the Pure Stock point standings and winning his first ever title was C.J. Wagner from Hayward. He edged out second place finisher John Erickson from Rice Lake by six points. Following them in the top ten were Jay Folz from Rice Lake, Bob Thompson from Cameron, Nick Traynor from Hillsdale, Hunter VanGilder from Rice Lake, Jimmy Holden from Rice Lake, Jason Havel from Rice Lake, Mike Chaplin from Cameron and Randy Graham from Trego. Havel topped all feature winners with five and five of the top ten in 2012 track points retained their top ten status.
Concluding a great year that included his first Little Dream victory, Sam Fankhauser from Rice Lake comfortably won the Street Stock title. He was followed by Adam Soltis from Ladysmith, Cooper Berlin from Rice Lake, Jason Bearden from New Auburn, Heidi Karshbaum from Chetek, Cody Kummer from Medford, Bob Wahlstrom from Chetek, Troy Chaplin from Barron, Ashley Wahlstrom from Rice Lake and Brandon Davis from Chetek. Only four drivers from 2012 maintained their top ten status, Fankhauser and Jimmy Randall tied with three wins apiece and the track set a record with two female drivers finishing in the top ten in the final point standings.
Ryan Viltz from Chetek won his second straight Midwest Modified point title. He edged out Shane Halopka from Greenwood by a mere four points for the award. Next in line were Tito Viltz from Rice Lake, Travis Anderson from Colfax, Joe Chaplin Jr. from Cameron, Mike Schnider from Rice Lake, Cody Cimfl from Mikana, Bryce Johnson from Barron, Kerry Halopka from Wheeler and Craig Elliott from Hillsdale. Seven of the top ten from 2012 maintained their top ten places and R. Viltz led the way with three feature wins.
Tied for the closest point battle was the Super Stock division where Aaron Wilson gained one spot from 2012 as the Eau Claire driver edged Eric Olson from Ladysmith by four points to win the class title. They were trailed by Shane Kisling from Sarona, Jason Forehand from Eau Claire, Bart Steffen from Eau Claire, Jim Cimfl from Turtle Lake, Willie Johnsen Jr. from Superior, Scott Zitelman from Taylors Falls MN, Steve Tesch from Prentice and Kyle Helling from Rice Lake. Five of 2012’s top ten repeated with Forehand’s three feature wins topping the class.
Kevin Adams continued his amazing streak as the Cameron driver won his sixth consecutive Modified point title at the track. He finished with a comfortable lead over Mike Anderson from Colfax in the final standings. Behind them were Mark Hessler from Menomonie, Tim McMann from Duluth MN, Matt Leer from Bruce, Scott Miller, Paul Brust and Pat Hoffman, all from Rice Lake, Aric Lindberg from Dallas and Buddy Mayala from Barron. Nine of the top ten retained their point rankings from 2012 with only Hessler being a new member while Adams and Anderson tied with three feature wins each.
Named as the five rookies of the year were VanGilder in the Pure Stocks, Berlin in the Street Stocks, Schnider in the Midwest Modifieds, Helling in the Super Stocks and Neil Balduc from Bessemer MI in the Modified class.
Track owners Adams and Mitch Hansen then presented the prestigious “Thanks a Lot” awards that go to individuals whose extraordinary contributions to the track behind the scenes allow the track to continue to operate and grow. The winners for 2013 were Dave Havel, Loren Miller and Tammy Sirek.
With 2013 officially in the rear view mirror, the track now looks forward to the start of the 2014 racing season. The track owners announced that a sixth division has been added to the track program, the Hornet class. Based off of front wheel drive, four cylinder cars, this class is designed to be an affordable, entry level class for beginners and will be a part of the weekly race program in 2014. The other five classes will be retained, included the WISSOTA sanctioned Modifieds, Midwest Modifieds, Super Stocks and Street Stocks along with the highly competitive Rice Lake Pure Stocks.
The first event of the 2014 racing season will be the annual car show. To be held at Rice Lake’s Cedar Mall, the show will run from April 4 through the 6th. An open practice session is slated for April 16th and the sixty second consecutive season opener is slated for Saturday, April 19th. Among the highlights of the schedule already firmed up include an appearance by the United States Modified Touring series on May 8th, the UMSS Sprint and traditional Sprint cars on May 24th, and the IRA 410 winged Sprints on July 12th. The Firecracker special will again be held on July 3rd, the Street Stock Little Dream race will go on Aug. 5th and the season will conclude with a two day show on Labor Day weekend.
Other specials that will include the Midwest Modifieds, Super Stocks and Late Models are still being finalized.
As the racing season grows nearer, updates will be available on the speedway website and race fans should keep checking at www.ricelakespeedway.net for more information.

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