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Rice Lake WI – The 2015 auto racing season at the Rice Lake Speedway was officially concluded on Saturday, February 20th when the annual awards banquet for the drivers was held at the Rice Lake Elks Club. Honored were the top ten drivers in season points in the five classes that race at the speedway, along with the top rookie drivers in all five divisions. The speedway had an especially good year with two drivers that raced at the speedway weekly also winning national WISSOTA point titles in Kevin Adams and Curt Myers.
Adams, from Cameron, won the Modified point title with a sixteen point margin on runner up Mike Anderson from Colfax. Others in the top ten included Steve Hallquist from Eau Claire, Kerry Halopka from Wheeler, Tim McMann from Duluth MN, Dave Baxter from Eau Claire, Wayne Poteet from Spooner, Cory Mahder from Eau Claire, Matt Leer from Bruce and Buddy Mayala from Barron.
Jason Forehand made his final year behind the wheel of a Super Stock a good one. Forehand, from Eau Claire, who is retiring from the sport to spend more time with his growing family, was thirty two points better than Ladysmith’s Eric Olson to claim the point honors in the Super Stocks. Others in the top ten included Mike Anderson from Colfax, John Erickson from Rice Lake, Bart Steffen from Eau Claire, Myers, from Cameron, Jim Cimfl from Turtle Lake, Eric Zitelman from Lindstrom MN, Shane Kisling from Sarona and Randy Spacek from Phillips.
Shane Halopka from Greenwood, added another Midwest Modified point title at the Rice Lake Speedway to his resume in 2016. He held a comfortable thirty eight point advantage on Colfax’s Travis Anderson to take the title. Finishing behind them were Ryan Viltz from Chetek, Austin Ellis from Rice Lake, Tito Viltz from Rice Lake, Kent Baxter from Colfax, Michael Truscott from Chippewa Falls, Craig Elliott from Hillsdale, Karl Kolek from Menomonie and Tim Ekdahl from Rice Lake.
Cody Kummer made the long pull over from Medford every Saturday night pay off for him as a consistent year of racing saw him edge Rice Lake’s Hunter VanGilder by thirteen points to win the Street Stock point title. Coming home behind them were Kevin Bogdanovic from Wausau, Adam Soltis from Ladysmith, Sam Fankhauser from Rice Lake, Jay Kesan from Weyerhaeuser, Josh Amans from Rice Lake, Kolby Kiehl from Cameron, Rob Grabon from Bruce and Cooper Berlin from Rice Lake.
The closest battle was in the Pure Stock division with the title not settled until the final night of racing. When the last checkered flag flew, Barron’s Nick Traynor held on by a mere four points to edge Rice Lake’s C.J. Wagner for the honors. Chasing them were Jason Havel from Rice Lake, Shawn Amundson from Rice Lake, Brent Miller from Cameron, Bob Thompson from Cameron, Mike Grover from Chetek, Zach Beaulieu, also from Chetek, Tucker Quinn from Ladysmith and Mike Miller from Barron.
Rookies of the year were also honored in all five classes. Named as the top rookies were Kerry Halopka-Modifieds, John Erickson-Super Stocks, Tim Ekdahl-Midwest Modifieds, Hunter VanGilder-Street Stocks and Shawn Amundson-Pure Stocks. Along with winning the Rice Lake honors, VanGilder was also named earlier as the WISSOTA National Rookie of the Year in the Street Stock class.
Master of Ceremonies Scott Tiefs turned the microphone over to track co-owner Dave Adams who gave a quick review of the 2015 season plus an overview of what the 2016 racing season will bring. The 2016 track schedule should be completed soon but the announced opening date for the track was Saturday, April 16th.
The track also took a minute to honor the memory of Scott Zitelman who passed away recently. Zitelman, from Taylors Falls MN, was a long time racer at the track in the Super Stock class and finished eleventh in track points in 2016. His son Eric was a rookie driver at the track in 2016 and finished eighth in track points and was the runner up for Rookie of the Year honors in the Super Stocks.

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