Rice Lake Speedway Announces 2023 Hall of Fame Inductees
By Ed Reichert
Rice Lake WI – The Rice Lake Speedway Hall of Fame Nomination and Election Committee met recently to consider and then vote to determine the new nominees for the Rice Lake Speedway Hall of Fame.
With two new members selected in the Driver category and two for the Friends of the Speedway category, the 2023 class for the Hall of Fame will consist of drivers Paul Brust and Bruce Soldner and the Friends of the Speedway will be LaVerne Crapser and Ken Coleman.
Brust won nearly thirty feature races at the Rice Lake Speedway between the years of 1989 and 2008 with feature wins in Street Stocks, Super Stocks, Modifieds and Late Models.
The late Bruce Soldner won nearly fifty feature races in the long since retired Truck division at the track with all his wins coming between 1987 and 1990.
The late LaVerne Crapser was a great supporter of the Rice Lake Speedway for generations and one of the speedway’s “Super Fans”, driving all the way from rural Mondovi to the track for every event, not missing a race for decades and in the meantime introducing his sons and grandsons to the sport, several of which still are involved in racing to this day.
The late Ken Coleman may be the first inductee into the Hall of Fame who specialized on the mechanical side of racing. He was the chief mechanic for many award winning drivers over the years but is probably best known as the mechanic for the late Russ Laursen, a member of the first class of the Hall of Fame elected back in 2011.
These four gentlemen will be officially inducted into the Hall of Fame on July 15th as a part of the racing program on that night. They will be honored at a pre race meal hosted by track co-owners Dave Adams and Mitch Hansen before the racing event and will be joined by existing members of the hall. Race fans are encouraged to circle that date on your calendars and be on hand that night to help honor these award winners.
The Rice Lake Speedway is located one mile North of Rice Lake midway between state highway 48 and Barron County highway SS. More information about the speedway, including complete biographies of all the Hall of Fame members, is available on the speedway website at www.ricelakespeedway.net.
